Author: Bernie Lumor

In the opening paragraphs, both characters are seen as dominant figures within their stories. Macbeth is look upon highly in opening of his story, he shows no flaws within his character and his Captain describes him as ‘brave’ and follows on saying his status and reputation is ‘well deserved’ as he was a fierce warrior on the battlefield and sought for nothing but victory. Macbeth prowess is shown within the Captain’s description of him where he says ‘Disdaining fortune, his brandishing steel’ what this suggests to us is that Macbeth is predominant difference and the backbone of his army, they had  dependence on him to deliver and the win the war because of his ability to operate his weapon . ‘Disdaining fortune’ is an adjective that tells us Macbeth was amused of how simple the task was to defeat the enemy. The ease is emphasised where one strike of dagger ‘split him open’ regarding to how he dealt with the leader of the enemy MacDonwald. The use of adjectives portrays the ferociousness energy has to succeed. Shakespeare does this to give the audience that Macbeth is a positive character as he shows qualities of being a leader as he took the war on his shoulders to succeed. However, Macbeth gruesome and remorseless executions against his enemies hints that there is a possibility of him of changing as his capability of producing horror acts questions Macbeth’s true colour. These events foreshadows events we won’t expect from Macbeth in the early instance.

In comparison, Scrooge in the opening of his novella is pictured to be very flawed and is described to be selfish and cold hearted. We are shown Scrooge’s flaws through his responses he gives his nephew who visits him and wishes him ‘Merry Christmas’ Scrooge responds ‘Bah, humbug’ indicating to the reader that he’s not a believer of Christmas and sees it as waste of time. It proves his controversy as he’s not any good spirit within the festive period nor is he happy to see his nephew who is family. It shows to the reader that Scrooge is a lonely person and is detached from his loved ones as he is not spirited within a festive period where it’s full of positivity and love. Scrooge’s flaws are also seen in the retaliation he has when asked by visiting charity workers to help the poor. Scrooge replies with sheer arrogance, we are shown when he replies ‘I can’t afford to make idle people merry’ shows his reluctance to give away to the poor shows his stingy persona. The use of adjective ‘idle’ confirms that Scrooge is a very cold hearted person as he’s stating that the homeless have no value and he enforces his hatred for homeless people as he says they should rather die as it would ‘decrease the surplus population’ Scrooge is implying that he’d rather have worthless people who contribute nothing dead than aiming to help them to productive in society. Charles Dickens has chosen to given the first impressions of Scrooge as a money grabbing egocentric old man to relate to his hard past of when the spent time in the debtor’s prison as his father was financially irresponsible. Where the happiness was trapped outside.

As we get further to the stories both characters experience some sort of supernatural creatures brainwashing their minds. With Macbeth the witches predict the future outcomes of his life which leaves him in vulnerability and Scrooge receives a visit from his old friend’s ghost Marley who also warns him of how his life will unfold should he not change his character. These two events leave both of them in clear confusion of what to do next. But these visits is the start of contrasting journeys. Macbeth’s hard image starts to deteriorate as now Lady Macbeth starts to dictate manipulate him and Scrooge is now re-evaluating his life and how he treats people. We see these changes from Macbeth where he starts over thinking the deed of killing the king. ‘We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement’ What this suggests to us is that Macbeth is aware of how severe killing the king is and shows uncertainty on whether to proceed as he fears that his reputation and judgement would be affected should be caught by authorities. He also acknowledges that killing the king is a huge gamble as he would moving to a position in life that he is not necessarily prepared for. It demonstrates relapses of weakness as he is not able to make decisions himself and has let his partner control him and dictate him when he as the male figure should of been the more dominant and more in control of their greed to be at the top. The events of his brutality within the early stages of play foreshadowed him replicating something drastic as he shows the power to do so.This part of his story shows huge flaws in his character his as he had ambitions of being at the top and eliminating whoever is in his path, taking no regards of what was to come and how his actions would leave his legacy. The hunger of success got to him mentally. Shakespeare does this to add tension to he story as we witness a flip into the charcter of Macbeth. It fools the audience that Macbeth as the opening Macbeth seems to be an honest and loyal man but here his true colours are shown.

Similarly Scrooge’s hard image starts to dim as Marley’s ghost comes along and warns him about how his life would unfold should he continue living in negatively and cooperate. The flaws of Scrooge fall slightly as he is intimidated by the presence of the ghost who is confronting him, but he still shows his arrogance as he replies aggressively and makes sarcastic remarks but as the reader it is noticeable that Scrooge is frightened and in clear confusion as he is trying hard to not believe that the presence of the ghost is real. ”Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. “ shows us the fear Scrooge had when Marley reveals his head to convince that he was really here. The fact that Scrooge ‘clapsed his hands before his face’ suggests to us that the ghost was a significant figure in Scrooge’s life as he is almost in disbelief of what he is witnessing. It shows us that Scrooge has a soft side to him and that his hard character was just really an act. The presence of the ghost proves that Scrooge holds strong emotions and that he is just like any other person, the visit of the ghost bring Scrooge back to reality. Similarly, Charles Dickens does this to add tension to the story as we start to notice the behaviour and character of Scrooge is starting to crack and his true nature is starting to come out as he shows sensitivity which he didn’t show in the opening of the play.

Further along the stories, we endure the climaxes of both ends as Macbeth completes the dreadful act in killing the king which leaves him shell-shocked although he has fulfilled his ambition of being at the top. Scrooge is expecting 3 spirits which traumatizes him as the reveals to him what he should expect should he continue to be cold-hearted to others. Scrooge seems to come to realisation that the path is taking is leading him to no where but his death bed. Macbeth finds himself in no man land as he has

Dear Samantha Taylor,

I strongly disagree with some statements that were made in your article by other authors. I believe that these authors getting the wrong image of some teenagers and overall it is wrong of them to state that all teenagers are ‘enslaved inadequates’ Teenagers are positive in regard to having a social life, and in this letter I will state my arguments to prove that their judgements of teenagers is ill thought out.

From my own experience, I can tell you that their generalisation doesn’t apply to all teenagers. I am more concentrated in chasing my dreams than spending hours on social media. Nevertheless, when I am on social media I am generally doing productive things that help me in developing my qualities. Criticism of social media is very common; commentators argue that it changes teenagers, resulting in them becoming ‘selfish and attention deficient young people.’ I disagree in the sense that adults alienate us from them as we are a different generation in numerous ways. The way teenagers live has evolved and adults need to accept that. We will never be the same as them when they were teenagers. Adults also need to realise that teenagers are not their target market and don’t seek to form relationships with them. I don’t feel that social media compromises my strong relationship with important members of my life such as my parents, siblings and other significant figures. I think social media allows teenagers to elaborate their thoughts and problems to the networking world. It can be emotional problems that you might get support in resolving or general discussion, jokes, entertainment or it can be educational.

Perhaps more than anything else social media allows you to be aware of what is happening around the world. The communication is instant. For example, my friends can tell me straight away if anything important is happening, or my mother can inform me on when she’ll arrive. Or on the bigger scale you can be informed on the political crisis there is around and see how it may affect you. For example, when the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia broke out in 2010, Twitter and Facebook were critical in mobilising the protests trying to disrupt an oppressive political state and became in themselves a force for freedom. A blogging group named Nawaat.org was extremely influential in gathering anti-government and uniting different anti-government groups which later on was rewarded with an award from Reporters Without Borders for online media freedom.

Furthermore, I feel that they’re misunderstanding the concept and the role these types of social networking sites such as FaceTime, Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp play in teenagers’ lives (not to mention adults’). There is a means to an end, allowing you as teenagers’ today to meet up with people who in the future could become meaningful. Social media is much more than just a conversation, you have to paint a picture of yourself to the people you speak to. A boring conversation doesn’t appeal to both parties so you as a person have to aim to understand of how to make conversations more interesting and effective, as you’re on social media to a person for a reason even allowing you to organise events with groups of people crossing boundaries (geographical and cultural) that would never of happened before.

To conclude this argument, I feel that their judgement of teenagers on social media was harsh, we as a generation of teenagers brings huge excitement to the world as we produce new trends in the world that majority of the time is positive. The world is ours to reform and not keeping it the same for the world to be a fun and exciting place to be in. We only live this life once so enjoying it to the fullest is required. It’s not a crime that social networking has taken over you just have accept that this is how the world works now and enjoy it while it lasts.

Bernie

Both poems revolve around Civil War where ‘At the Border, 1979’ its events conspired by Iraq and ‘Belfast Confetti’ was between Irish natives. All wars are tragic but civil wars are very difficult for civilians as at any costs your family can turn against you and fight against you for what they believe is right for the future of the country. Contrasting to this Ireland was caught in two minds. Having gained independence from the great empire of Britain a minority still wanted to be controlled by the power of the British. These people tended to be the ones who followed the ‘Protestant’ way of Christianity with was formed by Henry VIII in rebellion to the pope. This sparked political feuds as Catholics had their freedom compromised as the British gave land to the Protestants now known as Northern Ireland. Catholics had their work cut out and were not getting pushed over once again by Britain so they sparked war for what they believe was right and fair. A once peaceful atmosphere was transformed into a place of hatred and despair as streets were active with acts of violence. Whereas in the other poem it’s a moment of relief as civilians are travelling to their native country after the war. The differences have been put aside between both the differing political ideologies and peace is found. Families can reunite together, people can restart bonding with one another without fearing the worst, the country to develop further to prevent disapprovals.

Within Belfast every stanza has punctuation in place as metaphors to present the tension of the war. The different punctuations have different meanings on different aspects on the war. ‘Blocked with stops and colons’ is meaningful to the fact that the war has enclosed and trapped civilians from fleeing anywhere. They’re trapped in the violence almost like enslaved to their own death. This suggests why Carson uses the different of punctuations as the subject of the various metaphors as it allows the reader to understand how manipulative and powerful conflict is to people’s minds and how difficult it is to maintain stability mentally with all the events that occur. When we turn to ‘At the Border’ the people have freedom and peace as now the civil war in Kurdistan has came to a close. Knowing there’s peace around excludes the fear natives had and the disharmony between the people and the government. ‘A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland’ indicates the same element of strong emotions portrayed by the natives. It proves the relief people feel when conflict is at an end. It shows the joy of being back into familiar territory which you call ‘home’. It’s almost like a source of redemption as natives are retrieving their beloved land to their grasp away from the scandalous people who took no regard of how their actions can destroy and malfunction a country. The end of conflict enforces the message across that there is hope for a dismantled nation.

Both poems are written from the perspective of the protagonist (first person). However the emotions of each of them in contrasting to one another. The mood is totally different in the poems, which differentiates the tone and the tempo the poems.

Out of the blue is an elegy from the the occurrence of the 9/11 attacks where thousands died either trying to rescue stranded workers. Suicidal deaths from workers in the building and observers who were unlucky to have been in the area where the tower collapsed. The poem is a monologue spoken by a person who’s story implies for all the people who were stuck in the tower. His emotions reflect not only him but all the people who were in the building.

The poet uses the language technique of Pathos where the language he uses within the poem evoked sadness and portrayed a sense of desperation. Throughout the poem the protagonist is constantly asking the aid of the public, he talks about how severe the situation by speaking about his confusion into what to do as he’s running out of time

In this poem it is concentrated on the features  of a hawk. Throughout the poem it’s descriptive on the prowess the Hawk has on the humans and its prey, generally talking about how much of a powerful bird it is. The manner the hawk thinks of himself is uniquely presented with him seen as very vain and arrogant. What the poem is really about is not about the hawk itself. It uses the idea of putting the hawk as the subject as a metaphor for the main idea of the poem. The poem really is relating to the behaviour of mankind when they’re involved in conflict with an enemy of some sort. When someone envies another person their mentality changes as they would be thinking that they’re superior than the enemy. It sparks a reaction where the person would talk about how amazing and great they are to intimidate their enemy.

Within the poem the language used to describe the hawk is very highly profiled t

Both poems revolve around Civil War where ‘At the Border, 1979’ its events conspired by Iraq and ‘Belfast Confetti’ was between Irish natives. All wars are tragic but civil wars are very difficult for civilians as at any costs your family can turn against you and fight against you for what they believe is right for the future of the country. Contrasting to this Ireland was caught in two minds. Having gained independency from the great empire of Britain a minority still wanted to be controlled by the power of the British. These people tended to be the ones who followed the ‘Protestant’ way of Christianity with was formed by Henry VIII in rebellion to the pope. This sparked political feuds as Catholics had their freedom compromised as the British gave land to the Protestants now known as Northern Ireland. Catholics had their work cut out and were not getting pushed over once again by Britain so they sparked war for what they believe was right and fair. A once peaceful atmosphere was transformed into a place of hatred and despair as streets were active with acts of violence. Whereas in the other poem it’s a moment of relief as civilians are travelling to their native country after the war. The differences have been put aside between both the differing political ideologies and peace is found. Families can reunite together, people can restart bonding with one another without fearing the worst, the country to develop further to prevent disapprovals.

The moods of poems differ to one another with At the Border being a staged at a peaceful, joyous and composed environment as it is set after the war whereas Belfast Confetti is in a state of mayhem as the poem is happening in the middle of war. People in Iraq find sanctuary unlike the people in Belfast Confetti.

Within Belfast every stanza has punctuation in place as metaphors to present the tension of the war. The different punctuations have different meanings on different aspects on the war. ‘Blocked with stops and colons’ is meaningful to the fact that the war has enclosed and trapped civilians from fleeing anywhere. They’re trapped in the violence almost like enslaved to their own death. This suggests why Carson uses the different of punctuations as the subject of the various metaphors as it allows the reader to see how manipulative and powerful conflict is to people’s minds and how difficult it is to maintain stability mentally with all the events that occur. When we turn to ‘At the Border’ the people have freedom and peace. People able to be have mental stability, excessive thoughts running through their minds lowers dramatically as them returning to their homeland is a almost like a fresh start, where celebration can be taken place. ‘I can inhale home’ presents the relief it is to be ‘back home’ where you know the surroundings like no other. Things become exciting and life becomes a much more joyful thing and humanity is restored.

1. The first stanza foreshadows Vaudevue death as she’s wondering around on a previous battlefield in Austerlitz. The setting is thought to be a cold night where the girl is supposedly reminiscing on past events. By the poet making the scene at midnight with the girl all alone in an area full of history of conflict and war it shows vulnerability of her position as most deaths happen in open space through the night. ‘She is sitting alone on a round flat stone’ shows that she’s exposed to any attack as she’s not conscious about the surroundings around her.

2. In the second stanza there is a dialogue where the enemy attacker has coded the weapon which strike upon the target being Vaudevue as ‘M.L.5’ In the world we live today there hasn’t been a weapon to be recognized as ‘M.L.5′ and let alone to be able to dismantle and disable a person. It shows that the poem is set in the future as this sort of attack is not prone as for today.

3. Repitition- Come on, come back’ the repitition there creates sadness as both the vulnerable girl and the enemy sentinel both repeat the same lyrics though they’re fighting against each other. It is sad that the same kind fight each other as we share the same qualities.

How has the poet presented the effects of conflict in the ‘’Right Word’’ through choices of language and structure?

The poem questions on how we see and label each other in the world. It talks about the stereotypes we use to judge each other at first sight. The poet Imtiaz Dharker is a Pakistani born who grew up in Glasgow and faced difficulty into being accepted into her community. Generally, Immigrants and foreigners moving into new countries always find injustice from the natives which makes it harder to settle in as you always have the doubt that the community and the people you are around with are trustworthy.

With Dharker coming from a Pakistani background which is predominately Islamic the events of 9/11 proved to be devastating for the world but certainly for the Islamic people. Prejudice was but in place to discriminate innocent Muslims in every region of the western world. The trust was broken between one another, it’s almost like the bond between nations were separated. Certain Islamics are sensitive about this likewise Imtiaz Dharker shows her discontent of global social issues in her poetry.

The poem is describing a single event with precise accuracy, wherby the poem is built around the single image of a someone standing outside a door. Each stanza is broken down to 3 lines where Imtiaz is having a conversation with herself fully conscious of who could standing outside.

On the 7 January 2015 there was a massacre in the streets of Paris, where employees of the Charlie Hebdo magazine were killed at the hands of an Islamist group. This has led to a huge of amount of debate on whether the use of free speech has been used irresponsibly as the killings were intended as a message from a group of people who are evidently unimpressed with the content of the magazine. Charlie Hebdo, who see themselves as atheist and secular, publishes articles where they mock society, politics and religion. The fact that all religions are mocked is violating the sense of responsibility that comes with ‘freedom of speech’. In this situation, the magazine published an article where the Islamic prophet Muhammad was made fun of and that stirred a strong sense of injustice in regards to the Muslims it had offended.

I believe that there needs to be the idea of ‘freedom of speech’ all around the world as some countries are still run by dictatorships and the people living there have their points immediately disregarded by their government. In this world we should be able to listen to all points people have to bring, however there’s a limit to where you can address a point to someone without inflicting conflict and offending. In this case the Charlie Hebdo has violated this and it’s no surprise that they have got a reaction. France is one of the only countries to approve blasphemy where people can mock and insult religions and publicize it. Being a satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have exploited the allowance of blasphemy in the country and continue to publicize offensive articles. I believe this is discrimination and racist in regards to Muslims and it should be made illegal as we globally have made substantial progress into eliminating the hatred for one an others beliefs and backgrounds, but Charlie Hebdo is still promoting the negativity which is not morally right. For this reason something had to happen to make people aware that this is not right. Killing innocent people who are just doing their job wasn’t the way to go about delivering out message that the mockery is wrong however something had to be done or the situation will never be resolved.

I’m against the ‘Je suis Charlie’ campaign as it’s brought the world together to approve what Charlie Hebdo do. This is the wrong way to go about promoting the idea of ‘freedom of speech’, as the act of discrimination and racism is not being tackled but being accepted into society. Supporters of ‘Je suis Charlie’ are basically saying it is fine to disrespect other religions. This is a direct insult to Muslims as no one is regarding them of being victims as their beliefs are made fun of by the magazine. Muslims have to fight their ground to make people realise that this unacceptable. Eliminating the satirical messages that is in Charlie Hebdo magazine will be disastrous economically but we need as people need to see that equality of humanity to one another is far more important than making money.

After the events of the massacre there was huge criticism on the Islamic faith. People were being heavily judgmental on the whole religion and making an unfair overview Muslims. Islam is thought to be a peaceful and loving religion and the teachings in the Qu’ran does not approve the act of violence against others. Then to continue this prejudice that ‘Muslim are terrorists’ is not acceptable. It’s not every Muslim that has affiliation with these groups in the Middle East, the majority of Muslims are normal people who live about their lives peacefully. Then again they’ll receive hate because a person with the same beliefs is doing wrong. These innocent people are not responsible for the acts of terror, they do not conduct these acts in any sort of way and the world has to see that it’s wrong to presume that every Muslim is evil or dangerous. You never hear criticism on the Christianity faith when men shoot up numerous of people dead, as the shooters are always pronounced to be mentally ill. An example is the shootings in Oslo in 2011 where Anders Behring Breivik, a protestant, shot 77 people dead and injured over 300 people.This attack had the ideology of being a religious attack and before his sentencing forensics pronounced him to be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenic. This is the common trend when white men perform these acts of terror as they are always seen to be mentally ill. There’s a clear injustice, so why criticize the Islamic people when terrorist attacks by Islamic men are put ahead?

In my opinion equality between different races and religions is still a major problem in the world today. The ‘Je suis Charlie’ campaign has not helped to resolve this problem as their actions has formed discontent between them and Muslims. If we are to get a peaceful world in the future the hate towards each other has to stop as it calls for reactions from the people targeted and nothing is resolved.

Sudden gasps growled out of my lungs. I quickly took sips of water to calm down my nerves. Sweat was all over my body. It’s almost like I was an overcharged battery, my temperature was rocketing up. It was only 5:31 AM, the time I normally get ready for school but my surroundings were overwhelmingly strange. It was hard for me to keep my composure as I was getting ready.

Its almost like the world went on pause, the wind wasn’t rustling branches around and significantly my brothers weren’t making any noise. This was becoming strange… It was too calm for my liking. I headed out of my room for a shower but there wasn’t one drop of water coming out of the shower head. Nothing was going to plan today so I strolled towards my parents room anticipating the loud snores of my father but once again there was no noise coming from the room. I slammed it open and no one was in there. This situation was starting to get out hand! so I clinched on some jeans, t-shirt and shoes before heading out the door. Moments before I fastened the door lock I recited one last prayer to try and force things back to the way they should be.

Being outside made me feel even more uncomfortable. I could barely see my route as the skies were gloomy, it was almost like I was trapped in my blanket as there was no light coming from anywhere. Faint noises were travelling around, I can visualise demons roaming around me casting spells upon everything that came in their way including myself!  My stroke volume was inclining as I frantically I made my way across the street onto the main road. Sweat was dripping across my face as I took full caution on where I implanted my feet as at all costs I could find myself in danger.

In the back of my head I knew that the road weren’t safe. Shattering of glass took my attention. I wondered to myself if there was some kind of raid or a malicious attack was happening around. The leaves of trees were swinging off their branches as wind blew them across from coast to coast. Debris laid across the pavements as if a loud roar came in and blew them off their feet. Clothes, shoes, food, personal belongings were dispatched in all angles. This made it feel like a battleground where everything was just wide open anything could occurred.

My thoughts were full of discouragement. I feel like finding my family right now is out of my reach,  and into The motivation wasn’t there any more I could fear the worst for myself. I concentrated on the tarmac of the road to attempted to take my mind away from reality from there I could notice various numbers of tyre marks appearing darker in tone as I my pupils concentrated harder. This wasn’t time for games, I became more aware that it just wasn’t safe for me to be here, so I started sprinting away. As I got further down the main road I heard tyre screeching ambulances flocking around and suddenly gunshots were flying through.

The open battlefield had transformed into a war zone, from there my adrenaline kicked in to remove myself from the danger. I felt like I headless chicken as I sprinted down to safety further along the road. At any cost my brains could of been blown off. Its nothing I’d ever thought would happen in London. I acknowledge that this city is corrupted with a lot of underground activity that normal society doesn’t notice but ever since the riots came along crime and violence levels were declining. Was this another revolution ? I thought to myself as I gazed to the point that I lost real concentration that I wasn’t safe and that I had an objective to achieve in my finding my family. Is there any hope? I was at the point of giving in and living by myself. How could I survive? No I couldn’t take chances I had to take my last roll of the dice into finding them. How could I live without the joy of family?