Annotated Bibliography

Clines, Francis X. "About New York; the Father-Son Syndrome of Politics." 25 Oct. 1977. New York Times. 28 Apr. 2008 .
This article, written by Francis X. Clines of the New York Times talks about the relationships between fathers and sons. It also discusses how these relationships relate to politics. When the son becomes old enough to inherit power, money, or a job from their fathers, they usually take it. This relates to the new book we are reading, called Montana 1948. When Davis’s grandfather retired from being sheriff of Mercer County, and offered the position to his son, Wes, he took it. When a position of power above many other people is offered to you, not a lot of people are going to turn it away. They are too power hungry. This article can be understood by anyone who has ever heard about politics. It does not go into much detail about the topic, but it says enough to get the general idea across.

Guilt is one of the hardest things to deal with in life. For example, in the show Full House, Danny, the single father of three young girls has a job as a sportscaster. When his two oldest daughters, Stephanie and DJ both have important events and he can’t make it to either one, he feels so guilty that he takes off from work on a very important day just to make it up to them. Check out this link for more info about Full House. Guilt plays a part in everyone’s life one time or another, so there is no way to really avoid it. I feel guilty after lying to someone. I try not to lie, but everyone does it sometimes, so you can’t really blame me. Now onto Macbeth. Guilt plays a huge role in this play. All of the guilt started with Macbeth and his wife planning and actually killing King Duncan. More guilt was forced on them when Macbeth had Banquo killed. Even now, we can see what effects the guilt is having on Lady Macbeth. She is sleepwalking!! Not only has she been walking around in the middle of the night asleep, she has been talking in her sleep as well, revealing the secrets of how Duncan and Banquo were killed. From these few examples and from this website, we can see how much guilt can affect and ruin people’s lives.

Today in English class we had a Socratic Seminar. I didn't participate in the discussion, but I listened to some very interesting points made by my classmates. One of the questions which cuased a huge discussion was 'is Paris Hilton helping feminism'? Most people said no, she is a horrible role model for young girls and women because she does things like drinking, drugs, and partying too much. Also, she is not a woman who tries to work for her success. She lives off her grandparents' money, and does nothing to make herself look like a successful woman. She is a celebrity, so people look up to her and say, 'if I want to be famous, all I have to do is be like Paris Hilton'. This is extremely bad because millions of young girls are going to do all of the horrible things Paris Hilton does, just because she does them. She is turning little girls into sluts, drug addicts, and alcoholics, which is a step backwards for feminism and women. Another point that came up during the disscussion was other women who are role models. Danny made a good point and said that Hilary Clinton is a good role model for feminism. Even though I do not support her, she deserves respect because she is showing everyone that women have power by running for President. This Socratic Seminar was very good because it gave everyone a chance to debate over an issue that is important.

Feminism today is a little bit of a mystery if you ask me. People think that in order to be a feminist, you have to be a girl. That is not true. There are plenty of guys who are feminists. It’s not a bad thing. Girls and women are people too. They are on this Earth for a reason. There are many role models, good and bad, when it comes to feminism. A good role model is Hermione Granger, from the Harry Potter novels. Even though she is only a character in a book, she is a great person to look up to. She has respect for women, and his comfortable being herself. She doesn’t do what everyone else does, just to fit in. It is important for women and especially young girls to look up to people like Hermione. She is an independent, smart, confident woman. If more girls looked up to people like her, instead of looking up to people like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, we would be a lot better off. Check out this blog to see what other people think about it. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows us how strong women can be. She convinces her husband to commit a murder, and then convinces him to lie about it and commit another murder. If she wasn’t such a powerful and manipulating person, Macbeth would have been able to say no to her. Lady Macbeth is a very powerful woman who shows us, the readers, how powerful a woman can be. Even though she is not the nicest, sweetest woman in the world, she is very powerful, strong and confident, which are great qualities for a woman to have.

At some point or another in every person’s life, we feel like doing something very bad to someone we know. This happens to everyone: celebrities, movie stars, and even athletes. Take OJ Simpson, for example. OJ Simpson was a very good, very famous football player. His life was great: he had a lot of money and he was really good at his job. You might be asking yourself, why then, would he go and kill his ex-wife? He killed his ex-wife. He killed his ex-wife because he was very possessive of her. After they got divorced, he didn’t want her to be with anyone else. When he found out that she was with another man, he went and killed them both. To me, this is not a reason to be killing anyone, especially someone you care about. Check out this link to OJ Simpson’s trial, and see whether or not you think his reason for killing Nicole Brown and Ron Goodman is justifiable. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is another example of killing for no good reason. Macbeth is a very nice guy, or so it seems at the beginning of the play. However, after his wife gives him a very manipulating talk, he agrees to kill the king. I do not think that Macbeth should have let his wife talk him into something that he will regret for the rest of his life, and may backfire on him eventually, and lead to his downfall.