Rough Draft Final Paper

Becoming the most powerful person is a position that many people want to be in. In the novel Animal Farm and in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Napoleon and Macbeth do not start out in that position, but gradually work they way into power throughout the novels. Both protagonists want to be in power so badly, they will do anything necessary to acquire it. This is not only true for these novels, but for everyone who wants to become the leader of a group or country. Macbeth and Animal Farm are just two of many novels that revolve around power, how it is obtained and how it can corrupt people into doing things they wouldn’t normally do.
In order to obtain power, people will say or do just about anything to make the people believe them. For example, in the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the candidates are telling the people anything they want to hear, just so they can get the nomination for President. An article from the Chicago Tribune says that Senator Hilary Clinton “took questions from the audience after a short speech that touched on issues such as equal pay for women and balancing work outside the home with family responsibilities,” (Tankersley). To many people, especially women, these two topics touched upon in Clinton’s speech were exactly what they wanted to hear from a candidate. The citizens of our country that are voting in November for a new President need to feel confident in who they are choosing to run our country for the next four years. If the people hear what they want from a certain candidate, they are going to want that candidate in office, so they can execute their plans. Acquisition of power is present not only in this year’s presidential campaign, but also in many novels and plays.
In Macbeth and Animal Farm, both protagonists want power so badly, they resort to violence to get it. For example, Macbeth invites king Duncan over to his house for a party, invites him to spend the night and then kills him in his sleep. Macbeth then framed the king’s guards, covering them with Duncan’s blood and telling everyone that they did it. Macbeth wanted to be king so badly that is was willing to commit a murder and live with the guilt for the rest of his life. In Animal Farm, Napoleon trained the nine puppy dogs to become violent dogs and eventually used them to run Snowball off the farm. He did this because all of the other animals like Snowball’s leadership better, and they wanted him to stay in power with Napoleon helping him from the side. Gaining power is a very bid deal, and once it is acquired, it can corrupt people.
Because of all of the power that he or she has, a leader of a group or country can make his or her people do things they wouldn’t normally do. For example, Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda are making hundreds of people do whatever they say, so they can keep making more and more terrorist attacks on the United States, (Bhutto From The Grave - “Blame Musharraf”). Bin Laden is being hidden somewhere in Pakistan by people who only want to help him and hurt the United States. If they do not help keep Bin Laden protected and do not help them plan and execute their attacks, they will be killed. The same thing happened in Animal Farm. When Napoleon was in power, he made Squealer do all the dirty work for him. Squealer had to give speeches to keep the other animals updated on everything that was going on at the farm. He had to deal with all of the animals’ complaints about how they weren’t getting enough food, etc. The only thing Napoleon did was leading the Sunday morning meetings and deciding to kill the animals when they didn’t respect him as a leader. After Macbeth used violence and murder to become king, he killed everyone that didn’t look up to him as their ruler. For example, he killed Macduff and his entire family. He also killed Banquo, his very close friend, who was always there for him. He killed him because his family was next in line for the throne after Macbeth, and Macbeth didn’t want Banquo to become king. These acts were just some of the things that Macbeth and Napoleon did that did not have a good effect on their people.
Power can make leaders do things for the people they are controlling that aren’t necessarily good for the group as a whole. They could just be beneficial to themselves or to their families. For example, Bush is using his presidency to attack Iraq just because his father did it. He is not using his power to help the country as a whole by doing what is right and invading Pakistan (Power Corrupts…Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely). The United States are suffering greatly from this decision made by the President of our country many years ago. We are fighting an issue that we caused to begin with. If we hadn’t gone into Iraq in the first place, there would not be as much killing and fighting between the two groups of Arabs. Our troops are now caught in the middle of the fight between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and there is no escaping. There is now no way to get out of Iraq safely, so we are stuck fighting a useless war until it is over. If the President had thought through more carefully what he was getting his country into, instead of just thinking about himself, we might not be in this situation. When Macbeth was king, he did whatever he wanted. He didn’t care if it benefited his people, or if it hurt them. If he wanted it, it got done, no matter what is was. This also happened in Animal Farm. For example, Napoleon made all of the other animals build a huge windmill, which did not help them at all. All it did was make them work very hard while Napoleon supervised and ordered them around. Also, Napoleon kept most of the food grown on the farm for himself and the other pigs. He did not give any to the other animals, even though they grew it all. The other animals did not complain about this, because they knew that if they did they would have been killed.
Power corrupts the leaders not only in books, but also around the world. For example, the leaders in Cuba and Zimbabwe are dictators. They do not let their people have any freedom, and they kill people who disrespect them. Also, in Cuba, no one is allowed to leave the country. If you try to escape and get caught, they kill you. Another example is Hitler. Hitler controlled most of Europe for a few years before he was finally defeated. Everyone was afraid of getting killed by him or his followers that they stopped trying to fight him and just gave up. These three examples show that if power is not given to the right people, the world is going to become corrupt because once power is given to a person, it is almost impossible to make them give it up.

heyy guys
we just got back from a 5 day vacation and it was amazingg:). On Thursday I just stayed home and watched tv. Friday I went with a bunch of my friends to see Iron Man. It was a really good movie, even though it was kind of long. Then we walked around town and got ice cream:). On Saturday I went over my friend's house and we watched Mean Girls and then walked to 7 11. On Sunday my grandparents came over and we had dinner. Since Monday was a holiday, my parents didn't have to work, so we went to a BBQ at our family friend's house. It was fun because we got to go swimming in their pool. Finally, on Tuesday, my friend came over to my house and we went to the movies to see What Happens in Vegas. Overall, it was a very fun and relaxing weekend:).

Final Assessment/ Research Paper Outline
Use this outline to prepare your thoughts and ideas for your paper. Once you finish, cut and paste it over to your blog. This paper will be between 3-5 pages, so make sure you have enough to discuss. There are spaces for 4 body paragraphs; if you don’t need that many, then ignore them.

What is the question you are answering in your own words?
How are Macbeth and Animal Farm related?

What is your thesis statement? This sets up the entire paper with your focus and direction.
Macbeth and Animal Farm are both works that revolve around power, how it is obtained and how it can corrupt people into doing things they wouldn’t normally do.


BODY PARAGRAPH 1
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
People will do anything to gain power even if it means being violent.

What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. In the Presidential campaign, the candidates are telling the people anything they want to hear, just so they can get elected. They wont necessarily follow their plans if they get elected.

b.

What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a. In Macbeth, Macbeth and his wife kill Duncan and Banquo


b. Napoleon forces snowball off the farm using the nine violent dogs


BODY PARAGRAPH 2
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
Sidekicks can push leaders into doing things they don’t want to do

What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. Bin Ladin and Al Queda can make a lot of people do whatever they want, so they can plan and execute more and more terrorist attacks.

b.

What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to kill Duncan


b. Napoleon tells squealer to be mean to the other animals







BODY PARAGRAPH 3
What is the topic/idea of this paragraph?
Power can make leaders do things for the people they are controlling that aren’t necessarily good for the group as a whole

What quote(s) ideas from research will you use to help prove your points?
a. Bush is using his presidency to attack Iraq just because his father did it. He is not using his power to help the country as a whole by doing what is right and invading Pakistan.

b.

What example(s) from the book(s) will you use to help prove your points?
a. Napoleon makes the animals build a windmill that doesn’t help them, and he keeps all of the food for himself and the pigs instead of sharing with all of the other animals


b. Macbeth only did what he wanted to do while he was king. He didn’t care if it helped his people or not.



CONCLUSION
What should we now understand after reading your paper? Where idea(s) does your paper lead to?
a. Power corrupts not only the leaders in books and plays, but also the leaders of the world (ex. Cuba, Hitler, Zimbabwe, etc).


b. If power is not given to the right people, the world might become corrupt because it will be impossible to make the leaders give up their power

Cornell Notes #1

Cornell Notes for Sources

TITLE: Room 399’s Blog
AUTHOR:
YEAR PUBLISHED: April 18, 2006

Main Idea #1:

Summary: No one is perfect. There is always something bad to discover about a person, even if you think that they have a perfect life.


Quote: “’Everyone, quote Torey's mom, has a skeleton in their closet’”


Question: Torey seemed to have the perfect life. He had a lot of friends, good parents, a lot of money, a nice house, a pretty girlfriend and he was happy. What did Chris Creed’s suicide do to Torey that made him question his life?


Main Idea #2:

Summary: You do not know what a person is experiencing until it happens to you.


Quote: “’You don’t know what everyone is dealing with unless you experienced what they have experienced.’”


Question: Torey, Bo and Ali try to figure out why Creed killed himself. They observed a lot of his family life and how he got bullied in school, but they still didn’t really understand why he ran away in the first place. Why? What would they have had to do to fully understand Chris’ disappearance?

How will this source help you write your paper?

This source will help me because it talks about a theme that we talked about briefly in class, but didn’t really go that into it. We talked about how Torey had a very good life, and how he messed up his life when he got involved with the disappearance of Chris Creed. However, we did not talk about how Torey, Ali and Bo did not fully understand why Chris disappeared in the first place, even though they tried very hard. No one, not even his family will ever fully understand why Chris disappeared because they did not experience what he experienced in his life.

Final Project Sources

1) Bhutto From the Grave - “Blame Musharraf”. 29 Dec. 2007. 15 May 2008 .
This source talks about how President Bush is not going after Pakistan, the real enemies to the United States, but how he is invading Iraq, which is not as important. He can do this because he is the President of our country, and he is allowed to do what he thinks is best. However, I think that since his father was in Iraq when he was President, George Bush JR. feels like he had to finish what his father started. Therefore, he is using his power as President for his own personal accomplishments, instead of what is best for the country. This shows how power can corrupt people into doing things that other people don't want to do.

2) Bloom, Harold. "Summary and Analysis." Infobase. Literary Reference Center. Ebsco. Pascack Hills High School. 15 May 2008. Keyword: Macbeth.
This article talks about Macbeth and power. When one person has too much power, like Macbeth did, they become corrupt. Macbeth rose into power by killing many people, such as Duncan and Banquo. However, once he got into power, things began to go wrong for him. People who have so much power become so corrupt that eventually they will lose power. This was the case in Macbeth when he got killed by Macduff at the end of the play. He lost all of his supporters so they killed him. The same thing happened in Animal Farm. Napolean was not killed, but all of the animals hated him and had no support for him. Had the power not gone to his head, all of the animals would have been on Napolean's side for the entire novel, instead of losing their support toward the end.

3) Jenkins, Peter. "The Corruption of Power." New Statesman. New Statesman Ltd. Literary Reference Center. Ebsco. Pascack Hills High School. 16 May 2008. Keyword: Leaders and Corrupt.
This article talks about how people don't really know who they are electing when they pick a leader. They only know what they are told. They don't know what that person will be and do once they actually get into power. This applies to Macbeth and to Animal Farm. When Macbeth was but into power, no one knew that he would go aroudn killing everyone to get what he wanted. Also, when Napoleon was elected leader, none of the other animals knew that he was going to become a dictator ad be like the humans.

4) Tankersley, Jim. "Obama Keeps to Task At Hand, But Looks More and More to November." Chigaco Tribune. 10 May 2008. 21 May 2008 .

Socratic Seminar

Today in class we had our first Socratic Seminar about our new book, Montana 1948. Many interesting points were made in this discussion. For example, everyone in the seminar thought that the book started out slow, but picked up when Marie died and we found out that Uncle Frank is a rapist. They also thought that the long descriptions of the characters help the readers picture what is going on in the story. One of the questions asked that was discussed a lot was whether or not Wesley should turn in his brother Frank for his crimes. Most people thought that it is the right thing for Wes to do, but that it is very hard to turn in a family member and that it is something that you would have to think through first very carefully. Also, the grandfather might know something about Frank, and Wesley doesn't want to go against his father and his brother, who are very close. David is growing up very quickly because he is being exposed to very serious things at such a young age. One prediction that was made at the end of the discussion was that David is going to shoot and kill Uncle Frank.

Example Essay Body Paragraph:
Sibling rivalry is a main theme in Montana 1948 that shows how favoritism can cause tension in a family. For example, in the novel, Wesley and Frank’s dad favored Frank when they were children. When they were compared, “my father was, in many respects, an impressive man… but Frank was all this and more” (36). When their father made a speech after the war and invited his son up to join him, both Wesley and Frank knew that their father was referring to Frank. Even though he did not come right out and say it, Frank was definitely the favorite child. Because of the favoritism going on when they were children, Frank and Wesley will always have a little tension between then, even if they do not come right out and admit it.

Example Research Body Paragraph:
Sibling rivalry is very common between all siblings, no matter how old they are. There are many tactics shown in the article Family Feud, written by Denise Henry, on how to stop sibling rivalry. One tactic that could help most siblings is using their jealousy against one another to help themselves succeed. For example, when Olympia’s sister, Keishana got an academic scholarship that Olympia didn’t get, she used her jealousy against her sister to help her excel in school (Henry, 2008). Even though using you siblings for anything is wrong, it is better to channel you anger and jealousy into your work, then to take it out on your sibling. Another good tactic to avoid sibling rivalry mentioned in the article is to do something that your brother or sister isn’t into, so that there is no competition to be better. In our book, Montana 1948, Wesley used this tactic to avoid fighting and competing with his brother Frank. Frank became a doctor when he got older, and Wesley became the sheriff of the town. By doing this there was no chance that they would be competing against each other to be better at their job. Sibling rivalry can damage a family’s relationships with each other, which usually don’t, but can last a lifetime. The tactics mentioned in the article, are not guarantees, but there is a very good chance that they can prevent rivalry between siblings.

There is a subtle but very important difference between an essay body paragraph and and a research paper body paragraph. When you write a paragraph for a research paper, you have to use an example from the research to suport your topic sentence. You then use a book, or another source as a reference. When you are writing a paragraph for an essay, all you need is an example from the text. Having research makes a paragraph more in depth, and helps the author get their point out across more clearly. Check out Amanda's blog for another example.