Challenging Conventions: C Period

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a bloody and multi-faceted tale of corruption and exploitation. Right off the bat, readers are introduced to conflicted and naive Macbeth, a Scottish general who becomes obsessed with the idea of power, after receiving his prophecy at the beginning of the play from a trio of witches that say he will become King of Scotland. Macbeth soon is consumed with the idea  of all of the power he could potentially have, so he and his wife, Lady Macbeth, devise a plan to murder King Duncan and steal the Scottish throne for himself. Once Macbeth kills King Duncan and claims his position, he starts to act out and behave differently than he did before. While reading this play, Macbeth’s “ambition” and “desire for control” reminded me of President Donald Trump. The perception of authority and jurisdiction has gone to both of their heads, which has caused them to  act out in their own distinct ways. Macbeth’s desire for control has lead to murder, war, and over...

Ride or Dies: Lady Macbeth Meets Empire ’s Cookie Lyon  Behind every murderous male criminal …is a scruffy, forthcoming, loving but morally nebulous wife willing to go to bat for him. These lovers are in the same league as the long-suffering all-enduring wife, the oft-disrespected but ever-attentive girlfriend, but with a nuance that is afforded to them because they have taken their spouse’s burden and personalized it, intentionally or unintentionally,  and made it their own. These are the relationships Lady Macbeth–wife of aspiring King of Scotland cinching the throne by way of murder–and Cookie Lyon–wife of music mogul Luscious Lyon who has taken the bullet as a means of securing his name and fame in the award-winning television drama Empire– find themselves in.  Luscious, a drug dealer turned musical virtuoso, seeks his kingdom not with formal nobility, but within the music industry. His life has been littered with stints in jail, murders and petty felonies...

Macbeth is a story of a man coming to power illegally, believing he is invincible because of foretold prophecies, and his inevitable downfall. It also questions what good and what evil really means, and whether humans are innately good and evil. Macbeth has people fighting for what they believe is the right thing to do (either for them or others). The damning cycle Macbeth finds himself caught in seems to never cease, and these themes are played with again in different ways. There is also a fair amount of magic within Macbeth, found with the witches' ability to see the future, as well as Macbeth's vivid visions. Something that in my opinion mirrors Macbeth beautifully is everyone's favorite space opera,  the Star Wars Movies. These movies tell a tale of good and evil and are cyclical, very similar to Macbeth. Some would say they are tragedies, others say they are optimistic stories of hope and rising from the ashes. Macbeth can be interpreted in similar ways. Some could s...

A large connection that I have come across is the parallel between Macbeth in Macbeth  and Rick from The Walking Dead . To start off Macbeth and Rick both play important leadership positions quickly in their respective roles. They are looked up to as the people that know what to do and know exactly how to do it. As you move along through their stories, you can tell that their decision making and judgement will come more into play on how it affects everyone's lives around them as well as themselves. In Macbeth, it can be seen that his actions on what to do with the kingdom. The same thing can be seen in The Walking Dead for Rick because he is the one that can essentially decide whether everyone lives or dies. Another point to look at in the similarities of the two are their factors of being murders, both literally and figuratively. Macbeth obviously kills Duncan to gain the power as king, but he does not stop there. He goes on to murder Banquo which as we can see was a hard thing fo...

Macbeth is a book that is based off of a man named Macbeth who was told a prophecy by three witches that he would become king, but he must take precaution for Banquo's kids since they will be the next kings for generations to come. His thoughts automatically trailed to murdering the King (Duncan), but quickly changed as he got to his senses. His wife, Lady Macbeth, attempted to change his mind by challenging his manhood, diminishing his masculinity, and overpowering his conscience. After some convincing by his wife, Macbeth ended up killing Duncan; after killing the king, Macbeth killed Banquo because he suspected the murder of Duncan to be committed by Macbeth. The Macbeth's lost their humanity and sanity, and when he finally became the king, Lady Macbeth killed herself because of the guilt she felt. At the end of the book, Macbeth ended up dying in battle and relented the thrown to Fleance (Banquo's son). Macbeth is similar to the movie, Hercules. Towards the beginning ...

By Alex D'Addabbo      This blog post focuses on the comparison between The Great Gatsby and Macbeth, but more specifically the relation between Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan. Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan posses many of the same traits, but also differ in many ways. Both woman come off as innocent and sweet to those around, but in reality they are both shallow and selfish. Daisy gave up true love for money and power. She stayed married to an infidel of a man to keep her position is high society. Lady Macbeth turned to the murder of her king to ensure her status in the hierarchy.  They both reap the benefits of their husbands positions.      Where they differ is in their relationships with men. Daisy obeys to her husband even though she knows of his infidelity. Lady Macbeth uses manipulation to control Macbeth. She uses her cleverness to overpower Macbeth's kind nature. The Great Gatsby is based on people emotions whereas Macbeth is more focused...

In the novel Macbeth, Shakesphere takes the reader on a journey through Macbeth's corruption as a human being. The scene that catalyzes the corruption of Macbeth is most arguably the third scene in act one, where Macbeth is greeted by the three witches and is given his fortune as a future king. Without being directly told by the witches what he must do to become king, Macbeth begins to formulate the murder of King Duncan in his mind, which later on facilitates his own insanity. The witches act as a omniscient puppet master, that indirectly controls peoples fates. In the beginning, one of the witches says that when she asked a lady for nuts, the lady refused, so the witch decided to ruin her husband's life. The witch incited the woman's refusal and consequently gave her a fate of being a widow. If we want to put things in a much greater context, let's talk about quantum mechanics. Erwin Schrodinger devised a thought experiment where his cat is in a box with a small...

In many ways, William Shakespeare's play,  Macbeth compares to George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm.  One of the main ways they connect is how both Macbeth and Napoleon the pig gain power, which is through violence.  Macbeth kills Duncan in order to become the next King of Cawdor; furthermore, Napoleon uses dogs as his "minions" to drive the other pig, Snowball, off the farm so that he is the sole ruler.  Also, both rulers have people close to them to help make their actions seem reasonable.  For example, in the banquet scene of Macbeth , Lady Macbeth calmly tells the guests that Macbeth's mental breakdown is a result of an illness and thus, the people at the banquet sympathize for him.  In Animal Farm, Squealer, a representative of Napoleon who talks to the other animals, justifies Napoleon's selfish actions by saying that his actions benefit all animals on the farm.  If questioned anymore, Squealer reminds whoever it is that Napoleon led the revolt ag...

The main villain in the video game DOOM (2016), Olivia Pierce, evokes many connections to Macbeth. Olivia Pierce is a brilliant scientist who gained recognition as one of the founders of NanoStruct Aerospace and Defense Systems, in addition to a fortune. This company's success was helped by large donation from another titan in the science industry; Dr. Samuel Hayden who is a 9 foot tall cyborg whom I like to call Dr. Scary Voice, due to his deep, gravely, robotic voice. Olivia Pierce refuses to join his company, the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) which uses “hell” as a source of energy called “Argent.” However, she eventually joins the company as the leader of the Lazarus Project, when an ancient “hell” artifact is put into the mix. This rise to power is quite similar to Macbeth’s promotion to Thegn of Cawdor. (Olivia Pierce) As Olivia worked on the artifact, she becomes corrupted by it; causing her to focus on her work and spend more and more time in the lab. ...

There are many connections between the themes and characters of Macbeth and The Lion King. In Macbeth , Macbeth is like Scar in The Lion King. Macbeth kills Duncan for the throne just like Scar kills Mufasa for the throne. Macbeth feels like he is underappreciated when Duncan says Malcolm is next up for the throne, just as Scar felt when he knew that Simba would be king over him. For both characters, Macbeth and Scar, they were both willing to kill people close to them in order to get what they thought they deserved or wanted. Also, Malcolm is sort of like Simba. Both Malcolm and Simba are banished, or cast away from their home after their fathers were killed. Both of them fled for their own safety. Additionally, when they were cast away from society they grew as people, and eventually came back stronger then ever and challenged for the throne. They were both successful as Malcolm and Simba came back and won back the throne. Finally, the witches are basically bad v...

Elsa Is Practically Lady Macbeth Originally the prospect that Lady Macbeth is similar to Elsa might sound ridiculous, but they actually undergo very similar issues. To start Elsa and Lady Macbeth are both in similar positions. Elsa and Lady Macbeth both gain the status of queen over there respective stories. While Elsa might have magical powers and Lady Macbeth is powerless, they both have dark pasts. In Frozen we see the backstory of how Elsa has been forced to secretly hide her magic powers and consequently is suffering, and is tormented by what she has done to her sister. In Macbeth, we get the hint that Lady Macbeth lost a child in the past, and that she never really got over it. Later we see Lady Macbeth, after she helps plan and cover up the assassination of King Duncan, she is tormented by her action. In lady Macbeth's case, she feels she can never wash the blood off her hands so she ends up sleep walking and will feign washing her hands. Elsa has an obsession with wear...

The entire plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth is based off the theme of a husband and wife who commit terrible murders. I found this very relatable to the crimes of Bonnie and Clyde during the Great Depression. The story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow starts in January of 1930, when the two first met. Clyde had already been a small-time criminal before they met, and some say that this is what made Bonnie fall in love with him. Bonnie was only 19 at the time, and her husband was currently serving time in prison for murder. Ironically, Clyde was imprisioned for robbery shortly after their meeting. Nevertheless, Bonnie went to visit him every day and at one point even smuggled a gun in to help him escape; although he ended up getting caught and was sent back to jail. This was just the beginning of Bonnie's strong loyalty to him, before she started to actually commit crimes with him when he was paroled in 1932. They started stealing cars and committing several robberies across five ...

The same themes of hunger for power and the lying and scheming to achieve that power that are present in Macbeth  can also be seen in the HardNOx episode of the Netflix original series Dirty Money . This series examines six cases of corporate avarice, fraud, and corruption on a global economic scale. In HardNOx, the first episode, the director, Alex Gibney, investigates the Volkswagen emissions scandal regarding their "clean" diesel cars. In 2014 a non-profit group, the International Council on Clean Transportation,  released a report that showed, without identifying the cars as Volkswagen, that actual emissions of the vehicles they tested were, on average, 40 times dirtier then the manufacturer said they were. This is significant because when these cars were tested while stationary, at emissions testing centers, they always met the limits that the manufacturer said they would meet: the cars were designed to cheat the system and allowed VW to sell cheaper cars that they could...

These categories and theories of moral alignment come from Dungeons and Dragons, and you can get more information about the categories  here . To go right to the quiz, click  here . Remember to comment below on what category you were assigned. Do you think it's accurate?

1. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study.  I plan to study the subculture of the social scene at my rink, more specifically within my figure skating club. I have been an active member of this subculture since I was about eight years old, so I am very familiar with, and at times blind to, the ever changing dynamics.  2. Why are you interested in studying this subculture?  I am interested in studying this subculture because although I am constantly contributing, I often find myself noseblind to the crazy world it is.  3. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct?  I will interview some of my friends that I skate with. I will observe the way that skaters and coaches interact, as well as skaters with other skaters. My friend has a popular instagram account to document and share her practice, so maybe I could use her platform to contact other skaters outside our realm. 

1. The subculture that I am planning on studying is the swim team at KO. I have been part of the swim team at KO for two years, and it is different then any other team that I have been apart of. It is a tight knit community composed of a lot of characters. 2.  I am interested in studying this because it is a new and different subculture that I am a part of. I have been playing soccer for a long time, so when I started swimming I was surprised at how swimming was so complex. When I joined the swimming community I learned a lot about different types of suits, as well as learn about these people that I always thought were weird and had obnoxious egos, and I am interested at looking at this in more depth. 3. I am going to interview the captains of the team, as well as various swimmers on the team. I am going to observe the team at practice as well as at meets. I might also interview members of the girls team in addition to the guys team to see the contrast between teams.

My subculture is my church, Greater Harvest Church Ministires. It is a newly christian church and I have been attending it for about 6 years. I help out with events they create such as feeding the homeless, or giving away free clothes and food for the neighborhood. I am interested in studying this subculture because it is a common accusation that everyone who goes to church knows everything they need to know in order to "make it to heaven" or be considered a "holy person". I wanted to interview the Pastors of the church so I can get a look at the church through their eyes and understand how much knowledge is needed to have wisdom and a higher understanding of the bible, church, and God. I am going to observe how people respond to a church service, specifically my cousin. I could look in the bible to find more information on how "expert" are supposed to act.

1. The subculture I plan on studying is my advisee group. I joined my advisee group this year, after my old advisor went to a new school; however, my new advisee group is one of the most fun in the school, and we all participate actively in the subculture. 2. I am interested in studying this subculture because it is something that I am a part of that meets three times a week. This means it is a subculture that I am frequently participating in. I am also interested in studying it because it would be interesting to see how other advisee groups differ from my own. 3. I will interview my fellow advisees and my advisor. I will observe advisee group and I can research other advisee groups comparatively with a survey. Asking questions like how many times a week do you have snack, if you have it at all?

1. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study.  I plan on studying the subculture of West Hartford Conservative Jews of which I am a part of. I had my bar-mitzvah when I was 13. 2. Why are you interested in studying this subculture?  I am interested in studying this subculture because while I am not a "kook" in it, I am not a complete expert on it and I do believe there are many interested aspects to it especially in comparison with normal conservative Judaism. I also think that this study will make me more knowledgable in this area. 3. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct?  I will interview some close family friends who are also part of this subculture I will likely interview my siblings and possibly my parents depending on how much data I need. I will probably observe a Saturday service and have a pen and paper to jot down notes about what I observe. I could also look back at my bar-mitz...

A proposal for a study on Wattpad, the literary world's hidden gem (outside the Abusive! Harry Styles fanficition) A. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study.  B. Why are you interested in studying this subculture?  C. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct?  A. I've been a unfaithful reader and steadfast writer on Wattpad for two and a half yeasr. I've been able to have my books rank in the overall website ranking system, which was both super gratifying and deeply enlightening.  B. I've been able to observe the ebb and flow of the website–what attracts readers, how to amass followers, what books win Wattpad-issued awards, etc.–on both sides of the glass. Some of my biggest writspirations and writers exist exclusively on that orange website–I've watched talented authors launch careers on the platform, and other equally as talented authors boast hundreds of thousands o...

1. The subculture I am planning on studying is the subculture of the blues music scene.  Despite not performing blues music, my family and I have been exposed to the blues music scene and culture through my older brother.  Since he started playing guitar, the blues music scene has influenced my life significantly and I can identify as someone who is a part of this music scene. 2. I'm interested in studying this subculture because I feel as if not many young people are a part of it and because it has influenced my life so much. Its also very unique and it is a lot of fun being a part of this subculture. 3.  I can interview my brother and maybe some of his bandmates or some of our friends (this might be hard to do since many of them live in other states/countries). I can observe my brother's band, other blues bands, and some local juke joint style venues. I can also study texting/messaging between my brother and fellow musicians/members of the blues community and study ...

Hello all, I am proposing I do the "VR" room subculture. The reason VR is in quotations is that the VR setup is currently broken, but all of the people that make up the culture still get together and play video games in the room. It's not the VR system that makes the subculture, its the video games played and the people that show up. It is located on the first floor of Roberts, tucked away next to one of the main staircases. 1. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study.  I am an avid user of the VR room and am close friends with many of the people who hang out in it primarily. 2. Why are you interested in studying this subculture?  I'm interested in studying this subculture because I associate with it nearly every school day. I feel just observing what I participate in daily would be easy and fun! 3. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct?  I will interview Nick Spina, Maggie Eberle,...

1. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study.   I am choosing to study the subculture of Girls Varsity tennis at KO. I was on the varsity team last year, and I have been been attending the weekly winter varsity tennis practices this year. I usually play doubles, but occasionally I'll play a singles match.  2. Why are you interested in studying this subculture?   I am interested in studying this subculture because I feel it is one that people hear about often from our coach, Mr.Garcia, but few have experience playing with the team. Tennis is a major aspect of my life, and playing with the girls has given me an entire new outlook on the sport.  3. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct? I am definitely interview Mr. Garcia. He has been extremely passionate about this team for many years, and I feel that it will be interesting to hear his input on this subculture; and how ...

1. Explain your involvement in the subculture you plan to study. My involvement in the KO JV golf team is being a consistent starter in all matches except for one against Westminster.  I played #5 on the team last year and will most likely stay on the team this year unless I move up to Varsity. 2. Why are you interested in studying this subculture? I'm interested in this subculture because last spring was one of my favorite experiences I've had so far at this school, and I've been here since Upper Prep.  There were so many great, funny people on our team and I could play and improve in a sport I love while representing KO in matches. 3. Who will you interview? Who will you observe? What other research or field work could you conduct? I will most likely interview Ms. Hoff since she is our coach.  I could also interview other members on the team, but I believe they would be better for observation or just through an explanation in my eyes.  Other field work I ...