Macbeths Ambition

Macbeths Ambition Macbeth goes through a steadily detrimental transformation in Shakespeares play Macbeth. Macbeth goes from being a conscientious, compassionate, logical and caring man in the beginning of the play and becoming logical, compassionate, caring, and conscientious man in the beginning of the play and becoming a cruel and insensitive excuse of a human being. His change in behavior from compassionate to insensitive and logical to illogical develops slowly, but surely. Macbeth shows that he is capable at his height in being compassionate and logical, which can be seen while he contemplates killing Duncan and in his final decision on the matter. Later, we see evidence of a descent from this when he is deciding to kill Banquo: his motives change, and he becomes less logical, less able to see the reasons against the deed. Finally, Macbeth shows that he has lost it all. Sanity, compassion, logic, everything is gone that once had been so evident at the beginning of the play. Macbeth becomes jaded and cynical, apathetically hopeless, a mass of entity that had once lived in honor. In trying to decide whether or not to murder Duncan in his soliloquy in Act I Scene VII, both the process by which Macbeth makes his decision and the final decision that he will not murder his king are indicative of conscience and thoughtfulness, morality and compassion. This is the high point from which Macbeth will fall. It is important to understand that he overcomes both the temptation of inherent ambition as well as provocation from his wife in regards to his fateful decision. He is on top of his own actions and decisions: compassion, an ethical attribute, takes precedence over vaulting ambition. However he firstly shows he is well aware of the punitive consequences of the murder, so he admits he would commit the assassination if it were the be-all and the end-all, lacking any negative repercussions. The fact that he can understand the judgment here shows he is thinking ahead. Then, he literally states what may happen; that the bloody instructions, murderous acts, may return to plague the inventor, comeback to murder he who committed murder in the first place. Only a person in a focused state of mind is able to grapple with specific potential consequences. Furthermore, he then goes through a laundry list of ethical reasons not to murder Duncan: I am his kinsman and his subject/ Strong both against the deed. He realizes, in a logical progression on these ethical points against the deed that he should protect Duncan, shut the door from the murderer not bear the knife [him]self. Here, he shows that he understands the responsibilities of being a host and a kinsman, and he is seen respecting the laws of hospitality in spite of tremendous external and internal pressure. He shows he cares. Then, Macbeth acknowledges that Duncan has borne his faculties so meekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹been so fair in officeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹that his virtues will plead like angels, and pity, like a naked new-born babe,Ã…Â  /Shall blow the horrid dead in every eye. Macbeth, in comparing virt ues to angels, shows us that in his present state of mind, he sees morality as something to strive for, as angels are the representative pinnacle of morality. Furthermore he believes the murder to be a horrid or in this case immoral deed, proving he is able to differentiate good from bad. The metaphor of the baby, who represents pity, shows that Macbeth understands that pity is pure, like a baby, untainted by immorality and vaulting ambition. Macbeth shows he aspires to be moral, because his final and adamant decision is in accordance with what pity demands. He is not at all numb to the idea of murder; he is virtually repulsed by it. In his soliloquy in Act III Scene I, Macbeth is shown to have descended dramatically from his original state: he is jealous, fearful, and certainly not compassionate. He finds no reason not to kill Banquo as he had with Duncan, though Macbeth freely admits that Banquo has a royal nature. The usage of royal here means Macbeth still can tell wrong from right, good nature from bad nature. But this does not in any way deter Macbeth from killing Banquo as it did with Duncan. Macbeth says, To be [king] is nothing; /But to be safely thus meaning that the only way to achieve safety, which Macbeth equates to happiness, is to slaughter Banquo. What is striking here is what is missing: there is no pro-con list, no reasons against the murder. We are also shown here by what is not said that Macbeth is losing his pragmatic skills, because logic dictates that for him to commit another cold-blooded murder, the first having already driven him to incurable insomnia, would cause him only to spiral furt her and further away from happiness. The fact that he doesnt consider Banquos morality as a reason against killing him shows that Macbeth is on his way to being totally numb when dealing with death and murder. And, instead of being thoughtful, Macbeth is blinded by fear and jealousy, because his genius is rebukd [by Banquo]. This fear is clear when he says explicitly that there is none but he /Whose being I do fear. Banquo is the only one Macbeth fears. Also, before he was concerned with the laws of hospitality which include modesty, and now by contradiction he calls himself genius and even compares himself to Caesar. His jealousy, not ambition like before, drives him to have contempt for the wis[e] Banquo, because Banquo, according to the witches, is father to a line of kings which means Macbeth has a fruitless crown. The why of the fear is explained by implication when Macbeth states that the barren scepter or pointless symbol of Macbeths status as king, will be wrenchd with an un lineal hand from his gripe. To wrench is to take forcefully, inspiring fear. This fear later turns to regret, as he says that only for Banquos descendants, only for them, rather than for himself has he murdered the gracious Duncan. In his mind, this means that he has sold his soul, his eternal jewel, to the common enemy of man Satan. This metaphor shows self-acknowledged moral decay, which is a double-sided coin: morally he has indeed decayed, and yet he can still recognize it, which is a step in the right direction. But he is so melodramatic about this point (the two exclamation marks: kings! and utterance!) that he is perhaps losing control over his words if not his sanity, which is confirmed concretely when Banquos ghost emerges from Macbeths tortured psyche later. Total descent is on the horizon. At first he cares about the morality of Duncan and himself. Pity had played an integral role in his life. Now he cares only for his own well-being. The next step is total apathy. By Act V Scene V, Macbeth has fallen entirely from his original state. He has lost all compassion, all conscience, even all fear. In essence, Macbeth is totally numb from life. He says explicitly that he cares so little that he has almost forgot[ten] the taste of fears. Progressively his fears had narrowed: originally he feared the punitive and moral consequences of killing Duncan. At least later he had feared Banquo though for less noble reasons. Now he fears almost nothing. A night-shriek can no longer rouse and stir him because he has suppd full with horrors. The only way horror could become unable to start Macbeth would be if he is too numb even to be able to recognize it. At the beginning, as shown, he is repulsed by the horror of murder; now he is too familiar with slaughterous thoughts even to be frightened. The word slaughterous implies violent, almost gory thoughts, which convey the extent to which Macbeth truly is numb to blood. Macbeth is then told that his wife is dead. S ummarily his reaction is one of apathetic despair, which is a huge fall even from caring about being safely king (in deciding to murder Banquo). He only says about his wife that she should have died hereafter, that she would have died sometime in any case. By saying this, Macbeth shows he no longer thinks of time as we do. Obviously, everyone dies, including his wife, but he fails to acknowledge or even care about the time that he could have spent with his dearest partner in greatness between her present death and when she would have died naturally. In fact, his new attitude of time is jaded, awful, hopeless. The monotony of the sound of the phrase to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow shows he feels that time truly is just many different paths leading to the same inevitable conclusion: dusty death. All of our yesterdays lead to this death. He leaves no loophole to beat this cynical system of existence. He even urges death on, in relation to himself, saying Out, out brief candle! The image of a candle slowly flickering away is Macbeths way of conveying poetically that life is truly nothing more that an empty shell approaching death, a walking shadowÃ…Â  that frets his hour upon the stage. The word frets implies wasting time. This candle is then heard no more, so therefore its existence, Macbeths existence, is pointless. Even though life is full of sound and fury, powerful events, it still signif[ies] nothing. Life is hollow. The descent is complete. He doesnt care for his wife, nor himself, because life is just a tale told by an idiot. Life, that which Macbeth had hoped to live safely and happily, has now been concluded to be insignificant, a waste of time. Concerning the difference between good and bad, life now for Macbeth is all gray, clouded by cynicism. He simply does not care anymore, because if something signif[ies] nothing then it means nothing. And if one finds no meaning in life, one certainly doesnt care about petty distinctions, such as good versus bad, morality versus immorality, life versus death. Nothing can be lower, emotionally, than this point in Macbeths regression. By depicting Macbeths regression from compassion to apathy, Shakespeare warns us that one should not try to exceed ones set manhood, as Macbeth says, I dare do all that may become a man; /Who dares do more, is none. He does dare to do more and consequently ends up as none. Shakespeare summarizes the entire play in a single quotation. By trying to please his wife, trying to prove to her his love, Macbeth violates his idea about what a man is. Up to that point he had been brave and even moral in defending his king Duncan on the battlefield. To him, this is what a man is. Now, for his wife, he goes beyond this definition, in a realm that is paradoxically so manly that it truly is not manly; it is a bravado. It is as if Macbeth is dared into drinking so much of the wine of ambition that he ends up first drunk, then dead. The first wife-inspired big sip is in murdering his king. This is clearly where he goes wrong, because his decision to kill Duncan ultimately leads to his destruction. Works Cited and Consulted: Adelman, Janet. Escaping the Matrix: The Construction of Masculinity in Macbeth and Coriolanus. Shakespeares Late Tragedies, ed. Susan L. Wofford. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1996, 134-167. Garber, Marjorie. Macbeth: The Male Medusa. Shakespeares Late Tragedies, ed. Susan L. Wofford. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1996, 74-103. Keirnan, Victor. Eight Tragedies of Shakespeare: A Marxist Study. London, NY: Verso, 1996. Nelson, T.A. ENGL 533 lecture February 18, 1999. Stallybrass, Peter. Macbeth and Witchcraft. Shakespeares Late Tragedies, ed. Susan L. Wofford. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. 1996, 104-118. Staunton, Howard, ed. The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare. New York: Gramercy Books, 1979. Watson, Robert N. Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition. Cambidge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984

Food and Agriculture in Panama Essays -- Panama Farming Agricultural E

Food and Agriculture in Panama Agriculture is big business in Panama. Not only does it account for much of the country's exports (over 50%), but subsistence farming still employs many Panamanians who only grow enough food to feed their families (nationalencyclopedia.com). The main crop in Panama is bananas by a large margin, and is also one of the countries largest exports. Besides bananas, the other main exports are sugar and coffee beans, while the largest domestic crops are corn, rice, cocoanuts, tobacco and the exotic root vegetable yucca (Bennett 78). In spite of the fact that agriculture employs a large portion of the population and uses approximately half of the land, agriculture in Panama is in trouble. Panama’s tropical maritime climate poses some restrictions to the growth of crops, but the troubling issue at hand is the erosion of soils. As Panama’s population grows rapidly and the rainforest is cleared, overuse of soils and improper agricultural methods are threatening t he growth of crops and draining Panamanian soils. As much of Panama’s political history and current economy is tied to agriculture, this is an issue that will raise many questions for the future of Panama. Bananas have a long history in Panama. Bananas are grown best in humid lowland regions, and in Panama, this means on the Atlantic side of the country (Bennett 70). Production does, however, extend to the Pacific side of Panama with successful irrigation methods (Bennett 71). United Fruit, an American company, moved into Panama in 1899, and owned as much as 70% of the Panamanian banana industry up until the 1970’s (country-studies.com). As bananas can count for as much as 33% of Panama’s total exports, very li... ...e and thus crop yields are declining (Croat 465). To avoid an agricultural crisis, sustainable agricultural practices must be developed and implemented in Panama. Works Cited Bennet, H. (1926). Agriculture in Central America. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 16, No.2. pp. 63-84. http://www.country-studies.com/. Agriculture. Retrieved 11/27/07 from www.country-studies.com/panama/agriculture.html. Croat, T. (1972). The Role of Overpopulation and Agricultural Methods in the Destruction of Tropical Ecosystems. Bioscience, Vol.22, No. 8. pp. 465-467. http://www.frommers.com/. Food and Drink. Retrieved 11/27/07 from www.frommers.com/destination/panama/3285020880.html. www.nationsencyclopedia.com . Panama Agriculture. Retrieved 11/27/07 from www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Panama-AGRICULTURE.html.

Learning Objective Essay

* A learning objective answers the question: What is it that your students should be able to do at the end of the class session and course that they could not do before? * A learning objective makes clear the intended learning outcome rather than what form the instruction will take. * Learning objectives focus on student performance. Action verbs that are specific, such as list, describes, report, compare, demonstrate, and analyze, should state the behaviors students will be expected to perform. Well-written learning objectives can give students precise statements of what is expected of them and provide guidelines for assessing student progress. Our goal for students is learning and if students don’t know what they should be able to do at the end of class then it will be difficult for them to reach that goal. Clearly defined objectives form the foundation for selecting appropriate content, learning activities, and assessment measures. If objectives of the course are not clearl y understood by both instructor and students, if the learning activities do not relate to the objectives and the content that you think is important, then your methods of assessment, which are supposed to indicate to both learner and instructor how effective the learning and teaching process has been, will be at best misleading, and, at worst, irrelevant or unfair. Learning objectives Specific statements describing what you and your students intend to achieve as a result of learning that occurs both in class and outside of class. They can be categorized in the following way: 1. Cognitive objectives emphasize knowing, conceptualizing, comprehending, applying, synthesizing, and evaluating. These objectives deal with students’ knowledge of the subject matter, and how students demonstrate this knowledge. 2. Psychomotor objectives involve the physical skills and dexterity related to the instruction. Successful instruction involves teaching new skills or coordination of old ones Attitudinal objectives Specific statements about attitudes, values and emotions, which students will have as a result of taking part in class activities. What learning objectives emphasize Learning objectives emphasize observed activity, student activity and student outcomes. Advantages of using learning objectives Writing and using learning objectives has numerous advantages. Writing learning objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy of the cognitive domain, or thinking skills, can be helpful in constructing course learning objectives. Bloom and colleagues found that over 95% of exam questions required students to activate low-level thinking skills such as recall (1956). In addition, research has shown that students remember more content when they have learned a topic through higher thinking skills such as application or evaluation. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide, you can create learning objectives and exam questions that activate and assess different, as well as higher, levels of student thinking. Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchy of six cognitive skills arranged from less to more complex. Knowledge Recognizes students’ ability to use rote memorization and recall certain facts. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: cite, define, identify, label, list, match, name, recognize, reproduce, select, state. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will recall the four major food groups without error.| Name the four major food groups.| The students will list at least three characteristics peculiar to the Cubist movement.| List three characteristics that are unique to the Cubist movement.| The students will be able to define gram-positive bacteria.| Define gram-positive bacteria.| Comprehension Involves students’ ability to read course content, understand and interpret important information and put other’s ideas into their own words. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: classify, convert, describe, distinguish between, explain, extend, give examples, illustrate, interpret, paraphrase, summarize, translate. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will summarize the main events of a story in grammatically correct English.| Using grammatically correct English, please summarize the main events – in three or four sentences – from the news story given below.| The students will describe in prose what is shown in graph form.| Given a graph of production trends in automobiles, describe what the graph represents in a memo to your boss.| From a â€Å"story-problem† description, students will convert the story to a mathematical manipulation needed to solve the problem.| A researcher wonders whether attending a private high school leads to higher or lower performance on an exam of social skills. A random sample of 100 students from a private school produces a mean score of 71.30 on the exam, and the national mean score for students from public schools is 75.62 (s x = 29.0). Convert the information in this word problem into a mathematical representation that will enable you to solve the problem.| Application Students take new concepts and apply them to another situation. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: apply, arrange, compute, construct, demonstrate, discover, modify, operate,predict, prepare, produce, relate, show, solve, use. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will multiply ractions in class with 90 percent accuracy.| Solve for the ten following fraction multiplication problems. Please make sure to show all your work.| The students will apply previously learned information about socialism to reach an answer.| According to our definition of socialism, which of the following nations would be considered to be socialist?| The students will demonstrate the principle of reinforcement to classroom interactions.| In a teaching simulation with your peers role-playing 6th grade students, demonstrate the principle of reinforcement in classroom interactions and prepare a  ½ page description of what happened during the simulation that validated the principle.| Analysis Students have the ability to take new information and break it down into parts to differentiate between them. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: analyze, associate, determine, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, estimate, infer, order, outline, point out, separate, subdivide. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will read a presidential debate and point out the passages that attack a political opponent personally rather than the opponent’s political programs.| From the short presidential debate transcribed below: Differentiate the passages that attacked a political opponent personally, and those that attacked an opponent’s political programs.| The students will point out the positive and negative points presented in an argument for the abolition of guns.| From the argument given below, analyze the positive and negative points presented concerning the abolition of guns and write a brief (2-3 page) narrative of your analysis.| Students will discriminate among a list of possible steps to determine which one(s) would lead to increased reliability for a test.| Determine which of the following steps would most likely lead to an increase in the reliability estimate for a test: * Increasing the number of persons tested from 500 to 1,000. * Selecting items so that half were very difficult and half very easy * Increasing the length of the test with more of the same kinds of items * Increasing the homogeneity of the group of subjects tested.| Synthesis Students are able to take various pieces of information and form a whole creating a pattern where one did not previously exist. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: combine, compile, compose, construct, create, design, develop, devise, formulate, integrate, modify, organize, plan, propose, rearrange, reorganize, revise, rewrite, tell, write. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will write a different but plausible ending to a short story.| Develop one plausible ending for all three short stories below.| After studying the current economic policies of the United States, student groups will design their own goals for fiscal and monetary policies.| Working in your groups and considering the current economic policies of the US that we have been studying, develop your goals for employment, price levels, and rate of real economic growth for the next three years. Write these goals on the newsprint and be ready to discuss why your goals are feasible.| The students will design a series of chemical operations to separate quantitatively the elements in a solution.| In the lab, you will be given a solution to analyze to see what elements make up the solution. Then design a series of chemical operations to separate quantitatively the elements in the solution.| Evaluation Involves students’ ability to look at someone else’s ideas or principles and see the worth of the work and the value of the conclusions. Action verbs to help write objectives or exam questions for this domain: appraise, assess, compare, conclude, contrast, criticize, discriminate, evaluate, judge, justify, support, weigh. Example Learning objectives| Exam questions| The students will use the principles of socialism to evaluate the US economic system.| Using the basic principles of socialism discussed in this course, evaluate the US economic system by providing key arguments to support your judgment.| Given any research study, evaluate the appropriateness of the conclusions reached based on the data presented.| For years, misinformation about negative effects of aspartame has proliferated on the internet. The committee evaluated peer-reviewed research from the scientific literature on this topic and concluded: â€Å"Aspartame consumption is not associated with adverse effects in the general population†. — Given the data we’ve looked at on this topic, evaluate how appropriate this conclusion is and defend your answer.| The students will compare two pieces of sculpture, giving reasons for their positive evaluation of one over the other.| Two pieces of sculpture from different eras and artists are displayed. Study these two pieces, use the compare-contrast method to determine which piece you prefer and write a 2-3 page report that describes your thinking process as you studied these pieces. Utilize the skills you have learned as we have studied various pieces of sculpture over the past two weeks.| Advantages of using learning objectives The writing of learning objectives focuses attention away from content and onto the students. This re-focusing often produces revisions in teaching methods. 1. Managing instruction: Objectives may be used by instructors and students to sort and direct learners and learning activities. They may be used for systematic pre-testing, allowing into the course students who demonstrate the required pre-requisite behaviors, redirecting to remedial work those who lack the pre-requisites, skipping ahead those who already have acquired the behaviors that the unit is designed to teach. 2. 3. Managing learning: Whereas management of instruction implies that the control rests with the instructor, management of learning suggests a more active role by the student. Students can use objectives to guide their learning efforts — choosing appropriate materials, reading selectively, etc. Objectives can also be used for self-evaluation which may direct the student’s efforts (e.g., skipping ahead or reviewing). When students are involved in determining objectives they develop an awareness of the difficulties in defining what it is they want to learn and of choosing from among equally attractive options. 4. Planning instruction: Once you have developed learning objectives for a course you can more rationally sequence instruction, allot time to topics, assemble materials, prepare outlines and booklists, etc. Learning objectives can also be used as a guide to teaching, as when you plan different instructional methods for presenting various types of content based on the desired learning outcomes (e.g., small-group editing of reports to give students experience in evaluating content logic and correct usage). A re-examination of course content may result from a look at the learning objectives for the course. After comparing previous examinations with your newly developed learning objectives, you may discover that you have been testing materials which are illustrative, but which are not really essential to the students’ mastery of the content/concepts. 5. Enhancing learning: If the student has a set of learning objectives which provide information about the content to be learned and the way in which he/she will have to demonstrate adequate knowledge, that student can make more appropriate choices about study methods and content emphasis. 6. Facilitating evaluation: Learning objectives can facilitate various evaluation activities, evaluating students, evaluating instruction, evaluating the curriculum. They can form the basis for grading or for determining levels of competence in a mastery learning system. They can also be used to demonstrate effective teaching by matching student learning, as measured by exams, etc., to the desired outcomes. 7. Aiding in communication with others: There is a need to communicate learning objectives to others: between instructor and student, with TAs, with other instructors. For example, exchanging learning objectives within departments is the most specific way to communicate to one’s colleagues what you really cover in your course. An objectives exchange might reduce redundancy in the curriculum. 8. Designing or redesigning curriculum: If you intend to improve instruction in a particular course, you usually begin with the learning objectives for that course and program outcomes for the program and work backwards. * Sets of learning objectives for one course may be compared with the expected entry behaviors for the next course in the sequence. The two should interlock; where they do not, curriculum adjustments can be made. * Study of the existing curriculum can draw attention to redundancy and omissions that can lead to curriculum revision. 9. Producing new insights: The process of clarifying objectives may produce major changes in those who engage in the effort. For example, instructors who spend time developing learning objectives are said to acquire increased understanding about what is a feasible goal. When more general goals are explicitly identified, many specific sub-goals emerge. Since it may not be possible to reach all the sub-goals, a hierarchy or â€Å"trade-off system† of goals must be produced.

Walt Disneys Three Little Pigs Help Childrens Cognitive,...

Almost every parent worries about their child’s wellbeing as they grow up, whether it be that it is their first child or not. As human beings, we are born as social creatures from the day we get out of the womb and it is our caretakers that teach us how to adapt to their cultures way of life and make connections. People make these connections through various things such as verbal speech, symbols, and writings that are pasted down through the generations of time. All of these things can be classified as language, which is a way we make connections with each other. Children are able to learn this language with their ever growing cognitive development. Cognitive development is the process in which the mind processes things. The brain gets new information and then classifies that information. Moral development is how we understand and perceive the things that we learn. Our morals are what shape us as people; they are the very gateway that helps form our thoughts and personality. Together a child’s cognitive, language and moral development help guide them to understand their world around them. In 1972 Walt Disney recreated the classic tale of the three little pigs, a story of about three brother pigs and a hungry wolf. In Walt Disney’s version the three little pigs are told that they are old enough to move out of their mother’s house, which is down the bottom of a hill. While all three pigs agree with their mother they were completely unaware of the wolf that lived up top ofShow MoreRelatedDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesmymanagementlab is an online assessment and preparation solution for courses in Principles of Management, Human Resources, Strategy, and Organizational Behavior that helps you actively study and prepare material for class. Chapter-by-chapter activities, including built-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY