Why Do People Do Evil Things?

The short story I read was "The Destructors" by Graham Greene.  I was amazed at the kids absolute evil.  There was no purpose to their evilness, except the fact that they wanted to cause destruction and unhappiness.  In this case the definition of evil would have to be "morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked; harmful).  The author made a point of connecting power with evil.  For example, when T told the gang his plan to destroy Mr.Tomas' home, he took control over the gang and there he had the power.  He took this power from the original "leader" Blackie (who wasn't too thrilled about it).  To continue, he used his power to make "his" gang commit an evil deed.   

response

I like how you are thinking about how the power had corrupted him. As you talk about each point, try and then explain right then and there how the power corrupted him. Also You want to show What he was like before so we can see the change in him as well. remember to bring in quotes to help back up what you ae saying. You have some good points. Are the witches prophecies the power or what gave him the confidence?

Learning Log.. re-due :D

How does power corrupt/How far is one willing to go to get what they desire most?
Power corrupted Macbeth into killing Duncan. He was so driven by the desired power that he was willing to go to extreme lengths to get it. What first drove Macbeth to become power hungry was the witches. The witches "planted the seed." They were the first to tell Macbeth of the power he would obtain in the future. If the witches had not told Macbeth that he would be king, would he have even considered the possibility? Another person that made Macbeth power hungry was his wife. Lady Macbeth put ideas in his head, and that influenced his decision to kill Duncan. Macbeth was ultimatly willing to kill for what he desired most. Furthermore, he was willing to take it a step further and kill his best friend to keep that power. With this he then began to lose himself. Though he was in the clear after killing both Duncan and Banquo, and had an enormous power boost with that, he startd to feel the guilt. Over all power definently corrupted Macbeth and this desire for the power drove him to do anything he could to keep the power.

Tragic Hero? .. :S

A tragic hero is a hero that makes and error in their actions that then leads to their own downfall. I do not think Macbeth is a tragic hero. Yes, he started off as a great leader and was essentially a "hero," but as soon as he betrayed his king, he lost the title of hero. By killing the king, he then got the title of traitor. Although I do not see him as a hero, I do think he is tragic. The decisions he made slowly tipped the scale of his sanity. The more he did, the crazier he got. That to me is a great tragedy. One of the major reasons for this is because the more power he wanted, the crazier he got. So, for this reason, this connects to the EQ "How does power corrupt?" Power obviously corrupted Macbeth because he was willing to go to great lengths to first get it and then keep it. He hungered for it. He wanted nothing more than to have the most of it. This being said i also connects to the EQ "How far is one willing to go to get what they desire most?"

Macbeth:
Do you find your patience so predominant in your nature
That you can let this go?
Are you so gospeled
To pray for this good man and for his issue,
Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave
And beggared yours forever?

The above quote from Act 3, Scene 1 shows that, along with Macbeth being a tragic traitor, he is a tragic coward. Because he now has the power and is just trying to keep it, he gets others to do his biding.

Presentation Questions...

1. Please explain why you chose the method of presentation that you did? We chose to present the "old fashioned way" because we figured that everyone would be presenting with a technology of some sort so we wanted to present it live.
2. What were your influences for this presentation? I thought that past presentations influenced our presentation because I enjoy live performances. Because of this we thought it would be deeper and it would give us enough time to connect more to the story.
3. Was this presentation any different then past presentations? Please explain. I thought that our presentation was pretty much the same as previous presentations because we did it live. I thought this was the best way to present because it was familiar and it allowed us to go into more depth.
4. Was this presentation any more challenging or was it easier than past presentations? Please explain. I don't think this presentation was more challenging than past presentations because I was actually interested in the subject. I think the story of Macbeth is captivating and exciting, therefore I was able to connect to it and look into it more.
5. Do you find yourself writing more on your private blog or on the class blog? Please explain. I like writing more on my personal blog because it is like a journal. Journals are supposed to be about writing what you are thinking and not having to worry about what other people think about it.

Learning Log..

How does power corrupt?
Power corrupted Macbeth into killing Duncan. He was so driven by the desired power that he was willing to go to extreme lengths to get it. What drove him to become power hungry was his wife. She put ideas in his head that changed him. A day before, Macbeth would not speak of the idea of killing the king and now he was considering it. By killing Duncan, gaining the title of king, and not getting caught, Macbeth was given an enormous boost. He now felt invincible and let power finally get to him and corrupt him.

How far is one willing to go to get what they desire most?
Macbeth was willing to kill to become the king. Not only, Lady Macbeth provoked Macbeth to kill Duncan because she was possessed by the mere thought of getting power.

Class Reflection

Today we managed to summarize all of the scenes in our act as well as put it into modern text. We also came up with a very good idea that we think will make our presentation unique. I also discovered how to use google docs, which is very useful. I think we used the class time very well today.

This is working for me because it is a lot easier to understand Macbeth over the internet than in the book.