“Dr. Oswald P. Bronson…
The black teacher had a concern for you, we thought. That’s not necessarily the case now in every situation. When you were a teacher in the black community in those days, you were a person of great respect–even when you’d go downtown to buy clothing on good credit or something. You could get all sorts of recognition for your credit [if you were a teacher]. Now, if you got “out of your place,” you’d still be in trouble.”

The character Grant in A Lesson Before Dying teaches in a church where has much respect from the children he teaches. Most of the kids Grant teaches are even scared of Grant when he scolds his class. Grant is well educated and a strong, but he is not brave enough to move out of the town in Louisiana with his girlfriend. Grant is looked up to in the church almost like a white man would be respected. I agree with the writings of Oswald P. Bronson in that people who have a higher education are well respected when doing all sorts of everyday things like shopping. We dont know from the book that Grant is respected when going into town, but we know that he has respect from women all around him.

I watched William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. This modern version is written with Shakespeare’s language but set in the stylish California. The Romeo and Juliet movie is action packed with gun fighting, romance and drugs which gets teenagers interested in watching it. This movie has more drama in it than the book did becuase I couls relate the gun shootings and people dying to my life. Peronally, I could watch this movie over and over again because the acting is so sincere. What makes this version different from the original is the ages of the actors. Romeo is supposed to be young man, but I this movie he plays an adult able to drive and shoot guns. Juliet is suposed to be an innocent young woman, where as in the movie she is mature, although she is still guarded by her family. The conflict of families in this play is made realistic, and the royal part of the play is portrayed less in the movie. The themes of the original Romeo and Juliet are what make it possible to be modern. Love versus hate, night versus day, and age versus youth are all themes that a currently important in entertainmant today. Religion also plays a big role in Romeo and Juliet. When watching this film, I hardly noticed the language, rather I payed attention to the hip-hop, ghetto violence, the beach setting, and the modern outfits in the play. The language of this movie was easier to understand in a modern set with famous actors. This play was a great adaptation of the origial Romeo and Juliet.

We watched three different versions of The Scottish Play called, Travesties, uMbatha, and Throne of Blood. Each of these plays were diverse and had different impacts on me. My favorite version of the Scottish Play was uMabatha, as it was so similar to the original version, but had examples of the African culture that I appriciate to a great extent. uMabatha expressed many instances of tribal culture and unique traditions that I find interessting. The Throne of Blood movie kept my attention becuase it was so diverse from the original, and contained or left out scenes from the original that still made the plot of the Scottish Play fit together. Travesties was a horrible rendition. This play was hard to understand, and the rhyming rewined the moods that were to be set for each scene. During this rendition, the only thing I caught onto was the humerous atmosphere, but I had no feel for the character’s personalities. Travesties destroys what Shakespeare is all about by making it a play with childish and drunk actors. The authors of uMabatha and the Throne of Blood added in cultural props or stage sets to change the way the story would be viewed. For example, uMabatha had spears and wooden instuments instead of daggars or flutes. The Throne of Blood had traditional japanese dining, clothing and swords rather than large castles, huge feasts and poisons. I dont see much that was gained from these adaptations, other than an understanding of the scenes that Shakespeare didn’t make clear in the Scottish Play. uMabatha, the Throne of Blood, and Travesties each emphasized one part of the Scottish Play more than William Shakespeare did, so that I could have more opinions on the characters of the play from viewing these different renditions.

I don’t know enough about the War in Iraq. The easy thing for me to say is just take the troops out, and solve the war peacefully. This is an unlikely option for the United States, as we are trying to make Iraq a democracy. The only way to reach our goal is to fight for what we want. I think there are too many people in the United States who believe that they dont have much to do with the war in Iraq and that they can carry on with their life without having an opinion on the events in Iraq. If a draft were to take place, I think that people would take the war more seriously and take a position on the war. If all of the citizens of the US were to be involved in the war, we would find a peaceful way to end the war. With a draft, the younger age groups would be concerned about their future and take action. Its silly for people to pray for the troops to come back home; what does that mean for America as a whole? How would we ever end this conflict without some sort of strategy before we take out the troops. “In the Washington Post Online, Pentagon authorities have decided to start reducing the level of U.S. forces in Iraq next month by about 15,000 troops, down to about 135,000, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz said yesterday.” . I think this idea is positive, and reducing the troops in Iraq is a good strategy. Taking troops out slowly, rather than pulling them all out at the same time will help slow down the deaths in Iraq but continue the fight for America.