These are some of my hits for this year as a writer.
You may have seen gladiator fights in the movies with big stars, ferocious lions and heavily armed and trained soldiers. These action packed thrillers were not far off from what actually happened in Rome’s most famous outdoor arena, The Colosseum. This massive theater hosted events such as violent gladiator fights, terrible executions, and even fights between animals from around the world. Tens of thousands of people from all around the Roman empire, rich and poor, came to support their favorite fighters and to bet on the winners and losers. While the Colosseum was famous for these spectacular events, the history of how it came to be built is just as impressive and it shows a lot about how Romans lived during this time.
The
Colosseum was not just a beautiful building, but it was a place for Roman
entertainment enjoyed by all levels of the Roman society, even if it was very
bloody. This massive circular, multi-story amphitheater was built by Emperor
Flavian of the Flavian Dynasty. It was built with human, slave labor and wooden
cranes. Flavian built the Roman Colosseum to try to put an end to a series of
civil wars between the Roman people and the Roman government after the reign of
Emperor Nero (History.com Staff).
The
Roman Colosseum was built during a very dangerous time in Roman history. After
the suicide of the oppressive emperor Nero, in 68 CE, there were two years of
civil war and there were three different emperors. Then Vespasian came to power
as the first ruler of the Flavian dynasty ("Roman Colosseum
History"). Vespasian’s first priority was to rebuild Rome and to
give land taken by Nero back to the people. He built the Colosseum on the site
of Nero’s Golden Castle which Nero had constructed for himself on land he took
over after a great fire destroyed much of the city, angering the citizens of
Rome. Vespasian decided to build the Colosseum on the place where Nero’s castle
had been as a sign of a generous emperor (History.com Staff).
Vespasian
commissioned the construction of the amphitheater in C.E. 72 and it took almost
8 years to complete. During the construction, Emperor Vespian died and the rest
of the construction took place under the rule of Titus, Vespasian’s son
(History.com Staff). The Colosseum is a very impressive architectural
structure in the ancient world because not only was it finished in a shortage
of time but with only machinery such as cranes needed to place heavy pieces of
limestone and concrete in its places. The colosseum stood 620 feet long, 513 feet
wide and 159 feet high. It could hold as many as 50,000 people. The Colosseum had 80
entrances, 76 which were open to the public. Seating in the Colosseum was based
on the social hierarchy that Rome was with the rich sitting closer to the
action and the poor sitting or standing near the top. The two entries located
at the North and South points of the Colosseum and were used by the higher
ranked people like the soldiers, politicians, and royal family. The last
two entries were the East and West entrances, for the gladiators. The
eastern one, called the Porta Sanivivaria, was where the victors and the
fighters who survived the contests left the arena. The final door on the West
side was called, Porta Libitina, which was the name of the Roman goddess of
death and was the door through (Alchin "Colosseum")
The
Colosseum is a freestanding structure, and this amphitheater is still standing
in Rome, Italy today. The arena’s architecture was very advanced for that
time. The structure was built primarily by slaves using wooden cranes to hoist
limestone, marble and concrete into place.
The
Colosseum features Roman arcs and columns that held up the weight of the stone
and other building materials around them, enabling the Colosseum to be a sturdy
and tall theater without crumbling to the ground. The exterior design of the
Colosseum has different forms of columns on each floor. The first floor has
Doric columns which are Greek influenced columns with regular round pillar and
square top design. The second floor has ionic columns which are more decretive
with scroll designs on the top. The third floor had Corinthian columns which
were the fanciest of all with very artistic designs of plants and scrolls at
the top. Each floor was filled with statues of many important Roman individuals
(Cartwright). The building’s design showed the
Roman government’s wealth and beautiful ideals of architecture.
One
of the most important parts of the Roman Colosseum is its arena which was 272
ft. long and 157 ft. wide filled with about 5 inches of sand and the structure
underneath called the Hypogeum. The Hypogeum was the area under the colosseum
floor where the gladiators, animals, gear and even props for ritual murder were
held for the events. After the Colosseum was finished and Emperor Vespasian
died, his younger son, Emperor Domitian, constructed the Hypogeum. Domitian
realized that they needed more room to house the different varieties of
animals. This structure was very advanced for its time due to the fact that it
had manual trap doors and elevators to hoist the animals or gladiators up to
the surface of the arena to participate in the events. The trap doors were used
to let various animals into the arena to make it look like they came out of
nowhere. There are some historians that say that before the Hypogenium was
constructed naval battles could be held in the arena with real warships by
flooding it. These boats were specified for very shallow water with flat hulls
that could sail in the arena with only a couple of meters of water to fill it.
(Mueller).
There
were many important events in the colosseum such as Gladiators fights, wild
animal duels and hunts, and sometimes executions of criminals, Christians and
prisoners of war. These fights showed that Romans could be blood thirsty and
that some even had enough money to bet on different events (Aptowicz). Although there were many different
events that took place in the colosseum, the main event was the Gladiator
fights held in the evenings of the show days. The gladiators mostly consisted
of men although there were some women gladiators. Gladiator combat took many
different forms. Sometimes gladiators dressed in Roman army uniforms and they
would reenact battles, have team fights and even hand to hand combat (Hopkins).
There were many different types of gladiators that made up the shows such as
the Thracian, Samnite, Murmillo, Retiarius, Equite and Cestus (Cavazzi). The most common gladiators were Thracians
who were armed with a small, round shield and a curved dagger. Samnites
carried a sword called a Gladius, a shield and wore a helmet with a visor.
Less common gladiators were the Retiarius, which were a type of
gladiator who fought with a net and trident, and who usually fought the Murmillos
which were a type of heavily armed gladiators who wore a helmet that was
crowned with a bronze fish and who had swords, daggers, shields and sometimes a
spear. There is also the Equite who was a cavalryman or horseman.
Equites fought with medium sized shield and swords, and wore a brimmed
helmet without a crest. The gladiator show opener was often a match between the
Cestus who were a type of gladiators who fought with their fists. These
were usually new gladiators who were untrained in regular combat (Cavazzi).
The Roman
Colosseum was an important building in Roman history due to the fact that it
helped to end a series of Civil Wars and helped bring the people of Rome back
together. There is no way to know how many people died in the Colosseum
because of the games and executions, but it did provide entertainment for the
Roman people for centuries and allowed Roman society to keep together due to
the fact that citizens of all levels could sit and watch the same thing
together as a society instead of apart. It also was a very architecturally
advanced building for its time because of its size and design with trap doors,
elevators and even big manual gates. Even today, people from all over the world
still go to Rome to visit this architectural masterpiece and to study its
history to learn more about how Roman’s lived.
Comment: I feel like this research paper was one of my hits for the year, because I improved greatly from the rough draft to the final draft. I learned many lessons in writing this paper, and I feel like I completely overcame a lot such as plagiarism and incorrect citations, in writing my final draft.
Throughout the book, "Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian," poverty is shown to make a huge difference in Arnold's life from using a trash bag for a book sack or even having to hitchhike a ride home most days after school. Being poor is usually a big part of Arnolds life that he is ashamed to share with anyone. Like when he creates a cartoon about the many ways to get out of a conversation about poverty. This is also shown when Arnold is with Penelope and Roger at a Denny’s and orders a lot of things to act like he is wealthy then goes into the bathroom to be sick because he knew he could not pay for what he had just bought. The exact quotation is, “the thing is my stomach is all messed up because I, forgot my wallet. I left my money at home man” (Alexie 126). This shows that instead of telling Roger the truth about being poor he lied because he did not want people to know that he was poor. This quotation also allows the reader to realize that he is not prowd of being poor and he doesn’t want people knowing about it.
There are
many reasons why Arnold does not want to speak about being poor because he
doesn’t want people to know about his struggles like hitchhiking to school, his
dad being an alcoholic, and even his parents not having enough money to get
presents during Christmas time. Arnold
also realizes how poor he actually is when Roger gives him fourty dollars to
cover for the pancakes and Denny’s which to him is a lot of money but Roger
gave it to him like it was nothing.
Comment:
This I feel like was a hit because it was the second literary analysis passage that I wrote and I feel like I improved along the lines of embedding quotations. Also I feel like I did better with punctuation and grammar than my previous literary analysis paper.
3. Response to Should We Abandon Louisiana? In some ways, we already have.
Should We Rebuild Louisiana by Zack Kopplin is an article that addresses the question: Should we rebuild Louisiana after the flood? During the flood in August, there were 13 people who died and many people who were dispersed all over Louisiana knowing they might have lost everything. This was the biggest disaster since Hurricane Sandy in the United States. Unlike Hurricane Sandy, this flood did not have any media attention before the flooding began. Kopplin says, many people woke up one morning with water in their house. Hurricane Sandy was in the media for a while before it actually hit, but no one expected the flooding Louisianans got. This disaster was devastating to Louisiana's People, Ecosystems and culture but facing the facts the people of Louisiana have persevered by gutting their houses. I think this is what we should do because if we don't stay and abandon Louisiana then we lose this culturally diverse area within the United States. Many people cannot rebuild due to the governmental organization FEMA not supplying flood evacuees enough money to rebuild. I feel like the government should be focused more on finding ways to prevent this culturally diverse heartland instead of finding places to relocate inhabitants of Louisiana.
Comment: I feel like this piece of writing was a hit because it was a opinionated piece of writing that shows my stance on where we could have gone or what we could have done after the flood.
These are some of my misses for the year.
1. Jacks Savage Environment
On
the island, Golding showes how the boys mask their original selves by creating
a second reality of a more savage character through the environment Jack
creates within his tribe. The mask represents Jack’s transformation into a more
savage character. It also represents the point at which Jack transformed from a
power-seeking choir boy to a savage killer, which leads to people following him
into the new savage reality.
When Golding first introduces Jack, he is shown as a
natural born leader due to the fact that he is head of the choir boys. It is clear in this story that when Jack gets
first introduced, he is power-hungry from the way he brags about himself. “’I
ought to be chief,” said Jack with simple arrogance, “because I’m chapter
chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’”(22) Even though he isn’t selected
for the position of chief he’s still head of the choir boys and he uses this to
his advantage as he becomes the leader of the, “hunting tribe.” Even early on,
Golding shows that Jack is changing into a more animal like character. As
leader of the hunting group Jack starts to act more like a savage and predator.
This is observed by the authors description of him hunting almost like an
animal hunting prey. “Then, dog-like uncomfortably on all fours yet unheeding
his discomfort, he stole forward five yards and stopped.” (48).
This is the point in the text when the narrator shows how
Jack creates his second personality almost in a way sculpting a new face, “Jack
planned his new face with the colors of reds, whites, and blacks”(63). By using words like “planned” and “new,” Golding
is suggesting that Jack is starting over with a new personality. Jack is
shaping his own new reality because he refers to his face as a “plan” and “new”
face rather than just a regular face, as a personality that is different from
his old person. After he paints the mask
he turns more violent and animal like, “Come on! I’ll creep up and stab,” The
mask compelled them.” (64). By using word choice “creep up” and “stab,” this
shows that Jack is compelling his followers to act more violently and
inhumanely out of fear.
Jack is not the only one who masks his original personality
and reality, but because he is the leader of the tribe many people follow him
no matter what he is doing. Therefore, because they are together in a group, he
and his followers are able to commit ruthless acts of violence to the others on
the island and animals such as pigs without being judged by the people around
them. A great example of this is when Jack instigates unnecessary violence
towards a pig. “Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife.
Roger found a lodgement for his point and began to push until he was leaning
with his whole weight.” Jack’s example
of unnecessary violence toward the pig leads the other boys to follow his lead
and violently kill the pig. Together Jack’s tribe is dancing around the fire at
the feast yelling, “Kill the Beast, Cut
His Throat, Spill His Blood.” The movement became regular. Some of the
Liluns started making their own ring of the chant”(152). This violent use of
language suggests that Jack and his followers have become more savage as a
group that is ready to kill, cut and spill another’s blood.
In this quotation the vocabulary used shows how Jack’s
environment within his tribe is clearly savage, bloodthirsty and corrupt. With this you can clearly see the difference
between Jack’s original personality to a more violent power hungry type of
character. Also you can clearly see Jacks bad influence on the younger children
who he wants to turn into savages due to the fact that they are doing the same
thing the bigger boys are doing. Also
during the feast Jack is treated almost as a dictator in a way which shows how
willing his followers are to him and how power hungry Jack is to where he
treats his followers almost as his servants and also how he is referred to
Chief instead of Jack. “Jack stood up and waved his spear. Take them some meat.
Jack waved his spear again, Give me a drink.” (148) This shows how much respect
Jack has for his followers because of the fact that he treats them as if they
were not important to him instead of treating them like friends that he hunts
with, this shows his predatorial personality by showing that he is superior to
the others within his tribe.
Towards the end of the book jack’s progression into a
more savage and animal like character becomes more apparent. This is shown when at the feast Jack riles up
the tribe to the point where they are a mob and kills Simon without realizing
that he is a person not the beast. “Do our dance come on dance! Come on! Dance!”(151)This
shows how Jack is almost riling his tribe up in a means of a killing ritual. This
is a significant moment in the story because it shows that it doesn’t matter to
him the difference between a friend and a animal of pray to be slaughtered.
This also shows that Jack as the leader of the Hunting tribe has the power to
stop the slauter but instead riles them up even more with chants like Kill the Pig, Cut His Throat, Spill His
Blood.
Over
the course of the book Jack transforms from the leader of the choir boys who
wants to be a good leader into a savage who leads boys to kill people that
reject him like Ralph, Piggy, and Simon this is shown throughout thebook
because these are the only charicters that have been close to death or have
died by Jack. The transformation is symbolized by the mask he paints for himself.
Comment: I feel like this was one of my misses for the year because I had many areas in this paper where I did not embed quotations correctly. I have used this paper as building up my embedding abilities. However because I had so many embedding issues in this writing I considered this piece a miss.I was following in may dad’s footsteps in the pitch black morning stumbling through the grass and somehow we managed to find the blind. It was so cold that my dad had to break the ice just to walk out into the ice cold water. I was shivering because I forgot my gloves and my fingers felt like popsicles, with the combination of the cold wind and the ice water splashing onto my skin. As morning broke I remember seeing one of the most vibrant sunrises I have ever seen. I remember seeing light blues, blood reds, pumpkin oranges and a whole mixed array of other colors.
As the sky got brighter and it started to warm up which I
was extremely thankful for because my fingers felt like they were about to fall
off. I felt the difference literally it rose like 20 degrees and my hands
finally started to warm up. Then my dad started making a sound with what looked
like a cylinder which sounded like a frequent quack of a duck, then i
comprehended that he was calling at a duck. I was frantic with my head jerking
it back and forth looking for what he was looking at. Then suddenly he stood up
and shot 3 times and dropped 3 small birds that were laying on the water like
statues. He immediately stood up and said, “ at least we didn't scratch” which
means that at least we killed something. After that we sat on a levee looking
for ducks for another 2 hours trying to see if we could manage to kill anymore
before it got to where the birds stopped flying.
After the hunt my dad would always let me shoot his
shotgun off into the water. So he handed me the heavy camouflaged piece of
weaponry and I aimed it at what looked like a decoy and pulled the trigger. The
muzzle let out a cloud of smoke and fire as the projectile launched into the
target. I looked at my dad with eyes of excitement as my dad said, “ Good shot
kid one day you’re going to be better
than me.” Then my dad went and got the decoys in the icy water picking up one
at a time until they were all in the bag.Then brought them a shore and went
back out to get the ducks that we had killed. When he brought them back their
vibrant colors glistened on their wings their bodies petrified in their death
positions looking almost like they were stones.
My
dad gave them to me and told me to hold them up for a picture their bodies were
hanging out of my hands and the flash of the camera blinded me. As he went to
go get the four wheeler I stood there in the middle of the field just watching
all the wildlife swimming, flying, eating, I found everything about the place
interesting from the smell of gun powder to the way the colors of the sky
reflected off the water so clearly it looked like you were staring into another
world. When you thew a shotgun shell into the water and watching it bob up and
down like a Bowie that had just had been hit by a wake. As we got back to the
camp we unloaded all our muddy moist gear from the four wheeler and put it into
the grey truck bed. The smell of mud and blood was exuding from me. After we
loaded all of the supplies into the truck my dad started to clean the ducks. He
asked me if I wanted to help and I said yes. I knew I smelled like the muddy
earth that we had previously been sitting in about an hour ago. But the smell
of cooked bacon and biscuits coming from the oven masks the scent. That was the
best meal I have ever had the buttery biscuits melted into my mouth and the
taste of the crunchy bacon in my mouth made the morning just so much better.
After that when we were about to leave my dad turned around and told me,” I
hope you find ways to remember me because people don't last forever it’s the
memories that people remember you by.” And right after he said that I grabbed
him and said,” this is going to be one of the memories that I remember you by
for now and forever.”Comment: I feel that this piece of writing was one of my misses because it was one of the first papers that I ever had to write for 9th grade. I feel that it was a start for improvement throughout the year. It was a miss however because it had many grammatical errors such as run-on sentences, comma splices, and also sentences that did not make sense.
It was Christmas eve and Tina Jefferson was leaving the house to go out with her friend Brian. Tina's dad was yelling at her because he was saying that it is Christmas eve and you shouldn't be out. Tina didn't listen and went to go meet Brian at the restaurant anyway. Once Tina got to the restaurant she spotted Brian at a booth. She walked over and sat down across from him. He asked how she was doing and she said she was doing fine. The waiter came by and Tina and Brian placed their order. Then Brian started talking about his boss and Tina started to be less interested because she saw a family at the table behind Brian. She soon realized she made a mistake about leaving her family on Christmas eve to go out and have dinner with a friend. Tina said she had to go and went home to be with her family.
- The symbolic message in this story is that family comes first. Tina realized she needed to see her parents because they won't be around forever and you only get so many Christmas'. This is the overall message of the story.
Comment: I feel like this was one of my biggest misses of the year however I learned the most from it. It taught me the valuable lesson of doing my own work and not to copy. Although I hated receiving this miss It was very much needed and it taught me a lesson that I will always remember.
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