Annotated Bibliography on Family Expectations

Works Cited
"Family Expectations." Philidelphia Health Management Corporation. 2006. University of Pennsylvania; Office of Health Education. 28 Apr. 2008 . Researchers from the Office of Health Education provide testimonies of youths who feel the pressure of what their families feel about their actions. The participants felt guilt for things such as wanting a social life outside of family and school, and wanting to find individuality away from their families. In one example, the participant felt pressured by his/her family to major in what they chose or else his tuition money would be taken away. Reading the testimonies shows insight to the struggle that the participants, who range from undergraduates to professionals, are dealing with.

GUILT

What is guilt? When do we feel it? Do we associate our feelings with guilt? In my life I have avoided the feeling of guilt. I use other words, more specific than guilt, but are within the category. Within guilt, there is regret. This feeling is probably the worst in the world. It is that feeling when you just want to turn back time and do things over again. When someone is guilty it may be because they made a wrong decision or they made the right one, but it makes gives them a guilty conscience. In Wildfire, Kris bears too much guilt to continue dating her boyfriend Junior, whose family owns the rival barn to hers adoptive family’s barn. This case shows Kris making a right decision for her barn but a wrong decision for herself. She immediately feels guilty but over time she moves on. In the current season, she and Junior get back together. For Kris, a happy ending comes out of her guilt.
In my life, I have felt guilt many times, although I try to avoid it. In one case, I was going to purchase a horse and decided not to at the last minute. A few months later I found out that he died. I felt guilty for his death because I knew I would have been able to prevent it. Unfortunately, there was not much I could do to relieve myself of this guilt. I had to come to terms with the fact that things happen for a reason and that it is possible that I wouldn’t have been able to prevent his death. I have felt guilty before, but for small fights with my friends or my parents. Feeling guilty for a death is difficult to overcome.
Within the play Macbeth, two of the characters have guilty consciences. Lady Macbeth begins to sleep walk at night and wash her hands. This is symbolic for her washing blood off of her hands after Macbeth killed Duncan. After having this weigh down on her conscience, Lady Macbeth dies suddenly. Macbeth has delusions because he murdered the King and had his friend murdered as well. He has episodes in front of his dinner guests as well. Macbeth’s conscience has not been cleared and at some point his guilt will affect the way that the play ends.

Socratic Seminar

For the most recent Soratic Seminar, here are the major points of the conversation and my reactions.

When we talked about Lady Macbeth and related her power over Macbeth to feminism, the group said that she shows her power well, but she abuses it- therefore it cannot be called feminism. I agree with this because Lady Macbeth took the idea of attaining power and went overboard. The way that she controls Macbeth is pure manipulation and it does not show that she is brave or courageous. She is not open about being a feminist because she is beind the scenes of Macbeth's success and nobody will ever find out.

Later, we talked about the future. In this area, many ideas were expressed but the one I agreed with the most was that the future is set in stone, but knowing it may destroy it. It is true of almost anyone that if they knew they would achieve something great, they would rule out all of the other options. Unfortunately, the future might mean having many talents, and one leads you to the next. By ruling out everything but what if predicted, you could ruin your shot of having a future.

Lastly, the group talked about how Macbeth is rushing into his new position as king. One opinion was that he had a choice to refuse to kill Duncan. I disagree with that because Macbeth was manipulated into killing Duncan. Being that he was manipulated, he probably didn't think through his actions as well as Lady Macbeth had. She is the one to be blamed for Macbeth rushing into his position as King, and him killing Banquo as well! Everything that has happened leads back to Lady Macbeth because if she had not pressured Macbeth into killing Duncan, he would have backed down and Duncan would have lived. In that case, Banquo would be alive too.

Feminism

Feminism today has changed from how it used to be. Originally it was a movement to ensure women political, social, and economic equality. As goals were met over the years, newer goals were made. Now, feminism means ensuring abortion rights, equality in political power, and in the workforce. Women’s individuality has been taken from the men who used to control them, and they are now trying their best to move forward in their newest opportunities. The biggest issue that women face today is social inequality. Statistics prove that the average working woman only makes 81% as much as the average working man (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Unfortunately, many women still fit the stereotype that they should be doing domestic house chores such as cooking, raising children, and cleaning. In my mind, this is the issue that women are the most frustrated with. It is hardest for the average woman to advance in the work field because of how men think of them. A woman can make the choice to use her head or her body to create success. Many times, the woman who uses her head will be called unemotional. In the other case, the woman who uses her sexuality to make achievements will be called names and on top of that, they will not be taken seriously. Although this issue is not directly solvable, the controversy on abortion can be helped with every person who supports it. Mainstream feminists are in favor of protecting abortion rights. Personally, I agree with this cause. Feminists are trying to prolong the legality of abortion; the bodies that abortion affects is the feminists themselves, but not the males who are voting against it in Congress.
For young girls today, appropriate role models are far and few. In our society, there are plenty of bad role models such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears. In summary, these girls go club hopping, are linked to many men, and are seen going into rehab and jail. Yes, some girls look up to them. But if these are not the right people to look up to, who is? Off of the top of your head can you think of someone who is a good role model? Of course mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts are usually good role models, but are they fighting for the feminist movement? In my mind there are no good role models for girls anymore. From reading books like Macbeth, it is evident that Lady Macbeth does not portray positive characteristics for women. It is not possible for many women to keep control of their husbands by using guilt to control their actions. For example, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he is a coward if he does not kill Duncan. She controls him enough to push him to kill! Although it is not Lady Macbeth’s achievement, she certainly has upward mobility in society with her husband. This is not a healthy relationship, and this is not what feminists want from individuality. The movement is not an effort to have authority over men, but to reach the same levels with them. Lady Macbeth takes the idea of achievement much too far.

When good goes bad

When given the assignment to this blog my teacher wrote, “there are times when some very good people choose to commit horrible crimes.” I could not agree more with that statement nor could I rephrase it well enough. Macbeth is a perfect example of this idea. When he sees an opportunity opening up for him, his loyal morals changed and he took full advantage. Unfortunately, this meant that he would have to kill King Duncan. Before Macbeth commits this crime, he was an honorable hero and a loyal friend to the King. Although nobody knows of this deed, Macbeth went from being one of the best men to one of the worst men, and nobody could have predicted it.
Similar to Macbeth’s story, Lisa Nowak wanted something greater than what she had, and took a risk to achieve her goals. As an astronaut for NASA, Lisa was a very successful and respected. In her case, she wanted to have a more exclusive relationship with one of her co-workers; she felt that his girlfriend was her competition. Lisa kidnapped her co-worker’s girlfriend and sprayed her with pepper spray. Although this is not as severe as killing someone, like Macbeth did, Lisa committed a crime to achieve her goal - a private relationship with her co-worker. This type of motivation can change many people’s morals, and Lisa proved that she was easily swayed by what she thought would come after she committed the crime.
Neither one of these offenses are justifiable. The reasoning behind them make sense, but the crime creates more of an obstacle than before it was committed. Achieving goals is done by hard work and dedication. This is backed up with the court system. There wouldn’t be penalties for crimes such as these if they were justifiable. In my opinion, Macbeth’s crime would have been justifiable if it had been murder in self defense. This is not the reason why it was committed however. These two crimes will both be punished accordingly, and hopefully will teach many people not to ruin their reputation to achieve their goals.