Macbeth: Active Reading Notes

 

The Crossroads Between Should and Must

To be honest, I don't entirely understand what Elle Luna is getting at. All my life Should was described as a choice while Must is something that has to be done, there is no choice. Luna swaps these definitions and it threw my equilibrium with the words completely off balance. For me, it would have made more sense to choose the words Must and Want.

My choices in life are far better described by these two word rather than the others. I Must live up to expectations, I Must get good grades, I Must succeed while also dealing with the fact that I Want Happiness, I Want to draw, I Want to be healthy. My wants are what drive me and give me a feeling of joy, a reason for living, while my musts are things I just have to do, I feel nothing for them but loathing.

Should and Must are a nice concept but I don't believe that's how people in this world function. While some choices we make because we fear what others may think of us, humans are naturally selfish, thinking mostly of themselves. It all boils down to what we Want and what we Must do, that's how I believe our choices are made.

Reply from our expert

Ashley and I decided to ask Chikuto from tumblr for tips on how to layout comics and make the reader stay interested in the story you're telling. Chikuto is a female artist in her 20's who lives and attends university in the United Kingdom. Her deviantART account is chikuto.deviantart.com

Our Question:

      Link to her reply!!!

Big thanks to Chikuto for replying!

Look at my brain

Ashley is my partner in crime for the masterpiece project. We decided to combine our interests and future careers together resulting in the idea to create short comics. Ashley intends to major in psychology at college while I am going into video game design. Our theme is a sort of therapy that shows others that while their negative thoughts are warranted, most of them are created by imposing someone else's or society's standards on themselves.

What about my masterpiece?

Splitting our time in class between our masterpieces and Macbeth seems to be a healthy balance of learning and fun. We are able to get multiple things done at the same time. I am still a bit anxious about the final result of our masterpiece and worry that it may not live up to people's expectations.

A part of me wishes for more AP test prep since it will be my first time taking an AP test.

Love is blind

As the audience, we are given insight into the intentions of the characters that those in the story do not. Macbeth is enamored  with his wife and does not see the power hungry woman that we do. Lady Macbeth is manipulating her husband and calls herself "manlier than most men", both of which the audience sees but Macbeth does not.

Meet Macbeth

Macbeth is not initially introduced right away. We are given insight into his persona through descriptions given by Sergeant and Duncan. Macbeth is characterized mostly through indirect characterization, through his actions and beliefs. An example of this is when the Three Witches tell him of his future and he doesn't seem too happy with his destiny of becoming thane.

Seeking Mentor

My mentor would have to be able to teach me how to tell a story in so little words and to utilize literary techniques such as tone and characterization through drawings rather than writing. They would show me how much detail to put into each panel without overdoing it or making the picture too distracting.

I would hope for them to tell what areas I need to work on, whether it is my art, writing or story telling skills.

My Macbeth Resources

1. Teaching Macbeth 
2. Virtual Macbeth
3. Shakespeare 4 Kidz
4. Shakespeare-Online
5. Shakespearehelp

Is there an expert in the house???

For my masterpiece, I suppose any artist would be considered to be an expert. We need to be able to find someone who to able to convey a deep message with little words and a picture. I would like for them to give us tips on how to structure our comic panels and create an interesting way of telling a story.

This is only a test

For my masterpiece, I want to draw(pun lol) inspiration from various style of comics. I'm unsure whether our people would be drawn in a western or eastern style or even cartoonish. Ashley and I need to look at different example and figure out how to plan this efficiently.