| A Life Of Conseqeunsce Essay, Research Paper
A Life of Consequence
Consequence, a natural or necessary result from reason or argument. The true meaning of consequence does not only derive from negative conditions. Although the first word people relate it to is punishment or repercussion. Sometimes we are not conscious of the fact that a consequence can be a result and the act of a successful student.
This is Webster’s definition, demonstrated in some of my every day conditions.
For example, last semester I felt I was fully equipped and clear-minded going into the school year. But slowly, yet more than gradually my grades were lowering naturally, endangering me of academic probation. This semester, I ended up taking the same class as a consequence and a necessary result. But in a positive since, taking this class a second time I discovered that this is what I wanted to major in. Another time was in high school, I had took all the necessary steps of pleasing a teacher, while in a class of academically poor students. Just from my show of participation and interest, I feel my grade was helped in consequence of being an involved student. All year long my peers would walk in late with no homework and when in discussion have nothing to offer.
Students tried to involve me involve me in erratic behavior, but I knew a deduction of points was the last thing anyone needed. So the duration of the year, I managed to squirm my way up till the final with a low ‘C’. Finals came around and if I didn’t receive an ‘A’ on the test I would have a ‘D’ in consequence. Even though, all year I was working on a good relationship with the teacher, it still all seemed ironic when she offered an ultimatum.
My teacher offered for me to write a paper on the information I retained in the last two chapters. The deal was if the paper was an ‘A’ satisfaction paper and if I received a ‘C’ on the final I would receive a ‘B’ in the class. My development of the paper went well, but along with the deal came consequences and repercussions. Students and peers felt mistreated and unfair. Since it was already done she claimed that I was the only one that asked, when questioned. Students offered to turn in papers but the deadline was past due. Many students in that class received a low grade as a consequence. If I received a low ‘C’ on the final I would get a ‘B’ in the class as a result of being an involved student.
Many times as a kid I remembered my family going through hard times and paying the consequences. Going through these times my parents always kept me in private schools, hoping I would amount to something. Sometimes sacrificing trips or a new car, chancing an investment in my education. I felt the silent pressure daily and tried my best to achieve, by working hard to receive a high G.P.A. During school and hard times, when tuition couldn’t get paid, I often suffered the repercussions.
Some how, some way mom and dad worked harder and got me back in schooling result of a positive consequence. Things seemed harder than they should have been, because my parents would never take a handout. They felt a debt is the worst situation to be in, and would rather suffer the consequences. My brother also was, well lets just say disturbed, and often had run-ins with the police. This was something the reason my tuition couldn’t get paid, but he over looked my problem. Later in my life things got better, my brother moved out, dad got a raise and I stayed in school. I received a high school diploma and got accepted to MCC as a consequence and result of positive actions
Roger Ebert first viewed the film Apocalypse Now in the Chicago Sun Times in 1979. He then republished the article in his book, Roger Ebert’s Movie Home Companion, in 1989. Ebert begins by referring to a quote in French director Francois Truffaut’s book, The Film of My Life, when he stated that early in his career he would judge a movie on whether or not it expressed both “an idea of the world and an idea of cinema.” Truffaut, however, changed his thinking and in the later years of his career. In his book he states that he is not looking for a movie that doesn’t “pulse.” He states, ” I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema.”
Ebert kept this in mind when he reviewed Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now. He states that he does not believe a film should be judged on such extrinsic elements as the amount of money it took to produce or the salary of one particular actor. He does not feel, as some critics do, that it is necessary to know prior to viewing the film, of the director’s infidelities or whether or not he gambled his personal fortune to finish the film. Ebert also discusses the criticism that Coppola based his movie on the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness and translated Conrad’s journey into the Vietnam War. According to Ebert, Coppola was not trying to tell a story about Vietnam, he was trying to “re-create, in characters and images, something of that experience.” He also believes that once the budget and off screen problems are forgotten that this movie stands “as a grand and grave and insanely inspired gesture of filmmaking.”
Through vicarious entertainment, Coppola is trying to convey the message that “war is hell.” An example would be the scene which Ebert describes as the “best movie battle scene ever filmed”, in which the lieutenant colonel leads a helicopter assault on a village. “It’s simultaneously numbing, depressing, and exhilarating,” Ebert states, “as the rockets jar from the helicopters and spring through the air, we’re elated like kids for a half-second, until the reality of the consequences sinks in. Another key scene is the one in which the U.S. Army gunboat, holding Martin Sheen’s crew, slaughters a group of Vietnam peasants. Ebert describes this scene as happening “with such sudden, fierce, senseless violence that it forces us to understand for the first time how such things could happen.”
In his review Ebert is tying to stress to the audience that one must go into this experience with an open mind. To not go in looking for answers, because “Apocalypse Now doesn’t tell any kind of conventional story, doesn’t have a thought -out message for us about Vietnam, has no answers, and thus no ending.” But he believes that the ending is does have “feels much more satisfactory than any conventional ending possibly could.”
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