Malcolm's POV

This episode has taught me so much about people, and how the social hierarchy sets us all up to play into the hands of mischief and betrayal. My father was a good man, and yet he was betrayed by the Thane of Cawdor, not once but twice. Was it fair for Macbeth to be awarded more honor than the position that had been held by a traitor? I could agree if he had thought that, but to play so foully for it? Was the reward Macbeth received fair? Had he earned it? Or had he earned more? I cannot speak for my fathers interpretations of Macbeth's deeds, but could it possibly have been fair for my father the king to then lose his life? Is one man more deserving of another for the throne? What does that mean for me, now that I am king? Truthfully I do not know if I am deserving of this throne. When my father was killed I ran away in fear for my own life. The throne was given rightfully to Macbeth, despite his having played so foully for it, and it is I who became a traitor to the land and brought an army back to these shores. Did I not lose the claim to the throne when I left, was it not given to a man whom deserved it? The people say that it is fair, I retook the throne that was mine by divine right, but the throne had been lost to me at that moment, so how can I say that it is now truly mine? If all the world is fair then why must such foul happenings take place to make it so?

Fair is Foul

The motif of "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" is used in several contexts in the play 'Macbeth' and can be interpreted in many different ways and in relation to many different characters. The line is used in the very first act and scene of the play, signaling its significance to 'Macbeth', and indeed the entire play is thereafter is based upon actions taken in order for Macbeth to receive the honor which he believes is due to him. Macbeth deserves honor for being such a great war hero (at least in his own and Lady Macbeth's minds), however, to receive what is 'fair' Macbeth commits the most foul of acts, the murder of the king, and of others. And so Macbeth and his wife make the world fair through foul acts. As for the second part of the motif, "and foul is fair", in this interpretation of it, this part is fulfilled in the killing of Macbeth, doing a foul deed to right the world once again. The motif can also be interpreted through the play to express the idea of foul true intentions, hidden behind fair faces. The prime example of this is Lady Macbeth, she comes across (to other characters) as kind and gentle, whilst she is the one who manipulates Macbeth into murdering the king. At one point Lady Macbeth supposedly faints from shock after hearing of Duncans murder, however as the audience we are privy to the truth and know that Lady Macbeth in fact plotted the deed herself and is simply hiding behind the mask of a fair, innocent lady. 

Week 2 Homework

When Holden left the train his first thoughts were to give somebody, anybody, a call. He spent about 20 minutes in the phone booth, thinking about who he should call but in the end couldn't decide and rang nobody,  partly because he was worried about the late time, and partly because he didn't want to ring anyone connected to his parents. Instead he caught a cab, once again bringing to his consideration the question of where the ducks go in winter. He asked the cab driver about it, but to no avail, and simply ended up going to a cheap hotel in the city. Shown to his shabby room by a bellboy in similar condition, Holden discovered that the other people staying in the hotel were not the sort of company he would chose to keep. He saw some rather unsightly things from the window of his room. After studying the odd scenarios for a while, Holden's thoughts turned again to Jane, and then to a girl who he had heard of from a Princeton boy, a girl who may have been interested in getting together. He rang up the girl, but she wasn't too happy about it and Holden was left to go out on his own. 

Holden's Goddam War

In the article we learn that the author had written the first few chapters of Catcher as a short story, but when he added them to the book the way it was read changed the readers insight completely. It is interesting the way that Salinger not only changed what he wrote about but the way he wrote and the way he expressed his feelings or rather Holden's feelings in the story. It is also interesting how much of the stories in the book are metaphors for experiences in the authors life. And how these experiences led to the creation of Catcher and the morphing of Holden as a character. It is also very interesting that the author of the article chose to call it Holden's War, this suggests that Holden was fighting the war in his own way along with Salinger, or rather, that their wars were one and the same.