Julius Caesar paper- where do I go from here?

Question

I'm stuck. This is what I have so far, where should I go after this?

Throughout history, people have tried to overthrow a political leader for the good of the country. Whether or not anyone else agrees with them, it is an individual’s responsibility to try to fix a government they view as corrupt. This does not necessarily mean assassination, it can be any attempt to take power from a irresponsible or immoral leader. Whatever the means, it is important that people do not become apathetic to their government and that they take an interest in what their leaders are doing and put an end to it if they do not a agree with the policies.

Many people mistake being opposed to their government for being disloyal and unpatriotic. Is it unpatriotic to care so much about your country that you risk putting yourself and one other person in danger for the good of everyone else? Is it disloyal to want your political leaders to be the best leaders they can possibly be? Whether or not you are the only

Answer 1

I'd start playing with examples from history and the news, but many of the ones I can think of would counter rather than support your thesis.  I'd  be tempted to change my thesis and talk about how dangerous it is to try to overthrow a tyrant, but you could also talk about what the requirements are for a successful overthrow and which ones worked and which didn't.

Here are a few examples:

  -- American colonists struggling to throw off the British colonial govt; read the Declaration of Independence to see what they thought about the process.

  -- British force King John to sign the Magna Carta

  -- British Bloodless revolution of 1688

  -- What happened after the recent Kenyan election?   What went wrong when some Iraqis tried to overthrow Hussein?  What's going on in Tibet right now?

  -- American gov't (or expatriates within USA) frustrated with Castro, Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Hugo Chavez, ... they're foreigners to these governments; does that make a difference to how they should respond to perceived corruption?

  -- American dissidents today frustrated by the Bush government; some try to impeach, some want to wait it out...

If that's too historical and too little about the play, then... I'd talk about how it turns out in the play.  What were the flaws of the conspirators?  Was the end result what they would want to see?  Brutus considered Caesar a friend; when would you overthrow a friend?   Why didn't he have any other recourse?  Was he manipulated?  Was the crowd manipulated?  What the heck were they thinking?!  Why does Shakespeare think any of this will be interesting?  You can always point to parallels in history or the news to help highlight these points.

Answer 2

im reading julius ceasar right now in class, umm i would change how you introduce brutus and how he got to where he ended up.

i would talk about the conspirators a little, and mention how they manipulated brutus and got him to kill his very close friend, or maybe you can add something about ceasar, for example; he ignored tons of things that warned him to beware the idea of march and so on. mention how he is arrogant and ignores all the warning and forshadowings.

well thats all i got. good luck! ^.^