Witch-slapped: Macbeth's fall from grace

1. Why do people who are not "evil" take the first step into evil? What, for instance, is involved in taking that first step "down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire" (Macbeth, 2.3)? What are the consequences of the individual choosing evil (particularly the internal consequences)? Use examples from the text to support your opinion.

Evil actions are sometimes formed not solely from evilness, but sometimes from the will of satisfying one's self that harmful actions to the others are not taken into account, or are considered less important than the satisfaction of an individual.

     At first, Macbeth was not thinking of killing King Duncan or taking over the thrown, because he didn't have the will to commit such evil acts. He had a fragile and genuine heart that he had always been such a great warrior and loyal friend of the King. Until Lady Macbeth was encouraging him to take his step to become King, she wanted him to take the throne for her because of her crave for power and fame, and because as a woman she did not have the ability to commit such act. Her words were what really motivated Macbeth to commit the evil action which was killing his King. He wanted to prove that he was a man (in Lady Macbeth's definition) as she was saying that he was not enough to be a man because he was mentally weak. As a result, Macbeth committed to become evil was partially because of his wife and also because of his greed for power. 

Lady Macbeth's words gave courage and determination for Macbeth to take his very first step into evil. For example, when someone says that it is okay to hit a wild cat because it can bite you if you don't do anything, you would tend to think that it is a normal thing to hit the wild cat because it is wild and because that person gave you the reason for hitting it. You would not empathize with that cat any more because you would systematically think that it is a right thing to do just because you were permitted to do so. This happens a lot in our society such as how kids were bullied as one kid tells the others that someone should be laughed at or made fun of.  The same applied to Macbeth because when Lady Macbeth encouraged him to kill Duncan, though he knew that it was a wrong thing to do but her words certainly motivated and he was more determined to kill Duncan after having conversation with his wife. I also think that Macbeth was reassured by the witches' words as he really believed that he was fated to be King and that his actions were all pre-determined by that thing called fate, but actually he WAS the one that made his fate. When the witches said that Macbeth will be the King, because he wanted to become King, he believed in their words. 

Betrayal is involved in taking the first step "down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire" (Macbeth, 2.3) such as betraying himself as Macbeth did something that he didn't wholly want to do, he also betrayed his King whom he served for many years, and he also betrayed the people who used to trust him such as Banquo and Macduff because he later on sent his people to kill them/their family to cover up his actions.

The consequences of an individual choosing evil are loosing his/her trust-worthiness in the others, making more enemies for himself, having to hide the truth from others, and having anguish from committing evil acts as when Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo in front of him at the feast, he freaked out that made the others confused and nervous. Macbeth had to continuously worried about getting caught and he had to commit more evil actions to conceal for what he had done. Therefore, the first evil act is the start of a long chain of more evil acts. The person who had taken first step into evil will sink deeper in taking more wrong doings. 

#IBmakingArt

Out of all the artworks that I've seen throughout the exhibit, the one that stood out the most to me was the combination of 84 black and white photos and its title was "89 Huicholes". The artist that created this artwork was Santiago Sierra (born in 1966, Spain). Its full size is 320 x 186 pixels. This piece of art was finished in January, 2006 at Jelisco, Mexico.

The artwork contains 84 black and white pictures of the back of people's heads. Each of them wore different clothes but the most of the women were wearing head covering. The people in the artwork are the Huichol people (aka Huichol Indians). They are indigenous people who live in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Western Mexico. As they have different customs and beliefs than other people, the artist respected their traditions and also showed us the significance of their belief through this artwork. In this artwork, the artist only took pictures of the backs of the people, because they believed that taking the pictures of their faces would mean that part of their souls being taken away. The fact that I could learn something so interesting through the people that I would never know their faces was impressive because I have thought that pictures of people's backs could have delivered a powerful message like this artwork did.

The purpose of this artwork was to inform the audience cultural value of the Huichol people. As Sierra showed us how he respected their belief, he was also "asking" us to perceive openly and appreciate the difference between our culture and their culture. The artist introduced us "his people"; even though they are indigenous people, Sierra showed that he respected them equally instead of discriminating against them just because their beliefs are different from his beliefs. That way, he taught us a significant cultural belief of the Huichol people. 

The 2 main colors that the artist used were black and white. These are the colors that would have high contrast when they go together. Because having the original colors would make these photos become confusing as it would have too many colors because there are various photos, and that would divert the audience's focus to other unnecessary details. In order to direct the audience's attention to the key point of the artwork more effectively, Sierra put these pictures in black and white. The whole artwork seemed to lack something as the end of the last row was empty. The artist created that emptiness as for saying that the pictures will never end and will keep on continuing for many more generations. It could also be said that the last place was for the artist himself as he could see himself being one of them, or it could be anyone of us.