Essay Three Draft

[kwilliams]

Essay 3: Topics-

+Antony’s relationship with Cleopatra mirrors relationship of America
with other nations.

+Cleopatra’s outsider status is ridiculed by the Romans and is
synonymous to the U.S. view of the world/ race relations/stereotype in
relation to itself.

Murphy’s 2007 Are We Rome? examines the relationship between what
Rome has experienced in its past and the lessons that can be learned
for America’s future. Murphy’s paradigm of America’s similarities with
Rome can be found in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, which is not
only a novel of Antony’s problems regarding his affair and his sense
of duty, but is also a symbolization of America’s struggles today.
Antony must manage his relationship between his Egyptian lover and his
responsibility as one of three leaders of Rome, just as America must
deal with its relationship between its foreign adversaries and
supporters and its relationship with its own people. Cleopatra’s
foreign status, despite being a beautiful ruler, can also be seen to
mirror the struggle that America has with its foreigners within its
borders. Antony and Cleopatra represent the correct and incorrect ways
of dealing with the problems that Murphy outlines in his Are We Rome.
In chapter four of Murphy’s novel, entitled The Outsiders, Murphy
states how the Romans used information to their advantage to try to
keep up foreign relations, usually without enough thought. “The
Roman’s acquired information that we would deem vital for the conduct
of foreign relations only randomly through a variety of ‘ad hoc’
sources” (Murphy, ?) This is exactly what Antony did in scene four to
assure Cleopatra of his love for her. ““Let Rome in Tiber melt, and
the wide arch / Of the ranged empire fall” (Shakespeare, 15--).
Antony assured Cleopatra that his love for her was unwavering, but
Cleopatra did not believe him, so their relationship was strained. The
parallels with America are very apparent. In Santo’s 2008 What Soured
the U.S.-Venezuela Alliance? Santo comments on America’s sour
relationship with Venezuela, despite an increased trade agreement
since 2004.

The writing center closed before I could finish. I do not have a
computer so hopefully one of my friends are home so I can finish
before midnight. I will try to finish this essay by Monday so that I
may get more feedback.






































References

Santos, A. (2008, Jul 15). What Soured the U.S.-Venezuela Alliance?
The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/

Iweala, U. (2008, Jan 23). Racism in ‘Post- Racial’ America. The
Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/