Learn the main events that happen during the Cuban Revolution in this 5 minute video created by Poppy and I. From the military coup made by Batista till the overthrow and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Watch the video above to learn about the Revolution!
Tag: grade8
Seperation of Power Didn’t Happen Here…
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Dalberg-Acton). John Dalberg-Acton wrote this to a bishop in a letter and it is a popular saying; Dalberg-Acton was a historian, politician, and writer. Many people agree with him, including George Orwell, in his novel Animal Farm. Orwell believes that too much power can corrupt someone. In the novel, Napoleon is the leader of the animals, and he creates seven commandments but as times goes on it changes again and again, until it is “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” (Chp. 10 Page 40) When the pigs change the rules, it shows that the animals are not equal anymore. The pigs had turned into something superior to any of the other animals, like Mr. Jones was at the beginning of the novel. Another quote shows the point about how the pigs corrupted the power they were given, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which,” (Chp. 10 Pg. 44) In the seven commandments “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy,”(Chp.2 Page 10). However, the pigs did not follow that rule; they had corrupted the power and made a loophole for themselves. When Mollie disappeared, and they found a “fat red−faced man in check breeches and gaiters, who looked like a publican, was stroking her nose and feeding her with sugar,” (Chp. 5 Pg. 16). It was a huge deal, and no one mentioned her again, but when the pigs start talking to humans, the animals cannot do anything because now, the pigs are more equal than the other animals. I agree with George Orwell’s theme because it is true. A real-life example would be Hitler, he was a dictator and he used his power to start the Holocaust and WW2. He had too much power and he did what he wanted to do, and nobody could stop him. In Animal Farm, the pigs had led everyone to rebel against the animal abuse and mistreatment Mr. Jones had done, but the animals ended up having Mr. Jones replaced by Napoleon, and nothing had changed at all.
Reputations Precedes You
“No rain comes from Heaven. The earth is parched and dry. And all because of the [Christian] churches. Have bottled up the sky.”The quote is an Anti-foreign poem from the year of 1900. It shows how the Boxers believed that the missionaries were the root of their problems.
Moreover, this leads to the fact that the Boxers should have a bad rap because of their wicked ways to solve their problems. The Boxers started the conflict, which resulted in more than 100,000 deaths, including 3,000 military personnel. Most of whom they killed were innocent civilians who did not do anything. Furthermore, communication was cut off because of the Boxers; families could not hear about the deaths of their loved ones until after the siege was over. They also scared many people within the Legation Quarters, by blowing up a mine under the French Legation walls, which resulted in more than 700 foreigners and Chinese Christians hiding in the British Legation as the food ran scarce. The Boxers’ actions resulted in many deaths and traumatizing experiences. They listened to their emotions and tried to solve their problems by using brute force, which could have been avoided.
Crazy Rich or Just Crazy?
Image from Warner Brothers found on The Verge (Click here to see image and article)
“‘Well, they (Lee Family) still behave like Mainlanders, as this ridiculous reception proves. Forty million-I just don’t see where all the money went” (Kwan 300). One of the most recurring types of conflicts in the Crazy Rich Asians is Man vs. Society (Learn more about conflict here). Although the central conflict is the most obvious example, many of the smaller conflicts are quite conspicuous as well.
Rachel Chu is the main character of the trilogy. In Crazy Rich Asians, meeting the prosperous society in Asia, and trying to hold her place, was a hard challenge for her. Most of these conflicts were Man vs. Society. For example, “Her bag was filled with a large fish that had been badly mutilated, blood seeping out from its gills. Violently scrawled on the vanity mirror above the chair in fish blood were the words ‘CATCH THIS, YOU GOLD DIGGING C(**)T!'” (Kwan 218). Rachel was shocked after this event took place, and since she was on a private island, she knew it was a group of girls from the bachelorette party. She solved this conflict by not letting this get to her head, Sophie (Astrid’s Cousin) also convinced her not to call the police, because that would be letting the girls that pranked her win; they took the high road by doing nothing, showing that Rachel was “‘stronger than they think you are. Not to mention a lot classier. Think about it'” (Kwan 224).
The fish was not the only conflict that thrown in front of Rachel, in the rising action of the story, Rachel and Nick are seen by Radio One Asia, a rumor spread that she was either a gold digger or a Taiwan Plastic Chu, “And Victoria says, ‘Are you sure? Taiwanese? Good grief, did he fall for some gold digger?’ And then Cassandra says something like, ‘Well, it might not be as bad as you think. I have it on good authority that she’s one of the Chu girls. You know, of the Taipei Plastics Chus. Not exactly old money, but at least they are one of the most solid families in Taiwan'” (Kwan 51). Although she did not know that this was going on at the time, when she found out, she was utterly confused.
Not only has Rachel been put in these dilemmas, but many of the other characters were also. Kitty Pong, is an actor and was engaged to Alistair in the book, but Alistair’s family broke off the engagement because “‘My youngest grandson is not going to marry some actress, especially one of questionable lineage,’ Su Yi said simply. Turning to Alexandra, she said, ‘You will tell him to break off the engagement immediately'” (Kwan 310). Oliver was sent to break off the engagement and succeeded, but the only reason for the pain that they caused Alistair was just because Kitty was of “questionable lineage.”
Man vs. society was a type of conflict that Kevin Kwan (Get to Know Kevin Kwan) used an abundance of, to push the plot forward and make the story even richer in detail. It developed more character of the society members and the main characters. And it shed more light on the wrongs of society.