Tag: Humanities

The Survival Under 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert

ClaireHumanities

Below are my video and writing about the theme and the central ideas from the book “Trapped.”

 

“Trapped” is a book written by Marc Aronson that explains the story of 33 miners trapped under 2,000 feet below in San Jose Mine, Chile. This book describes in detail both above and below the Chilean desert, how the trapped miners survived together and how the process of the rescue went. One theme of this book is that cooperation and teamwork are important for survival.

The trapped miners held each other to not lose hope, and whenever they started losing hope, as a team they cheered up again. In addition, the rescuers were cooperating, too. They really worked together to save the miners not knowing if they are alive or not. Due to this teamwork and supporting one another, all 33 miners were able to be alive until the rescuers reached them, and the rescuers were able to reach them as quickly as possible.

There are two main reasons why you should read this book. First, it is a true accident of trapped miners that we have to recognize and have a think about. Today, many of the employees work in unsafe workplaces (including mining). However, the jobs cannot be stopped because it is an important job that affects our daily life (mining – electricity, fuel). By reading this book, we can realize the situation of the workers and pay more attention to the issues. Second, this book is not only about how the world rescued the miners, but also a story that shows how cooperation is an important key to survival. It is very interesting to read how the trapped miners got together and hold each other to not lose hope and stay alive. It makes the readers to think about the power of cooperation and putting ideas together. Since the end of 2019, coronavirus had spread throughout the world widely. To quickly get out of this Covid19 situation, all of us have to cooperate together. Thinking of our current situation, this book is inspirational and relatable.

One thing I learned in this unit and reading this book was rereading an important part of the book for a deeper understanding of the content and finding the connection with main ideas. Before, I never tried rereading a part even though I did not understand it well, because I thought it was a waste of time. However, now I know that it is an important process that helps me to come up with deeper ideas.

The Boxer Rebellion and the Legation Quarter

ClaireHumanities

The Boxer Rebellion deserved a bad reputation because of the violence they committed against foreign powers. The Rebellion was organized by people who believed in martial arts and magic, who resented foreign powers. The organization first targeted its government, which was Manchu. However, as their government started to support them, the boxers turned their back to the foreigners completely. The boxers did not have a complete and agreed thought, but they had a strong belief that they committed violence and tried to remove foreign powers. They killed foreign missionaries including innocent Chinese Christians. Over 230 people were killed by the boxers and churches and houses of the foreigners were burnt. Additionally, the boxers cut off the telegram of the French post office where every communication in and out of Beijing was passed through. They also blocked the railway at the railway station, and therefore no one could neither enter nor get out of Beijing. This isolated not only people that were a threat to the boxers but also innocent foreigners in the legations and churches. The newspapers reported the death of foreigners in Beijing because they could not communicate with each other. This was blocking the freedom of communication during the business and commerce they were doing in China that was agreed on in the treaty. Also, the German Minister Clemens von Ketteler was murdered by the boxers in the legation quarter. Boxer Rebellion, a group of people who had a strong belief and who did not try to accept the foreign culture, deserved a bad reputation because of their violence and brutality that can never be justified.

Hermia’s Instagram

ClaireHumanities

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In William Shakespeare’s play, “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Hermia is a character who is struggling for true love. Hermia is a brave and affectionate character who believes in true love. In “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Hermia is in love with a man called Lysander. Lysander also loves Hermia, but Egeus, Hermia’s father wants her to marry another man called Demetrius and so does Demetrius. Hermia disagrees with the law of Athens: the father’s right to choose a lover for his child. She complains, “O hell! to choose love by another’s eyes!” (line 140). This shows that she believes in true love, and she wants to marry her love, Lysander. Desperate to marry Lysander, she decides to escape the country where the laws of Athens could not reach her. Hermia is a brave and independent character who knows how to speak up for herself and make a wise decision. She did not want to follow the life that her father had decided for her but make her own life with Lysander. She said, “I’d rather wither away than give up my virginity to someone I don’t love (line 80).” Hermia has her own opinion, and she puts it into action. It is not easy to leave one’s country just for love. But she knew that it was better to leave her own home, Athens, and live her own life she wants outside. This shows that she is a brave and wise character. Lastly, Hermia is an affectionate, kind, and friendly character. At the end of Scene 1, when she meets Helena, she greets Helena: “Godspeed, fair Helena! Whither away?” (line 180). Even though Helena does not react to Hermia kindly because of jealousy, Hermia is being friendly and affectionate to Helena. In “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Hermia is loving, being brave, independent, and kind. She is a character who pursues true love, and who is courageous and affectionate.

Only Shame is to Have Shame

ClaireHumanities

I made a found poem with words from a short story “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. This story is about a Christmas Eve Dinner of Amy’s Chinese family living in America. In this story, the main external conflict is character vs. nature conflict. Character vs. nature conflict is when a character is struggling with any force of nature. Amy is embarrassed about her family culture and is ashamed to show her crush, Robert her family’s Christmas Dinner. I tried to show Amy worrying about how Robert will think about their family culture. I used words like “terrible,” “despair” to emphasize how Amy was feeling that night.

For my background image, I chose a Chinese dinner table because I thought it was important in the story. With my words, I made important words bold to show what word is important to catch the conflict in the story. I also made certain words bigger to show exaggerated.