Category: Humanities

Story of a Bloodbath

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He was a noble. He was a cunning businessmen from the second estate, but not anymore. He had trusted his wit, but non of his wit could save him this time.

Death, blood, and crisis happened along the French revolution. The French revolution had been one of the most controversial revolutions in history as many things changed but so were many left the same. The most important consequence of the revolution is the death of many innocent citizens; this is not only because they are innocent but also because it left an awful impression, of  the revolutionaries, among the rest of the Europe, which led to French fighting the coalition in 1793. The French Revolution started because people of the third estate weren’t treated equally, yet the quality of the lives of citizens, even after the revolution, was not improved, and, in fact, got even worser. Absolute monarch was put to an end, but, by the end of the revolution, Napoleon came to power and crowned himself the emperor. However, simply looking at the short term effects is bias— there are many positive outcomes too. The old regime abolished, giving people more opportunity to flow through the hierarchy. The power of church was undermined, giving people the ability to think logically. Most importantly, a constitution was written, and this puts a limit to the emperor’s power. To sum all up, the value of the French Revolution should be determined by the effects it had on France by a longer time span; therefore, the French Revolution is successful.

a story about the guillotine—the French Revolution in Plain English

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made by Judy&Lily

From the France Revolution I learned a lot about both this particular revolution and revolutions in general. Revolutions often begin when people gets treated unequally; for instance, the old regime system, adapted by France before the revolution, separated people into 3 estate, and the third estate(as I will mention in the video) was burdened by tax. There are many causes to revolutions, but most often it’s related with nobles exploiting pleasant. A revolution is followed by a reform in government and, consequently, the death of many innocent. Though the result of revolutions seems good, many citizens suffered through famine, war, and fear; during the Terror, an estimated 17,000 people died. Revolutions end with the change of social structure and thinking of people, giving the people more rights and undermine the influenced of church; this is particularly important since people’s thinking were no longer limited by religious thinking and science could prosper. 

“Quiet Power”— a book for introverts

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The book “quiet power” is written by Susan Cain and categorized under literary non-fiction. This book mainly talked about how different people could have very different personalities—introverted or extroverted­­—and ways introverts would strive and, finally, meet the expectation that came from both the school and the society. The theme in this book is introverts, though being mostly quiet and wishes for solitude, could do just as well as extroverts both in school and socially. For instance, Introverts are proved to be splendid thinkers with the ability to concentrate and think quietly. (155). This theme further develops when the author states about how an introverted personality could be beneficial not only in school but also socially (79).

I recommend you reading this book, whether you are extroverted or introverted, because 1) it did a great job at explaining these terms not only by word but also by examples. 2) the suggestions inside for introverts are really worth a look; this isn’t only inspiring for introverts but also extroverts.

One thing that I learned from this unit is that you really should reread some time; not only the parts that you didn’t understand, but parts that is important to a theme or central idea of the book.

The Boxer Rebellion: Do the Boxers Deserve a Bad Reputation?

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The boxers shouldn’t get a bad reputation throughout the course of history. The Boxer rebellion started in Shandong, where the eight-country alliance had been letting missionaries into China and built building like churches all around China. The missionaries were also responsible for bringing business to their country by spreading their goods to China along with Christianity “The American missionaries became really front people for American exporters and American businessmen.”(Fei Ch’i-hao) The Righteous and Harmonious Fists or the world widely known name “Boxers” was a group of Chinese that believes “their magical rituals could make them invulnerable to the weapons of foreign powers.” (Szczepanski) After the drought “boxers turned violent towards foreigners and Christians” (Szczepanski) and blamed them for the nature disaster. Most of the record about Boxers were written by foreigners instead of the Boxers themselves, so the Boxers had no chance to speak up for themselves in text. The Boxers got their name from the eight-country alliance because of the way they fight: using mainly their fists this means they didn’t have weapons, which might mean that they had lived in poverty and wasn’t well educated. The foreigner’s missionaries were seen as strange people trying to threat China by the boxers. This is understandable because their lack of learning and the period of time boxer rebellion took place: it’s right after the Opium Wars, wars where China was humiliated by the loss of land and were forced to sign the unfair treaties, so the majority of Chinese thinks that the “devil” foreigners made China pay money and tried to get all the goods out of China. As the number of foreigners increased in Shandong, the boxers were even more certain to see Christians as a threat to china’s culture and traditions. As rumors spread and their ignorance led them into believing that the Christians brought the drought with them by displeasing the god. To protect China and to show anti-imperialist sentiment, the Boxers decided to hunt down both Chinese and foreign Christians and diplomats. There’s no particular bias in the Boxers’ move; both Chinese and foreigners were treated the same. The government of Shandong finally got tired of the Boxers they decided to kick them out and pushed them north toward Beijing. Beijing is where the foreign legation was mainly built in which increased the level of violence of the Boxer. The decision of the Shandong’s government led to a further chaos. After the Boxers locked the railways and telegraph lines around the foreign legation quarter where the Christians were inside, got the support from Empress CiXi, and had a huge preponderance as in the number of people, some of the Boxers still rejects to attack. The reason for this is: the previous times China tried to do so they ended up regretting. This proves that the Boxers did these terrible things because the eight-country alliance had done worser things to them. Therefore, the boxers shouldn’t get a bad reputation because they are only trying to protect themselves.

Theme in “Monkey’s Paw”

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The power of greed has cost people to lose things that are actually important to them, just because people could be easily fooled by the benefit, they see near them instead of beyond them. “Monkey’s paw” is a story about a monkey paw that could give you three wishes. The old man Mr. White wished for 200 dollars in order to buy the house he wished to, what he didn’t expect is the money is payed by his son’s life. Each wish had costed him something he didn’t expect, after all the wishes he had finally realized that the monkey paw was nothing but a punish for his greed and ignorant. Greed is what often leads to a bigger regret and a greater cost that cannot be undone.

In the story “Monkey’s Paw” by William W. Jacob, the author believes that greed is an unforgivable crime, and the more people lose the more they’ll wish for. Mr. White, in “Monkey’s Paw”, wished for 200 dollars using one out of the three wishes, to buy the family a house but he didn’t expect the money was payed by the life of his child. “‘Is he hurt?’ demanded the mother wildly. The visitor looked down. ‘Badly hurt,’ he said quietly. ‘But he’s not in any pain.’” (William W. Jacob 4) Mr. White had been empowered by greed when he expected to receive the 200 dollars, without any hard work. They wanted the good but didn’t want to pay the price. As despite as the wife of Mr. White is, she forced Mr. White to make his second wish; to make his dead son come alive again; this time they still not exactly aware of what might happen, as like the first wish, it’ll happen in an unexpected way ” But the old woman said feverishly, ‘Our first wish was granted. Why not the second?’… … ‘It is foolish and wicked,’ he stammered, hesitating. ‘Wish!’ repeated his wife. He raised his hand. ‘I wish my son alive again.’” (5) after they knew what power the monkey paw had, they wished for more, even reversing nature, to bring their son back. Mr. White’s family has ignored the warning from the previous owner of the monkey’s paw, and they are now left with nothing but void. The monkey paw–what repeats its appearance throughout the story– is a representation of greed and ignorance. it in the story is designed to be a punishment for greed. Greed has leads people into a bigger mistake that cannot be undone.

Found Poem: Struggle

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found poem:

This found poem is created with the words in the story “thank you ma’am” By Langston Hughes. It’s a story about a thief boy trying to steal the purse of Ms. Jones. In my found poem I tried to use the least amount of word and reflect the conflict in the story. The conflict in the story is an internal conflict, about the struggle between the boy making the decision of whether he should escape and be mistrusted or he should stay, but risk getting sent to jail. this is shown when the boy was looking at the door that has been left open: “After he had dried his face and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy turned around, wondering what next. The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run, run!”. the struggle was also shown when “The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the boy took care to sit. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.” at last the boy decides to stay trusted by the women.