Category Archives: Humanities

The French Revolution: Journal of Pierre Cadieux

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My character is called Pierre Cadieux. A peasant that was suppressed by the government and wanted to fight back. Pierre joined the revolutionary groups starting from the Tennis Court Oath and had also met Francois, his mate that joined and experienced the French Revolution with him.

The French Revolution started from 1789 and ended on November 9th, 1799. Before the revolution, France was ruled by the Old Regime. The Old Regime was the political and social system of France starting from 15th century till the 17th century. France before the revolution had three estates: the first estate were the high ranking members of the Catholic Church and the second estate were the nobles living an extravagant life. Both estate refused to pay tax and France was slowly going towards bankruptcy, the third estate which included everyone else were paying tax for the whole country. The third estate had no luxuries nor privileges and even had to pay extra amount of tax. This infuriated them and a bloody revolution ought to begin. The revolutionaries worked hard and sacrificed a lot for this revolution. They finally got their rights, freedom, liberty, and equality. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Women were established, Napoleon soon created his own empire and expanded territory along with increasing the industry and economy of France, making the lives of many better.

The French Revolution overall was successful since it has brought peace, freedom, liberty, equality to the citizens. Where before, people were suppressed and infuriated by the laws and government. (Absolutism, the Old Regime and the monarchy) But however many thousands of people sacrificed their lives and freedom for this revolution where all the bloody components come from.

The French Revolution In Plain English

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Revolutions in general are greatly influenced and by corrupt leadership. For example, the Russia Revolution started with the hopeless Tsar and Tsarina, while in France, it was king Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. All revolutions are a time for new ideas to be created, abolishment of the old political system and government. What I learned about revolutions were all of them ended with hundreds of thousands of people dead and all revolutions are full of sacrifices, loss and pain. the long term effects seem more beneficial and effective than the short term effects. The French Revolution ended with Napoleon being emperor and an orderless country left in chaos. But however, Napoleon had made France into a strong industrial country with strong military power and wealth. But most importantly, all people were free and equalled that they would have never have gotten if it weren’t for the revolution.

“The Borden Murders” By Sarah Miller

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The book I’ve read is “The Borden Murders” by Sarah Miller. This book is mainly about on August 4th, 1892 Andrew Borden (father) and Abby Borden (stepmother) ended up dead in their house with blood all over their furnitures, clothes and bodies with an axe sticking out of their heads. 32 year old Lizzie Borden was the prime suspect and after the inquest and investigations, she was under arrest and was in trial. Although she was acquitted, but the town she lived in still didn’t believed in her innocence.

The theme of this book is about even though the situation wasn’t solved, it doesn’t mean that people should spread rumors about biased feelings and it could leave the person in a really bad situation and position.

From the prologue the author suggested that the 4 line nursery rhyme is far from the truth. “Today, everything most people know of Lizzie Andrew Borden is contained in those four singsong lines of doggerel. And nearly everything in those four lines is wrong.” (Miller 3). Sarah Miller implies that Lizzie Borden is innocent from the introduction and we shouldn’t believe in everything if we didn’t witness it and have enough evidence for it. In the epilogue the author suggest and repeats her former and original idea: “The evidence presented to those 12 men simply was not enough to put her to death” (Miller 251). Sarah Miller is trying to inform us that now, we may never know if Lizzie Borden is guilty or innocent. But because there is not enough evidence for her to be guilty and also we can’t revert everything, and so the lack of evidence may lead to biased feelings among the village. Although the case of the Borden Murders still remains a mystery, it lead to Lizzie Borden having to carry all the burden because of people’s biased feelings. “But money could not buy the one thing Miss Lizbeth wanted most. ‘I would give every cent I have in the world and beg in the streets,’ she once told a friend, ‘if it could only be proved while I live that I did not kill my father and my stepmother.'” (Miller 250). This is why we shouldn’t spread rumors about biased feelings since it can make the person in a very uncomfortable state.

The reasons we should read “The Borden Murders” is because it contains a lot of interesting facts, it includes some graphs, portraits, pictures of the characters, house, street ect. Another reason we should read this book is because it contains lots of news reports from the actual case that dates back to the 1892s.

Something that I’ve learned during this session from the book is that to judge or decide whether a person is guilty or innocent should be based on facts and evidence instead of biased feelings or people’s prejudices.                             

 

The 4 line nursery rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

Gave her mother 40 whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father 41.

 

https://time.com/4788951/unsolved-murders-mysteries-list/

https://the-line-up.com/unsolved-murders-shivers-down-your-spine

Boxer Rebellion

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CER: Do Boxers deserve bad rap?

The Boxers, a troop, known as The Righteous and Harmonious Fits do deserve a bad reputation. The Boxer Rebellion started in 1899 November and ended in September 1901, with the Qing Dynasty loosing paying, and giving land to the Eight Nation Alliance: America, Britain, Japan, Australia, Italy, France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Huton tour guide Mr. Jenne stated, “When 2 German missionaries were killed in public, another important missionary disappeared on the way to a meeting. It was said that he was captured and killed by infuriated Boxers.” The walls of the French Legation were burnt down because “The people were fleeing to the British Legation to seek shelter and protection from Boxers” (Mr. Jenne.) Boxers believed that they could control fire so they would only burn foreign things. During the Boxer Rebellion in result many foreigners, Chinese Christians and thousands of innocent people are dead because of the Boxers. “About 100,000 people died in the uprising and the majority of those people were regular Chinese citizens” (Britannica.) The Boxers deserve a bad reputations because they were trying to achieve political goals by violence and violence only. The Boxers not only murdered and killed, but they also burned and sabotaged foreign goods but along with lots of their own Chinese antiques. This clearly states that they weren’t educated enough to know that mankind can’t control fire with their minds or bare hands. This also lead to the cruelty that the Boxers had. According to Britannica, they were slaughtering 100,000 people which included Chinese Christians, innocent citizens and foreigner (not much as the Chinese had died) The problem here is that they didn’t care if people died under their blade or guns and were just cold-blooded animals. Therefore Boxers deserve bad rap.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-the-International-Legations-1900

https://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla62/62-davd.htm

A Sound of Thunder CER

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Making small changes in the past can mean a lot of differences in the future. Change one small thing and it could mean success or failure. In the story “A Sound of Thunder”, Eckles was assigned to be transferred to the past to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex. As they went through the time machine and into the wilderness, Eckles thought stepping on a mouse wouldn’t be a big difference in the future, but Mr. Travis objected his thinking and was trying to prove Eckles wrong saying it can be comparable to slaying Adam’s grandchildren. The team was heading back and realized Eckles had gone off path and this one action changed the president election for year 2055. Think before you react, even if it’s a small thing like stepping on a mouse.

In the story “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, the author believes that small actions may not seem worthy of thinking but it might cause a different future and unwanted or unexpected consequences. Mr. Travis once said “Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in the growing species” (Bradbury 5) Travis was trying to say in the past, if they accidently killed or did something off path, it can mean destroying the links between new species that aren’t born yet or something much worse. This will be regarded by the action of the travelers. As Travis mentioned this to Eckles he also stated something really important that relates to the consequences of not thinking before you act and not paying attention to small actions which can change the future. What a different future means “The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our Earth and destinies down through time, to their very foundations” (Bradbury 5) The author wants to use this quote to inform the readers and Eckles that some very small issues can mean a different future. It clearly states that stomping on a mouse can define other’s future and could lead to a catastrophe!

Small changes can define the difference of being alive or dead, poor or rich, but most importantly the future. Eckles’s action may seem small but the future president election changed. Some actions may seem small and you think it’s nothing really, but it leads to bigger problems and consequences.

https://www.quotev.com/story/11751465/The-Time-War-short-story

https://www.quotev.com/story/12897746/Short-Story-Lighthouse

Fish Cheeks

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In the story “Fish Cheeks” is written by Amy Tan and the main character is Amy and she’s going to have dinner with her relatives and the minister’s family. The conflict of this story is an internal conflict and is between Amy and herself. Amy faces the thought that her crush (Robert) would think of her shabby Chinese dinner. She was torn between her American and Chinese culture. She was in despair as dinner came by. Mostly by her relatives’ lack of American manners. After dinner, Amy’s mother taught her to appreciate her lesson that she’s different and that she should be proud she’s Chinese.

https://www.quotev.com/story/6242653/The-Titanic

https://www.quotev.com/story/12546743/Punishment2