Humanities

Fraternity, Equality, Legality: The French Revolution

Samuel Humanities , , , , , 0 Comment

His name is Damién Severin, the typical bourgeoise of France. He started as a sympathetic supporter of the revolution, detailing about the actions of the revolutionaries to a skeptic, questioning the status quo when faced with death. From the Storming of the Bastille to the Reign of Terror, this journal shows the viewpoint of the French Revolution from the perspective of the middle class of France.

A lot of things changed and stayed the same after the French Revolution. Before the revolution, there was inequality with the Old Regime and unbalanced taxations, but after the revolution there was still inequality with trial without representation and imprisonment without trial. Another example is the government system; before the revolution, France was ruled by a monarchy, after the revolution the government was taken over by Napoleon as Emperor of France, and eventually the throne was restored with King Louis XVIII as the King of France. However, there was several changes during the French revolution. An example is the humanist thoughts that developed in the period of Enlightenment, involving the removal of the clergy of France. In addition, several important constitutions and the Declaration of the Rights of Man were made during the revolution that expanded on the idea of democracy. To sum up, the a lot was changed during the French revolution, likewise a lot also stayed the same.

From a Monarch to a Monarch – The French Revolution

Samuel Humanities , , , 2 Comments

A revolution is when a government is overthrown forcefully. Some revolutions are successful, others are not, but what about the French revolution? The French revolution was caused by an unequal social system known as the Ancién Regime, unequal taxation laws, famine from poor harvests and the system of government (absolute monarchy). The revolution ended with an absolute monarch and lots of death during the revolution. The French revolution shows to me that a revolution may not completely succeed. Even though the French revolution failed to remove the monarchy and prevent deaths, it still spread revolutionary ideas and helped France to become the nation it is today. From this unit I learnt that in a revolution the military is one of the most important assets, if you lose control of the military, you will lose control of your entire country. With Yvonne and myself, I made this video to introduce the French revolution.

“Chew On This” An insight into the secrets of the fast food industry

Samuel Humanities , , , , 0 Comment

“Chew On This” is a book by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson which talks about the fast food industry, including the invention, the advertisements, the employees, the production of fast food products and how it affects our everyday lives. Although this book doesn’t have a main character or chronological story timeline, it is informative on the parts of the fast food industry that it does not advertise, including the working conditions of the meatpacking plants, the children-centralized advertisement and how fast food has taken over school cafeterias in the United States and United Kingdom.

One of the themes of this book is that people (or businesses) sacrifice ethics for profit. Examples of this in the book is how the working conditions in the meat processing plants are bad for profit, the shift periods for certain fast food employees is absurd and how the strawberry milkshakes that we drink at fast food restaurants might not even be made out of strawberries but chemicals.

I think people should read this book because it is very informative on the secrets of the fast food industry and that it gives several personal narratives as examples as well as statistics and events.

 

 

Boxer Rebellion: The Boxers Do Not Deserve a Bad Reputation

Samuel Humanities , , , , , ,

The Boxers do not deserve a bad reputation because they were uneducated on natural disasters. Missionaries in China were “trying to… Westernize their particular society… undermining the Chinese village, the Chinese traditions, and Chinese control over their own territory” (Lefeber). Chinese farmers “believed that the Christians had so displeased the gods that [they were] being punished with drought” (Szczepanski). After the Opium Wars, where the British won 2 wars over Opium regulations, missionaries came to China wanting to Christianize the Chinese people to “make the Chinese a better people by converting them” (Lefeber). As a result, the Chinese responded because of the attempts to Christianize by German missionaries with violence in Shandong during November 1897. Because of the Missionaries that took away Chinese traditions and Chinese control of territory, they started the Boxer rebellion, which mostly used their fists to fight. However, the Chinese were unaware that droughts and famine were natural and not caused by the Christians, believing that they were being punished by god because of the Christians. Therefore, the Boxers do not deserve a bad reputation because they were not educated.

Theme in “A Sound of Thunder”

Samuel Humanities , , , ,

High self-esteem causes people to believe in themselves and feel secure but too much self-esteem can cause people to not realize the difficulties of challenges. In the story “A Sound of Thunder”, the main character Eckels goes back to the past to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He goes to the past with Travis, who is the safari guide and several other hunters. The big idea of this story is about time travel and how it may cause mass-destruction in the future.

In the story A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, the author believes that self-esteem sometimes causes people to underestimate challenges. Travis, the hunting guide, lectured Eckels on the consequences of changing the future but “Eckels, [on the metal path], aimed his rifle playfully” (Bradbury, 8). Despite Travis’s lengthy explanation on how traveling to the past might affect the future, Eckels still decides to aim his gun playfully because of the excitement and ego-boost of killing a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Eckels also had lots of self-esteem in defeating a Tyrannosaurus Rex and believing that he can kill one. Later on in the story, Eckels boasts about the fact that he will kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex with the rest of his team: “’I’ve hunted tiger, wild boar… but now, this is it’” (Bradbury, 8) but after sighting the T-Rex Eckels said that “It can’t be killed. We were fools to come. This is impossible” (Bradbury, 9). Eckels has a lot of self-esteem in killing a dinosaur, therefore deciding to attempt to go to the past but when the challenge comes Eckels finally realizes that the challenge is too big and decides to give up. This shows that because of Eckel’s self-esteem he decided to attempt a challenge which ended up being too hard.

Dispute: Dad or son?

Samuel Humanities , , , , ,

 

This found poem is created with the words of Ralph Fletcher of the story ‘The Last Kiss’. A conflict in this story is growing up, causing the main character to not be able to get his good night kisses which is an external conflict, specifically a man vs. nature conflict. This conflict is an external conflict because the protagonist is being affected by age, which is a natural occurrence, which is identified where at the end of the found poem the main character realizes he is too old to be kissed, quote: “Truth finally sunk in, I am too old”. To make the picture, I have used Canva and Preview. I am unable to find the original source of the picture.

Poem words:

“I’m going to bed, Dad”

“Well, good night, then,”

I was stunned. I went to bed.

Next night I decided to try again.

“It’s bed time,”

“Good night, then,”

Truth finally sunk in. I was too old.

Comparing the Black Death with SARs

Samuel Humanities

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