The Revolution of Broken Hearts, Defeated Dreams, and Faded Worlds – Camille Monet’s Journal During the French Revolution
Camille Monet is a normal working class girl from a poor family. Her father is a farmer and her mother dies in a famine. In a desperate attempt to fight for her own rights, she starts a protest while she goes to buy bread. Inspired by her father’s original left-wing thoughts, she firmly believes in the positive side of the revolution. Until one day, when her father mysteriously goes missing, and she encounters him in a place she never expected, does she realize that there was always shadow behind the Jacobin’s utopian picture of the revolution.
Even though Camille thinks that the revolution was a failure, I personally believe that the French Revolution had plenty of benefits. For one, it defeated the reign of the long-lasting monarchy in France. Even though it was temporarily replaced by another dictator, the people did get a lot more rights out from the revolution. Speaking of people, the 3rd estate farmers and serfs also were able to contribute in abolishing the social structure that confined them. Also, the French Revolution introduced more freedoms of education and religion, as well as enlightened ways of thinking (which sparked the revolution). This led to France becoming one of the most industrialized countries, which hugely benefited them in terms of their ability to spread France’s culture and languages far and wide in the status quo. So, looking on the long term scale, the French Revolution, though extremely brutal and destructive, was beneficial in the long term.