The collage includes pictures of hearts, hot guys, hot girls, lips, lip stick, pizza, money, diamond, airplane, and a baby. At first when I saw all the hot related objects and people, and airplane I thought about global warming. But after considering other pictures such as the baby, the money, and the diamond I realized the theme is most likely love.

The basic themes and aims of Realism is to represent events as they are and recreating life in literature, while Naturalism is to imply a philosophical position. An example of Realism literature is A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert, the story of a young servant. Felicite is relatable to, because she goes through the same issues everybody does. She finds someone who loves her, but then he leaves her for someone else, she loses her loved ones, and she tries to do whatever she can to remember them, as seen through the parrot stuffing. Throughout the story, every single event in her life was relatable to, and every little single detail was relatable to, especially the description of the house and the rooms.

An example of Naturalism literature is Hedda Gabler by Henrick Ibsen. In Hedda Gabler, Hedda is obsessed with her pistols. The pistols belonged to her father, who was in the military. He taught her how to shoot and ride a horse. Ever since a young age, Hedda has been influenced with these masculine traits, which causes her to act more masculine. When Lovborg was upset over losing the script for his book, she gives him a pistol to kill himself.

SONG

by: Christina Rossetti

WHEN I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;

From the first sentence, we can see the topic of this poem is death. In the second sentence, Rossetti is telling her loved ones not to mourn over her death, either because she is trying to cheer them up and tell them to forget about her or she has already accepted death and she doesn’t need sad songs.

Plant thou no roses at my head,

Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet;

These four lines contain words that are related to nature such as roses, trees, grass, showers and dewdrops. Since these words are related to nature and life, and when Rossetti says I don’t need any of this, it’s to strengthen her point in the second line, that she accepts death and is telling her loved ones to forget about her.

And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

These two lines are interesting because they contradict each other. One of them says to remember and the other says to forget, but I’m not really sure what message the author is trying to convey here.

I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the nightingale

Sing on, as if in pain;

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

The second stanza is different from the first stanza. The first stanza used words relating to nature and life, but in the second stanza we see darker words, such as shadows, rain, pain, and twilight. I think the author is trying to describe how it’s like to be dead because “she is dreaming through the twilight” and she’s forgetting her loved ones, who are the shadows, who are singing in pain and maybe the rain is referring to tears.

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget.

Here we see the contradiction again with the words remember and forget.

“The Rights of Woman” by Olympus De Gouges was written in 1791, as a revision for “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” During this time period, men had all the power in society. Men owned all the property, and were the only ones allowed to do public speaking. In response to this, De Gouges decided to revise all the articles, by including women in them. Her argument was, women and men are equal, women shall obey the laws like men do, women shall have the same rights as men do, and women can do public speaking like men do.

The author, Olympus De Gouges, was the daughter of Marie Gouzes, and Olympe de Gouges. Olympus De Gouges was a playwright and a Persian intellectual. She had written many political writings expressing her ideas, such as abolition of slavery, and the rights of orphans and unwed mothers. During the early 1700s, woman weren’t seen as equals, they were hired to work in factories for low wages, and they couldn’t own anything. In response to all of this, De Gouges published “The Rights of Woman,” which ultimately led to her being beheaded at the guillotines.

The main point of this piece was, women should be able to born free from any discriminations and should be seen as equals of men. Women should be able to have the same obligations as men do, and obey the same written laws. If men can own property, or have free communication of thought and opinion, then women shall too.

The postambule written at the end of the piece was really strong. It was a wakeup call to all women telling them they should come out and say something and put an end to all of this. It asked, “O women! Women, when will you cease to be blind? What are the benefits that you reaped from the revolution?” (De Gouges, 27) The answer to this was nothing; there were no benefits from the revolution, and there was no telling when women would step up and call for changes. The fact that the piece was so radical was the weakness to it. It led to De Gouges’ death, which could’ve dissuaded other women to step up and fight for women’s rights because they would fear of the same outcome.

This piece ended up to be successful in conveying its message because in the late 1800s, the Seneca Falls convention established women’s rights.

Looking back, this piece has definitely made a huge impact on history. If it wasn’t for this piece, there would be no women’s rights, and all those faces and voices we know and love from television, newspaper and radio would not be heard from. If women were not treated equally as men, we wouldn’t have women running for president, or any position in the government. Women would not be able to go to school, or become successful in their fields of interest.