Since Enlightenment, people began using rationality and reasoning to explain the unknown or challenge existing systems. Science prospered when many talents used different methods to explore the nature and discover a variety of useful tools that made people’s lives convenient. It was obviously pointing to a good direction. However, when people realized that they could even use it against one another and benefit from it, they focused on how to take away others’ lives in an efficient way. For example, chemical weapon was first used during World War I, killing more than thousands of people and creating a terrifying psychological impact on soldiers. It was not the only time. Chemical weapons have been used recently in Syria as well. While people are blaming that the overuse of technologies and rationality leads to the loss of humanity, the ambiguity between rightness and wrongness shows that the critique itself is just another demonstration of rationality.

First of all, according to ABC News, a chemical attack in Syria was reported on April 4, 2017. It is shock to see how children started losing breath and died in a video. Many people lost their family and even their lives due to the terrifying order given by the President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Assad’s government denied this responsibility, but still many people believed he gave out this order, killing more than seventy Syrian citizens. Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond from CNN Politics reported that “The United States launched a military strike Thursday on a Syrian government airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week.” Trump’s order aims to prevent the chemical weapon attack from happening again and signifies that U.S will get involved in this affair more explicitly. Nevertheless, it can intensify the situation which becomes more complicated. Within this dynamic atmosphere, Syria is a checkerboard with the involvement of many nations pursuing powers and trying to take advantages over others without taking consideration into the Syrian citizens who are innocent. Wars have happened throughout history in the world with a variety of forms.

People handle conflicts in various ways when there is a disagreement of interests between two parties. In some extreme conditions, people would kill opponents to strengthen their positions and authority. Wars are commonly used when it is a national conflict. During World War I, there was a big conflict between the Allies and the Central Power. With the advance of technologies, the form of war changed. For example, tanks, machine guns, and chemical weapons were introduced in a way that had not been used before. They were all the products of the use of science that was highly logical. As mentioned before, people started rationalize their surroundings and then took steps further and further to form different systems and methods to help them get a better understanding of the nature. After they have sufficient knowledge about it, they began to think if they could create something artificial. When creativity and rationality were combined and applied to war, lives were taken easily. High casualties and mortalities indicated not only the ability of human being to create lethal weapons, but also the indifference of numerous deaths that one party might only concern how many enemies they could kill, bring up an issue that the overuse of rationality objectified human beings and led to the loss of emotional attachment toward other people.

While wars were considered as a tool to gain benefits by showing dominance and authorities, Dadaism brought up a message to break the old traditions, rationality, social norms as well as any other systems. Tristan Tzara, the author of Dada Manifesto, states that “abolition of logic, dance of all those impotent to create: DADA” (652). This quote shows that people should get rid of logics and former structures which were perceptions formed by themselves. These things were not appearing naturally.  Human beings have existed for many years and improving themselves with the passage of time. Structures and systems formed when ancestors realized that they were helpful to manage a group of people and relations with each other. Eventually, more structures and connections among people formed. People would not pay much attention to why those structures and systems existed until Enlightenment when they started to question, break the old one, and then form another one with rationality. In other words, community played an important role on the formation of logics and systems which were not unchangeable, such as French Revolution in which the system of monarchy and divine right from God was overthrown, and new system was constructed that emphasized the rights of citizens. However, it did not mean that the previous system was unreasonable because it also had its own path of evolution with reasons that were not accepted by revolutionists. There was no absolute right or wrong system, but when people had certain needs that could not be satisfied, they would try to find solution, and if the solution would hurt someone else, they might rationalize their reasons to justify their actions which caused harm to others. Yet, as long as they were able to give solid proof, their actions were justified.

To sum up, war is a detrimental event that creates huge impacts on people to an extent that one side dehumanizes and even brings more harm toward the other one. However, if there is no unchangeable rule to clarify the rightness and wrongness, wars cannot be absolutely considered as a wrong thing, even if it objectifies and categorizes different people.

Work cited

“Father Grieves for Baby Twins Killed in Syrian Gas Massacre.” ABC News. N.p., 05 Apr. 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Starr, Barbara, and Jeremy Diamond. “Trump Launches Military Strike against Syria.” CNN. Cable News Network, 07 Apr. 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Tzara, Tristan. “Dada Manifesto 1918.” The Norton Anthology World Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. F. New York: W. W. Norton &, n.d. N. pag. Print.

Language is presented in the film in two forms, one shown on the screen without narrative and one spoken by the characters. The first form is usually used to introduce important moments or turning points as well as the passage of time. For example, after a minister and his wife comes to the jail, the warden tells Chaplin that he is free, and instead of saying it, the sentence is shown on the screen that “Well, you’re a free man.” The audience can get the message right away and avoid a situation that they are not paying much attention to the spoken words because they fully concentrate on the music and the actions. The second form is mainly used at the beginning and the end of the film to show two different forms of spoken language. At the beginning, both the president, giving out orders to his workers, and the seller, introducing a new feeding machine, use spoken words with understandability and rationality. The audience can easily figure out the logic within their sentences and understand them immediately. However, when it comes to the ending when Chaplin sings, the logic is broken. The song is composed by random works with different languages, and the whole song is meaningless, but it turns out that people in the film like it so much, indicating that getting rid of formal structure sometimes allows people to create great piece of work.

Since it is a silent pantomime, besides the actions, audience focuses on music which plays important role in the film when it creates an atmosphere for each scene. For instance, when Chaplin and Goddard are traced by the police, the music changes rapidly to create an urgent feeling. Audience may not recognize this kind of effects while watching the film, and therefore are unconsciously influenced by it.

In addition to the effect of music, a silent pantomime makes audience focus on the actions and facial expressions of the characters more. Without distraction from spoken words, the core messages can be presented clearly to the audience who is able to receive and analyze the film with full attentions. In the film, Chaplin needs to marks down the time he goes to bathroom and does not have much time in it. The president can even see what he is doing inside, indicating the loss of privacy of the workers and the strict management used by the president or factories’ owners. Moreover, Chaplin is caught and sent to the jail because he is thought to be the leader of the strike when he holds a triangle flag, demonstrating the suppression from government to labor unity and the problem of justice system.

Dadaist conveys a message of breaking the old or formal rules and structures. The film “Ballet Mecanique” demonstrates a similar idea. There is no specific structure or format in this film compared to what I normally watch nowadays. Objects appear randomly with no obvious or observable patterns, and therefore it is difficult to form any reasonable interpretation about the film based on my perceptions. I feel frustrated when I am not able to make proper judgment since there is an intangible force requiring them to give everything a meaning or definition. Surrealist idea of free writing also comes into play. Free writing tries to bring up a person’s deepest internal thinking which may have no meaning according to his or her daily normal understanding. In this case, the broken pieces in this film can be understood as the director’s real way of understanding the world.

Another film “Le Chien Andalous” is also related to Dadaist and Surrealist ideas. At the beginning of the film, it seems to have a storyline which is constructed by how the writer wants the story flows. Nevertheless, I realize that I can no longer use my logic to interpret the film because people and events appear with no specific meanings. Sometimes I think I get the message, and then in the next second it breaks my perspective as something new exists that does not connect to the previous objects or events. I have similar feeling when I watch “Ballet Mecanique.” Finally, I just let them go without trying to make judgment or interpretation because it is meaningless. If the object itself originally has no meaning, then why do people need to try hard to create a meaning to it?

After watching two films, I wonder how they were composed. They obviously seem to have no specific meanings. If the writers or directors tends to compose them in this way, there must be something drive them to take things in this random order, so are they really show their unconscious thinking to the audience?

Georg and his friend are both merchants but own businesses in different countries. They have been friend for many years, and therefore Georg cares about his friend a lot. He pays attention to content of each letter that he writes to his friend because he does not want to write something that can hurt his friend. For example, when he knows that his friend’s business in Russia is not doing well, Kafka uses almost one page to describe Georg’s thinking process when he tries to write a letter in proper way that will not offend his friend, especially when Georg is more successful than his friend in terms of business operation. However, it is just how he perceives as a proper way. He thinks of all possible outcomes of different pieces of advice and eventually decides to do nothing. Georg does not even ask if his friend actually needs help or not and believes that he finds out the best solution in response to his friend’s business.

Later on in the story, Georg mentions his engagement with Frieda Brandenfeld. He tells her that his friend may not present in their wedding after Frieda persists that she has rights to know all his friends. Frieda’s response shows that she has the desire to control and takes it really seriously, so she says, “If you have such friend, Georg, you should never have gotten engaged in the first place,” and “I really do feel offended.” The possible absence of Georg’s friend indicates her loss of control. Nevertheless, Georg still wants to keep the friendship with his friend regardless of Frieda’s words by stating that “That is how I am, and that is how he must take me.” His response shows that no matter what happens on him and who he actually is, his friend will still tolerate and consider him as friend.

Nowadays, people tend to rationalize any novelty they have encountered. However, this way of thinking was not emphasized or widely accepted among the people until the Enlightenment period. During that period, people were advocated to question things actively and thus had developed many creative thoughts. Varying from the Enlightenment ideology, Romanticism brought a theoretical alternative referring to the existence of other abstract factors, such as passion and loyalty. Although it’s hard to explain them with logic reasoning, these factors all play an important role in people’s life. In the story “The Man of the Crowd,” Edgar Allen Poe describes the inability of reason to explain unknowns, while Charles Baudelaire uses his poems “To a Woman Passing by” and “Crowds” to demonstrate the fulfillment of encountering variety of possibilities without actively using reason. Both authors bring up a point that reason is not the only tool people can use to explain their lives, implying that the failure in finding the truth via rationalizing actually helps encourages new way of thinking and imagination.

English Folktale “Tom Tit Tot” and Hawaiian Folktale “The Despotic Chiefs of Kau” seem to be completely different based on the content and message conveyed. However, despite of the difference of origins, they share similarity in terms of recorded purpose.

The English Folktale “Tom Tit Tot” conveys a message that only extreme hard working can lead to success. A girl is invited by a King to live in a palace and promise to marry her after one year if she can meet the requirement of spinning five skeins a day in the last month. Otherwise, she will be killed, but before that, she can do whatever she wants. This requirement is unrealistic to this girl, especially when she has no ability to finish it. Fortunately she finally receives help from a little thing and therefore is able to marry with the King. This story emphasizes that the only way people can get rid of poverty and move from lower class to higher class is working hard. This girl draws King’s attention due to her mother’s claim “My darter ha’ spun five, five skeins to-today,” implying that employers (the King) are always looking for talent (the hard working girl claimed by her mother) who is able to do excessive and outstanding jobs and then give them opportunity to try something more challenging with great rewards, but once that talent does not meet the expectation, he/she will be eliminated or replaced by someone else.

In the Hawaiian Folktale “The Despotic Chiefs of Kau,” it brings another message that the authority needs to listen comments from its people; otherwise, it will eventually be overthrown. Chiefs in Halaea, Koihala, and Kohaikalani are all being killed by people in the tribes due to unreasonable requests, such as asking all fishes caught from sea regardless of whether he can finish them or not, forcing people to carry heavy things to meet him without telling them the absolute destination, and sending people to work for something unnecessary. The deaths of these three chiefs mean that even if the authority has certain priority over its people, it does not guarantees that people are required to obey all the rules or policies that are not reasonable and tend to harm to people and even the nation as a whole. For example, “they were obliged to catch the fish without ever having any to take home to their families.” In this case, if people within the tribe can’t get food, then how can they survive in long-term? If people are getting weaker and tend to not give birth, then how the tribe can be formed besides the Chiefs? It is necessary that the authority is aware of what rules and restrictions imposed on people in a sense that it can the connection between people and the nation with proper rules that guide people’ behaviors.

Besides the messages brought by both Folktales, they have the same recorded purpose which is preserving their own traditions within the countries. For the English Folktale, it aims to protect English culture from the Grimms, in which the “Three Spinners” has similar plots and main idea as “Tom Tit Tot” does, emphasizing that local heritage needs to be preserved by its own folktale derived from its traditional culture. Hawaiian Folktale also has the same role. The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 due to American Imperialism that U.S. expanded its influences internationally through different aspects. When one country is imperialized by another, its local tradition is easily eradicated, affected, or replaced by that of imperial country. The collection of folktale serves as a tool to remind local people of their tradition even when getting in touch with new cultures.

Orature is different from traditional recorded method as it passes by one person to another orally. People may add their own interpretations while receiving it from one and passing it to another. In this case, the content of the stories and even the messages conveyed can be changed as well, especially when a story from one language is translated to another one, the original meaning of this story can be altered or misunderstood, so it will be interesting if readers read the story in its original language and compare it with translated version. But I believe for most of the time, despite of slight changes in the content, the general messages in the orature will be still maintained, especially when people can associated the foreign orature with the their local one.

Enlightenment emphasized the importance of reason which was related to French Revolution in which people began to question their authority as well as social situations. While many people were getting used to rationalize everything they encountered in daily lives, Shelley advocated the idea of the beauty of nature and human emotions that were somehow being eliminated after French Revolution. He states in “A Defense of Poetry” that “Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.” When people used reasons to explain their surroundings, they ignored some emotional and spiritual feelings that were difficult to rationalize but essential to a human being. Shelley considered poetry as a tool to stimulate an intangible connection among people. This connection derived from people’s emotions and traditions that they had followed for a long period of time. However, this connection was getting blurred due to the overuse of reasons. At this point, Shelley believed that poetry could encourage people to regain this connection by reminding what they had felt and experienced from their traditions and inheritance.

In addition, even though intellectual development was mainly enhanced after the revolution, spiritual development was another part that people needed to focus on. Shelley mentions, “it is impossible to read the compositions of the most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled with the electric life which burns within their words.” This quote shows that although people were able to read a great piece of work, they did not really understand it until they paid attention to the writers’ inner thought and feelings. If they had similar experiences as the writers did, they would develop a better understanding as a result. Emotion was definitely a part of the experience because whatever people faced they would have certain feeling derived from it. The sense of empathy assimilated them with the writers when they read the piece of work. Again, it was difficult to measure and rationalize those feelings, but they were still important to people’s lives. In this case, people might not be aware of the fact that they strengthened the connections among them through different works composed by poets and writers.

How many times do we hear restrictions from our parents about what we can and cannot do? I believe for most of us, the answer is “a lot.” As we are growing up, getting older, and learning different knowledge, we seem to hear fewer restrictions from them because we gain experiences throughout our lives. When people face challenges or have problems, they tend to finds out the reasons, analyze them, and finally get to the solutions. It is obvious in their daily lives, but it is rare before the Enlightenment.

During 1600s, religion played important roles in people lives and was really influential that even the powers of authorities could be affected by it. Religion itself was so powerful that people rarely develop solutions that were not somehow related to religion. Kant states in “What Is Enlightenment?” that “this tutelage is self-incurred when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another.” I agree with this quote because when there have already been a set of rules and thinking in society, it is difficult to change people’s perspectives, especially when the new ideas are contradicted what people have believed for long time. When a person brings up a new idea, it will definitely be examined by others and they may finally have a discussion about it. However, before and during Enlightenment period, people were afraid of bring up new idea because people were not getting used to new things. Some people might believe that new ideas would eradicate the old beliefs and that was not acceptable, while some believed new reasoning allowed them to develop intellectually. Bring new ideas seemed to be a good idea that could eventually move society as a whole into new direction, but it was, at the same time, not easy to implement due to the suppression from people ahead of them.

Nevertheless, when the number of people who believed the new ideas increased, it would become new power that others could not ignore. After it kept spreading out, it would eventually become something acceptable to society. In another word, letting people embrace new idea was not a one-day process and could not be done by only one person, it in fact took a lot of time to make more people believe and accept it at the end.