The French Revolution is regarded as one of the greatest revolutions in the history of the world. As for the political aspect, it raised the slogan “Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité” meaning “liberty, equality, and fraternity”, which was deeply rooted in the heart of people. This slogan gave people courage and theoretical support to pursue freedom and democracy. In this way, the feudal system in France, even in the continent of Europe, was overturned. Economically, with the process of the French Revolution, capitalism was developed. As for cultural aspect, the French Revolution spread the idea of freedom and democracy. Also, there were many novels written based on the historical background of the French Revolution, such as Les Miserables. We cannot deny the greatness and the remarkably positive impact of the French Revolution in history, but did it accomplish all the requirement raised during the revolution, did it let people get real freedom and happiness? I believe that the French Revolution may not be that successful as people thought, because Les Miserables, as a historically cultural legacy, shows us what people exactly experienced in the middle of nineteen centuries in France and how disastrously they lived their life during that period, especially for lower-class people. The French Revolution didn’t help people to get happiness, equality, and fraternity.

First of all, people didn’t get happiness through the French Revolution, especially for lower-class people. During the French Revolution, with the development of capitalism, even though some people as free labor got much more opportunities to work, most people were pressed and struggling. As the society became money-oriented, the only focus in the society was on money and poor people’s life became even harder. If there was not enough money, it would be extremely difficult to gain a foothold. In order to earn money, people could do anything even losing their dignity, like Fantine, who prostituted to get money for her daughter; people would even lose morality and become greedy, like the Thenardiers, who took away almost all Fantine’s money and lay to ask for more. In this society, it seemed that the relationship between people was all about pecuniary interest. There was no kindness in the society. This was not what the French Revolution wants to pursue.

Additionally, there was still inequality in this society. For example, when Fantine was refusing a rude client and pulling and pushing each other, the new police officer passed by and indiscriminately convict Fantine. Was it right to optionally convict somebody just because he was a police officer? Shouldn’t his decision be based on legislative authority? Wasn’t there any legal procedure? The situation that the police officer declared Fantine’s guilty only based on his subjective assumption reveals inequality and imperfection of the law. Was there any difference from the feudal age? It’s just like what was written in the book, “If you ask what is equality, only is equal in front of death”.

Last but not least, the French Revolution didn’t achieve the requirement of “Fraternité”, which means fraternity. Revolutionaries were not really “fraternal”. They simply thought victory was a class to eliminate another class. However, this behavior could only instigate hostility and chaos in the society. What is more, the Thenardiers was not “fraternal” at all. This couple was a mixture of philistinism, utilitarian as well as ruffian. Fantine asked them to take care of her daughter, Cosette, and left a lot of money. However, they didn’t use this money to foster Cosette but used it to cultivate their own daughter and regarded Cosette as a maidservant. Not only that, they lay to Fantine that her girl was sick to ask for more money constantly. Besides, colleagues in the factory were not “fraternal”. When they found a letter from the Thenardiers to Fantine asking for money, they started to despise Fantine because she had an illegitimate daughter. These colleges allied the headman of the factory to expel Fantine. Afterwards, poor Fantine had to be homeless and lived on the street. These two parts show people’s indifference and non-fraternity, which are opposed to the slogan of the French Revolution.

All in all, the French Revolution is not fully successful because there was still severe inequality in the society during that period, and people didn’t live a happy life. The violent revolution brought France to a vicious circle, which consisted of revenge and harm. However, the truth of victory of a society is not a class to eliminate another one, but to maintain the whole society to be peaceful. Only in this way, people can enjoy their rights to education, employment, medical and old-age care, and housing.

Reference:

Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables. Trans. Charles E. Wilbour. New York: Random House Modern Library, 1992.

The film Modern Times is a silence movie, but there are still a few times that language happens. At the beginning of each scene, there’s a sentence as an introduction of this plot. It helps the audience to know the topic of each part and understand what this plot is talking about. The first time we heard the language is the order from the president of the factory. The president gives order to the worker through a screen. He supervise his workers all the time, and in his mind, the productivity is the only thing important. Even in the bathroom, there’s a screen connected to the president. Also, there are still some dialogs during the film. These dialogs explain the details, which is hard to be expressed by behavior and expression. Besides, the language also appears at the end when the male main character sings. It’s said that this part, which has no meaning and logic, consists of different languages. This can remind us of Dadaism.

In additional to the language and dialogs we heard, we also heard other voice during the film, such as the machine noise, the belling for shift, and background music. Generally, the appearance of voice in silence movie is even more important than the voice in talkie. Because the deficiency of dialogs and voiceover, these kinds of voice have function to make the performance to be more vividly, and the voice is regarded as plot device as well. For example, the background music appearing in the factory has the same rhythm as the workers’ behaviors. Also, the machine noise shows how busy the workers are.

This film truly reflects the image of the society at that time. In the factory, workers are like to be stuck on the production line. They can’t leave their position even one second. The male main character is even crazy at the end in the first plot that he would twist any rounded stuff. Additionally, when there’s a new machine invented, the workers are chosen to make an experiment. In this way, machine is even more important than human right. Precisely, because of these conflict between machine and workers, there are many strikes happening during the movie. Another interesting point is that the jail is regarded as “heaven”. In the jail, people don’t have to work but they have a place to sleep and they won’t be hungry. For the people who is struggling in hunger and poverty, so called “freedom” is worthless like garbage, so that after the male main character getting out of jail, he tries to get back to jail.

All in all, even though Modern Times is a silence movie, the exaggerated and funny performances makes this film to be even more interesting than many talkies.

There’s no specific definition of Dadaism. Dada could be multiple things. The idea of Dadaists is that there’s not supposed to be standard, and they try to seek the true reality by going against the traditional culture and the traditional aesthetic form. This is similar to the main goal of Andre Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism, which tries to free people’s mind from the past and from everyday reality to arrive at truths that has never known.

The film “Ballet Mecanique” is a typical Dadaism work. Even though there are just 16 minutes, there are 300 plus shots, which consist of non-logic pictures or videos, such as a cap, white circle or triangle, and woman’s smile, etc. We could hardly to tell what the film is talking about, because it didn’t describe a logical story. However, we can conclude there are two main types of stuff shown in the film: objects and machines. Although there’s no logic in this film, it can clearly express its topic and goal. Through the motion of objects and machines, the director obscurely shows the relationship between human and the machine world through the artistic technique of Dadaism.

Another film is “Le Chien Andalou”, which is a surrealism film. It seems to have plots, but there’s no connection between each other. Also, the images in the film are weird. For example, a man wants to hug the woman, but the man is tied down by a string linked a pumpkin. Even though I can’t really get the meaning of the film, through the frantic images in the film, I can feel the sense of depress. And precisely because this is a silence film, the feeling of despair is much stronger.

Comparing the two films, we can see that non-logic and unreasonable are the features for both films. However, audience can actually feel what the director wants to say through the film.

There’s a boyhood friend of Georg who is in a foreign country. They keep contact with each other through mails, but I don’t think their relationship is that close because they even don’t know the real thoughts and they just talk about something insignificant. As for the friend, he doesn’t know the change of Georg. On the other hand, Georg doesn’t really want his friend to know much about his recent situation to avoid to hurt his friend.

The experiences between the friend and Georg are totally different. The friend is single and doesn’t have much contact with neither the local colony of his compatriots nor the native families. In contrast, Georg has a fiancé and is going to marry with her. As for business, the friend’s business has a bad fate. However, Georg’s business is booming and develops rapidly.

Georg hesitates all the time whether tells the friend that he is going to marry with a girl from a well-to-do family. His hesitation or say the existence of the friend threatens the relationship between Georg and his fiancé because his fiancé feels offended and doesn’t think Georg should have an engagement with her if the feeling of the friend is more important than hers. Also, the existence of the friend threatens the relationship between Georg and his father, and results in the outbreak of the fight between them.

The dissatisfaction and doubt of Frieda is an opportunity for Georg to face with his heart and to think about what would be the right way to treat with his friend.

I think the reason why Frieda feels offended is that she disagrees with the uncandid way how Georg treat with his friend. She may think if Georg can’t be frank to his friend, he won’t be frank to me either. The words that Georg tells himself are important because Georg tries to face with his heart at the moment and prepares to tell the truth to his friend straightforward. This is the moment that Georg changes.

After reading this story, I don’t think the friend really exist. I believe the friend is another side of Georg, which Georg fears and doesn’t want to face, which are the pressure and power from his father, loneliness, and failure. After the argument with his father, Georg finally collapses and choose to kill himself.

Even though the problem of sexism has been improved greatly with process over time, it cannot be denied that inequality between men and women still exists at present. For example, there are fewer chances and more requirements for women in the job market. Obviously, in the ancient society, this problem is even more serious, which is showed clearly in Ueda Akirari’s Bewitched. According to Bewitched, there is a traditionally masculine society. The relationship between man and woman is generalized as “man is superior to woman”, which is especially presented as the position of man and woman in marriage. Basically, the feminine are placed as lower status during that period. The inequality might be resulted from the social productivity and the traditional culture. A continuation of this traditional system would probably lead in some potential consequences, such as women would not get real emancipation and freedom.

Our group presented about the United States slave story and songs. From these story and songs we learned how strong slaves’ wish is to run away from master, and to get freedom.

Throughout 2-day presentation, we have a taste of different oratures in different historical stage, with different background. All of them contribute to the development of literature. I believe that comparing different types of oratures would help us to understand deeper about the pieces. So I’m going to compare the United States slave story and songs to German folktale, English folktale as well as Irish folktale from different perspectives, such as the use of language, the religion, their content, and their purposes.

Comparing with other oratures, we can find that slave story and songs have features in the use of language. In the “All God’s Chillen Had Wings”, it repeated mentions that the driver can’t understand what slaves are talking about because slaves are using their own language to avoid that drivers know their conversation. Additionally, when looking at the story and songs, especially “All God’s Chillen Had Wings” and “Promises of Freedom”, we would find that there are lots of words are not standard English. That’s because when using English, slaves mix their own language with English. This mixture is still in use today, which is called “Negro dialect”. As for German, English and Irish folktale, the language used is more understandability and straight forward.

Also, slave story and songs are special because of slaves’ unique religion. According to Minji’s introduction, we learned that African traditional religion consists of Islam and Christ. The characteristic of African religion is animism. As for “All God’s Chillen Had Wings”, it is based on the religious legend that Africans had a special God given ability to fly when they were still living on the continent of Africa. It’s just like what saying in the text “once all Africans could fly like birds, but owing to their many transgressions, their wings were taken away”. For the slave songs and spirituals, most are full of biblical allusions. Take “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” as an example. For the sentence “I looked over Jordan and what did I see”, “Jordan” is a river that appears in the Bible. This is an image that crossing Jordan means going to heaven and escaping from slavery. Precisely, because of the religion in pluralism, there were a large number of excellent works during slavery period. In contrast, even though German folktale, English folktale as well as Irish folktale are based on religious belief, they don’t show much religious allusion but describe lots of magical situation. For example, there would be witch, elfin, and magic in these stories.

Comparing the content between folktale and slave story as well as songs, we can find that folktale focus on the relaxed topic to teach people simple truth. However, when it comes to slave story and songs, they describe a painful period in the history and how slaves attempt to get freedom and right.

As for the purpose of slave story and songs, obviously, it’s to express that slaves long for free life and civil right. Somehow, these kinds of stories and songs not only the spiritual sustenance of slaves’ life, but also let people learned what happened at that period later on. On the other hand, folktale has the totally different purpose. As a type of literature especially written for children, folktale imparts moral values and wisdom to children, also it instills codes of conduct for acceptable behavior in the community and the society. Therefore, folktale owns significant value for the existence.

All in all, by comparing different types of oratures, we learned that each has its own merits. No matter what types of the oratures are, they all play significant roles in the literature world.

French Revolution destroyed the old order and social situation, which also leaded in the changes of people’s minds in different classes. After French Revolution, people tend to advocate “liberty, equality, and fraternity”. In this way, French Revolution actually drives Romanticism and the spirit of French Revolution becomes the foundation of Romanticism.

According to “A Defense of Poetry”, Shelley defined poetry as “the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds”. Human beings in the society are all emotional creatures, and poetry allows people to express feeling with language. In addition, Shelley thought that “poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man”. It also shows that poetry can help people to express themselves. As for poets, Shelley considered them as “the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration”, because in poetry, there are combinations of a large amount of unapprehended thought. The reason that poetry can bring civilization to the society is poets are able to shift people’s mind into language. However, poets are not only the authors, but also “the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, because Shelley believes poets have the mortal power, who have ability to tell right and wrong. In other words, poets have to be reasonable.

Romanticism focused on the absolute freedom of creating and expressing. It means the content of poetry should be uncontrollable. Romantics requested to stop those outmoded rules and taboos of Classicism. For Shelley, poetry, which is like a mirror, has ability to reveal both of the beautiful side and the hidden ugly side of the world. This is the most important function of poetry. People are not only supposed to accept the society, but also to deal with the social problems. And poetry is a way to awaken people and let people know what is right and what is wrong.

All in all, during the period of Enlightenment and French Revolution, people focused on reason and civil rights, in contrast, Romanticism emphasized the significance of emotion, feeling and imagination. In other words, Romanticism is introspection for Enlightenment and French Revolution.

What is enlightenment? As the first sentence in the passage goes, “enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage.” Throughout the passage, I think the immaturity is self-inflicted not from a lack of understanding of reason, but from the lack of courage to use one’s reason. Why do people lack of courage to use reason? Kant comes down to two major reasons – “laziness and cowardice”. I believe that “laziness and cowardice” cause not only the lack of courage to use reason, but also the lack of courage to try something new and challenging. It’s a common situation in the society. Somehow, people are unwilling or afraid to change. Take me as an example. Once I’m familiar with an environment, I don’t want to remove. Besides, if I’ve already had a stable friend circle, I would not do networking anymore, because it’s unnecessary and it’s not easy to start a new relationship.

I learned from psychology class that people get used to stay in their comfort zone, which is a psychological state in which things feel familiar to people. I can totally understand why people want to keep themselves in comfort zone. However, what happens outside the comfort zone is magic. We have to summon up all our courage to break out of the comfort zone to take challenges and try to be a better man. To some degree, Kant’s “What is Enlightenment” positively helps us to realize how important to encourage ourselves to overcome laziness and cowardice. In a word, the spiritual value of “What is Enlightenment” still plays a significant role even now.