"Bastille Day, on the Fourteenth of July, is the French symbol of the end of the Monarchy and the beginning of the French Revolution" (www.hightowertrail.com). It is very much like Independence Day in the United States because it is a celebration of the beginning of a new form of government.
There are several factors that led to the Revolution. King Louis XV and King Louis XVI both led extremely extravagant lives. They spent a lot of the government's money on luxuries even while the government had some financial problems. One of the government's main jobs back then was to protect their country from, and manage wars. In the Seven Years War against England, France spent large sums of money on the war effort but they still lost the war and had to give up their colonies in North America. Many French citizens regarded this loss as a major humiliation.
The population was divided into three estates. The Third Estate, also known as the commoners was made up of the bourgeoisie, wage earners and the peasantry. They were the majority of the population. The Second Estate was for the nobility. The First Estate was composed of the clergy. The Upper Clergy were very wealthy and powerful and therefore they related to the First Estate. The Lower Clergy related more to the Lower Estates. "The first two states enjoyed privileges over the Third Estate. Although they were the richest, they were exempt from taxes. They were also the only members in society who could hold positions of importance such as Officers in the army" (www.members.aol.com). This caused great discontent within the Third Estate.
In 18th Century the peasant population increased dramatically. This growth in population increased the demand for more land. Land was being divided into smaller and smaller sections to cope with this problem. Eventually some sections of land were not even enough for a peasant to support his own family. The wars in America left France in huge debt. To try and pay this debt the nobility increased taxes on the peasants, which further increased their resentment towards the nobility. Poor harvests in 1787 and 1788 led to a food shortage. The peasants could barely feed themselves let alone pay taxes. The peasants started to threaten violence if their situation wasn't improved. There was an increased competition from British textile manufacturers. This left many people without jobs, and a huge increase in unemployment.
Most high school students can 't wait for their school year to be over because they feel exhausted by the seven long periods of classes and not to mention boredom. John Taylor Gatto, a former New York State Teacher of the Year wrote an article called "Against School." Gatto criticizes the school system for their inability to meet the students’ expectations and for putting limits on their ability to learn. The children feel neglected, and the teachers feel helpless because they have to work with students who are not interested in the materials they are given. Gatto mentions how US high schools have become affected by adapting to the Prussian education system. According to Gatto, the purpose of high school is to manipulate the student 's mind
One of the main causes for the revolution and essentially what started it was the inefficiency of both governments and the oppression they placed upon their nations. There is a strong similarity of how and what each government did to abuse their powers. Both governments lead their country into a bad state by forcing the peoples to fight for a cause that did not involve the, but was instead the major authorities problem. The French were driven into war to help America's revolution while the Americans were always forced to fighting Britain's battles, all of which suppressed the growth of their nation.
Richard Wright introduces the main character in his novel, “Native Sun”, as a poor black man, named Bigger Thomas, living in the ghetto. In book 1 “fear”, I analyzed how Bigger lived and learned who his true character was. I also learned how he felt towards himself, family, and his friends. Bigger Thomas’ character is a very angry and violent person towards anyone who makes him feel afraid or out of place. Richard Wright uses imagery, sentence syntax, and symbolism to express how Bigger Thomas truly thinks.
In recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, Hillary Clinton notes that, “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40
The Bastille incident set off revolts all over France and Louis was soon deposed afterwards. A democratic government was set up in place of the old monarchy.
Howard Zinn once declared :“I've always resented the smug statements of politicians, media commentators, corporate executives who talked of how, in America, if you worked hard you would become rich. The meaning of that was if you were poor it was because you hadn't worked hard enough. I knew this was a lite, about my father and millions of others, men and women who worked harder than anyone, harder than financiers and politicians, harder than anybody if you accept that when you work at an unpleasant job that makes it very hard work indeed.” In Fitzgerald’s classic short story Winter Dreams, reader’s watch Dexter’s life unfold as he immerses himself in the skewed popular culture of the nineteen-twenties F. Scott Fitzgerald cleverly critiques the side effects of chasing the 1920’s idea of the American dream through his text Winter Dreams.
Economically, many changes could have been made in the way that would have prevented such anger arising from the people. However, there are also a few problems that could not have been avoided. Economic decline in the 1770s may have frustrated some bourgeois in their rise to power and wealth, and rising bread prices just before the Revolution certainly increased dissatisfaction among workers and peasants. France also suffered from harsh economic problems. Poor farm harvests by farmers hurt the economy, and trade rules from the Middle Ages still survived, making trade difficult. At this time, the gap between the rich and the poor was becoming greater, with the poor becoming poorer, and the rich becoming richer. A central bank was nowhere to be found, there was no paper currency and in general, taxes were becoming greater for the peasants. In this economically challenged society what could have been done to change all of these economic problems from the beginning?
The third estate could be broken down into three parts: the rich (bourgeoisie), the middle (lawyers, doctors, businessmen), and the poor (the peasant, farmer). There was much change in the economic world of the third estate. For instance the bourgeois were gaining land and therefore making money. 35% of the land was left to the 22 to 23 million peasants, the bourgeoisie held about 30% of the land, the 350 000 members of the nobility held about 20% of the land, and left with an unequally shared 10% the 130 000 member of the clergy. This sh...
Under the rule of Louis XVI, the people of France were divided into three main social classes or estates as they are called. The First Estate featured wealthy members of the Church such as Bishops and Priests who held great political power due to their influence on government affairs. The Second Estate was a class comprised of the wealthy nobles and political officials who held all power in government affairs.
Historian Albert Mathiez states that “The middle class… was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The revolution came from them- the middle class. The working classes were incapable of starting or controlling the Revolution. They were just beginning to learn to read.” The middle class were not able to have a class on their own; they were still considered peasants. In the illustration it showed how much people and land each estate held, the Clergy was one percent of the population which owned ten percent of the land. Nobles were two percent of the people that owned thirty-five percent of the land. The middle class, peasants, and city workers were ninety-seven of the people owned fifty-five percent of the land. This means that if the third estate were to riot, this would cause havoc. There was a lot during that time; the website Macrohistory and World Timeline shows that “The population of France had grown to between 24 and 26 million, up from 19 million in 1700 without a concomitant growth in food production. Farmers around Paris consumed over 80 percent of what they grew, so if a harvest fell by around 10 percent, which was common, people went hungry. There was insufficient government planning and storage of grain for emergency shortages”. If there were approximately 26 million people, there would be 25,220,000 people in the third estate, 520,000 people in the second estate, and 260,000
The French Revolution began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790’s (staff). Just like the American Revolution the French Revolution started with new ideas of enlightenment. French citizens started to uproot everything that was considered normal, things such as absolute monarchy and the feudal system, they wanted to redesign everything (staff). Although a lot of the attempts failed people continued to try to make the change.
Intro: Summary, Thesis, Highlighting main points (Text to Text, Text to Self and Text to World) The tale of Native Son by Richard Wright follows the story of a young man by the name of Bigger Thomas who lives in the 1930’s. In the beginning of the story, we meet Bigger a young, angry frustrated black man who lives with his mother, brother and sister in a cramped apartment in New York. The story is narrated in a limited third-person voice that focuses on Bigger Thomas’s thoughts and feelings. The story is told almost exclusively from Bigger’s perspective. In recent years, the
People being prejudice and racist have been a major issue in society. This causes people to commit crimes in order to receive justice. In Native Son by Richard Wright there is a lot of prejudice against the black community. In Book Two: Flight; we get a closer look at Bigger Thomas’s actions and thoughts after murdering Mary. With the amount of racism and stereotypes made against the black community it has forced Bigger to feel that the people around him are blind, making him feel powerful and him murdering Mary is justified.
He comes from the lowest rung of the American social and economic ladder. Due to his lack of education he been relegated to menial labor, thus making him feel trapped the entirety of his life, resenting, hating and fearing white people who have defined the narrow confines of his existence. Bigger doesn’t view white people as individuals to fear, but rather a collective, overwhelming force that tells him what to do, where to live, where to work, etc. “’man’ has typically been, if not synonymous with “white,” then very closely aligned with it. Nevertheless, Wright seems to hold out some hope for a manhood unmarked by race. Native Son’s hero Bigger Thomas is one of millions “whose existence ignored racial and national lines” (Wright, “How Bigger” 446)” (Matthews 277). Said makes the same argument about Western society’s domination of Eastern cultures. He argues that much of the Western world’s study of the Islamic civilization was political intellectualism meant more for Europe’s self-affirmation, rather than for the objective intellectual questioning and academic study of the Easter cultures. Because of this, Orientalism functioned as a method of practical and cultural discrimination applied as a sort of imperial domination, claiming that the Western Orientalist knows more about the Orient than the actual Orientals. Western society only studied about the Orient so that they could lay claim that the Orientals living in their lands know more about their own history and cultures because they now live in a more educated world. Wright reiterates this argument in Native Son, where the whites have dominated the western society, claiming that they know exactly how the black culture functions and should function because they have been dealing with them from the beginning of America. Bigger is only a product of his culture, because the whites have created him to be the monster they expect him to be. This is the same though that
Bigger’s decisions had their own snowball effects. He decided to kiss Mary, decided to unintentionally smother her, and try to hide his tracks making him a murderer. Lying to the police made him a killer on the run. Forcing his girlfriend to have sex with him gave him a different person he had to get rid of. The racial pressure and control caused him to make reckless decisions without thinking about the consequences. He believes hes alone in life but by the end of the book he realizes that his actions not only affected himself but the people around him. He hurt his mother and he made his siblings lives more difficult. He let the fear of society influence his thoughts and actions. This created how his fate was going to be chosen. It became a vicious cycle for him. Every time the fear of society got to him he reacted impulsively therefore worsening his already set fate. In Native Son by Richard Wright, it displays how society influences everyone’s decision whether good or bad. It sets the standards which no one can achieve and sets fear in the hearts of everyone in the community. The fear of society controls and challenges Bigger into being a completely different person than who he truly