In Alain Corbin’s book The Village of Cannibals, the author analyzes the 1870 murder of French nobleman Alain de Monéy in the small village of Hautefaye. Hautefaye was a small village located in southwestern France right along the border of the Dordogne départment. Although peasants were the only inhabitants of Hautefaye, it was rumored that the remainder of the Dordogne départment was filled with large estates owned by the nobility. Such rumors created by the middle-class bourgeoisie attempted to shift peasantry hostility away from issues of wealth and land towards the aristocratic “caste” system. These rumors, along with instances of the local church caused the peasantry to also believe the church, and the nobility were trying to overthrow Essentially, the rural bourgeoisie attempted to shift social hostility away from issues of wealth and land, but rather focuses such hostilities towards individuals and the aristocratic “caste”. “[The rural bourgeoisie] exaggerated the importance of genealogy; it caricatured the pride and insolence of the noble, which were no doubt a crueler torture for the bourgeois than for the peasant; it criticized the ways in which the aristocracy strove to maintain social distance; and it sought to persuade peasants, who also hated the aristocracy, that the nobility’s arrogance was the chief source of social conflict.” Although anti-noble attitudes existed long before the Revolution, the rumors started by the rural bourgeoisie began to remind the peasantry of the caste system that was in place under the First Republic. The fear that resulted in this believed renewal of the caste system only strengthened the peasantry’s anti-noble ideology into hatred. Corbin argues that the importance of rumor was imperative to the murder of Monéy claiming, “they highlight the contrast between the depth of the social tensions, the intensity of the anxiety, and the restraint of violence.” It is no surprise then that with such heavy issues weighing on the minds of the peasantry, that there was such a surge of violence with Although the hands of up to 200 people carried out the murder, the event was an isolated act of violence that Corbin argues was a political act rather than just a criminal act. The role of local rumors created by the rural bourgeoisie who were attempting to maintain certain rights resulted in the peasantry gaining a strong anti-nobility ideology. These rumors, paired with the peasantry’s fierce loyalty towards their emperor, caused the peasantry of Hautefaye to attempt to murder a politically outspoken noble in order to take their future into their own hands. Corbin suggests that what makes the murder of Monéy distinguishable from other acts of violence, was that the event was past the French period where such violence was common, as well as it was unusual for the crime to take place at the time of day that it did. Ultimately, the amount of heavy issues weighing on the minds of the peasantry at a time when France was in such turmoil, it’s logical that a surge of violence occurred within the town of
The Return of Martin Guerre, written by Natalie Zemon Davis, is the tale of a court case that takes place in sixteenth century France. Martin Guerre is a peasant who deserted his wife and family for many years. While Martin Guerre is gone, a man named Arnaud du Tilh arrives at Martin’s village and claims to be Martin Guerre. Bertrande, who is Guerre’s wife, Guerre’s sisters, and many of the villagers, accepts the imposter. After almost three years of being happily married, Bertrande takes the fraud to court under pressure of Pierre Guerre, her stepfather and Guerre’s brother. Arnaud du Tilh is almost declared innocent, but the real Martin Guerre appears in the courthouse. Throughout this tale, many factors of the peasant life are highlighted. The author gives a very effective and detailed insight to a peasant’s life during the time of Martin Guerre. Davis does a successful job of portraying the peasant lifestyle in sixteenth century France by accentuating the social, cultural, and judicial factors of everyday peasant life.
Maintaining feudal conditions through violence and intimidation, the army holds the populace in a constant state of fear. Guaranteeing that the peasants stay ill and in need furthers the necessity that they work to stay alive, but prevents them from doing so. This is the paradox of the poor worker, but one the army does not see. The army blindly kills anyone who tries to help the peasants, murdering all the doctors and priests that enter the villages. They do so to keep the peasants in need and in ignorance, to prevent them from learning another way of life. Lacking knowledge of the outside world ensures that the peasants will remain in the plantations, because fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of the known. Acting as feudal knights, the army forces people into the feudal plantation relationship using fear and intimidation.
As Rand refutes a principal concept of socialism, she illustrates multiple counts of insubordination and social class structures. Socialism’s attempt to remove class structure fails miserably. The most prominent demonstration of rebellion rises from Equality 7-2521 and his emotions and desire for knowledge. After being denied by the Council of Scholars, Equality 7-2521 rashly breaks a window and flees “in a ringing rain of glass” (Rand 75). Equality 7-2521’s actions illustrate the ‘working class’ rebelling against the ‘elitists’ though this society attempted to eliminate social structures. Furthermore, Equality 7-2521 was not alone in rebelling against ‘the brotherhood’, Liberty 5-3000 followed his example. Unsatisfied with her life and the suppression of emotion, she followed Equality 7-2521’s example and “on the night of the day when we heard it, we ran away from the Home of Peasants” (Rand 82). The rebellion of the two members reflects the means of a social rev...
This is when the belief that one killer could be responsible for the deaths of eight different people, that they know of, all across France. The Magistrate who jurisdiction over the Laurent Case, Alphonse Benoist of Lyon, noticed similarities as well and using the resources of a reporter was able to gain a common element in many of...
“In the first years of peacetime, following the Revolutionary War, the future of both the agrarian and commercial society appeared threatened by a strangling chain of debt which aggravated the depressed economy of the postwar years”.1 This poor economy affected almost everyone in New England especially the farmers. For years these farmers, or yeomen as they were commonly called, had been used to growing just enough for what they needed and grew little in surplus. As one farmer explained “ My farm provides me and my family with a good living. Nothing we wear, eat, or drink was purchased, because my farm provides it all.”2 The only problem with this way of life is that with no surplus there was no way to make enough money to pay excessive debts. For example, since farmer possessed little money the merchants offered the articles they needed on short-term credit and accepted any surplus farm goods on a seasonal basis for payment. However if the farmer experienced a poor crop, shopkeepers usually extended credit and thereby tied the farmer to their businesses on a yearly basis.3 During a credit crisis, the gradual disintegration of the traditional culture became more apparent. During hard times, merchants in need of ready cash withdrew credit from their yeomen customers and called for the repayment of loans in hard cash. Such demands showed the growing power of the commercial elite.4 As one could imagine this brought much social and economic unrest to the farmers of New England. Many of the farmers in debt were dragged into court and in many cases they were put into debtors prison. Many decided to take action: The farmers waited for the legal due process as long as them could. The Legislature, also know as the General Court, took little action to address the farmers complaints. 5 “So without waiting for General Court to come back into session to work on grievances as requested, the People took matters into their own hands.”6 This is when the idea for the Rebellion is decided upon and the need for a leader was eminent.
The importance and job of each class fail to function optimally. The castles were rooted economically in the countryside which was intimately connected with the villagers. These villagers were the “social and economic units of rural Europe” (147) which illustrates the importance of the various classes in medieval Europe. Undermining the lower social classes will cause political and social upheaval as they collectively dominate the economic force in the feudal system. Few individual commoners mask the
In 1998, Francine du Plessix Gray, prolific author of novels, biographies, sociological studies and frequent contributions to The New Yorker, published her most acclaimed work to date: At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life. A Pulizer Prize finalist that has already appeared in multiple English-language editions as well as translated ones, Du Plessix Gray’s biography has met with crowning achievement and recognition on all fronts. Accolades have accumulated from the most acclaimed of eighteenth-century luminaries, such as Robert Darnton, in a lengthy review in The New York Review of Books that compares her biography with Laurence Bongie’s Sade: A Biographical Essay, to the list of scholars whom she thanks in her acknowledgements for having read the manuscript: Lynn Hunt, Lucienne Frappier-Mazur, and Marie-Hélène Huët. Surely, any scholar can appreciate the vast amount of research that undergirds Du Plessix Gray’s narrative, and indeed, she takes great pains to meticulously inform the reader who might care to look at her sources and read her acknowledgements that she has done her homework and knows every inch of the scholarly terrain. Du PlessixGray wisely begins her acknowledgements with a debt of gratitude to Maurice Lever’s studies, which rest on years of archival research.
Mercer, Jeremy. When the Guillotine Fell: The Bloody Beginning and Horrifying End to France's River of Blood, 1791-1977. New York: St. Martin's, 2008. Print.
They suggest that the spark for the plot was the failed assassination of Coligny. Salviati’s account substantiates this noting ‘things would not have happened in the same way’ if the shot had killed Coligny, indicating the plot was a royal reaction to fears of a Huguenot uprising. Sutherland qualifies this, suggesting that the plot against the Huguenot noblemen’ was never an ideal, but a desperate plot for a desperate situation, and this is representative of the Spanish Ambassador’s opinion that ‘the Admiral’s death was a planned action, that of the Huguenots was the result of a sudden decision’. Salviati’s account indicates the Queen Mother acted alone in the organising the general Massacre ‘exhorting Charles to the slaughter to all them that followed’.
"The rule of the aristocracy lasts as long as the rural population continues to ignore or neglect the crafts, and the ownership of land continues to be the soul basis of wealth." "When handicrafts and commerce take hold amoung the people and create a new source of wealth benefiting a new class of working people, this paves the way for a revolution in political structure. A new distribution of wealth opens the way to a new distribution of power. In the same way that the possession of land creates an aristocracy, industrial property increases the power of the people; it provides the means to achieve its freedom." Antoine P. J. M. Barnave also believed that without the economic tribulations that were pending in France there would have been no need for change.
Wacquant, Loïc J. D. "The Great Confinement of the Fin De Siecle." Punishing the Poor: The
George Fitzhugh’s, Cannibals All (Excerpt) is a primary document that appropriately argues that it is in the United State’s best intentions to preserve negro slavery across the South and the rest of the country in effort to sustain better lives for American negroes. Frederick Douglass argues in his piece, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave that society is responsible for shaping the negro community into slavery, and that abolition is necessary to remove that from existence. The author, Fitzhugh is a considerably significant individual who has a strong political background and is recognized for pro-slavery theology, influencing him to be a prominent figure in the context of arguing for the justification of slavery.
The essential cause of the French revolution was the collision between a powerful, rising bourgeoisie and an entrenched aristocracy defending its privileges”. This statement is very accurate, to some extent. Although the collision between the two groups was probably the main cause of the revolution, there were two other things that also contributed to the insanity during the French revolution – the debt that France was in as well as the famine. Therefore, it was the juxtaposing of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy as well as the debt and famine France was in that influenced the French Revolution.
But it is also evident that someone, or something, exerted great control over the De Lacy family, as they are living an impoverished, isolated lifestyle. The creature’,s account of the family’,s history discovers this fact to the readers, that was in fact the French government. Given the time period, 17--, this is presumably patriarchal to the extreme. While for a while it could be supposed that Felix held power over the government, as he assisted in Safie’,s father’,s jail break, but the latter caught up with him and ultimately ruined him and his family.
The meager image depicted by Lu Xun's 'Diary of a Madman' projects an illustration of society that stresses submission to authority, and the ultimate compliance to tradition. Lu Xun battles the idea that society is constantly being manipulated and controlled by the masses of people who know no better than to follow tradition. His story 'Diary of a Madman' gives the representation of a culture that has not only failed, but failed by the cannibalistic nature of humans corrupting them-selves over and over again therefore feeding upon themselves. The analysis of 'Diary of a Madman' gives way to a new interpretation of societies of the past, present, and future. Following the idea that history tends to repeat itself, I have paralleled the idea that society as a whole can be seen as cannibalistic not only in the reference by Lu Xun, but also in the current society we live in today. Only through willingness to change can societies transform their behaviors and actions giving way to improvement.