During the Cold War one of the main fears for american was Communism within the U.S. This was known as the Red Scare and was caused by the growing power of communist countries after the Second World War. It began in the late 1940s and continued through to the mid 50s, and effected American Politics, culture and society. Americans were terrified of the american communists they felt were hiding among them.
One of these american communist couples were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. In 1950 Julius was arrested, accused of passing atomic secrets to the soviets. After the Soviets had their first successful nuclear tests, people assumed it was due to Soviet spies, and all eyes turned to Julius. Soon after, his wife Ethel was also arrested, thought to have known about her husbands actions.
In 1951 their trial began, but the only evidence was the confessions of Greenglass. He claimed that Julius asked him to pass confidential instructions on how to make a nuclear bomb to him, which he could pass to the soviets.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence during the trial, the Rosenbergs both ended up getting convicted with the death penalty for committing espionage.
This trial is a representation of both the height of the Red Scare as well as the beginning of its end. Leading up to and during the trial, Americans were terrified of the concept of their fellow Americans sharing secrets with the soviets. The couldn’t believe this was happening and began doubting everyone around them.
However, once they were charged with the death penalty many Americans began rethinking their stance. Due to the lack of concrete evidence and the fact that the Rosenbergs continued claiming innocence until the very end, they began to sympathize with them. Many people began to rally against their execution, feeling that Americans didn’t deserve to die, and should be pardoned.
Both President Truman and President Eisenhower ignored the public’s pleas for the couple to be pardoned, and let the court’s decision stand. In the end, the couple ended up getting executed on June 19th, 1953, in the electric chair.
After this execution, it sent an electric shock through the whole american public, the realization that their fear of communism was causing the death of fellow American citizens. Many Americans began to rethink their fear, and realized it wasn’t as necessary as they may have thought. In the end, this execution ended up causing the Red Scare to begin to die down.
In then end, information confirming their espionage was released by the soviets after the end of the Cold War. It’s clear the Julius had been an avid communist and had been sharing information with the soviets for a while. Along with that, there is now solid evidence confirming Ethel knew about what her husband was doing.
Even to this day the Rosenbergs are a symbol for the height of the Red Scare, and their names will always be closely associated with communism.
So a few months ago in PLP (yes I’m just posting the blog post about it now…oops) we learned about World War II. During this we had a few different assignments to hand in which helped us with our learning.
First, we had been taking notes and then rewriting them in different formats, so by the time we got to WWII I had what I found to be the hardest one yet, a concept map. Concept maps honestly confuse me more than help me, but thinking about it did make me understand the ideas at least a bit better, although I know I won’t be doing another concept map anytime soon. Also this isn’t really a concept map but I tried, okay?
This concept map ended up being the basis of what I was going to learn in the weeks to come.
Leading up to World War II Europe was dealing with the issue of growing dictatorships. These dictators included Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. They caused fear in France and Britain through their increased power and how it looked to the citizens.
Our next assignment after the notes was to make a decision making model about what France and Britain’s options were in regards to growing dictatorships. We were forced to think about how they could solve this problem and keep their countries safe, and try to determine if there were other options than war. This activity was an interesting way to see that sometimes war is extremely hard to avoid and it’s hard to know what the best decisions is before taking action.
Afterwards we learned a bit about Britain’s appeasement policy. They had a theory that if they followed along with everything Germany said they wouldn’t start any conflicts. We read a few documents which talked about this policy and the effect it had in Britain and afterwards decided if we thought it was the right policy for Britain at the time. It was extremely interesting because at first we read two anti-appeasement documents, then three documents which were pro appeasement, which ended up changing my mind about it. Hearing different biases I feel helps me make a more educated decision, although sometimes I will take on their bias.
So once we finished learning about why the war began we got to start learning about the actual events of the war. Everyone got into groups and was assigned a specific topic which we were to research and present to the class. Kirby and I got assigned the Phoney War which was a period where war had been declared nothing had really happened yet. Both sides were hesitant to be the first side to attack and kept holding off. For this we created a document to present to the class which you can see below.
While all these events were being presented we had a document to fill out about the significance of each of these events. We were then tasked with deciding which was the most significant to history, and writing a paragraph about why. I chose the attack on Pearl Harbour, and you can read about why below.
We ended up finishing the WWII unit in a really cool way. At the very beginning we had to write down stuff about we knew about the war, and what we thought of when we thought of it. We all figured Ms. Willemse totally forgot about until she brought it up way after we did it. We then wrote down ideas in the same categories and connected the differences between our initial and final thoughts. This was a great way to reflect on what we learned in this extensive unit.
You’ll never guess where I got to go with my class late April/early May of this year! Actually, you probably already did from the title of this, but in case you couldn’t guess, we went to Cuba! Wait, what was a high school history class doing in Cuba, you may be wondering. Well, as I’m sure you’re at least somewhat aware, Cuba has such an interesting history, and we were lucky enough to get to learn about it first hand rather than with some lessons, that don’t mean nearly as much. Along with that, being in Cuba while learning about their history really made us think about everything around us and how their history still effects us today.
In preparation for the trip we watched a documentary series called Cuba Libre (available on Netflix). This documentary gave us a solid foundation on Cuban history, but the majority of learning ultimately ended up occurring on the trip.
It was such an incredible experience getting to be in Cuba and seeing how different their life style is from ours. I learned so much about socialist societies and seeing it first hand made it seem so much more real. I am never going to forget this incredible experience.
During the 16 day trip we got to travel to many different cities. Starting in Havana we next visited Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santa Clara, Viñales and then back to Havana. After visiting these educational cities we spent the last days relaxing (and doing homework we missed) in a resort in Varadero.
During our trip we made daily journals where we wrote about our experiences each day. It helped force us to think about what we were seeing around us and make connections we may not have thought about before. I used these journals to create a book with pictures and my experiences from each day.
*insert journals*
In every city we got to stay with a local Cuban family, which was honestly probably my favourite part of the trip. It was so great getting to attempt to communicate with them and getting to see examples of Cuban houses and breakfasts. Of course, I realize that the income from running a home stay allows for them to have much nicer houses than many Cuban houses would be, but it was still a great look into their lives.
We were in Cuba over May 1st which was for sure the most incredible experience of the trip, and one of the most memorable experiences in my life so far. If you aren’t aware, May 1st is a socialist holiday, May Day. It is one of the only days practically everyone gets off work (at least in the morning). There is a huge parade in every major city, where people march in and show their pride to be Cuba. Marching in Havana, we were also lucky enough to be in the city major political figures come to watch the parade. Miguel Díaz-Canal was watching, along with Raul Castro.
The rally is a show of support for the Cuban Revolution. The streets are completely full, everyone so excited to be there, pushing on each other wanting to not get lost from their people, and wanting to get the best spot. Being surrounded by people waving their Cuban Flags, glowing their various noise makers as loud as they can and cheering for a country they truly believe in was something I never would have been able to imagine. Honestly, I still can’t put into words what I experienced that day, but it was an event I will never forget.
Of course I also enjoyed all the entertainment based things we did in Cuba as well, such as visiting night clubs, zip lining, swimming in caves and horse back riding. While, yes we did go horse back riding to a waterfall (my Chemistry/Calculus teacher’s new favourite joke), it was also an extremely educational trip. From countless museums to historic sites we got to learn so much during this trip. Having a tour guide with us the whole time (a man named Alistair who in fact did exist!) allowed us to go on walking tours and have a more personalized experience in Cuba. He knew of all the sites, even the non-touristy ones (including the bunkers from the Cuban Missile crisis which you will not find in any guide book) which really allowed for us to get so much out of the trip. Along with that, his extensive knowledge of Cuba, while having perfect English (he’s British) allowed for an easy person to interview and get information from for our projects.
Of course, it being PLP (and just like school in general) we had a project to complete while we were there. The 12 students who came to Cuba were assigned with making a book about the Cuban Revolution, each section talking about a different event, using a different *historical lens*.
For my section of the book I was working with Stanfield, and we chose to do the bay of pig invasion for our section, using the lens cause and consequence. It was interesting doing the Bay of Pigs because we actually got to go to the Bay of Pigs and swim in it. We also went to a museum about the invasion. It was kind of hard getting information from the museums due to the fact that everything was in Spanish, but we were able to interview our tour guide about the invasion and it’s impact on Cuba, and its relationship with both the United States and Russia. Luckily through talking to people, and learning enough about the after effects, such as the major one, them allying with the soviets, we were able to create a timeline of events which were directly and indirectly caused by the invasion.
*inset book*
All in all going to Cuba was an incredible experience and I am so thankful I got this opportunity. If you are looking for a trip to go on I would 10/10 recommend Cuba!
So recently we were assigned to write a short paragraph responding to a thought prompt we came up with during our lessons about the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I decided for mine I wanted to talk about the media, specifically to prove that growing media changes the way people view and understand the world.
So here is my think paragraph:
The way we can get information with just a few clicks and know news the minute it happens is taken for granted by my generation. We can’t imagine not having almost unlimited resources at our disposal, but we also don’t know what it’s like to suddenly begin learning all the horrors of the world. As media began to pick up, the way people viewed and understood the world began to shift. People never fully understood the horrors of war, for example, until news reporters went to Vietnam and broadcasted what was happening. This war, and its media coverage is what turned veterans from heroes into “baby killers”. These videos are what made people start protesting wars and what made it unsafe for Vietnam veterans to wear their uniforms when they got home. As people began to realize the power of media, they learned how to use it to their benefit. Terrorists knew that highlighting their cause on live television would be the best way to become known and get the attention they desired. During the Middle East conflict, and the hijackings, the terrorists were able to televise their cause, spreading fear through the world, and showing that they were a force to be reckoned with. This fear made people realize they couldn’t feel safe at home and began to realize that threats were everywhere. As media grows, it illuminates issues, and makes people begin to realize the true horrors in the world they live in. Many of us still don’t know all of the horrors of the world, but it’s more of a choice, how we choose not to do the digging, yet we still have access to it when we decide we want to shift our views.
Here is an American news broadcast from during the Vietnam War to help show how it may make the american public feel.
Recently in PLP every Friday we’ve been having these sessions where a few people take turns leading discussions with the whole class. We each chose a week and a topic, and during our presentations we at first did a brief explanation of our topic, then ask the class questions meant to invoke thought and start a discussion among them.
For my presentation I talked about the Watergate scandal. I had started researching this scandal a bit before we learned about it in class, but honestly whenever I hear about it or read about it, it seems pretty confusing, so I decided to wait for the class in which we learned about it to figure out what I wanted to go more in depth into.
Luckily for me, in the class we learned about watergate it was taught in a way I found was extremely effective, and when I talked to my classmates they seemed to agree. We got split into five groups and each group was assigned a paragraph to read about a step in the scandal. Then there were figures (pictures, cartoons, etc.) which corresponded to different sections, so we had to guess which was/were ours. Afterwards we all presented our sections and figures to the whole class.
Here is the document my group read, and our corresponding figure.
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When preparing my questions I reread all of the sections and jotted down any general questions to form into real questions at the end. By the end I had quite a few questions I felt may work. I decided, to narrow down the questions to a few solid ones, I should test them on people and see how much they had to say. My grandparents were over when I was working on these, so I tested them on them, which helped me get rid of a few questions, and fix a few others.
Once I had my questions pretty much figured out I started planning out the whole presentation. Luckily, I felt I didn’t need to go into too much detail when re-explaining my topic, due to the effectiveness of the class and the fact that everyone I talked to and asked how much detail they felt they may need said they remembered most of it. This allowed for more time for questions, which is the real point of these discussions.
When finishing up my script however, I realized that the way I organized my questions meant I would likely not get off of the topic of media with the question, considering my first three were about that. I got rid of the weakest, bumping up one of my stronger questions into the first three. I actually had like six questions, but put the worst ones at the end because I doubted I’d reach them.
The questions I ended up asking were:
1. How do you think watergate would have played out if not for the media?
2. How do you think this scandal could have played our differently in this day and age, with social media and our current mistrust of politicians?
3. Do you think him losing to Kennedy in 1960 helped to cause this scandal? If so, how
I also had a few other questions in my presentation I would have been able to ask if there was time, but I made sure to put the ones I felt I should be sure to cover first. You can see these questions in the slide show below.
*insert link*
I feel like my first question was a bit basic and I could have gone straight to my second question, but it ended up being a good warm-up. My favourite question was the third one I asked. Beforehand I talked about why Nixon felt the election in 1960 should have gone to him and I was happy to hear people making the connections about him becoming paranoid, feeling like if Nixon could get away with it, why couldn’t he, and wondering what George McGovern, the democratic candidate, could have been trying to pull.
In the end I felt my presentation went decently well. I felt like I talked way too fast during my information part, and I honestly don’t know if I went into too much or too little detail. I feel like I probably should have chosen one aspect to go deeper into, rather than covering the whole thing.
Going through the basics of the whole event took up too much time and it would have ended up being a lot more interesting for my class if I had gone over a specific aspect of the event that they didn’t know as much about. The way I did it, sure they got to think about things they may not have thought about before, but unfortunately they didn’t really get to learn anything new.
Another thing I think I should have done better is the answers to my questions were maybe a bit too obvious and easy, so they didn’t create quite as deep discussion. Everybody agreed on the answers for the most part which took away a certain depth from the discussion.
All in all however, I’m proud of my discussion because everyone seemed to be interested in the topic and had lots to say, many people even went beyond the mandatory 2 comments, during my session alone!
Earlier this year we learned about different political ideologies and their importance in society. While there is no defined definition of an ideology, they often take on the forms of “ism”s such as liberalism, conservatism and socialism. These “ism”s are a political belief system which represent the world views of a particular social class or group.
Believing in an ideology is like wearing a pair of goggles, it changes the way one sees the world through their bias. Even if we don’t realize it however, we are all wearing these goggles. We all have our own beliefs that give us different views of the world from each other. Once we realize how our beliefs effect our world views however, we can begin to get a clearer vision of the world and try to see things in other perspectives.
Instead of listing of and just barely touching on many different ideologies I will go more in depth into one ideology and explain how this one would shape one’s world view, as an example.
So what is Nationalism?
Definition: an extreme form of patriotic feelings, principles or efforts, especially marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries.
All throughout history Nationalism has been an ideology with a great effect. It leads for people to do radical things, trying to protect their country, or gain independence for their nation. One major example of this is the start of WWI. While nationalism can unify a country, it can also divide others. Nationalism was extremely popular in Europe prior to WWI, with all nations attempting to further their own interests without considering how this may impact internal affairs. This nationalism grew dangerous as neighbours became rivals, and every nation believed they had the strongest military. Slavic groups created a form of Nationalism called Pan-Slavism, which aimed to make Serbia better for the Slavic people. This situation ended up leading to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand which ended up sparking the First World War.
If one is extremely nationalistic they may do anything to further the needs of their own country, even if it harms another. Along with that, no matter what their country does, they will likely go along with it and support the decision. There is nothing wrong with being patriotic, Nationalism however is when you blindly support a country no matter what happens.
Here is a trailer Maria and I made to kind of show what Nationalism is. I hope you enjoyed.
In the 19th century imperialism was still going strong through most of the world, and these tendencies didn’t disappear at the turn of the century. In fact, during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 most of the great powers, with the exception of the United States were still using the goals of imperialism to shape what they were fighting for.
First let’s talk about David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Britain’s goals when it came to the Peace Conference. By the end of the war Britain owed tremendous debts, especially to the USA, but gained German colonies and most of the Ottoman Empire. Along with that it became a naval superpower, being mainly in control of the seas. During the negotiations Britain was fighting to maintain naval supremacy, to get Germany to pay reparations with which Britain could pay off their debts, and to expand at the expense of Germany, gaining more colonies.
Britain, wanting to maintain their naval power believed this could happen if they got all of Germany’s colonies, obtaining all the ports, making it almost impossible for any sort of naval power within Germany.
Similarly, Italy had hoped to gain colonies from the treaty they were working on. Italy, when joining the war only chose to do so after being promised colonies. They had wanted to gain the Italian speaking Austria-Hungary territories, wanting to create an Italian empire. Considering why Italy ended up joining the war, their main goals during the conference were also territorial. In the Treaty of London, the treaty made convincing Italy to join the war, they were promised large sections of Italian speaking Austria-Hungary land. During the peace conference they were mainly fighting to obtain what they were promised, as well as reparations from Germany.
France had lost territory which they believed should be theirs, which they were able to gain back through the Treaty of Versailles. During the conference however, their other main goal was more taking colonies away from Germany and making them their own countries. France believed that creating Poland out of Germany territory would balance out Germany’s power, and letting the Rhineland become hindependent would weaken Germany’s economy, taking away important resources. Along with this of course, France also hoped that French territories could be made with land in the Ottoman Empire.
However, Woodrow Wilson had much different plans for the peace conference. He believed it would be much more beneficial to create smaller countries rather than empires, allowing for more nationalistic feelings, and creating nations of people with similar beliefs, customs and languages. Along with this, he created his 14 points which he believed would make it much more likely to obtain world peace, and force Germany to agree.
As you can see, all the countries wanted Germany to pay for the war, however they had different ideas of how this should be done. France, Italy and Britain all seemed to think they could gain the most from Germany by obtaining more colonies and expanding. The United States on the other hand, agreed with some of this, but more than anything just wanted to ensure world peace. You can see from their goals that all of the countries involved, except for the United States, were still acting like imperial powers, through their requests and goals. Wanting to expand their empires and power is similar to how they acted in the 19th century. The United States however, instead focused less on empires and more on creating individual countries.
As mentioned in my most recent post we have recently learning about the concept of history, so for this post we have been tasked with a “snap shot autobiography”. Pretty much we were supposed to think of three of the most significant events in our lives, along with our births. Then we were supposed to tell the story of these events, along making a visual of them.
So for my four significant events I chose:
1. My Birth
2. Moving from Texas to British Columbia
3. My 3rd heart surgery
4. Getting my first job
This assignment originally made me think of all the Draw My Life videos I have seen on YouTube over the years so I decided to try a similar format for this assignment. I knew most people in the class were making photo essays, or similar visuals based on pictures which I considered doing as well, but then I realized I didn’t have too many pictures that related to my chosen stories so I decided to try this format out.
So now, let’s go over the historical significance of these in my life. I never really think of my life as history, but when I got assigned this I realized that while maybe nothing in my life is historically significant in the big picture, there are lots of little things in my life which hold huge significance.
1. My birth
So I chose this event, obviously because it was mandatory, but also, while for a minute I thought I knew nothing about my birth, then I remembered the story about the doctor my mom thought looked like a movie star. This event in obviously quite significant to me because, well it was the day my life started. But it was also significant to my parents. Maybe not as significant as when my older sister was born because they already had a kid, but any new kid is a big thing for parents so that’s pretty cool! The evidence of this event lies mainly in memories, but also in a birth certificate (which, fun fact, is signed by George W. Bush). For continuity and Change, this event mainly changed my parents lives in the sense that now they had a 2 year old and an infant to care for. My birth has had many consequences, which consist of pretty much everything I have ever done. All in all, while on the big scale of thing my birth isn’t significant, it was to me, and those around me.
2. Moving from Texas
Moving from Texas holds significance to me because I can’t imagine what my life should have been like if I hadn’t. I can imagine who I’d now be if I had grown up in Texas, and I find it really weird to think about. Moving to Texas really changed up my family’s life. The temperature is much colder in Vancouver than Austin, but even more so, our lives got upended. We had a daily routine, a house we had been living in for a while and friends, when suddenly we had to move. It was a welcome change due to the fact my parents are both Canadian, but moving is always hard when you move without a place to move into other than a temporary apartment. I don’t really remember this event, but I am honestly so thankful it happened, although I love Texas and still feel connected to it.
3. Heart Surgery
While I don’t fully remember this, I still consider this one of the most significant events in my life because of the impact it had on my health. I was not a healthy child before my surgery, so I consider this to be important because of how it changed that. Without this surgery I wouldn’t be able to be the active person I am today, and my life would be much different.
I interviewed my mom about her memory of me being in the hospital, and of course it was a bit different than mine. For her it was kind of stressful and hard, while for me I just remember the fun aspects on it. We do remember the same things though, maybe because she has told me stories which have impacted the story I tell.
4. First Job
Getting my job was more significant to me than it was to anyone else. It made me feel much more independent, and has helped me with the way I present myself. It changed my life by making me much busier but has been a good thing because of how much better I have become at talking to people because of my experiences with the people I deal with at work.
I found this assignment actually quite interesting. I have never looked at events in my life as history, and it was fun trying to apply the six lenses mentioned in my last post to these events. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me and seeing what I consider significant in my life and why.
Congrats to my PLP 12 class! We recently did our English 12 provincial exam, and now that English is over it’s time to move on to history. Before we start studying 20th century history our class was tasked with figuring out: What is history? We were split into groups and then given some time to find 3 definitions of history per group. Each group was then tasked with creating a sentence to define history and then present our findings to the class. These are the definitions we came up with:
1. History is a biography of humanity and our past chronicles made up of what we remember, not what we thought.
2. History is often the worst parts of the past that we are able to recognize in the present.
3. History is a study of the past looked at by a new perspective, often written by the victors
4. History is a collection of interpreted, undefined events that gives purpose to our lives and our future
5. The study of history tells a story of past events based on knowledgeable investigation
6. History is a study of the past through a narration of events which in turn allows for a dialogue between the past and present, to further establish our knowledge of people and major events.
From these six definitions our class was able to get a better idea of what history can be defined as. To further our understanding each group was then assigned a historical lens which we had to learn how to apply. After becoming masters of using our specific lens (hopefully) we then had to teach the rest of the class our lens, and give them an example of how to apply it. By the end of the presentations the class had learned about all six lenses.
My group consisted of Luciano, Spencer and Jackson and we were focusing on ethical judgement. We then applied this lens to the Kent State shootings.
The other lenses that we learned about from the other groups’ presentations were Historical Significance, Evidence and Interpretation, continuity and change, cause and consequence and historical perspective. Through applying these six lenses we should be able to gain a better understanding of historical events. To explain these lenses to you I made little summaries of the six lenses. I used an app called Canva to edit pages of a booklet. This app was actually really cool and I enjoyed using it quite a bit. I’ve actually had it on my iPad for a while, so I’m not sure why I have’t used it until now. Anyways, I made pages of a book, but they’re just in picture form right now, so imagine they are pages of a booklet as you are reading them.
Now that we know about the six lenses it’s time to apply them! So in this post, I’m going to be practicing by using these lenses to gain a better understanding of the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.
1. Historical Significance
The attack on Pearl Harbour was considered notable at the time of the event due to the fact U.S. wasn’t in the war until this attack. This event is what ended up causing U.S. to join the war, and they played a huge role in the rest of the war. This event is considered historically significant because of these consequences, and along with that, it has ended up being a patriotic symbol for the U.S.A.
After December 7th, 1941, Americans felt more like they were a part of their country and their sense of patriotism grew. They were all fighting for the same thing, and the attack on Pearl Harbour ended up uniting them.
The memorial for Pearl Harbour is visited by people all over the world who are hoping to remember, respect and learn about the events that took place during the attack. Americans look back on Pearl Harbour with both a sense of sadness and nationalism.
2. Evidence and Interpretation
Through looking into this event I have been mainly looking at secondary sources which have already put together the information from primary sources to explain what happened. When looking for secondary sources I have been careful to find trustworthy websites, rather than just blogs like this one. When looking for primary sources though, I found a gallery of front page newspaper articles from right after the attack on the Washington Post. These articles show the initial reactions of the public to the attacks which is interesting when getting an idea of the event. These articles are trustworthy because they are public newspapers. While there may be some bias and opinions in them, the facts should all be trustworthy.
3. Continuity and Change
While Pearl Harbour after the attack turned into a war zone, due to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands, Oahu is a populatar tourist destination. Pearl Harbour has become a memorial for the attack, which always has tourists from all over the world going through it.
One lasting change after the attack is Japan ended up losing its oil source after China sided with the U.S.A., which is still in effect today. One major change we could consider from the attack, which made a turning point in history is the fact that this event caused the U.S.A. to join WWII. We will consider this change in the next lens, cause and consequence.
4. Cause and Consequence
Instead of thinking about why forcing U.S.A. joining the war wouldn’t be a good idea, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, thinking of ways to destroy American fleets and conquer the Philippines and Malaya.
Instead, due to the attack, FDR officially declared war on Japan, joining WWII. Their entry into the war is a huge consequence of this event, due to how the war ended for Japan. If the U.S.A. hadn’t joined WWII, the atomic bombs likely wouldn’t have been dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. While Japan had intended to take out an American fleet, they hadn’t planned for the unintentional, long term consequences of the attack.
5. Historical Perspective
Due to the oil embargo Japan felt an attack on Pearl Harbour was necessary. The attack was part of a colonial conflict in Asia, not just an attack on the U.S.A. At the time, Japan felt the attack was something they had to do, and would be the right move which is why they did it. During war times critical decisions have to be made quickly, and this attack was one which they felt would be helpful to stage. Looking at what I know in the present, and the facts I have found from the past, it is clear that these attacks are what Japan thought would be best for their country.
6. Ethical Judgement
While what happened in Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941 deeply saddens me, I understand that it is what the Japanese felt would be the best move for their country at the time. The troops who attacked Pearl Harbour were only following orders, and during war times, unfortunately acts of violence are seen as a necessity to bring your country pride.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post on the six historical lenses, and my example of how to apply them to an event. Maybe next time when you’re learning about a historical event you can apply these same lenses!
I’m pretty relieved the year 1984 didn’t turn out the way George Orwell predicted in his novel 1984. I mean, I personally can’t imagine living in a society with zero privacy (except, of course, when you turn you lights out at night…but even then, Big Brother can still hear you.) 1984 was written in 1949, predicting how the year 1984 would turn out. Orwell wrote about a society in which the citizens have zero freedoms. All of their actions are closely watched, all of their conversations listened to; it is even considered strange to see two people talking if they aren’t considered friends.
There are so called “telescreens” everywhere, which have both cameras and microphones to monitor everybody’s lives. Even if people could find a way to talk to someone in private, they would still be terrified they are actually talking to the thought police. Instead of living with the freedoms we have grown so accustomed to, they live lives of solitude, and follow the rules of a strict, oppressive communist society. Orwell’s goal with this book was to reveal the flaws of communism, and expose the dangers of it.
Why am I talking about this novel? Oh right, well recently my PLP 12 class read it and have been given an assignment on it. For the assignment we split in to groups and got to choose any character from the novel, to cut out the shape of, and draw symbols on it to create a visual representation of who our character is.
My group consisted of Gabi, Brianna, Anatolia and Alanah. Being a group of girls, naturally, we picked Julia, the main female character in the novel.
Once we created our character, we also cut out a section of them to later put on a green screen and animate.
Our final product looks like this, but I’m sure you’re wondering what all those symbols mean!
So not, I’m sure you’re wondering….what do all those symbols mean???
It may be difficult to see everything in the video, so I figured I’d make a list for you:
-men on her feet
-map on her leg
-open lock on her jeans
-glasses hanging out of her pocket
-red celibacy sash around her waist
-her fiery heart
-the fox on her chest
-the mask she’s holding
-the birds in her head
-the field around her
Before I start explaining what all of these mean, I’ll start by giving you a bit of a background on Julia. She is the main character, Winston Smith’s, love interest. Like him, she commits thought crime, by thinking negatively thoughts about Big Brother. At the beginning of the book she is following him around kind of, by sitting close to him a few days in a row, and even following him to a store one day. Winston becomes concerned she is part of the thought police, until one day when she tripped right in front of him in a hallway. While he offered to help her up, she “had slipped something into his hand.” (1984, Part 2, Chapter 1) Later, when he finally got a chance to read it, it said “I love you.” Their relationship went on from there, with her finding ways for them to sneak out and be together.
So now that you know a bit about Julia, it’s time for me to explain our symbols to you.
1. the men on her feet.
Despite her red celibacy sash, she isn’t as pure and innocent as she makes out to be. Their first time really being together in a way they get to talk and spend time together, she leads him to a forest and “she had been that way before.” (1984, Part 2, Chapter 2) Later she admits she has done similar things “scores of times” (1984, Part 2, Chapter 2) with other party members.
Due to the fact she sleeps with so many different men, we felt it would be accurate to draw men on her feet, symbolizing the fact that she walks all over men. Julia is the type of girl who will seduce a man, bring him to one of her little hide outs, and sleep with him. She barely ever forms relationships with them, instead using them as a way to rebel against the party.
2. The map on her leg
Julia doesn’t seem to worry too much about the future and instead lives in the present. The markers on the map are supposed to represent how she lives in the moment, doing whatever she wants, disregarding possible consequences. Whenever Winston worried they’d be caught committing thought crime, and get killed for their relationship, she convinced him “[She was] real…solid…alive” (1984, Part 2, Chapter 3). Instead of worrying about being killed, she convinced him to live how he wanted to, while he still had the chance.
3. Open lock on her jeans
Let’s just say Julia isn’t the most loyal person. Obviously she rebels against the government and is disloyal to them, but I mean who blames her? I’m surprised more people aren’t disloyal. But, after Winston and Julia get caught by the thought police “She betrayed…Winston. Immediately – unreservedly.” (1984, Part 3, Chapter 2) The open lock is meant to represent how easy it can be for her to be disloyal to somebody. Despite her long relationship with Winston, she was able to let him go like that, much easier than he was able to let her go.
4. Glasses hanging out of her pockets
Despite giving Winston up so easily, she did love him at one point, before the thought police intervened. Of course, she loves him in secret. Winston in quite intelligent so the glasses represent him and the love she has for him, hidden away in her pocket.
5. Red Celibacy Sash
This symbol is meant to represent who she pretends to be. She wears this everyday to fit in and convince people she is a good party member who would never commit thought crime. She does lots of volunteer work and wears this sash as a way to fit and be unsuspected.
6. Her fiery heart
We felt a heart of flames accurately represented her passionate, yet fiery personality. Julia lives a very passionate life with “everything [coming] back to her own sexuality.” (1984, Part 2, Chapter 3) Everything she does, she does in a passionate manner. She actively (though secretively) rebels against the party, living the life she wants, despite what is expected of her.
7. The fox on her chest
Being able to sleep with so many men, and last so long not being discovered by the thought police takes a certain type of person. Julia is cunning and sneaky much like a fox. From knowing of so many various places to take men, to finding ways to determine which men would be able to fall victim to her traps, she has many fox like qualities.
8. The mask she’s holding
Julia is a master of disguise. She doesn’t let anyone see who she truly is, wearing a mask at all times to hide her true feelings towards the party. This mask is meant to represent the charade she plays in her daily life.
9. The birds in her head
Julia is pretty free minded. She thinks what she wants; her mind is as free as a bird. One funny thing about her is, despite wanting to rebel against the party, she had no interest in it “except where it touched upon her own life,” (1984, part 2, chapter 3). She doesn’t really care what the party does to take away freedoms and change history, unless it affects her. She lets her thoughts run wild, ignoring other issues, living in her own little world.
10. The field around her
Instead of using a symbol for the background, we decided a field would be the perfect place to put her. This field is both meant to represent the field she took Winston to for their first meet up, along with the fact that she can’t be caged. Leading a man to some random field, especially in this society where you never know if they could be a member of the thought police takes a certain amount of courage. This action is very representative of Julia’s character as a whole. She isn’t the type to get nervous in rebellious acts.
The field is wide open, perfect for her nature. No matter what society she is in, she won’t let it keep her from doing what she wants. A wide open field is full of possibilities, and has no potential to cage her.
All in all I actually really enjoyed this project, as it was an interesting way to delve deeper into one specific character. It really made me think about Julia, her motivations, and the role she plays in the book, subsequently making me think about the book as a whole.
Comment down below any symbols you would add to Julia if you were going to make one of these!
