Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

French and Indian War

        I never really knew much about the French and Indian war but now, I know a lot more about it.  To me this is very interesting and an important part of early American history. I also learned a lot about what the Native Americans were like and how they used their land to their advantage.  The movie that we are watching in class is so cool.  This video is a reenactment of some of the battles during the French Indian War, and it shows what it was like for all three races.  

Rugged Individuals

My example of a rugged individual is of course Will Smith's character in I Am Legend who is strong, tough, his own character, and loose. This character is very powerful because he is the only man on Earth, so there isn't anyone with more power than this guy. Rugged individuals are also usually one with nature, Wills character is very much so one with nature because if he doesn't know what is around him he will be Eaten. Examples of rugged individuals as I think about are everywhere, movies, video games, and books. Having someone like Chuck Norris who is a very rugged person is not a bad person to look up to. Rugged individuals usually also seem to have a good thing they are trying to accomplish. 

Group Mentality

In the book the Crucible we saw group mentality at its best. The young teenage girls of Salem all following the crooked Abgails everymove. If she screamed they would scream, if she would faint, they would faint. But when i actually started thinking about where group mentality comes in in my life all i could relate it too is parties. One person whom probably didnt think they were going to drink may come to a party and find themselves drinking as much as the people in the party vs. if they were just going to spend the night alone. Like the Girls of Salem the person didnt set out to do what they ended up doing, and probably if it was just them alone chances are they wouldnt but when there around a group of people that are all doing the same things we find ourselves hard to not follow.

Salem Witch Syndrome

    In the play, The Crucible, Abigail Williams and some of the other girls in Salem pretended to have fits to convince the people of Salem that witches were attacking people. Although this may have been the actual case, some of the girls may have actualy suffered from some kind of illness. The girls symptoms included vertigo, headaches, numb fingers, and hallucinations, which are also symptoms of ergostism which is a fungi that infects cereals. Erogtism causes illness when it is eaten and it usually infects women. One of the cereals that this fungi infects is rye, which is a crop that was grown and consumed in New England. It is possible that the girls whom believed they were being attacked by witches were actually suffering from erogtism. Although this disease was being studied in France, people in colonial Massachusetts would not have been aware of its existence. Once the doctors could not firgure out what was the cause of their illness, people turned to witchcraft.

The Crucible

After reading the play, and watching The Crucible, I understand, and appreciate it more.  I liked how the characters were portrayed pretty similar from the play, to the movie, and the plot was very interesting.  My two facorite characters were John Proctor, and Abigail.  I liked John because of how he was in both, and how he stood up for what he believed in, no matter if he suffered the consequences, or helped someone he loved.  And i also liked Abigail.  Even tho she was munipulating the higher courts, and the girls, you still had to give her credit for what she did, and how she did it.  But in the end, Abigail was finally caught in her lies, and John died for his life. 

The Crucible

Today, many novels, and plays are being transformed into movies. After reading the play and then viewing the film, the many differences in the two can easily be seen. I believe that the final scene in Act III was better portrayed in the movie. The movie version gives the view more sympathy for John, Goody Nurse, and Martha Corey. It also tells the full and complete story, up through John's death. The Crucible is an extremely powerful play that illustrates the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials, also being a cautionary tale as to what may occur in any community.

 

The Crucible

    I thought the crucible was a good movie.  It helped explain the book a lot better, for me at least.  However the movie was really crazy.  When I read the book, for a long time I actually beleived what the teenage girls were saying, was true.  Now that I have observed the movie, and witnessed the craziness that took place in salem, I find it very hard to understand how the judges could beleive the stuff that was coming out of the girls mouths.  I don't get it, if the girls were seen dancing aroud a fire in the woods, why would anyone beleive what they had to say.  They should've been the ones that were penalized in the end.  I respect Reverend Hale for realizing that the people that were accused were all inocent.  It was completely obvious that Abigail was pretending, and giving false information.  How could you hang Rebecca Nurse?  She was the most religious person in Salem.  The events that took place in the movie were out of control, but it was still a good movie.

Public Notice 3

The Art Institute of Chicago's latest addition is the Public Noice 3 by Jitish Kallat. This peace of contemporary art presents Swami Vivekananda's exact speech given in Fullertin Hall on 9-11-1893. The speech is spelled out in colored lights on the same steps it was given on. The red, green, blue, yellow and orange LED lights used are meant to represent the collor coded warning system for terrorism established on 9-11-2001. Jitish Kallat did this to enhance the connection between the antiterotist message put forth about tolerance and the vicious attacks on america made on the same day 108 years later. This peace of functional art particularlt spoke to me because of its ingenious way of linking two historic moments.    

Art Institute

    I saw a lot of really cool art at the art institute and one of my favorite artists that we learned about is Felix Gonzalez- Torres. One of his pieces that we say was event'sand dates that went around the wall. Some of the events were just big things that happened in the world and some were personals things that he was going through. Our gide told us about another one of his piece's that wasn't up at the moment. It is a 175 pound pile of candy. He designed it after his life partner died of aids. He wanted it to be 175 pounds because that was his partners ideal body weight. Also the candy symbolizes how his partner was fun and sweet and brought joy to people. When it is up people are encouraged to take a piece of candy which i think is cool because usually your not allowed to touch anything. At night the museum replenishes the candy trying to get it back to the ideal weight.

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/152961?search_id=63

Movie vs. Play

The play 'The Crucible' is a lot different than the movie version of it. In the play, a lot of the intense dramadic scenes (ex: the last scene when John Proctor is sentenced to death) take place inside while in the movie, they're outside. Being outside makes it less intense in my mind, just because it's visual, and there a lot of other things going on outside that might distract the viewer. Also it's more open and seems less suspenseful. When you're inside for a scene that, it feels more trapped like you can't get out of the situation, and it makes the viewer more intrigued.

Do You Think With Your Mind Or Heart?

- Breaking Up With Chicago.

 

You will always be my forever first love MY Chicago.

But I am tired of loveing you.

Your strong arms come in light- medium- and dark with atittudes of jerks

minds of cheaters, lovers, romantics, and haters.

Claustrophobic Chicago..

So small you can fit everyone in your size 8 shoes so we dont expand nor get smaller.

Smell your different scents from masculine to feminine.

I am tired of loving you MY Chicago.

Bipolar Chicago.!

Its because your skin is soft.. and your hair is long..

Its because your style is different and your lips are full..

Because I can read your insides and bring them out..

Because I cant turn your frowns upside down..

Always I will love you Chicago!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But I cant love you forever..

I cant hold on to you when your not mine to hold on to.

I cant hold on to what once was that, im not sure i want to rekindle.

Chicago you have been my weakness for far too long, and I will never be able to draw rainbows if your steady giving me gray chalk...

You will always be my forever first love; Chicago.

 

- signed Asia G.

Would You Confess To Something That You Knew You Didn't Do?

Well from The Crucible people were lying, being accused, hanged, pressed to death. Blood and tears were shedded in this play. I feel sorry for the people who were hanged knowing that they didnt do anything like that hurts me. It shows that people don't know how what to believe. Like why would they believe a kid over a adult? I respect those who were hanged because they didnt want to live their life on in society with a bad reputation of being a witch. Much respect goes out to you people. Honestly I would do the same thing to cause you only live a life once so make the most of it and don't get caught up in lies, betrayal, accusing and interfering with the courts. Die being honest to yourself and don't life a lie knowing that deep inside you wasn't a witch. This applies to everything in life.

The Great Art INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO..."bring your own lunch"

    The Art Institute of Chicago is great. There are many types of art there. I liked the furniture the most. Some of the furniture had legs that looked like a birds feet. Also the paintings are really well done and rage from the 1800-1899. They were many sculpturers of women with nothing on, so i dont think little kids should be able to see that type of art. The one sculpture I liked the most was made by Thomas Ball. The decorative art really caught my eye. The coolest part of the Art Institute is the colorful stairs that was a speach. The Art Institute is a great way to spend a day, I hope you visit all the amazing art work. artists

Art Institute Field Trip

The stairs at the art institute were very nice. I've never seen writing on stairs, and along with that, the writings were lighted up, sort of looking like New York at night. They were saying random regular english words. There weren't any other languages written on the stairs. The stairs didn't have anything to do with any historic events. It was something that made the art institute alot more interesting. The historic art items and pictures were nice, but the stairs were real nice. Of course when I was about to go up those stairs I had no choice but to take a look because of how bright they were. They weren't so bright to make you blind, but bright enough to make you look at stairs, sounds weird but its true.

Belief in Witchcraft

Although the things where done to the people who were accused of being witches are absolutely horrible, the accusers may have legitimately believed that the people they were accusing where witches. This is a articleabout a rather modern day witch-hunt that is happening in africa, although the things being done to the accused "witches" are absolutely horrible and wrong the people doing these things and the people accusing actually believe they are right.

The accuser has had family members killed in ways that would not normally be considered very harmful but possibly the extreme surprise of the deaths of family have caused these people to go and accuse others people of being witches to try and get some sort of a answer. People who believe that there is higher then the actual world are also more likely to go to witches, which has been going on here.