I was pleasantly
surprised to learn that there was more work and strategy involved in the making
and selling of clothing. As seen in the store, Zara, it was interesting to see
how there a little luck involved in clothing sales. It was also interesting to
see how this luck related to the business tycoons, such as Vanderbilt,
Carnegie, and Rockefeller. These business tycoons were lucky in that the
products they were trying to market was “in style” that day, similar to how
Zara worked. This idea was also unpleasantly surprising to me in that these
business tycoons weren’t necessarily working harder than others, but that they
were in the right place at the right time. This portrays an idea of unfairness
and in my opinion, I think there should be more hard work visible in the works
of these business tycoons.
Something I am
going to remember are the films we watched in class. It was eye-opening
experience to me to see the way opinions and ideas can be conveyed through
movies. I am a huge believer in the idea that books can convey ideas and
opinions and movies are a depiction of books. And, it is hard to appreciate the
true meaning of the movie, or story, without having the book to supplement it.
After watching Glory and 12 Years a Slave, that belief changed
that. I still remember the first scene after Solomon was kidnapped and the
drastic punishment he had to go through because he had called himself a free
black man. In a white man’s eyes at the time, this was not okay.
I also enjoyed the
2nd quarter Research Project I did on Artifact Collecting. I think a
concept that Americans still have trouble with is directly related to the
concept of collecting artifacts. Americans struggled with this concept because
of the idea, “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers.” From this, collectors who would
search for artifacts on Native American grounds felt that if they found
something, they could keep it and sell it as they wish. However, the
descendents of the Native Americans felt that their ancestors’ artifacts should
not be disturbed and they should instead be restored to the location and not
dug up. This created rift between the collectors and Native Americans that is
still seen today.
I think the period
between 1865 and 1920 would be called “The Discovery Period.” After the Civil
War, the United States had lost its sense of nationality and the idea of a
unified country. Instead, it split up into two regions with very distinct
beliefs. The biggest distinction being that most of the South believed and
supported slavery and most of the North opposed the idea of slavery. After the
Civil War, in which the North had won, the South became sore losers and had
created their own “White Pride” as it was called. Both sides had discovered
their identities. But, after both had agreed to abolish slavery, the United
States had to figure out who exactly they were and what they wanted. During the
Industrial Supremacy time, the United States began to see themselves like a
melting pot, which many of the immigrants coming from Europe and Asia. As the
United States began to industrialize, the United States began to be a country
with many different people in various types of topographical regions with the
rural regions and the city and urban regions. This “forced” many people of
American to make relations with people of different ethnicities. It made people
discover that America is a place where people of different ethnicities could
come together and share values and moral beliefs, instead of a rift between
religions.
