Reflection on Semester 1

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 2^nd 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.