Burning

I think that it is sad that people are willing to set themselves on fire to get attention from their government. There should be no need for the loss of lives in any way. 


Mohamed Bouazizi & Thich Quang Duc ("The Burning Monk")


Similarities that their deaths shared:
Both burned themselves to get their government and people's attention. They wanted a more fair life. They didn't have much justice (though each for different reasons). Each of them set themselves on fire and died. 


Some of the differences were: 
Where they originated from
- Mohamed was from Tunisia and Thich was from Vietnam. 
They were from different walks of life
-Thich was a budist and Mohamed was a fruit vendor
How prepared they were
- Thich prepared for weeks and Mohamed made a split second decision


They could have taken another kind of action. 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road not Taken
Robert Frost 

Option 1/ Literary Analysis of WWI

1. My topic is about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne until he was assassinated on the 28th of June, 1914.http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/ferdinand.htm

2. A Poem on the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

   BY NIKKI GIOVANNI
   Trees are never felled . . . in summer . . . Not when the fruit . . .   
   is yet to be borne . . . Never before the promise . . . is fulfilled . . .   
   Not when their cooling shade . . . has yet to comfort . . .
   
   
   Yet there are those . . . unheeding of nature . . . indifferent to   
   ecology . . . ignorant of need . . . who . . . with ax and sharpened   
   saw . . . would . . . in boots . . . step forth damaging . . .
   
   
   Not the tree . . . for it falls . . . But those who would . . . in
   summer’s heat . . . or winter’s cold . . . contemplate . . . the   
   beauty . . .
   
   http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177840

3. "Trees are never felled . . . in summer . . . Not when the fruit . . .  is yet to be borne. . . Never before the promise . . . is fulfilled . . . Not when their cooling shade . . . has yet to comfort . . ." is saying that you would never cut down a tree until it is determined whether or not it will produce any benefits. This is like the archduke's life because he was assassinated before becoming the ruler. He didn't get a chance to produce any fruit, whether it was good or bad. "He proposed to replace Austro-Hungarian dualism with 'Trialism,' a triple monarchy in which the empire's Slavs would have an equal voice in government with the Germans and Magyars (firstworldwar.com)." This could have been a good thing for the Slavs who included the assassin's people. 

"Yet there are those . . . unheeding of nature . . . indifferent to ecology . . . ignorant of need . . . who . . . with ax and sharpened saw . . . would . . . in boots . . . step forth damaging . . ." This is describing the assassin. In this case it was Gavrilo Princip. He believed that the Slavic territories should be separate from Austria-Hungary. He and his gang thought that the best approach would be to cut down all the leaders. This was ignorant because they didn't think ahead to what could happen. This led into the Great War, which resulted in many more deaths, including some of their own people.

"Not the tree . . . for it falls . . . But those who would . . . in summer’s heat . . . or winter’s cold . . . contemplate . . . the beauty . . ." A lot of people could have benefited from a more peaceful world. To solve their problem they could have turned to a peaceful protest. They could have united other countries and people to join their cause of freedom from Austria-Hungary instead of causing war. They made the choice that brought death and devastation by cutting down the beautiful tree of peace and harmony.

The White Man's Burden and Imperialism

1. Determine what Kipling means by "the White Man's Burden."

Kipling means that the people need to take up the responsibility to raise their children so that they can join the army and help keep enemies at bay.

2. Does Kipling justify imperialism? How so?

He does not justify imperialism because he keeps describing imperialism with unappealing words.

3. Why might such a justification might be so appealing?

It might be appealing because in stanza five line two, it says “No iron rule of kings.” I know that that would sound very appealing to me if I were under an absolute monarchy.

The White Man's Burden
Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden-
Send forth the best ye breed-
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild-

Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden-
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden-
The savage wars of peace-
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden-
No iron rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go, make them with your living
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden,
And reap his old reward-
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard-
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden-
Ye dare not stoop to less-
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness.
By all ye will or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Shall weigh your God and you.

Take up the White Man's burden!
Have done with childish days-
The lightly-proffered laurel,
The easy ungrudged praise:
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers.