Of Mice and Men(1.1)

Describe and discuss the relationship between George and Lennie. What is it like?

George and Lennie have obviously known each other for a while Lennie seems to need George to help lead him, and George seems to need Lennie for company and couldn't just let him walk off for fear that Lennie wouldn't survive. They seem to be a lot less of companions and a lot more of two people stuck together out of necessity.

Discuss Lennie’s character. How is Lennie compared to different animals and what might Steinbeck be trying to suggest through these comparisons? Give specific examples.

Lennie seems to be large and strong, but also have no intellect. He seems to lack all common sense and relies on George for direction. He seems to often be compared to pack animals which follow, but cannot think for themselves. On page 3, Lennie gets compared to a horse, on page 15, George says, "Good boy" to Lennie like he is some kind of dog. all throughout the book, Lennie is compared similarly to these kinds of animals. I do not know, but my guess is that Steinbeck is suggesting either that sometimes the most capable people let others determine their future, or that given too much order and a person breaks. I will have to read and find out.

What is George and Lennie’s shared dream? What is its significance to their future? (Why is it so important?)

George and Lennie want to get a house with a few animals and a small farm/garden. This gives them the hope and will to live a new day. As far as plot goes, it gives their story meaning. It gives them something to accomplish, and something for them to work for.

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream (1.1)

What does Platt mean by “the cost of nondiscipleship”? What is the cost for us (as opposed to non-Christians)? 

The cost of nondiscipleship is that others are missing the gospel and are suffering because we are no giving everything to God. As an example, Platt uses a newspaper article with two headings. The fist talks about how Baptists just bought a 35 million dollar building, and the second, how baptists raised $5,000 for people starving in another country. Because we are no willing to sacrifice our pleasures, others are starving both physically and spiritually.

How does your reception of the Gospel and your hunger for God’s Word compare to what Platt describes?

I will admit that it is not as intense as what he describes. However, as of about a month ago, God opened my eyes to something I had not seen before and gave me an understanding that I can no longer live without. Even before this, I have valued truth for a long time. When Platt began describing how others apparently viewed the cross, I was hurt to see how little they think of it. They must forget who God is. They must forget that God stepped out of heaven and experienced mortality to save us. I am hungry, and while I have not developed the walk I wish I had, every time I read scripture, such Truth, no matter which part of the Bible, strikes a cord with me. I am not as devoted as I should.

How does the American Dream conflict with the message of the gospel?

The American Dream says you become who you want to be. Your destiny is in your own hands. The Gospel says that your future is in His hands, and you become what He wishes. However, with this understanding, we need not fear acceptance because we are God's people. If we are rejected, it is not our lives that is turned away, it is God's life that is turned away, but only if we submit as he has demanded.

Think of a way you’ve seen the American Dream played out in yourself, your desires, or in those around you.

God has blessed me with a highly active mind. For most of my life, and even to some extent today, I always planned on spending that as I wish. For example, becoming a video game designer, writer, psychologist, lawyer, engineer, or even something like a theoretical physicist. All of these are things I could see myself become, but I have not asked God if that is his will in my life.

Do you agree with what Platt says about the American church today? If yes, how have you experienced what he is talking about? If no, what has your experience been?

I have mixed feelings about this. I truly believe that it depends on the individual. I have seen any people who are not serious about God, especially in my generation. I go to a smaller church filled mostly with people who truly seek God, and talking about Scripture, Truth, and God are things we enjoy doing. We talk about personal experiences and all have been blessed by God beyond count. However, I went back to my old church in Texas this summer and attended a morning service on Sunday. I went to youth and found that most of them were checked out. The teacher would ask a question and I was the only one answering them. Also, we were talking about Jonah, which is alright, as long as it does not remain a Bible story. I felt like the youth did not care much about God or truth, and the material they were covering I had covered when I was eight. There was no growth in understanding or depth in conversation. The entire meet lacked so much compared to what I find within each by looking out of my window. However, then about a month later, I went to NAYC, and with 34,000 people (mainly youth) in one place worshiping God, I saw the move of God so strongly those three days, but what I saw more was a hunger and yearning in my generation for something to live for.

Chapter 20 questions

Who was Klemens Von Metternich and what was the Congress of Vienna and the Concert of Europe?

Metternich was an Austrian diplomat who witnessed the popular violence of the French Revolution, and was one of the people in the Congress of Vienna. That congress was a group of people with power who gathered together to restore order by insisting that Europe's dynastic rulers were the only legitimate political authority.The guiding principle of the peace was the balance of powers which basically said that no country could rise up and take over other countries.


Why was it that King Ferdinand's empire in Latin America, however, would not be restored?

When Napoleon had been defeated, local elites in the colonies who resented Spanish imperial control took advantage of the crown's weakness to push for independence.


Describe the Revolt that broke out in conservative Russia. What was it called? What were its causes?

In 1825, a group of army officers known as the Decembrists led an uprising to push the pace of reform. They did this because they believed that Russia could not live up to Alexander's promise to be the "liberator of Europe" (since he had died) without change in its social and political order.


Why were the Europeans more tolerant of the Greek and Serbian revolt against Ottoman rule?

The French and the British viewed the eastern Mediterranean as an important arena of commercial competition while Russians viewed their frontiers with the Ottoman Empire's Balkan holdings as a natural place to exert foreign influence.


Describe the events leading up to revolutions in France, Belgium, and Poland in 1830.

Louis XVIII was given the throne of France by the Congress of Vienna, which he soon succeeded his brother, Charles X. Under Charles's rule, he lost the favor of the people, and they rose up in revolution. In Belgium, the Congress of Vienna joined them to Holland to form a buffer against France. Belgium never agreed to this, and with the energy the energy from France's revolution in 1830 raised Belgian opposition.


Why was there no revolution in Great Britain?

The government was more tolerant to reform, and did so when the people demanded rather than waiting for the people to start a revolution.


Explain the process by which slavery only remained legal in the southern United States, Brazil, and Cuba. (Slavery was legal everywhere in the Atlantic world in 1770)

An abolitionist movement started in England with people beginning to spread the word of the horrors of the trade to sympathetic audiences. The Word spread through the major trade countries (considering the largest one was also the origins of the movement) and eventually virtually the whole world agreed.


Explain the emergence of new political ideologies in the 19th century.

debates about citizenship, sovereignty, and slavery made it clear that issues raised by the French Revolution were very much alive in Europe after 1815. Early nineteenth-century politics did not have parties as we know them today, but more clearly defined groups and competing doctrines, or ideologies, took shape during this time.


What were the questions posed by nationalism?

What exactly counted as a nation, who demanded a nation, and what did their demand mean?

Merchantilism

Mercantilism is the idea of constant trade in a country in which one wishes to export more than they import. This also includes the government having much control over the trade of a country meaning the money goes into the government's hands to strengthen their power over their country and possibly even surrounding ones.

The Balance of Power is the idea that European nations should not dominate one over another, but instead should meet together, and keep their power equal. If one nations becomes too powerful, the other nations will work together to keep its power under control. This also includes if one ruler is ruling multiple nations.


The Middle Passage was the section of the Transatlantic trade where slaves from Africa were being transported to America. This passage put slaves in extremely harsh conditions, and many did not survive.

Song of Roland Laisses 1-50

Thus far in The Song of Roland, we have seen Marsille devising his plan to get Charlemagne  out of Spain, even at the cost of twenty of his people. Charlemagne sends Ganelon to give Marsille his letter, but once there, Ganelon speaks with Marsille's chief adviser, and makes a pact with him to kill Roland and end the war. Ganelon then speaks blasphemy to Marsille on Charlemagne's account, but convinces Marsille to go with his plans to kill Roland.

Chapt. 18

Identify and explain ONE event that occurred in France in 1789 that would support the argument concerning the causes of the French Revolution in the first passage.

In 1789, French elites refused taxation without representation; attacked despotism, or arbitrary authority; and offered an Enlightenment-inspired program to rejuvenate the nation.

Identify and explain ONE aspect of the French Revolution that would support the argument concerning revolutionary ideas made in the second passage.

When you compare the beginning of the Revolution and the end of it (the great terror), you see two completely different worlds. In the first, you see that the people simply wish to be given fairness in exchange for their work, while in the end, they wish to rule themselves, and have become crazed against those who would even think otherwise.

Identify and explain ONE assumption that the author of the first passage would make about the causes and importance of the French Revolution that would not be shared by the author of the second passage.

The first author may have assumed the unity of the people, the middle class and the lower class, while the second author may not have seen that, but instead seen them as just arising to the needs they had.

Chapter 19

1. The Industrial Revolution in Europe began in northern Great Britain. What circumstances made this process of economic development begin there? **Try to categorize your answers in terms of economic, social, cultural, and political factors. (p. 617-621)

The economic development began in Europe because of large national capitol, interest in commercialization, no internal tolls, easy internal trade, pursuit of wealth, strong trade with well integrated domestic market, and tech style inventions.

2. What was enclosure, and why was it an important factor in the Industrial Revolution? (p. 619)

Enclosure was the action of dividing up the land into large sections. It was an important factor to the Industrial Revolution because it commercialized agriculture which equated to larger profit, but also drove farmers of smaller land off.

3. Certain industries were particularly suitable for the kinds of technological developments that encouraged industrialization. What were these, and where did they exist in Europe? (621-629)

Some of these were tech style, coal and iron, railroads, spinning mule, and the spinning jenny.

4. What was the Spinning Jenny? What was the Cotton Gin? What effect did these machines have on industrial development? (621-622)

The spinning jenny turned cotton into thread six to twenty four times faster than a hand spinner.
The cotton gin separated cotton from seeds producing pure cotton quick and easy.
These machined allowed mass production to occur.

5. Industrial development changed the nature of work and production in significant ways. What were these changes and how did they change the relations between laborers and their employers, or local producers and wider markets? (631-639)

New inventions, such as the spinning jenny and cotton gin, make it easier to produce things needed, so work becomes manning the machine rather than actually doing manual work. This made the employer to employee relationships shift from a mentor ship, a master teaching his art, to one person residing over many people.