Gibson Girl

The Gibson Girl was an idea of a woman portrayed through art by Charles Dana Gibson. This began in the 1890s and carried on for a 20 year period in the United States and Canada. The image that appeared in 1890 combined elements from the "fragile lady" and the "voluptuous woman". From the "fragile lady" the physical aspects of slender lines and a sense of respectability was taken. Form the "voluptuous woman" the large bust and hips was taken. Both of these combined with many other features created the lovely Gibson Girl. 
    The Gibson Girl was tall and skinny with an s curve figure, this often came from the corset. They had thin necks with curly and fancy hair styles. The Gibson Girl was a very high class lady and was a member of the upper class society. She was always dressed in the latest fashion. She had a calm and independent personality and she would have never participated in the suffrage movement. The Gibson Girl was also refereed to as the New Woman but she was a more popular version of that. 
    The Gibson Girl didn't involve herself in politics and she was very picky about men. Most Gibson Girls were usually single but if they were in a relationship it was with a "Gibson Man" which was a man equal to the societal level of the Gibson Girl. Since Gibson Girls were very picky about their men they would analyze them under a microscope. People argue that the Gibson Girl was the first beauty standard set for women. She showed the feminine idea of physical attractiveness. The most famous Gibson Girl was a girl named Camille Clifford. She had an 18 inch waist and was known for her walk. 

Camille Clifford: a well known Gibson Girl

Gibson Girls checking out a Gibson Man under microscope

  The Gibson Girl was talented at many things. They were athletic in sports such as biking, swimming, tennis, golf and horseback as well as talented in the arts. The Gibson Girl was often portrayed in enjoying her leisure time. In one article, The Gibson Girl, she was compared to Barbie. They both set a beauty standard but the Barbie lasted and the Gibson Girl faded away. This was probably because the Gibson Girl was specific to grown women and the Barbie was not. In this article, the Gibson Girls were compared to the Kardashians. Evelyn, Camille, and Irene were the three original Gibson Girls.

Gibson Girl shown with her talents of the violin

Gibson Girl shown being athletic as she rides her bicycle

Charles Gibson's illustration career began when he was sick as a child and his dad taught him to draw silhouettes. He figured out he was a very good artist and at 19 began working at a magazine place called life. He then started the pen and ink drawings of the Gibson Girl. At age 65 he retired from illustrating but not art.
Gibson would portray the Gibson Girls doing many different things. He showed them as being jurors to show the increasing power of women. He even designed wallpaper for bachelor's rooms. Young girls would try to model themselves after the GIbson GIrl and there would always be tons of girls lined up outside of Charles' office wanting to become a Gibson Girl. The Gibson Girls were educated and took advantage of secondary school and college. By the turn of the century women could have a higher education, this was symbolized by the college life.

Gibson Girls as jurors

The Gibson Girl era ended because views shifted when World War 1 came around. With most of the men being gone to war the women didn't need to show power over them. Also when the men came home form war they wanted women who were less proper and more fun. That is why the flappers were the next women to emerge in the 1920s. The Gibson Girl really showed the way everything changed during this era. They had time to be athletic and time to beautiful. They really set a high standard for what an upper class women had to be.



Sources:

Gibson Girl- Wikapedia

I used this source to start with to get a general understanding of what the Gibson GIrl was. It had a good description of the physical image of the GIbson Girl including her body type and what she wore and how she appeared.

Camille picture

The Gibson Girl- The Ideal Woman of the early 1900s

• I used this source for the information at the end as it talked about when and why the Gibson Girl went away due to world war 1 and the way views shifted.
• The Gibson Girls- The Kardashians of the Early 1900s
• I used this site because I liked the idea of comparing the Gibson Girl to a modern day example. They were compared to the kardashians which I think helps people understand how high class and beautiful they were.
• girls viewing men under magnifying glass picture
• The Gibson Girl
• I used this for the information it had about Charles, the artist himself. It had good information about his life and about the meaning of the girl.

• The Gibson Girl Goes to College
• I used this because it was a detailed source about the girls associated with college and the importance of education.

• The Gibson Girl’s America
• I used this source for the many good images they had with descriptions of all of the different aspects of the Gibson Girl. It showed the athletic and artistic side of her as well as the jury.

Charles Dana Gibson

I used this source for additional information specific to Charles Gibson and his work.

Other three pictures

Migration

Today after looking at several articles and graphs about migration I saw many trends. On the color wheel type graph from scientific american I noticed that most of the people would migrate to North America and Europe. I found it interesting that North America and Europe had the most people migrating away from their country also. I wonder why that is if that's where everyone seems to want to go why would they have so many people leaving those countries? And why Europe? I also am curious to know what caused the migration. I understand if it was because of a big event or crisis that occurred but if that didn't happen then what was their reasoning for migration? And a lot of the migration wasn't just a short travel it was a very long journey. I like the way all of the websites used graphs to illustrate the migration. The graphs that had a visual showing them leaving and to where they were going were better compared to the ones with just numbers and data. Looking at the color wheel graph I thought there would be a noticeable difference based on the different time periods but there wasn't. The same trend of people going to North America and Europe the most was still true. Looking at the graphs helped me understand where they were going and which areas had more immigrants than others but I want to know why and how they migrated. It would be cool to combine some of the things I looked at to where you could see where they were going with an arrow on a map and then click on the arrow and have a profile of someone saying why they were migrating.

Philanthropy

I learned that philanthropy is different from charity. When I was assigned to figure out how they are different I had no idea just how at the beginning of the year I didn't know the difference between empathy and sympathy. Philanthropy is more like empathy and charity is more like sympathy. This is because charity is like seeing a homeless person on the street, feeling bad for them and then giving them food to fix the problem right then and there. Philanthropy is more of a long term focus or vision. Like donating money to a foundation that is going to benefit the society for the future. Charity definitely seems easier to us because you can just show up and volunteer which still makes a difference but all of the successful philanthropists had millions of dollars to give away. Not everyone has the money to do that with but everyone does have the ability to help like with charity. So if our world has enough of both people with the money to donate and people willing to help then I think it can make a huge difference. It was interesting to see how much the philanthropists gave away, most of them gave well over half of their money away which is such a bold and selfless act. I feel like a lot of people that have tons of money like that don't have the selfless attitude to give away their money which is sad because there's no way they can spend all the money they have so they may as well use it to benefit others and the future. It is really important to think about what we can do to make the future better and help out others whether it be through philanthropy or charity. Without the major philanthropists that I learned about our world today would look a lot different. I never realized the impact that they had.

The Bradley Martin Ball

1. The whole front page is about the ball. They assume they want the readers to know about the costumes and decorations. They think this is important and exciting.
2.  It was a sort of praising perspective, she is bragging on the ball. The way she describes it it seems to be amazing and she described everything so detailed in a positive way. We can learn that the ball was so well put together and everyone loved it and everyone should have been there.
3. The ball was criticized by a minister because he thought the ball was bad and that displaying wealth like that was ill and non christian. The newspaper probably showed his views because they were so different from everyone else's but it made sense as to why he didn't approve of it.
4.  We can learn that the society was very gossipy and they really enjoyed the ball and can't stop talking about it. They also seemed to be obsessed with their costumes and appearances and they all got to take photographs to remember the ball.

Thinking About Success

I would rank them like this:
1. Hard Work
2. Skill
3. Opportunity
4. Luck

I rank them this way because you don't have to be naturally skilled to be successful. You can work to get there. Hard work is vital to being successful because hard work always pays off and it is something you have control over. I ranked skill next because being skillful at what you're doing is important for success but you can work hard to be skillful. Then I ranked opportunity next because you don't always have to have the perfect opportunity to be successful. You hear stories all the time about the unskilled underdog becoming successful because of their determination. You don't need to sit around waiting for the perfect opportunity to be successful, you need to put it into action with your skill that came from hard work. Luck comes last because you can't rely on getting lucky to be successful. Sure, some people that you don't expect to be successful end up being so and you think wow they got lucky maybe I will. But you can't plan for luck or opportunity which is why I ranked them last.

fast fashion- good or bad?

I have learned from this article that the reason Uniqlo, Zara, and H and M are so successful is because they are able to know what their costumers want and will like before they even make the product. They are also successful because they sell some of their products at marked down prices. H and M has 20-30 offices that are close to their stores which really helps them. I also learned from this article that it was hard to figure out the top supply chain innovations because they didn't have clear origins or it was a combined innovation. It was interesting to see that Toyota and Ford were on the top 10 list because they are very popular and well known for their success and quality cars. The fedex tracking system was also on the list and that is interesting because fedex doesn't seem like that big of an innovation but for it to add a tracking system was huge. After hearing about how successful fast fashion was I looked up why it was bad and found this article. It said that fashion is wearing out the world with cotton and pesticides. Because fast fashion requires fast laborers it is said that there is slavery for fast fashion and often times they can't even keep up with the work pace. It also said that they have bad working conditions. So while fast fashion is good for the customers it is not good for the people and economy fast fashion is coming from. Many of the fabrics and dyes used are even toxic.. that's awful for the people working! They need to find a more fair and safe way to export all of their products. It is hard to decide whether fast fashion is good or bad. I can't imagine the fashion industry without it but it is not good because of what it is doing to the workers and the economy.

Views on Indians

https://archive.org/stream/conciseschoolhis02camp#page/n29/mode/2up

Savage is cruel and vicious; aggressively hostile. Savagery is the quality of being fierce or cruel. 

Today I looked at an old textbook and read what it had to say about indians. Then I searched for what it had to say when I typed in the word savage. I also looked up the definition for savage and savagery. 

If I was a student reading this textbook, it would shape my view of the Indians in a negative way. This is because the way they talk about them using the word savage and talking about all of the conflict that they caused and the warfare. It would call it "savage warfare" and "savage chieftain".  It also talked about the savages killing and capturing people. All just awful things. So if this is what I read to get a view of the Indians it would be very negative because it sounds like all they do is cause trouble. It talked about how people would go to the Indians and force them to supply things for them such as corn so this also shows that people were just using the Indians. However when they described what the Indians looked like at first it talked about them in a positive way. It said they were very revengeful and it said they thought war was the most honorable employment. It said they would also burn prisoners and torture them even more. Once again all negative things about the Indians.

Diary Entry

This newspaper really meant a lot to me because I know several of the Indians from Walla Walla and it upsets to me read about how they are being taken to a new reservation. I really hope that they find a way to have peace but the chances of that sound slim from reading this. I don't think it is fair that they don't have food prepared for them because food is a necessity and I really feel bad for them. I hope that since this is in the news that maybe there will be some people willing to help them out. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that there are nice Indians out there like the ones that helped get the stuff back that was stolen. Our community needs more people like that. On a more positive note, I really liked the advertisements in this newspaper. We actually have friends in town right now that are staying at the Parker House and we went to eat with them last night at the Walla Walla restaurant. I am pleased with what this newspaper is doing with our community. It is informing people about what is going which is a good thing and I really like the advertisements included. They are all the things that I would want for someone new or visiting to know about. I wish there wasn't so much negative going on but I guess it's good that the newspaper talks about it because it informs the community.

Old newspapers concerning Indian conflicts

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96061149/1879-05-09/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1865&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Indian+Indians&searchType=basic&sequence=1&index=1&state=Oregon&date2=1880&proxtext=Indian&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2

In the newspaper I read from Oregon called the Daily Astorian from 1879 talked about how a group of Indians from Walla Walla will be placed on a new reservation when Chief Moses arrives. They don't think there will be peace because feeding the Indians hasn't been arranged yet. No one has confidence in Wilbur, the agent of the reserve. There will be no peaceful solution of the Indian Northwestern question. There were Indian murderers that escaped from jail have finally been recaptured. There was a group of nice Indians that helped get the stuff back that was stolen and in the process 2 of the Indians were killed. The new reservation is unpopular.

The newspaper is about 3/4 advertisements. The newspaper also talked about California adopting the new constitution which the mining companies are against and the agricultural ones are for it.

Social Media vs Newspaper

Our use of social media is selective and intentional so that we tend to remain interested in only things we've already been interested in, whereas newspapers expose readers to information on a broad range of topics. This can can connect communities by providing information about what others may be interested in. It may raise questions I never thought to ask.

Newspaper Exhibits homework

3.  A newspaper is A  publication, usually issued daily or weekly, containing current news, editorials, feature articles, and usually advertising. 
4. In Boston in 1690 is where and when newspapers first came into existence. 
5.  Some of the very oldest newspapers in the us are : 

• The New Hampshire Gazette (1756)
• The Hartford Courant (1764 - the oldest daily)
• The Register Star (Hudson, NY) (1785)
• The Poughkeepsie Journal (1785)
• The Augusta Chronicle (1785)

6. The Wall Street Journal- 

had big titles such as:

Dell to buy EMC for 67 billion

Barclays to name American its CEO
A lot of the titles include shocking news with words like tension,shooting,rebel,stolen

7. 

A "newspaper of record" is a  major newspaper that has a large circulation. Such as:

New York Times in 1913

Also the Washington Post

8. Looking at a newspaper is different to stay connected rather than our social media because it includes all areas. When using social media we pick what we want to look at or read about. When having a newspaper you at least see it all even if you don't read it. Having it in your hands reading it means you are more committed to learning about the news because thats all you're doing but when you're on your phone there are so many other things you could be doing. The invention of social media has totally downgraded newspaper reading and caused people to stop it entirely. A newspaper makes you more involved with your town and nation than social media does.

Native American Clothing Controversy

There has been a lot of controversy dealing with fashion and Native Americans. I learned off of a USA Today article that the Native Americans get very offended when other companies use their stuff. I had never thought about it that way because you see tribal print products all over the place and just assume its a print that people like. For example Victorias Secret had an issue because one of the models wore an Indian head piece in the fashion show. It's interesting because the people in charge don't think twice about what they are producing and then they get a complaint about how people feel offended by it and then it's too late and they're in trouble. I personally feel like it shouldn't be an issue for someone to wear something that is from another country or tribe because they could just like the product and not have any intention of causing trouble. However, when empathizing with the people that feel offended, I can see where they are coming from.

When I was researching I saw another article that talked about how a Native American personally felt about Gwen Stefani's music video "Looking Hot". The Native American felt that Gwen Stefani portrayed a bad example of a Native American woman. It was interesting to read the interview with the Native American woman because she really stood up for the way she felt. She said, "I know some people think this is overreacting and that Native people are whining again" She knows the way society thinks about Native Americans and she wants them to know that she is truly offended by this. If I was in that position I would not think to report it and make a big deal about it but you need people in the world to do that so that they Native Americans can try and preserve their culture. 

It is fascinating to research controversy because you find yourself wondering which side you agree with.  Personally, for the first topic about the model I do not feel like it is an issue because she's just wearing the clothing. But for the music video I can understand where the Native American woman is coming from because the music video is portraying Native American women in a negative light. 

 

1st Quarter Reflection

     I have learned a lot from this class just in the first quarter. I have learned simply more about history, but I have also learned new thinking and tech skills. As far as history goes, I now have more knowledge about how bad slavery really was. I really enjoyed the movie 12 Years a Slave because that is what made me realize the truths about slavery. It answered and cleared up a lot of questions that I have had over the years when we study slavery because it was always briefly mentioned. I also learned that slavery had a lasting impact. I thought it was so cool to see how the states that had a high percentage of slavery are now some of the poorest states. I had never thought to connect those together and never realized how many aspects of life slavery affects. This quarter we discussed empathy and sympathy a lot. At first I was very confused on the difference and had no clue how we were going to incorporate it with our learning. I learned a lot from it, I had never deeply thought about what it meant to empathize with people especially people in history. Being able to empathize is a new thinking skill that I have learned and since learning it, I have already applied it to other situations outside of US History. Another skill that I have strengthened is being able to paraphrase and quote effectively. This had always been challenging to me because I know it is easy to mess up and plagiarize so I was scared to do it, but now I feel more comfortable incorporating them into my writing like I did on the essay. 

     I have also learned new tech skills this quarter such as hyperlinking. In my past writing we usually just had to refer to the source, but this year in this class I have learned how to put the source directly into my writing by hyperlinking. An area of strength for me has been being able to empathize and understand how the people in the situation felt and incorporating quotes in my writing. This quarter I have also been on top of doing the worksheets and trying to understand them. However, an area where I think I can grow is to make connections and draw conclusions from what we are studying. I struggle to see the reasoning of some of it and how it connects to other aspects of history or even how it connects to life today. I hope that I am able to develop the skill to be able to do that. This quarter I feel like what we studied just became more clear. I had heard about most of the topics and knew little parts of them but after studying them I have a clear understanding of them. I like and hope to continue investigating topics that have a lasting impact such as slavery. It is interesting to me to see how it connects to our country today and how our country today came to be. I liked the essay we did where we had research going into it so I hope we continue to do that. I will tell you that usually I don't obtain information from history classes well because they are usually lectures and boring to me. But this year I have really enjoyed what we have been doing in class because it is engaging and gets my mind thinking in a different way. Therefor I have learned a lot so far and can remember the topics we have been discussing which is a goal I had set for myself this year. It makes me more interested to learn history when it is presented in an engaging way and when I am interested in it I can then see the values of studying it. 

Film Essay

Movies are a great way to portray information. I know personally, it helps me so much to be able to see what I am learning. If we were discussing slavery, it would help me to be able to see what it was like so I can have a mental image and also to develop empathy towards the people that were going through that. You can develop analytical skills, explore real events, circumstances, and attitudes from watching movies. Movies are great for students and are great for sensitive topics because they let our mind do what it wants to do which is to feel emotions towards the characters or to feel emotion for them,

When I watch movies I am often times persuaded into thinking something different or having a different outlook on that topic after I have seen the movie. Movies develop analytical skills by getting you to be so invested into their movie and what they are saying that you start to believe it and almost feel like you are a part of it. For instance, slavery is a very sensitive topic and every student learns about it but we never really understand how graphic and bad it really is. After watching 12 Years a Slave I feel that I have a better understanding of slavery and what it was like to be a slave or slave owner. That is exactly what the filmmaker, Steve McQueen, wanted us to get out of it. In an interview with Elvis Mitchell he said, “I wanted to throw the audience into the deep end at the beginning...so the film dives right into slavery.” 12 Years a Slave was so impacting because it did not sugar coat slavery, the filmmaker really wanted us to realize what it was actually like and in order to do that you have to empathize with the characters and put yourself in their shoes to possibly realize what it is like. 12 Years a Slave made us feel that way by the way the film was presented which it won several awards for such as Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role and so many more. A critic on the movie, Henry Louis Gates Jr. said, “One of the most amazing and succesful things the film does is show the way that slavery dehumanizes the master as well as the slave…” This was shown by Epps and Patsy in the movie. Epps obviously had feelings for Patsy but he was mad that he did so he beat her. The issue with slavery movies is that the filmmaker has to chose how graphic and detailed they can let it be without traumatizing the audience. Steve Mcqueen does a good job of balancing that out, I never felt like it was too much for myself to handle but it definitely had an impact on my view of slavery. From avforums, a critic said “12 Years a Slave doesn’t really attempt to get under your skin… but peeling away at you until you’re flayed to the bone.” I disagree, I feel that the movie did get under my skin and make me unconfortable in  a way because I did not realize how bad slavery truely was. I think that 12 years a Slave did a better job than Glory as far as getting us to feel what the characters are feeling goes.

The movie Glory was more about getting a great message across rather than getting us to empathize with the soldiers. This movie was much easier to watch because we have studied war in depth throughout our history classes but it was helpful to see it actually happening. The movie made me feel proud for the soldiers even though they ended up dying. Which sounds wrong but the way the movie was presented let us have hope for the soldiers and let us feel happy for them. The movie won many awards and two of those are best actor in supporting role and best cinematography. The movie got the message across that the soldiers may have died and struggled but they did it together. I don’t think I would be able to get that out of reading about the war but when I was able to see it and see how the soldiers interacted I was able to take that message away which is what the filmmaker wanted. Ed Zwick, the filmmaker said, “The fundamental focus of the film is not Shaw and the rest of the officers but the coming together of the regiment in all aspects” The movie did exactly this. We were able to see how the regiment affect them in all sorts of ways, it was so interesting to watch the soldiers trust each other and to watch them grow and make progress. Like I said, unless it was written out saying how the soldiers died but the fact that they died together is the point I would not get it. Thanks to the great filmmaking, I was able to take more out of it.

When filmmakers are making their decisions about movies such as these two they have to chose how historically accurate it is going to be. Both of these movies were mostly historically accurate but they both had some tweaks just like most movies do. However, they had less tweaks than most making them some of the most accurate movies. A critic from the New York Times said, “Glory is the first serious movie about the civil war to be made in years.” I think it is important for the movie to be serious to really take something out of it. For 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen said, “If I was to illustrate the book...it would be far worse than what I filmed.” So the filmmaker had to tone it down a bit to please the audience. Yes we still got to see how bad slavery really was but we even know and can imagine based off of what we’ve seen that it was even worse. Even if the movies alter the events a little bit as long as we know that I think it is ok to view the movie because then we can discover the truth and use our imagination for that truth. Movies often lead me to wanting to know more about it so then I go do research and learn so much more about it. So movies also provoke us to want to know more leading us to accurate research. Both of these movies were very successful and both earned a lot of awards because the way they demonstrated the truth.

I think movies are a great way of showing circumstances because they let us see and feel what it was like. I would be disappointed if we were not allowed to see movies at school about history because I want to be able to realize how the people in the circumstances felt. Movies allow us to use our mind to empathize with the situation and people and from that we have a better understanding of the situation.

money/budget

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus

awards/rating

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/awards?ref_=tt_awd

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/awards?ref_=tt_awd

critics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/gloryrhowe_a0b24a.htm

https://www.avforums.com/review/12-years-a-slave-blu-ray-review.10314

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/22/henry-louis-gates-jr-talks-12-years-a-slave-and-the-african-americans/

historical accuracy

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE4D8113FF937A25751C1A96F948260

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/12-years-a-slave-historical-accuracy_n_3982388.html

interview

http://www.historynet.com/basking-in-two-decades-of-glory.htm

http://tech.mit.edu/V109/N60/zwick.60a.html

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/steve-mcqueen-1/

Updating

We talked about how to use incorporate paraphrases and quotes and now I feel confident enough to do it on my own.

Practicing Incorporating a Quotaion

The film, Glory, is a very serious and accurate movie about the Civil War. It recognizes the highlights but also shows how serious the war really was. It made me feel bad for the soldiers to watch how they were treated and to watch them be underestimated due to their race. The movie really showed the happy things that happened but it also didn't avoid the bad, sensitive things that other movies tend to leave out. The New York Times said, ''Glory'' is celebratory, but it celebrates in a manner that insists on acknowledging the sorrow." This is a good quote because it talks about both the good and bad that occured in war which was accurately presented in the movie. It is important that the movie acknowledged the sorrow because a lot of movies and authors tend to leave that out because they don't want to put people down or show how bad the war really was.

This is what Mrs. Lawson wanted me to learn today:

• Only use a quote when it adds power and style to my writing
• Always make it clear, from context, that I understand the full meaning of the quote
• Whether I quote or paraphrase, always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it
• If I use another author's exact words or phrases, to any extent, I have to use quotation marks and give credit
• If I use another author's presentation or facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, I better have a good reason for doing that, and I MUST give credit
• Hyperlinking is so easy, there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources

I think I need a little bit more practice to be confident that I can do it correctly. What is the difference from exact words and an authors presentation of words?

Paraphrase Practice

"The attack on Fort Wagner, which is the climax of the movie, comes as close to anything I've ever seen on screen to capturing the chaos and brutality that were particular to the Civil War battles. Weapons maimed as often as they killed. Soldiers were so disciplined that they marched in firm lines into the sights of guns fired at point-blank range. Hand-to-hand combat was commonplace." This is from New York Times.

Below I am going to paraphrase this passage:

The turning point of the film which was the attack on Fort Wagner is the most accurate scene of the craziness and violence from the battles of the Civil War that I have ever witnessed. The firearm that was used both injured and slaughtered. Due to the soldiers training, they stomped in straight, perfect lines into the visions of firearms being fired at close distances. Violence which where the men were fighting other men close-up was natural. 

Empathy vs. Sympathy

I have learned that there is a difference between empathy and sympathy. I learned in class that empathy is the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thoughts, altitudes to another or the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. I learned that sympathy is the feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. It is possible to empathize with someone even though you have not experienced what they are going through because I can use my imagination and picture what it would be like. You have to put apart all of your own opinions and views on their situation to be able to fully empathize because you could possibly not agree with the circumstances. We did a worksheet that described we read about two communities that experienced moral decisions. One community people were conspiring to save Jews and the other community was killing Jews. The community that was killing Jews is not moral and I do not agree with it, nor have I ever experienced that but it is possible to empathize with. It is really hard to empathize with but I can put myself into the community that was killing jews' shoes and see where they are coming from. It is definitely not comfortable to empathize with them because I do not agree with it, but if I put aside my own opinions and realize their purpose behind it I can empathize with them. Being able to empathize is important for studying history because you need to be able to understand their position and why they made the decisions they did based upon their situation. It helps to be able to put yourself into their mind and understand.