The truth of war
What He Became
Mady Brand
Painting on Canvas
April 2017
In my art piece, I portray a little boy on a swing in the presence of a graveyard. Written in the lower right are the words, “What he went through created the man he became”. Black and white provide a creepy feel, since the people I studied for this project give their audience that same effect. The boy represents the past of a dictator, while the graveyard represents his future.
Originally for this project, I wanted to write. I took elements of the lives of various dictators to construct my own. Once I had a good idea of who my dictator was, I tried to concoct a story that would tell my listeners about dictators and their choices in war, but I found that I didn’t know where to start. I thought about the most important messages I wanted to convey: their actions lead to suffering and their lives created the people that they became. I kept seeing a man with soldiers or a graveyard, but I came to realized that using a young boy could so much better convey what I wanted to tell.
Learning that Hitler wanted to have a career in the fine arts inspired the truth that dictators weren’t born to be the people we know them as, their lives shaped them into who they became. Tsar Nicholas II never wanted to rule and Stalin went to seminary school to become a priest. I also wanted to convey the truth that as dictators, they caused suffering both for the people whom they inflicted war upon and the people whom they ruled because dictators run the show; it's by their word that harm is done.
Creating this art piece has allowed me to understand that not every single detail will always be important; sometimes details can be combined into a single powerful truth. With the writing piece, there was so much that I wanted to include, I couldn’t begin. When it became a painting, I had to condense what I wanted to tell my audience which I feel is more artistic because it leaves room for interpretation.
Mady Brand
Painting on Canvas
April 2017
In my art piece, I portray a little boy on a swing in the presence of a graveyard. Written in the lower right are the words, “What he went through created the man he became”. Black and white provide a creepy feel, since the people I studied for this project give their audience that same effect. The boy represents the past of a dictator, while the graveyard represents his future.
Originally for this project, I wanted to write. I took elements of the lives of various dictators to construct my own. Once I had a good idea of who my dictator was, I tried to concoct a story that would tell my listeners about dictators and their choices in war, but I found that I didn’t know where to start. I thought about the most important messages I wanted to convey: their actions lead to suffering and their lives created the people that they became. I kept seeing a man with soldiers or a graveyard, but I came to realized that using a young boy could so much better convey what I wanted to tell.
Learning that Hitler wanted to have a career in the fine arts inspired the truth that dictators weren’t born to be the people we know them as, their lives shaped them into who they became. Tsar Nicholas II never wanted to rule and Stalin went to seminary school to become a priest. I also wanted to convey the truth that as dictators, they caused suffering both for the people whom they inflicted war upon and the people whom they ruled because dictators run the show; it's by their word that harm is done.
Creating this art piece has allowed me to understand that not every single detail will always be important; sometimes details can be combined into a single powerful truth. With the writing piece, there was so much that I wanted to include, I couldn’t begin. When it became a painting, I had to condense what I wanted to tell my audience which I feel is more artistic because it leaves room for interpretation.
IMPERIALISM ON TRIAL
We started this project with learning about the Cold War where we examined different events that occurred during that time period. Then, we zoomed in on the Vietnam War by learning about the event that started the United State’s involvement in the war, the Gulf of Tonkin incident. We read select chapters of the book “The Things They Carried” which is a collection of related short stories of a unit of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. In “The Things They Carried”, we were told by author Tim O’Brien of what a true war story is in addition to war stories of his own. It taught us that true war stories tell what the war was like as opposed to what happened. In this portion of the project, we discussed chapters with our peers and concluded with a final seminar about the book. Veterans came in and told us about the Vietnam War and answered our questions. For our final product, we researched a war-related topic that interested us and created an art piece based on a message we wanted to share about that topic.
This project has changed how I will go about completing a project in the future. I had a hard time deciding what type of art I wanted to create for this project. When we began, I had loads of ideas for story I wanted to write, except a place to start. I felt locked within my project and that because I had chosen to write a story, that’s what I had to do.Trying to write a story just wasn’t working. So while I continued to think up a plan for my story, I thought of other things I could do for my project. I was hesitant to change the type of art I was doing because it felt like I was quitting, but I realized that I could use elements that I wanted to include in my story in my painting. The overarching truths of my story became the overarching truths of my painting. This experience taught me that I don’t always have to stick to my plan, sometimes I need to change things in order to make progress. This lesson will allow future me to stop letting her plans weigh her down.
As I understand it, in there are two kinds of truth when it comes to war: the facts and the emotions. It’s those who didn’t go through the war that tell the story by its facts and expect the facts when asking those who did go through the war about their experiences. On the other hand, it’s those who experienced the war that know the story by its emotions; to them, the war wasn’t about what literally happened, it’s about what they went through on this inside. The thing about truth in war is that, what the truth will be all depends on who is telling the story.
This project has changed how I will go about completing a project in the future. I had a hard time deciding what type of art I wanted to create for this project. When we began, I had loads of ideas for story I wanted to write, except a place to start. I felt locked within my project and that because I had chosen to write a story, that’s what I had to do.Trying to write a story just wasn’t working. So while I continued to think up a plan for my story, I thought of other things I could do for my project. I was hesitant to change the type of art I was doing because it felt like I was quitting, but I realized that I could use elements that I wanted to include in my story in my painting. The overarching truths of my story became the overarching truths of my painting. This experience taught me that I don’t always have to stick to my plan, sometimes I need to change things in order to make progress. This lesson will allow future me to stop letting her plans weigh her down.
As I understand it, in there are two kinds of truth when it comes to war: the facts and the emotions. It’s those who didn’t go through the war that tell the story by its facts and expect the facts when asking those who did go through the war about their experiences. On the other hand, it’s those who experienced the war that know the story by its emotions; to them, the war wasn’t about what literally happened, it’s about what they went through on this inside. The thing about truth in war is that, what the truth will be all depends on who is telling the story.
We started this project by reading and analyzing the book Things Fall Apart. After the book, we looked into imperialism to build up an understanding of the interactions between Europeans and Africa during the time period in which this book is meant to take place. Through this, we discovered that European nations raced to claim parts of Africa for their own benefit.This prepared us for a mock trial on whether the British are responsible for the death of Okonkwo, the main character of Things Fall Apart. Each of us took on a different role necessary to perform the trial.
I took on the role of “witness” in our mock trial, portraying Nwoye’s Mother while speaking for Okonkwo. Before the trial, this role entailed writing an affidavit from Okonkwo’s perspective, for which the court could examine Okonkwo’s experience before he died, to add to the information necessary for making the final decision. I also found information on Nwoye’s Mother to know which relevant events in the book she was present for and to know how to portray her. During the trial, as Nwoye’s Mother, I was asked to read from the affidavit of Okonkwo and answer questions about the Ibo culture as well as Okonkwo himself.
The most important skill that this project allowed me to develop is writing. Being asked to write an affidavit, I got to practice writing from a first person perspective and how to manipulate the information that I have been provided with into a condensed piece, written as someone else would write it. I was also given the opportunity to work on my collaboration skills, since, as a witness, I worked very closely with an “attorney”. This gave me the opportunity to practice fairly dividing the shared workload. It also allowed for more perspectives on what’s important to include in Okonkwo’s affidavit for the final product.
The most enduring understanding that I will take away from this project is the deeper and truer understanding that I now have of slavery. Previously, I had always thought that racism was part of the cause of Europeans owning African slaves, that for some reason what caucasians saw on the outside meant that they could treat different peoples inhumanly. It had never occurred to me that racism, rather than caused slavery, actually came from it. I would have never known that racist ideas were a made up excuse that was created to justify the enslavement and unfair treatment of the African people.
I took on the role of “witness” in our mock trial, portraying Nwoye’s Mother while speaking for Okonkwo. Before the trial, this role entailed writing an affidavit from Okonkwo’s perspective, for which the court could examine Okonkwo’s experience before he died, to add to the information necessary for making the final decision. I also found information on Nwoye’s Mother to know which relevant events in the book she was present for and to know how to portray her. During the trial, as Nwoye’s Mother, I was asked to read from the affidavit of Okonkwo and answer questions about the Ibo culture as well as Okonkwo himself.
The most important skill that this project allowed me to develop is writing. Being asked to write an affidavit, I got to practice writing from a first person perspective and how to manipulate the information that I have been provided with into a condensed piece, written as someone else would write it. I was also given the opportunity to work on my collaboration skills, since, as a witness, I worked very closely with an “attorney”. This gave me the opportunity to practice fairly dividing the shared workload. It also allowed for more perspectives on what’s important to include in Okonkwo’s affidavit for the final product.
The most enduring understanding that I will take away from this project is the deeper and truer understanding that I now have of slavery. Previously, I had always thought that racism was part of the cause of Europeans owning African slaves, that for some reason what caucasians saw on the outside meant that they could treat different peoples inhumanly. It had never occurred to me that racism, rather than caused slavery, actually came from it. I would have never known that racist ideas were a made up excuse that was created to justify the enslavement and unfair treatment of the African people.
JOURNALISM
To begin this project, we studied the news. For, I believe, nine days, our starter was to pick a news article, read it, and write about it. Seeing as we’re younger, I would assume that coming into this project, the majority of us didn't have much exposure to the news. Giving us the opportunity to experience the news through our starters allowed us to understand what kind of news is out there, see how writing for the news differs from our typical academic writing, and gave us a basis to build from for the rest of our project. Next to experiencing the news, we also examined it. We studied the concept that the news has control over what we do and do not know, whether we know the full story, and whether the knowledge that we have is accurate. Alongside that, we looked into the qualities of the news; in other words, we looked at what could potentially be used to create “good” news. The final product of this project was to take all that we’ve learned about the news and write an article for ourselves.
One of my biggest takeaways from this project is the understanding of the power of the news. My favorite quote, from “20 Years of Media Consolidation has not been Good for our Democracy”, was, “In other words, how can we have a real debate about media issues, when we depend on that very media to provide a platform for this debate?” The media is where we look to for information, so it has control over the information that we receive. The way we view the world depends on what we know about it. If the news controls what we know, then the news also has the power to persuade how we look at the world. Those who create the media are responsible for providing us with information and therefore should consider the power that they have when informing. The bias of a journalist impacts all who rely on their information. The balance or imbalance of an article influences what people think they know about a subject and how they choose to think about the subject because of it. Overall, journalists and the news impact all of us and being aware of that affects how we think about what we think we know.
The skill that this project challenged me to develop was the skill of using only the most valuable of information. I’ve always been fond of details and found it extremely difficult to leave the less important ones out of my writing. Though I still personally value lots and lots of details, I understand now that the amount of details that I’m satisfied with may not be equal to the amount of details that my audience is comfortable with. In my article, I chose to write about Broadway Musicals, and originally my summaries for the musicals that I wrote about were a page or more of many details about the plot. I was reminded of the point of writing this article alongside informing, to inspire an interest in musical theatre. This allowed me to realize that all of my details would not only bore the audience, but also completely ruin the show. I spent hours condensing the summaries into a few paragraphs filled with enough information to provide the audience with a basic understanding of the show, but also leave out enough information to leave the audience with a sense of mystery, a void of knowledge that the audience may like to fill. Being faced with which details needed to be removed was extremely challenging, but also extremely valuable to this project and my future writing.
One of my biggest takeaways from this project is the understanding of the power of the news. My favorite quote, from “20 Years of Media Consolidation has not been Good for our Democracy”, was, “In other words, how can we have a real debate about media issues, when we depend on that very media to provide a platform for this debate?” The media is where we look to for information, so it has control over the information that we receive. The way we view the world depends on what we know about it. If the news controls what we know, then the news also has the power to persuade how we look at the world. Those who create the media are responsible for providing us with information and therefore should consider the power that they have when informing. The bias of a journalist impacts all who rely on their information. The balance or imbalance of an article influences what people think they know about a subject and how they choose to think about the subject because of it. Overall, journalists and the news impact all of us and being aware of that affects how we think about what we think we know.
The skill that this project challenged me to develop was the skill of using only the most valuable of information. I’ve always been fond of details and found it extremely difficult to leave the less important ones out of my writing. Though I still personally value lots and lots of details, I understand now that the amount of details that I’m satisfied with may not be equal to the amount of details that my audience is comfortable with. In my article, I chose to write about Broadway Musicals, and originally my summaries for the musicals that I wrote about were a page or more of many details about the plot. I was reminded of the point of writing this article alongside informing, to inspire an interest in musical theatre. This allowed me to realize that all of my details would not only bore the audience, but also completely ruin the show. I spent hours condensing the summaries into a few paragraphs filled with enough information to provide the audience with a basic understanding of the show, but also leave out enough information to leave the audience with a sense of mystery, a void of knowledge that the audience may like to fill. Being faced with which details needed to be removed was extremely challenging, but also extremely valuable to this project and my future writing.
The Phantom of the Opera Quote:
As Hugh Panaro once wrote, “I sing everyone’s part backstage, so I guess I could do any of them. But they still won’t let me play Christine!”
As Hugh Panaro once wrote, “I sing everyone’s part backstage, so I guess I could do any of them. But they still won’t let me play Christine!”
This I believe
What do I believe, and why?
Audio Video with Photoshop Art Piece
"This I Believe" is an old radio show that encourages people from all walks of life to write essays about what they believe and read them for the world to hear. The people who write and narrate these essays have something that life has taught them, something that they have come to value in which they wish to share. This project has been about grasping these ideas as we have taken a look at who we are and what we as individuals have gained in our lives. What this project has taught us is how to think about what has made us who we are and how to express that in a way that people can understand and relate to.
The biggest challenge I had with this project is getting started. I was so excited to be doing such a unique project, I couldn’t wait to write my essay, but when it actually came time for me to start writing it, I had no idea what I wanted to write about. Most of the "This I Believe" essays that I had read were about these great big eye-opening events that formed something that they had strongly believed in. I kept hounding my memories to try to think of jumbo-sized events in my life and nothing. All I could think about was how my life so far had just been one collection of little things. How could little things make an essay? My dad helped me come up with an idea and I was already about to start typing when for no reason at all, it had just come to me out of nowhere that all those little things have been parts of larger things, larger journeys I’ve chosen to take and that’s when I knew I had the perfect idea that I had been looking for.
I am so happy with how happy I am about how this project turned out. For once, I am completely content with how my essay turned out. Usually I am so worried about my essays. I care so much about so many details that I am unsure about, but I when writing this essay, I didn’t feel like I was writing for any else, I felt like it was all for myself. Writing for myself has been so rewarding because I have made the essay as I want it, not how I think someone else would like it to be and I couldn’t be happier about it. I think what I’m most happy with is how personal this project has been. Going into this project, I expected it to be personal and about ourselves, but I didn’t expect it to feel so personal; it feels as though I literally took a chunk of myself and put it into the perfect configuration of words.
This project has opened my mind to what it means to believe. I’ve always thought about believing as a very concrete one side or the other opinion on something that requires faith. Beliefs to me have always been about God, magic, or other things that can’t just be proved by what you see every day. Through this project, I have found that beliefs aren’t just about trusting that things are out there, they are also about knowing what’s out there. A belief is something that you have found to be true, something that you commonly accept as the truth. Believing is about telling the world and telling yourself what life has taught you.
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