The Age of Reason
The period from 500-323 B.C. is the Classical or Hellenic age of Greek civilization. As Kreis states, "The brilliance of the Classical Greek world rested on a blend of the old and the new. From the past came a profound religious belief in the just action of the gods and the attainment of virtue in the polis." Such a history helped develop a specific Greek "mind" in which the importance of the individual and a rationalistic spirit were paramount ("The Enlightenment").
The Classical Greek world was, in essence, "a skillful combination of these qualities" ("The Classical Age"). However, according to "The History of Greece," When we think of ancient Greece and the ancient Greeks, it is usually the 5th century which commands our undivided attention. This is the age when the Greeks embraced their brilliant experiment in direct democracy. Amazing monuments to human achievement were constructed in Athens and other Hellenic city-states: "It is an age of human discovery and achievement – an age which proudly bears the name classical" (Kreis). According to the "History of Greece," the Greeks also created the concept (if not quite the reality) of political freedom: "The state was conceived as a community of free citizens who made laws in their own interest. As a direct democracy, for example, the Athenian citizen discussed, debated and voted on issues that affected him directly." The Greek discovery that man (the citizen) is capable of governing himself was a profound one. |
Theobald Von Oer's Weimar's Courtyard of the Muses
(Brittner)
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Works Cited
Brittner, T. "The Enlightenment." Mr. Brittner's Site. SchoolWorld, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 8 Jan. 2015.
"The Classical Age (500-336 BC)." Mr. Giotto's Site. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
"The Enlightenment." Literature Launchers. Glencoe, DVD. 2010.
"History of Greece: Classical Greece." History of Greece: Classical Greece. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 7 Classical Greece, 500-323BC." The History Guide. Steven Kreis, 4 Aug. 2009. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
"The Classical Age (500-336 BC)." Mr. Giotto's Site. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
"The Enlightenment." Literature Launchers. Glencoe, DVD. 2010.
"History of Greece: Classical Greece." History of Greece: Classical Greece. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 7 Classical Greece, 500-323BC." The History Guide. Steven Kreis, 4 Aug. 2009. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
Attacking Over-Testing with Satire"No Child Left Behind Comic." ParentVoicesNY RSS. Thesis WordPress, 23 May 2012. Web. 23 Dec. 2014.
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Here is a piece of satire in the form of a political cartoon by David Horsey of theSeattle Post-Intelligencer. This cartoon involves educational reform and utilizes a number of devices to convey its meaning.
For one thing, this image represents a type of parody called low burlesque since something as sacred as our American education system is being ridiculed. Another device used in the cartoon is hyperbole (exaggeration) in that one type of learning is portrayed as highly mechanistic (in black-and-white) and the other is portrayed through a colorful nature scene as if studying "The Arts" is the most natural thing in which students could be engaged. Finally, I find the smile on the teacher's face to be an example of dramatic irony. She seems to think she is doing the right thing, but we, the audience know better. All in all, the idea being depicted through the cartoon is that there is too much focus being put on standardized testing in our schools, which is destroying students' creativity and love of learning (notice the frowns on their faces). Clearly, the Arts are valued as being naturally attractive to students yet kept from students by the educational systems currently in place. The writer thus has written the cartoon in effort to cure the social ills that go along with placing more emphasis on test scores than actual student learning. |
Final Project
Click the above image to watch our video!
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Our video aims to satirize websites that make it easy for people to meet who are already in marital relationships. These websites actually exist, and they blatantly reflect the crumbling morality of our modern culture. The theme of our project is simply “Promoting adultery is wrong.”
Several tools, such as tone, exaggeration, and humor, work to further the advancement of our theme. Our tone is sarcastic, with a mocking seriousness thrown in to make the idea that a marriage can be saved through unfaithfulness seem just plausible enough to be humorous. The tool of exaggeration also helps further the satirical purpose of the work, and this appears when the actors are being most petty and materialistic, such as when the husband claims that he "wants someone to cook, clean, and answer the phone" while he goes golfing and when silly situations cause the actors to get angry with their spouses, such as the episode involving the rubber spatula. We also use four kinds of irony. For instance, if we say we are promoting marital unfaithfulness and claim it to have ridiculously positive results, like making a marriage better, the viewer will clearly understand that we mean the opposite, thus creating verbal irony. Furthermore, we utilize situational irony by putting forth the unexpected idea that a marriage can actually be helped when one member cheats on the other. We make the idea of unfaithfulness seemingly even more “attractive” to the point of being ridiculous by having the wife not care how she has now been made happy, blissful in her ignorance. In addition, we use mock sympathy (Socratic irony) to make it seem like we are being sympathetic with the problems married people face. However, since those problems are petty (like fighting over where a rubber spatula is supposed to go) the audience clearly realizes that we are being ironic. Of course, the couple does not understand how trivial their materialistic desires are, but the audience does, resulting in dramatic irony. We have thus created an ad that makes fun of websites like ashleymadison.com, which make it easier for people in relationships to cheat on one another--as if Americans need extra help in this area--because we feel that such a thing is a horrible thing to promote and could easily result in the further destruction of the family unit in our society. |
More ideas . . .
Final Project: Attacking Genetically Modified
Foods Using Satire
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