(Credits):
-employer: Florida South Western State College
-written by tgthewriter1
Writing Report: LIFE IS NOT FAIR FOR MOST BUT DOES IT MATTER????
(paper for college course)HUM 2250 Studies in
Humanities:
22 October 2014
Research
Paper: Life is Not Fair for Most People But Does It Matter?
The
artworks of Theodore Gericault’s Raft of Medusa and Ernest Meissonier’s Memory
of a Civil War expresses the concept that not everybody in life gets a fair
chance for survival. A person’s birth can determine what position they have in
a society that person is born into. Also, there are forces of evil that can
interfere with each person’s life which could cause that person to experience hardships.
On the other hand, some people believe that every person has a choice in what
they can do in their life. The artworks of Theodore Gericault’s Raft of Medusa
and Ernest Meissonier’s Memory of a civil war show the choices that a man has
and does not have.
The
Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa artwork is a representation of an event that
took place in history during the year 1819 (The Raft of). The story is about a
group of people on a ship who became lost at sea. The ship is called Medusa and
was traveling to an African interior port (The Raft of). The people on this
ship consisted of 400 passengers and 160 crew members (The Raft of). The ship
ventured on a dangerous route which caused the ship to crash into the Arguin
Bank (The Raft of). Then, the ship became stuck and the captain had to make a
decision for all passengers. The captain decided to take the seven life boats
that were available and fill them with people that he considered to be the most
suitable (The Raft of). The people that was chosen for the life boats by the
captain was the wealthy and his trusted advisors. The captain also decided to
build a raft from the ship for the rest of the passengers (The Raft of). There
was a rope connecting the raft to the life boats but, the rope unfortunately disconnected
and about 150 people was left alone on the raft (The Raft of). When a rescue
team came for the people on the raft 13 days later however, there was only 15
people that were left standing on the raft (The Raft of). Gericault’s Raft of
Medusa expresses the struggles that the people living on the raft were faced
with after 13 days with no food or water. The victims on the raft was not given
a fair chance for survival because they was not chosen and they were forced to
eat eachother. The people on the raft were born poor and this made the people
unsuitable according to the captain of the Medusa. When you are born poor you
are the first one to be sacrificed in the event of disaster.
The
expressions of people’s faces are drawn at a desperate time in Gericault’s Raft
of Medusa artwork. Each person’s actions shown in the art piece, show that a
person’s birth can dictate their chance of survival. In own my opinion, a
person can conclude from looking at the artwork that there is a point in time
where the wealthy people who are born are given a second chance but the poor
people who are born are not given a second chance. It’s not fair that in the
world’s darkest times, the rich are more likely to survive than the poor. This
would indicate that there is a since of unequal among humans. In the Raft of
Medusa’s background story, only the wealthy was allowed a place on a life boat
(The Raft of). In a sense that is like saying that only wealthy people are
allowed a place live when a disaster occurs. A person’s birth also determines
if they will have a place to live in the future. If person is born with wealth,
that person has a choice to live where ever they want to live. Whereas, if
person is not born with wealth then they do not have a choice in where they
will live next. A person is not given a fair chance for survival because if
they are born poor they do not have a choice in where they will live,
especially after a disaster occurs in their life.
Furthermore,
Gericault’s Raft of Medusa show that a person’s birth can also determine their
chances for success. Each person in the raft of Medusa artwork expresses a
different form of expression based on their position on the raft (The Raft of).
There is one man in the artwork that has a hopeless look of dissatisfaction on
his face at the edge of the raft (The Raft of). The look a person might show
when they have given up on the things they want to do. In my opinion, I believe
it’s an expression I feel that most people who are born unfortunate express.
Some men are born with burdens that prevent them from doing what they want to
do. The burdens make the things that a man want seem harder to achieve than
normal. Burdens are also like bricks on a man’s back that makes him move slower
as he travels up the road of success. The more burdens a man is born with, the
more a man feels like what he wants is hopeless. For example, a person that is
born unfortunate will have to work twice as hard or even harder to succeed at
something. For example, a person that is born poor will have to deal with a lot
of problems. Most poor people in societies are considered to be bad people in
the modern world. The poor are always the first ones accused of doing something
wrong and always the first to be disposed of. The poor are not given a fair
chance for survival because they have to deal with burdens that cause them to
take longer or give up on succeeding something.
What
is more, poor people are considered to be worthless by most people living in a
society. If a person is not useful, society assumes that they are worthless. They
cannot do anything for anybody other than themselves which most consider
worthless. The walls of cruelty that the society has put on a person born poor,
that person will have a very hard difficulty succeeding and might even give up
in trying to succeed. I believe that the people who are rich cause poor people
living in some societies to have a life harder than it needs to be. I also
believe that some rich people want poor people to be miserable in order to satisfy
their own amusement. If a person’s entertainment consists of making others
suffer then some people will have a hard time succeeding. Most people are
ridiculed by people who are miserable and this ridicule makes it harder for
someone to accomplish anything. A poor person is not given a fair chance
because he is not respected by most people and is not considered worthy to most
citizens living in a society.
Some
of us are also born with a social status that is given to us by the society
that we are born in. In Meissonier’s Memory of a Civil War artwork a group of
dead people is seen in the middle of a street with faces filled with regret and
wonder (Ernest). In my opinion, if the society we are born in says in their
words of literature that we you a certain type of person, then that is what
most people living in that society see that person as. If a person was born a
certain race in a society where that race is seen as violent or dumb then that
is what most people believe in that society. People who are born in middle
class neighborhoods are given more respect than people who are born in broken
down neighborhoods. The social society dictates what person should be respected
and what person should not be respected. From the moment of birth, a person is labeled
and put into a category. That category is based on what family a person is born
into, what wealth a person is born with, and what achievements was made in that
person’s family. If a person is born with no family achievements then society
can classify them as being nobody. It is very unfair to have a group of people
decide the fate of a person who has never even been born but, that is what
happens in some societies. For example, if the society you were living in
wanted all the poor people to go to war and let the rich people to sit on the
couch, then that is what is going to happen. A person that is born poor does
not have much of a chance of succeeding when there are people who have more
power than that person telling them that you are this. I strongly believe that Society
is one of the main reasons people have a hard time getting along and have a
hard time understanding what is really important in life.
In
Meissonier’s Memory of a Civil War artwork the forces of evil is also portrayed.
I believe that the forces of evil is a group of people or part of nature that want
to cause some people to have a life that is unfortunate. Death is shown very
openly in Meissonier’s Memory of the Civil War to express the fact that death
is after everyone (Ernest). Death does not care about who you are or what you
have done to deserve to live longer. Death is one of the worst forces of evil
and every person on earth has to deal with it. Death can occur in each
individual’s life at any given time. Death comes in many different forms which
makes it difficult for most people to see death coming. A person may choose to
go to college and become a doctor or a lawyer so they can make a good amount of
money in order to have their own place but, there is no guarantee that they
will live to see that dream come true. A person can be rich and be able to
afford all the medical help that money can buy but, death can come after them
in a bullet or car crash. The men being shown dead in Meissonier’s Memory of the
Civil War probably did not see death coming because death came in a fast bullet
(Ernest). If one of those men lying in the street was rich then they are also
dead (Ernest). Wealth does not stop death from finding you. The reason I
consider death a force of evil is because death can kill you at any time and at
any place.
Another
force of evil that is shown in Gericault’s Raft of Medusa is time. Time to most
people is just hours on a clock but, time is actually much more than that. The
group of people that was stranded on the raft, had 15 days to live without food
which means a short chance for survival (The Raft of). A person can only go
without food for a certain amount of time. Once that certain amount of time is
passed, they can turn into something ugly. In my opinion, going a day without
food is too much for one person to bear. The group of people on the raft started
to eat each other after a few days passed (The Raft of). Time forces people to
do things they normally would not do. People do not normally eat each other
but, if enough time has pass by the people with a weak will power will do
something really bad. Time forces some people to become evil when their needs
is not met within a certain amount of time. Time makes it not fair for people
who only have a short amount of time for survival and sometimes that short
amount of time is all they have left to live.
Time
does not just affect us when our life is on the line. Time also affects us when
we want to succeed in something. Sometimes we want to succeed in something but
it takes too long to achieve so some of us give up. I believe some of the
things that people want to do takes a lot of time and without that support from
people we will probably give up. Events might occur in each person’s life that
can cause someone to feel that what they want to achieve is hopeless due to the
lack of time. Time is very evil and is not given to most people but it is taken
away by most people.
In
addition, as we look at the artwork of Meissonier’s Memory of a Civil War there
is a pile of bodies filled with the expression of time expired (Ernest). I
believe time is given to us and it taken from us at any time. Time is a force
of evil because time cannot be bought. Which causes many people to run out of
time. Every plan that a person create takes time to accomplish. The people that
died in Meissonier’s Memory of a Civil War artwork probably had plans for a
better future before they got involved in the war. They might have had plans
for a better future but, they ran out of time. I believe a person’s time is in
the hands of someone else. A person’s time is always in the hands of someone
else. The people that died in Meissonier’s Memory of a Civil War, had their
time taken away by some else (Ernest). Maybe they wanted to do something else
after the war but, they ran out of time to achieve it. The plans that people
create before their death means nothing when the time has ran out. Their time
has been stripped away by others without their own opinion to do so. A person cannot
choose how much time they have left to live which makes time such an evil
force. Also, Time takes away our power to do things that we want to do in a
desired amount of time and as a result gives us an unfair chance for survival. If
we run out of time to achieve what we want then what we want no longer matters.
In a sense it’s like saying that time controls everything that we do and that
we should worship time or fall behind success.
People
are always running out of time which also makes time an evil force. Running out
of time to pay their bills. Running out of time to accomplish their dreams. Running
out of time to find somewhere to stay. As a result of people always running out
of time, some people are forced to do things in their life that could cause
them to die. People do not have a fair chance for survival because time forces
people to do things that can cause them to die which can be represented in
Ernest’s memory of a civil war.
As
you look at Gericault’s Raft of Medusa, you see a group of people making
choices. Some people believe that everyone is born with the same choices.
Choices that are equal and fair to all human being that live on earth. In United
States, all American citizens have equal rights and equal opportunities. Every
American citizen also has a choice in what job they want to receive. In my
opinion, an American citizen is born withy rights that can make a person seem
equal but, the reality of the matter is that you are only equal if you are on
the same level of the people you want to be. To reach this reality level of
equality that is expressed in United States is only possible with a lot of
work. In addition, luck and money plays a part in how much time it will take
you to be the person you want to be in United States. I suppose a person does
have a choice in what they want to do but, I feel it does not always have the
desired outcome. Every choice that a person makes does not have the same result
but, it is a choice that one can make. The choices we make may have a possible
outcome but they at least have an outcome that we might want. I also believe a
choice worth taking even if it ends in failure. Some dreams take longer to
achieve but, if person keeps trying to achieve it, they will eventually achieve
it. Life is not fair for most people to survive but, we all people have a
chance in making a life that we want to live in. Even if it’s a small chance
for survival when a person makes a choice, I believe that the choice is worth
it. Each person can make a choice and that choice might have consequences but,
it in that choice that make a person free from people with power. A choice should
be left in the hands of the one making it not in the hands of others. If a
person believes that they have a choice that is equal to everyone else then
that person is in control and not the people above that person. In this belief
of equal choices, a person might have a chance in having a life is fair for his
survival. Everybody dies just in different ways which depends on the choices we
make which is expressed in Gericault’s Raft of Medusa.
In my conclusion, not everyone has a fair
chance for survival but, not everyone needs a fair chance for survival. Every
person that is born on earth has to deal with forces of evil such as time or
death but, every person that is born on earth also has a choice. A choice to be
controlled by others who have more wealth and social status from birth or to be
controlled by your own decisions that you make from day to day. There are
forces of evil that make our life harder than it needs to be but, there are
also forces of good that make our life easier than it normally was.
Works
Cited
“Ernest Meissonier:The
Barricade.” Musee d’ Orsay. Musee d’
Orsay, 2006. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. < http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/graphic-arts/commentaire_id/the-barricade-16231.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=848&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=845&cHash=835e34e10d
>.
Jefferis, Phil. “Raft
Of The Medusa-Theodore Gericault (1819).” Newsletter May 2005. Print. URL:
<http://www.thompsondunn.co.uk/newsletter2/page16.html >.
“The Raft of Medusa.” History House. History House Inc.,
1999-2006. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. < www.historyhouse.com/in_history/medusa/
>.
Paid from florida south western college
