Monday, November 30, 2009

20th Century Lit: The Death of God and the Birth of the Modern Consciousness


20th Century Lit: The Death of God and the Birth of the Modern Consciousness

"God is dead." This quote is attributed to Nietzsche, existentialist philosopher. This line is echoed in Elie Wiesel's Night, in an episode where he witnesses a young boy being hanged on the gallows in a concentration camp--another onlooker says that God is hanging on the gallows there with him. This is the question that Elie deals with throughout his memoir--where is God?--and indeed a question that reverberated throughout the world in the 20th century. One hundred years marked by amazing advances and fantastic atrocities; the modern world--and the modern conception of "hero"--changed forever with the advent of modern warfare. To get a sense of how the modern consciousness changed, here is the entire Nietzsche quote in context:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

20th century literature reflects this sense of isolation, alienation and desperation within man. We find ourselves now, in the 21st century, a world with technology and standards of living that could never have been imagined even a century ago. Yet we also live in a world that's more fragile than ever; the world is once again "flat" with communication technology that brings us closer together, yet keeps us ironically impersonal. We accept conflict and terror(ism) as a part of our every-day lives. But the literature also reflected a sense of hope--in exploring ourselves, our minds, our realities--hope that we can rediscover that which allows us to survive, and indeed thrive, in the world that we've created. 

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We end our journey through Western literature with the 20th-century piece Night, which describes Elie Wiesel's horrific experience surviving the Holocaust of World War II. For your consideration, I've done some research to supplement our reading. World War II and the Holocaust are immense historical events to try to tackle; for your final reflections, I'd like you to do a little outside reading to support our understanding of Night.
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QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
1) The Holocaust was not perpetrated by one individual. Hitler only took one life--his own. Nor did the Holocaust happen overnight; it was systematized over nearly a decade, and implicated hundreds and thousands of people who were involved. Estimates put the death toll of WWII at around 32 million people (take the population of San Jose and multiply by 30...), around 6 million of whom were killed in concentration camps, which manufactured wholesale death. Death on that scale was an institution, a pervasive way of thinking of a society. How could people come to believe that genocide was acceptable? Explore the following link, to get some background on the Nazi ideology, and what led to the Holocaust, and report on your findings. Try to help the class answer, "what led to this atrocity?"
(Note: I have uploaded shorter versions of the articles on my website, which you can read online or download. Some articles are still many pages, so be careful about printing. <<https://sites.google.com/a/mitty.com/franklin/Home/world-literature/world-lit-resources>>)

2) How is it that genocides still occur in the world? Use the links below to research one of the following three contemporary holocausts and report on your findings. Also, fill out the corresponding worksheet, "Assessing Responsibility" and share during your report.
Other helpful links:
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    7 comments:

    1. Jake GrantDecember 1, 2009 at 1:10 PM

      Question 2:

      Rwanda’s population was divided into 3 ethnic groups, the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa. In just four months 500,000 Tutsi were murdered because they opposed the government’s policies and were the minority. Many of the people that are survivors of this have severe medical conditions like HIV/AIDS. Family members were sometimes murdered and raped. They are still trying to convict some of the people involved in the genocide.

      The question is, how is it that genocides are still occurring in the world?

      In Rwanda’s case the reason that comes to mind is superiority. The Hutu political parties think they are better than the Tutsi minority. A plane carrying the Hutu president was shot down by a group of Tutsi, and these launched war between them even though the shooting didn’t involve all of Tutsi population. They began brain washing others, arming kids, and started massacring because they thought they were better than the minority.

      Another reason is because of political views. The Hutu were the majority of the population so they had more representatives in their favor. This government would rule in the way of the Hutu not helping the Tutsi. This got some angry which started all of this.

      The main reason why this genocide happened is because of superiority and different political views.

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    2. Julina LyDecember 3, 2009 at 12:37 PM

      Question 2:
      Today, Sudan’s entire civilian population faces enormous threats from continuing and potentially new violence. There are the use of mass starvation and mass forcible displacement as a weapon of destruction, harassment of internally displaced people, bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian sites, use of rape as a weapon against targeted groups, pitting ethnic groups against each other, and failing to fully put into service peace agreements. On October 19, the Obama Administration had a new strategy toward Sudan, which was to end the violence that were going on, and as well as putting the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in place. However even though people were trying to make peace, there was still violence that went on.

      So, why do these killing still keep happening? All of this was caused through war and different political views. The differences in views caused tension among the countries, and they began to turn their hate toward the people. It was primarily between rebel groups and the Sudanese government. It was an on-going conflict in the western region of Darfur that was marked by a period of intensive targeting of the civilian populations from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups. So, these killing of masses of people were all made through hate, because nobody can get along.

      ReplyDelete
    3. Bridget FaheyDecember 9, 2009 at 11:27 AM

      The Sudanese government is allowing terrible genocide take place as well as contributing to it themselves. The government uses mass starvation tactics, harasses internally displaced individuals, bombs hospitals, schools and clinics as well as many other horrific acts. Sudan is separated by different religions, ethnicities, tribal differences, as well as economic disparities. There are many disagreements between the various people. The majority of the people of Darfur are dependent on foreign aid and help.
      I think that genocide, such as in Sudan, continues to occur in our world for numerous reasons. One major reason I believe is because people are afraid of what they don’t understand and often seem to feel threatened by those things. This ignorance can lead to many problems such as violent and horrific acts of discrimination and hatred. People today often don’t take the time to peacefully settle disputes and some seem to think that war and genocide against those they don’t agree with an easier method. Another factor that contributes to genocide is the fight over limited resources, such as food and water. Genocide usually occurs due to corruption within a government as well as great political fragmentation.

      We should take initiative to try and help the warring groups find a compromise, although there is only so much other countries can do. It’s hard to believe that such horrific things can take place even today in the world. People create misery for others willingly and at any point in time there will always be misery. Although I don’t have a solution to genocide I know we must search for one and continue to help the victims.

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    4. sean DowneyDecember 11, 2009 at 11:50 AM

      Sudan is the largest country, and has been having very violent civil wars over the last two decades. Sudan is a country divided by religion, ethnicity, tribal differences, and economic disparities. The war between northern and southern Sudan has an estimated of 2 million deaths, and 4 million other people displaced in the last two decades. The ongoing violence has been occurring in the western region of Darfur, targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and the Masaalit ethnic groups. The government has contributed to the genocide occurring in Sudan by mass starvation, harassment of internally displaced persons, bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, rape as a weapon against targeted groups, and pitting ethnic groups against each other.
      I believe one reason genocide occurs is because in these parts of the world the people don’t have enough power to stand up to the government. I think the people know if they try to stand up that they will be killed with out any problem. Another reason this occurs is because political groups cannot settle issues between one another. They figure the only way to settle the problems is with the act of violence. The killings of the Fur, Zaghawa, and the Masaalit are primarily because these groups have so much hate for one another that they can’t figure out a away to cure the situation.

      ReplyDelete
    5. Danielle GibsonDecember 11, 2009 at 12:25 PM

      2) How is it that genocides still occur in the world?
      As Africa’s largest country, Sudan is divided by religion, ethnicity, tribal differences, and economic disparities. Almost constantly at war since its independence from Great Britain in 1956, the second civil war between the North and the South displaced 4 million people, and killed about 2 million. Recently, the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement in Darfur took up arms against the government, accusing them of oppressing black Africans in favor of Arabs in 2003. The Sudan ruling party, being a corrupt government, easily committed genocide through actions such as mass starvation, bombing hospitals, clinics, schools, rape against targeted groups, training and supporting ethnic militias who go on to commit horrendous actions, and many more. To return to the question, genocides can still occur in the world through corrupt government and people lacking proper resources. Most genocides happening in the world today, like Darfur, are happening in very poor countries. Their people are starving, go without clean water every day and are desperate for jobs. This makes them more susceptible to the corruption of their government.

      ReplyDelete
    6. AnonymousDecember 11, 2009 at 2:44 PM

      Question 2
      Doug Gimenez said:
      In Sudan the genocide continues and has lasted over two decades. During their second civil war between north and south over 2 million people were killed and 4 million displaced. Sudan is divided by religion, ethnicity, and economic disparities.
      The genocide is primarily committed by their government. I believe this is so because of the ignorance of the people and their inability to tolerate diferrences between the various tribes.
      The goverment inflicts horrendous crimes of violence agaist its people and deprives them from the essential basic food and shelter. The upcoming presidential election in April 2010 will be the first democratic election in 24 years. Maybe the time for change has come.

      ReplyDelete
    7. Christopher LamelasDecember 14, 2009 at 2:18 PM

      Most of the time, people think that genocides, or an annihilation of a certain race or culture, only happened back then, like the Holocaust for example. The truth is, there have still been recent genocides. One of these would be the genocide that happened in Central Africa at Rwanda. To start off, there are three different ethnic groups in Rwanda: the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa. The Hutu was a vast majority of the people in Rwanda. Roughly between April and July of 1994, a Hutu-extremist government murdered mainly the Tutsi, but also included anyone else who didn't follow their government policies. The minimum death toll was around 500,000 Tutsi people. Looking at the numbers, an estimate of the total population of tutsi people was only 14% of 7 million, which is around 980,000. The Hutu people killed over half of the total population of the Tutsi mainly because they didn't agree with what their government was doing. If you look at the dates, 1994 wasn't too long ago, it was probably around the time that most of the class was born and just recently in October 2009, one of the influential people in this genocide was captured. This does show that genocide still occurs to this very day, but the real question is why? They were living perfectly normal in Rwanda until one day, they just planned to massacre them because they didn't have the same beliefs.

      ReplyDelete

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