GWTW Reflection

    I had always heard of the movie Gone With The Wind but I had never seen it until now.  Very few movies made back then can be timeless, enjoyable and informational still today.  The movie was made 84 years ago but still has such an effect today.

    We begin by meeting a plantation owners daughter named Scarlett.  She is a character like I've never seen before.  I think this type of person isn't thought of when you look back at history.  You think about the soldiers, the plantation owners, the slaves, but you rarely think of the perspective of the plantation owners daughter.  I think that is a brilliant way to tell the story and show the time period in a non cliche way.  I think it is interesting to set the stage as to how the women were effected by the war not only the men.  

    I think the portrayal of how the slaves operated "alongside" the plantation owners was quite interesting.  Like I said, when you think back to this time period, you think about the extremely violent and unfair mistreatment of slaves.  In this movie you can see how the female slaves kind of coexist with the plantation family and I think that is something I and most people didn't think about. It's safe to say this movie makes you do a good amount of thinking about things you don't usually think about.  

    A specific scene that I think stood out to me was the scene with all of the hurt soldiers in the church.  The sheer amount of them and the little amount of room they had is such a powerful picture.  This scene can make you really think of the struggle that these soldiers and doctors had to go through.  

    All in all, this movie was extremely relevant to our class and I am glad we were able to watch it and learn from it. 

Town Hall Reacts

    The Town Hall discussion was a large success with many viewpoints expressed.  I think the class did an impressive job setting the stage and getting into character.  When listening to everyones presentations I felt like everyone had a good understanding of what they were presenting.  

    I have never been apart of a discussion like this before and I think it was very interesting.  It's not everyday you hear arguments in favor of slavery, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't hear them.  Looking back and understanding the time period is extremely important because now we understand why things were wrong, but to understand why they were done is equally important.  

    On the side "advocating" for slavery there was mainly an economic approach.  An aspect of slavery you often forget about is their huge impact on the economy.  It was such a way of life at that point that it was often a mans way of making a living.  The pro slavery side did a good job of displaying the importance on the economy.  Another part of slavery touched on by the pro slavery side was religion.  Religion, like today, has a strong effect on people and the way they live their lives.  So since we all had to get into this time period, there was a strong emphasis on religion.

    I think my favorite part of this activity was listening to the indifferent point of view of Abraham Lincoln.  I was arguing on the side of anti-slavery, but there was the option for an indifferent Abe Lincoln.  I really enjoyed listening to his portrayal because when you research someone you look for certain things.  In my case I was searching mainly for his anti slavery point of view, when the opposing could be searching for quite the opposite.  I found it interesting because, if you know Abe Lincoln you know he freed the slaves, but his indifferent argument showed his concern with keeping it in place without the true feeling that it was right.  This eventually changed overtime as he eventually went on to change and abolish slavery.