As a child, I was always mesmerized with beautiful things. My dad had a watch which I liked to loosely drape around my wrist and my grandmother had an exquisite fur coat which I loved to get lost in when she came to visit. One thing, however, captured my attention and managed to retain it for all these years. I first noticed it when I was younger, clasped around my mother’s neck. As time went on, my fascination did not fade. This piece, that had so enthralled me, was a locket. While trends changed, this locket never seemed to go out of style. I knew there was something significant about this locket and I wanted to know the mystery behind it. My mom used to tell me how my grandmother gave it to her for her eighteenth birthday as a special gift in honor of becoming an adult woman. In a recent interview I asked my grandmother about the locket and how it came to be in her possession. She revealed to me that the locket was given to her on her eighteenth birthday just like my mother and that was how she decided to make it tradition that on her eighteenth birthday the oldest daughter would receive the locket. She opened the locket and a small, sentimental smile crept onto her lips as she pointed to two people, who I had been told several times were my great-grandparents, and told me about how amazingly intuitive this gift was on their part. It had not only beauty but also a photograph of them so that no matter how far away she was from them, they would still be in her heart. My grandmother decided that it was important for me to know what she knew about the history of the necklace, how her mother had bought it in an antique store where the clerk had told her it was made in the late 18th century by a little known Russian jewe... ... middle of paper ... ...d=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=lfh&AN=46794358>. The Locket Shop. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Luscomb, Sally C. The Collectors Encyclopedia of Buttons. N.p.: n.p., 2003. Print. Perkins, Dorothy. "gold and silver in Chinese culture." Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. Modern World History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE53&iPin=china00804&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 30, 2014). Personal interview. 2014. Pike, Laurie. "Elizabeth Sayles." Los Angeles Magazine Feb. 2009: 52. Student Resources in Context. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. "Widow's locket lost a century ago finds its way home again; Treasure hunter presents his find to his neighbour." Western Mail [Cardiff, Wales] 7 Sept. 2009: 13. Custom Newspapers. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
The global flow of silver effected the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century economically because silver made the world go round, socially because everyone was dependent on some sort of trade, and politically because silver was a high priority to important world powers. In this document based assignment, it would have been convenient to have a document about the opinion of either a Potosi Indian or a peasant from the commercial city of Hangzhou because both points of view would give further insight into the negative side of this time periods lust for silver, and how the insanity ruined lives.
Before the emergence of silver, Chinese society isolated themselves from the global economy. Due to Confucian teachings and heavy voyage expenditures, Chinese officials restricted foreign interaction and trade. Also, being
of silver. Written originally as an essay about the changing time of China, document 5 describes
It was a little girl’s second Christmas and, although she does not remember now, she was so excited to open the big red package from grandma. She ripped open the package and the soft, handmade brown bear went poof in her hands. She has kept the ratty, old bear not for its beauty but because it has sentimental value of a simpler time. Like this example, many people have memories of items they grew up with that have more than monetary value, most people forget the real value of these items, however, and commercialize them as art or sell them away as junk in garage sales. In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” we are shown a vivid example of what can happen when people take these once treasured items for granted. Walker’s character Dee/Wangero is an estranged daughter and sister who has not seen her family for six years reappears at her mother’s home to take away her family’s most sentimentally valuable possessions. Because Wangero’s view of her own heritage has been skewed and distorted by her peers, Wangero forgets the value of her mother’s possessions in an attempt to impress her contemporaries. Through Wangero, Walker reveals how misunderstanding one’s heritage can lead him to search for his place in a fake legacy invented to help him reconcile his misunderstanding of his own origins, and can even cause him to cheapen his family heritage because of a desire to stand out among his peers.
Chang, Kwang-chih 1968 The Archeology of Ancient China Yale University Press, New Haven & London
Maupassant, Guy De. “The Necklace.” 1884. Hole Mcdougal Common Core 9th grade edition. Common Core Edition ed. Orlando: n.p., 2012. 224-33. Print.
"History of China: Table of Contents." History of China: Table of Contents. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
"John (Anthony) Burgess Wilson." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Student Resources in Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
One time my dad gave my mom these beautiful diamond and ruby earrings. She had them for the longest time and one day she woke up with one missing. We search all over her room and we couldn't find the missing earring. A couple weeks later my dad took the lone earring to the jewelry store where he bought it and had it turned into a necklace. That same day my mom called me so happy, she had found the missing earring in her closet. Its ironic how the same day my dad went and got the earing turned into a necklace, is the same day my mom found the missing part. It relates to “the Necklace”, she lost a gift that my dad spent a lot of money on, like Madame Loisel thought her friend spent a lot on the necklace she lost. It relates to “The Gift of the Magi”, my dad tried to do something nice by turning the lone earring into a necklace, yet now it leaves my mom with one earring and a matching
This story is about Matilda and her husband. Matilda receives an invitation to attend to a party, but she has no jewelry to wear, so she borrows one from a rich friend. Unfortunately, Matilda loses the necklace at the party and has to buy a new one worth thirty-five thousand francs. She works for years to repay all the money she borrowed, but when she finally gets all the money, she finds out the necklace was worth “No more than five hundred francs.” This story has two unexpected twists in it: she loses the necklace and she works for years to pay it off, only to find out it is less than one sixth of what she paid. How Matilda deals with finding out the price is left to the reader’s imagination, but it shows that when Matilda loses the necklace she deals with it relatively calmly, borrowing money to buy a new one and later working for years to pay it
In the short story, The Locket, by Kate Chopin there's a group of men at war. They're having a conversation about a member of the group, Edmond's locket. He had worn it around his neck tucked into his shirt since the war had begun but nobody ever knew what the picture inside was. A few of the guys thought that it was a picture of himself. Another believed it was a magical catholic that had been keeping him from suffering any injuries the past year and a half. Both ideas were however wrong, the locket held a photo of Edmunds parents in law and wedding date. He kept this to him self though, he simply remained quiet and dozed asleep. The next morning he had been waken to fight in battle. After the battle had ended the priest came to bless the
In the short story “The Necklace”, the main character, Loisel, is a woman who dreams of greater things in her life. She is married to a poor clerk who tries his best to make her happy no matter what. In an attempt to try to bring happiness to his wife, he manages to get two invitations to a very classy ball, but even in light of this Loisel is still unhappy. Even when she gets a new dress she is still unhappy. This lasts until her husband suggests she borrows some jewelry from a friend, and upon doing so she is finally happy. Once the ball is over, and they reach home, Loisel has the horrible realization that she has lost the necklace, and after ten years of hard labor and suffering, they pay off debts incurred to get a replacement. The central idea of this story is how something small can have a life changing effect on our and others life’s. This idea is presented through internal and external conflicts, third person omniscient point of view, and the round-dynamic character of Loisel. The third person limited omniscient point-of-view is prevalent throughout this short story in the way that the author lets the reader only see into the main character’s thoughts. Loisel is revealed to the reader as being unhappy with her life and wishing for fancier things. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries.” (de Maupassant 887) When her husband tries to fancy things up, “she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestry which peopled the walls…” (de Maupassant 887) As the story goes on her point of view changes, as she “now knew the horrible existence of the needy. She took her part, moreover all of a sudden, with heroism.” (de Maupassant 891) Having the accountability to know that the “dreadful debt must be paid.” (de Maupassant 891 ) This point-of-view is used to help the reader gain more insight to how Loisel’s whole mindset is changed throughout her struggle to pay off their debts. Maupassant only reveals the thoughts and feelings of these this main character leaving all the others as flat characters. Loisel is a round-dynamic character in that Maupassant shows how she thought she was born in the wrong “station”. “She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station.
Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2005. Print.
As I ponder my obsession with finding hidden treasures, it becomes clear that my Grandpa was responsible for it’s inception. He taught me that incredible things can be found in unusual places, that nature gives us the gift of nourishment and that things are not always as they appear. For these lessons, and the joy he gave me, I am eternally grateful.