Life in the Chiaroscuro Essays

Life in the Chiaroscuro Essays Life in the Chiaroscuro Paper Life in the Chiaroscuro Paper The novel depicts the political situation in Milwaukee in 1904 to be very corrupt and dishonest in every way. Police officers would not put people in jail because â€Å"there was no evidence† when there was clearly evidence that they would just ignore. The government was corrupt in the sense that the elected officials would do things to benefit themselves and their friends who help them. Everyone in the police force would look out for those people who the mayor told them to look out for. This is why those who were supposed to be in jail, are not. The high up officials who were part of the corruption had the means to destroy anyone who went against them. They had the power to do whatever they wanted and never suffer any type of consequence. I think that this is an accurate portrayal of corruption and politics in Milwaukee in this time period because there are very many similarities in the book and what actually happened. David Stuart Rose served five terms as mayor in Milwaukee. His corrupt mindset was held in office for 10 years. â€Å"He was elected in 1898 until 1906 and again in 1908-1910. He suggested improving the port by building docks off of Jones Island. He said that the rivers were becoming inadequate to meet the demands of trade. He was rumored to have accepted $50,000 from an electric utility but he was never found guilty in court. He was known for his corrupt administrative. He allowed brothels and casinos to operate even though it was against Milwaukee rules. While he was mayor, police were asked to turn â€Å" blind eye† upon the request of City Hall. After people started to realize what was going on, he was eventually elected out of office and a Socialist was elected in. Emil Seidel was the first Socialist mayor of Milwaukee in 1910. The book also depicts politics in 1904 in Milwaukee accurately because in the book, it says that Theodore Roosevelt makes a speech and is shot in the middle of it. Without leaving to seek medical help, he stood there and finished his 90 minutes speech. Theodore Roosevelt really did give that speech in Milwaukee. John Schrank also, in fact, shot him because he thought that a president should not serve more that two terms. Schrank was caught and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital. After Roosevelt was shot, he went on with his speech and said, â€Å"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I dont know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet there is where the bullet went through and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best. Some of the goals of American Socialist reformers in the early 1900’s were â€Å"low-cost housing, workers compensation, old-age pensions, public ownership of municipal services, and labor reform. † These goals compare to the goals of the American Socialist reformers in the novel because the reformers in the novel want to take care of corruption and get the mayor out of office. They want things to be better for everyone living in Milwaukee, not ju st the mayor and his friends. The American Socialist reformers wanted better pay, better jobs, and better benefits for workers. They wanted to prove to the people of Milwaukee that they do not need David Rose to be in power. They wanted to show that a socialist can do just fine in office, if not better than Rose. The American Socialist reformers were still not very popular so they wanted to gain popularity with the people. â€Å"While the Socialist Party was on the rise in America, it was still fairly limited in strength. Eugene Debs would never be president. As for the mayor, I was not so sure. † The role that ethnicity and race play into the novel is that people were segregated and treated differently by society as a whole. On Jones Island, it was mostly Polish and German people known as Kashubes. They were far away from the city life, living on technically a peninsula all by themselves with almost no visitors going there. They were not wealthy at all and lived in houses â€Å"so close together that you could, if you so chose, stand on one rickety porch while shaking hands with someone standing on the porch next door. † Another way ethnicity and race play into the novel is when Benjamin’s father told him when he was a boy that â€Å"you’d best avoid the wrong sort of people. Gamblers, politicians, and negroes. His father thought that in order to succeed and to stay out of trouble, he must avoid those types of people. When Benjamin walked into Slaughter’s Turf Cafe, he noticed that the people in there are the exact people who his father told him to avoid. This book is very valuable to Milwaukee because people who actually live there everyday should know what happened in their own backyard. The way basically the entire government in the city of Milwaukee was corrupt is a bit disturbing. The way things used to be politically was completely corrupt and there is no doubting that. I found the book to be extremely interesting and I loved learning about what happened in a city that is so well known in today’s society. I’m sure that the people of Milwaukee who read this book are very shocked to know what happened in the city they live in. I would expect that even the people who are not very interested in history, found it to be very fascinating to learn about what happened before their time. This book is also very valuable as a supplement to the study of American history in general because we, as Americans, should know and understand the way things used to be. It is important to learn about corruption in the government because corruption was part of the reason why some of the movements were started. It is also important because through corruption, people started to realize that the people they were voting in were only helping themselves. This made people start thinking more on whom they wanted in office and what issues they wanted changed. Putting the supernatural aspects aside, A Life in Chiaroscuro is a believable and compelling story depicting life in a typical American city. I think it is like a typical American city because back in the 1900’s, corruption was not an uncommon thing. Corruption was everywhere in many cities especially big, major cities. The government did not necessarily want to take over everything in a city. They wanted to do things to benefit themselves. There is a part in the book that shows that elected government officials link themselves to important businessmen to help themselves out and their friends. â€Å"In the midst of it all, the mayor lines his pockets with bribes from the industrial sector, particularly from John Beggs. In big cities during the 1900’s, there were many people involved in corruption. There were elected officials, police officers, businessmen, and even just wealthy people who wanted to become wealthier. This is a perfect example of the people in the book and what they did to become more powerful and wealthier than they already were. [ 1 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro. Rock Isla nd, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. [ 2 ]. mule (Civil War). Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Historical Society, 1996. Web. . [ 3 ]. Kestenbaum, Lawrence. Index to Politicians: Rose. The Political Graveyard. Lawrence Kestenbaum, 1996. Web. . [ 4 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro. Rock Island, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. 30. [ 5 ]. Rogina, Jeffries L. It Takes More Than That to Kill a Bull Moose: The Leader and The Cause. About Theodore Roosevelt: President and More, from The Theodore Roosevelt Association. The Theodore Roosevelt Association, June 1998. Web. . [ 6 ]. Norton, Mary Beth, David M. Katzman, David W. Blight, Howard Chudacoff, and Fredrik Logevall. A People and a Nation: A History of Mary Beth Norton, Carol Sheriff, David M Katzman, David W. Blight, Howard Chudacoff. Google Books. Suzanne Jeans, 2008. Web. . [ 7 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro. Rock Island, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. 149. [ 8 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro. Rock Island, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. 32. [ 9 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Lif e in Chiaroscuro. Rock Island, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. 65. [ 10 ]. Ferguson, Paul-Thomas. A Life in Chiaroscuro. Rock Island, Illinois: Paul-Thomas Ferguson, 2008. Print. 155.

Latin Names for Days of the Week

Latin Names for Days of the Week Romans named the days of the week after the seven  known planets–or rather, celestial bodies- which had been named after Roman gods: Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus,  and Saturn. As used in the Roman calendar, the gods names were in the genitive singular case, which meant each day was a day of or assigned to a certain god. dies Solis,  day of the Sundies Lunae,  day of the Moondies Martis,  day of Mars (Roman god of war)dies Mercurii,  day of Mercury  (Roman messenger of the gods and god of commerce, travel, thievery, eloquence,  and science.)  dies Iovis,  day of Jupiter (Roman god who created thunder and lightning; patron of the  Ã‚  Roman state)  dies Veneris,  day of Venus  (Roman goddess of love and beauty)dies Saturni,  day of Saturn  (Roman god of agriculture) Latin and Modern Romance Languages All of the Romance languages–French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, and others- were derived from Latin. The development of those languages over the last 2,000 years has been traced using ancient documents, but even without looking at those documents, the modern-day names of the week have clear similarities to the Latin terms. Even the Latin word for days (dies) is derived from the Latin  from the gods (deus,  diis  ablative plural), and it too is reflected in the endings of the Romance language day terms (di or es). Latin Days of the Week and Romance Language Cognates (English) Latin French Spanish Italian MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday dies Lunaedies Martisdies Mercuriidies Iovisdies Venerisdies Saturnidies Solis LundiMardiMercrediJeudiVendrediSamediDimanche lunesmartesmià ©rcolesjuevesviernessbadodomingo lunedà ¬martedà ¬mercoledà ¬giovedà ¬venerdà ¬sabatodomenica Origins of the Seven-Planet Week Although the names of the week used by modern languages dont refer to gods that modern people worship, the Roman names definitely did name the days after the celestial bodies associated with particular gods- and so did other ancient calendars. The modern seven-day week with days named after gods associated with celestial bodies, is likely to have originated in Mesopotamia between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. The lunar-based Babylonian month had four seven-day periods, with one or two extra days to account for the movements of the moon. The seven days were (probably) named for the seven known major celestial bodies, or rather for their most important deities associated with those bodies. That calendar was communicated to the Hebrews during the Judean exile in Babylon (586–537 BCE), who were forced to use the imperial calendar of Nebuchadnezzar and adopted it for their own use after they returned to Jerusalem. Theres no direct evidence for the use of celestial bodies as name days in Babylonia- but there is in the Judean calendar. The seventh day is called Shabbat in the Hebrew bible- the Aramaic term is shabta and in English Sabbath. All of those terms are derived from the Babylonian word shabbatu, originally associated with the full moon. All of the Indo-European languages use some form of the word to refer to Saturday or Sunday; the Babylonian sun god was named Shamash. Planetary Gods Planet Babylonian Latin Greek Sanskrit Sun Shamash Sol Helios Surya, Aditya, Ravi Moon Sin Luna Selene Chandra, Soma Mars Nergal Mars Ares Angaraka, Mangala Mercury Nabu Mercurius Hermes Budh Jupiter Marduk Iupiter Zeus Brishaspati, Cura Venus Ishtar Venus Aphrodite Shukra Saturn Ninurta Saturnus Kronos Shani Adoption of the Seven Day Planetary Week The Greeks adopted the calendar from the Babylonians, but the rest of the Mediterranean region and beyond did not adopt the seven day week until the first century CE. That spread into the hinterlands of the Roman empire is attributed to the Jewish diaspora, when the Jewish people left Israel for the far-flung elements of the Roman empire after the Second Temple destruction in 70 CE. The Romans didnt borrow directly from the Babylonians, they emulated the Greeks, who did. Graffiti in Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, includes references to the days of the week named by a planetary god. But in general, the seven-day  week  was not widely used until the Roman Emperor  Constantine the Great (306–337 CE) introduced the seven-day week into the Julian calendar. The early Christian church leaders were appalled at the use of pagan gods for names and did their best to replace them with numbers, but with no long-lasting success.   -Edited by Carly Silver Sources and Further Reading Falk, Michael. Astronomical Names for the Days of the Week. Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 93:122–133Ker, James. Nundinae: The Culture of the Roman Week. Phoenix 64.3/4 (2010): 360–85. Print.MacMullen, Ramsay. Market-Days in the Roman Empire. Phoenix 24.4 (1970): 333–41. Print.Oppenheim, A. L. The Neo-Babylonian Week Again. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 97 (1945): 27–29. Print.Ross, Kelley. The Days of the Week. The Proceedings of the Friesian School, 2015.Stern, Sacha. The Babylonian Calendar at Elephantine. Zeitschrift fà ¼r Papyrologie und Epigraphik 130 (2000): 159–71. Print.