John's Blog

     Hansu and Isak, while different, both seem to want the best for Sunja. The differences are apparent in Hansu's wealth and power compared to Isak's more humble pursuit of ministry. Hansu represents his affection through money. He promises Sunja that she will be able to live a comfortable life with their child. A house would be purchased for her and her mother to live in and he would visit periodically. However, Sunja clearly is opposed to this. The one thing Hansu cannot offer Sunja is honesty. He never told her about his other family. To be with Sunja, even in her own eyes, is a dishonest trait for Hansu to have no matter how much she may have liked him. Hansu at best is morally ambiguous. He sometimes seems to show real affection, but he ultimately seems like a selfish character.      That is the main thing that Isak can offer Sunja that Hansu cannot. Isak's intent to take her of Sunja is very genuine, yet in the eyes of some, foolish. He is more pass...

     In Busan, Sunja's life was even more cramped than it is now in Osaka. All of her surroundings are impoverished, and life is very difficult. She still has her family though. And for a lot of her life in Busan, her father was alive and made a very good impression on her. As a lodger, her mother always has bustling living quarters. Drifters come and go, and seaside workers take shifts sleeping in the rooms. Some slept during one part of the day and others during a different part. They were kind to Sunja, with some even sending her away with good wishes or gifts when she left to Osaka. She is content in Busan, of course, up until she discovers she had become pregnant.     The way Osaka contrasts with Busan can be easily seen in the vibrancy of the region. Osaka has many opportunities for people, and unlike Busan, the city is growing and changing. Isak and his brother's family suddenly replace Sunja's old family. Isak's brother's wife becomes like a "sister...

     In Chapter XII, Equiano chose to include several letters on why slavery should be abolished. One in which he wrote to the Queen. In this letter, he chose to take on a more emotional perspective of the negatives of the slave trade. In others, he instead appealed to the economic interest of ceasing the slave trade.       In relation to the entire book, Equiano made far more emotional appeals to the abolishing of the slave trade than ones of logic. I think this was by good design. To connect with his readers personally seemed like a central goal of his, especially in his letter to the Queen.      I think Equiano chose to include these letters to provide outside perspectives. He wanted to show the readers that he is not the only voice in support of what he desired. This also falls in line with how careful he is to point out the people in his life who helped him against adversity (especially when dealing with corrupt captains at sea). I ...

     Working on this project gave me a great amount of new information on the Atlantic Slave Trade. When learning about slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade in the past, the two were never fully separated from one another. In many classes, slavery was the main focus and the slave trade was only briefly touched upon. Many of these classes were focused on American history, and never ventured further. So, my understanding before this project lacked much of what I learned about the slave trade.      I learned that the slave trade started primarily from economic interest brought on by improving technology in Europe. To trade, the Europeans used Iron Bars. Once this currency was introduced to the market, it disrupted African trading systems by replacing traditional currencies. The change in currency brought desperate slave-raids upon many West African regions in order to trade slaves for iron bars. No other currency was accepted for the slave trade. The only posi...

My research for the final project is going well. I have found multiple sources and the source Michelle recommended for me to use was extremely helpful. A "Gold Mine" is a great way to describe it.  I did a lot of research on the history of printing presses in general as well as the printing press in Goa. While my research on the generalities of the printing press is not as important for my final project, I found it useful to frame my work for researching the one in Goa. Right now, my draft for the final project is in the form of an essay. It is a few pages with both general history and specific history of the printing press in Goa. I hope to transfer the paragraphs of my essay to sites on Neatline. I still need a few more paragraphs and a bit more research on the Goa printing press. I have a decent amount, but more can be found. Finding scholarly sources can be difficult, so I might have to see what other sources I can gather information from. My main struggle right now is th...

I learned about the history within the Archives and Special Collections and my greatest takeaway was how popular religious texts were. In current times, religion is still worldwide, but many other subjects have similar levels of notoriety. In medieval times, the most common books were religious texts. In Europe, it was the Bible.  I also learned about colors used in books during ancient times. The colors were a lot earthier than they are now. They were made from dirt, plants, and dyes. Once books started to become printed through presses, many upper-class people began wanting custom manuscript elements implemented into their printed books. The ease of production the printing press allowed made older manuscript elements more sought after. Upper-class people did not like type since it was suddenly so abundant. The inventor of the printing press was named Johannes Gutenberg. Although, some Koreans were also using similar technology at the time.  In the collection, we were also ab...

     I first want to note how good the presentation looks. Compared to Neatline, I find the aesthetics more appealing. I think this software makes better use of gradients and contrast. For example, the grayed-out map with the one selected red point. Even though it looks more like Neatline, I found it to feel way more similar to a PowerPoint presentation when navigating through it. There was a forward arrow and a back arrow, nothing else. You could click on specific things on the map, but I don't think that was the intended design of the presentation. There is also a small map in the top corner that shows the selected area in a more zoomed-out format. This is a cool feature because it reminds you where you are in the world. I found myself sometimes feeling lost in my Neatline presentation because I would be too zoomed in and forget where in the world I was.      Neatline does offer a timeline and sidebar navigation system that StoryMap lacks. I miss these fe...

My reading of Equiano's narrative was first a little challenging. He did not start his autobiography talking about his life, rather he was talking about where he was from. In other words, his starting point was very zoomed out. Instead of using "I", he used "our" and "we". It reminded me a lot of the opening ten pages in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan . That story began very zoomed out like Equiano's.  Eventually, in chapter 2, he directly addressed the reader saying, "I hope the reader will not think I have trespassed on his patience in introducing myself to him with some account of the manners and customs of my country" (Equiano 61). This cleared things up for me. After he mentioned this, I found the narrative to be a lot easier to follow. I actually enjoy the way he writes. It is cordial and smooth. Only at the very end did it become mundane. But that was more because of the subject matter of war. I've read a lot about war and wanted to hear more...