Women of the Suffrage Rights Movement:Susan B. Anthony

Howard Yin

September 30,2010

Susan B. Anthony: A Brave Woman

             Abolitionist, American Civil Rights, and Early Pioneer of Women’s Suffrage and Leader of Women’s rights, was born Susan B. Anthony, on February 15, 1820. She would grow up to become the most important advocate for the benefits of women’s rights and suffrage. Susan B. Anthony was born and raised in West Grove, near Adams, Massachusetts. Her family was a Quaker family.  She had seven siblings and she was the second oldest of them all. She had a good education. Soon, after she met several famous reformers such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips. After listening to them, they began to persuade her and create a base of the ideas and their strong views of slavery. From that, she formed her views on slavery, women’s rights, and even the avoidance of alcohol. She met and listened at the first Women’s Rights Convention held at Seneca Falls but she didn’t believe so strongly until 1851. She was attending temperance rallies but when she realized she couldn’t speak at their rallies because she was a woman, she knew that women had to win the same rights as men.

            When she met with Elizabeth Cady Stanton on her first women’s rights convention in 1852, she continued to campaign for women’s suffrage rights. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, she focused her views on slavery. Afterwards, she remained in the tight struggle and battle. She campaigned for women’s suffrage until the end of her life. We can say, that this remarkable woman, had more than guts, to stand up for herself against the giants of mankind. 

Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa was a famous painting made by Leonardo da Vinci in the sixteenth century. I have strange feelings toward this painting. First, is the woman’s smile. The smile intrigues me because it seems as if she’s smiling because she has a secret plan in her mind and that she is part serious, part excited. In the background, there are rivers and mountains with dark colors, making me feel as if she’s a witch and that I should be afraid. It might be because in my subconscious mind, I feel as if she’s a little scary because of the experience I have had when I was young. I used to read books about little witches and I have been afraid of the weather of its dark looming clouds and its clear water droplets. The stories used to tell me that witches and all those strange people would live in rural areas and near the forest so the background freaks me out. The background colors are a bit dark and it is a little dark green colored. Da Vinci might have wanted to make us feel as if she was a noble and that she was very honest so that we could be like her. The mountains in the background are done in great detail. 

Chinese Funeral Customs

Howard Yin

 September 9,2010

Chinese Funeral Customs

The Chinese people take the funeral customs very seriously. In this case, they bury the dead. They don’t cremate their dead but they bury them instead. [H1] They go through a process that is very important[H2] . If they don’t have a proper funeral arrangement, they can wreak disaster on the family of the deceased, or dead. [H3] The customs of burying the dead are very strange. Burial customs and funeral rites are determined by the age of the dead, cause of the death, status and position in society.             There are many strange customs. For example, during a funeral, an elder should never show respect to someone younger. Also, if a bachelor dies, his body can’t be brought home and must stay at the funeral. His parents can’t offer prayers. If an infant or child dies, no funeral rites are performed because you can’t show respect to a younger person. So, the child is just buried.

Preparations for a funeral begin before the person dies. They order a coffin when the person is on their deathbed. When the death occurs in the family, all statues of deities in the house are covered with red paper (not to be exposed to the body or coffin) and all mirrors are removed. [H4] (It is believed that one who sees the reflection of a coffin in a mirror will shortly have a death in his/her family) A white cloth is hung over the doorway to the house and a gong is hung to the left of the entrance if the person dead is a male and to the right if a female.

Before the deceased is put in a coffin, the corpse is cleaned with a damp towel with talcum and is dressed in its best clothes. White, brown, black, or blue are usually its colors. [H5] The corpse is never dressed in red because it will turn it into a ghost. [H6] 

Then, the coffin is placed on its own stand either in the house, if the person has died at home, or placed in the courtyard outside the home, if the person has died away from home. Food is placed in front of the coffin as an offering. The dead person’s comb will be broken in half, one will be in the coffin, and the family will retain the other. During that time, the family doesn’t wear jewelry or red clothing. The children and grandchildren won’t cut their hair for forty-nine days after the death. Blood relatives and daughters in law are to wail and cry loudly during the mourning as a sign of respect and loyalty to the deceased. Special clothing is worn. Children and daughters in law wear black, showing that they grieve most. [H7] Grandchildren and great grandchildren wear light blue. They sit in a special order. When the prayer’s ceremonies are done, the coffin is nailed shut. [H8] 

The Chinese bury the dead in the hillsides. Then, even though the funeral is over, the mourning in the family continues for a hundred days. The sleeve of each family member wears a piece of colored cloth during the hundred days to also signify the mourning. [H9] Some families even wear them up to 3 years. However, mourning is not needed when a child dies.

Afterwards, seven days after the death[H10] , the Chinese believe that the soul of the dead will return to their home. On the day when the soul returns, family members are expected to remain in their rooms. Flour or talc may be dusted on the floor so that they can detect the visit of the dead. [H11] 

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 [H1]Merge these Sentences.

 [H2]The burial ceremonies are very important.

 [H3]If a funeral is not arranged properly, it is believed that it can wreak disaster on the deceased.

 [H4]Or so as, not to be exposed

 [H5]The corpse doesn’t have turn into these colors!

 [H6]The corpse’s soul will become a wandering ghost!

 [H7]“They grieve THE most”

 [H8]When the ceremony is done, the coffin is nailed shut.

 [H9]Sleeves don’t wear clothing!

 [H10](AFTERWARDS), Seven days after the ceremony, “     “

 [H11]Flour or talc may be left on the floor, so as to detect the visit of the soul.