Renaissance Art

Art can be the mirror of society because it reflects the view of the artist. Most artists, at that time like to paint pictures of real people, who are important for the society. For example, the paintings of powerful noble family like the Medichi Family. Besides that, artists also tend to paint their own impression of their society. Sometimes, their paintings are based on myth, natural environment or religious topic. Basically, artist at the era paint what they see and felt about their society. The painting ‘The school of Athens’ is a clear example of the effect of the Renaissance. Previously, paintings were only about Christian religion. However, during the Renaissance, artist began to move away from religious topic and to draw more on what they see from the society. I can see lot of scientist and mathematician from this painting and this shows that people start to think in a new and more scientific way to prove their knowledge. Therefore, during the Renaissance era, we can see the reflection of the society from the paintings.



If I were part of the painting ‘The school of Athens’ I would like to be Hypatia of Alexandria. Hypatia of Alexandria was the first educated woman, who has contributed to the development of math, astronomy and philosophy. I chose her because she represents the strength of the women, who was as intelligent and courageous as men. Until today, woman have to prove their intelligent of skills to men therefore, it is feel proud to see a woman amongst other men scholars. Like Alexandria, I like to challenge men in my society and try to beat them especially to show them that women also can be as intelligent as men. She encourage people especially women to express their opinion freely as “Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” In the past traditional Korean society, women have to respect and look up to men. Therefore, women didn’t get much chance to speak up. By this factor, I like to speak up for the women and shear my opinion with others. I want to develop these skills more and become a woman like Alexandria who can recognize by everyone.

True Renaissance Man

Leonardo Da Vinci was a true Renaissance man during Renaissance. He excels in many different ways. He was a great artiest, engineer, inventor, architect, scientist, mathematician, and sculptor and even he was planning a party. As a teenager, Leonardo thought the art from the famous painter Verrocchio. He showed a great talent and tried different technique to make his paintings more beautiful. He drew two famous drawings, which are ‘Last Supper’ and ‘Mona Lisa’. Leonardo’s career as an artiest leads him to the interest of the human anatomy. He drew muscles, oranges, bones and even fetuses. These wasn’t only artistic, it was almost perfect drawings that now we know about the human body. It also helps us the knowledge about human physiology. Many museums have Leonardo’s notebook, which Leonardo’s fascinations. It contains the idea, comments and drawings about anatomy, astronomy, animals, people, architecture, geography and fossils. It also demonstrates, as he was a great inventor by drawings of natural world, which he observed. He design mechanical machines such as car, robots, airplane and some of them were impossible invented during that time because of the lack of technology. He also was a intelligent scientist. He found about the blood circulation, movement of the eyes and the effect of the moon on the tides. I think, Da Vinci gave a huge effect to Renaissance and not only Renaissance, he gave big influence and knowledge to us.

Nelson Mandela

Biograpy of Neson mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

-The biography from, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html-

Resilient

Having a dream and being resilient have given Nelson Mandela the strength to fight for freedom of his people. Nelson Mandela, the first president of South Africa went through a lot of hardship and obstacles in order to eradicate the apartheid policy in South Africa. He has a dream whereby everyone is equal in South Africa. He thought black and white should be treated the same. Therefore, he set up ANC (African National Congress) to go against National party’s apartheid policies. Even though, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, for plotting to overthrow the government by violence, that didn’t stop him from becoming a potent symbol of resistance. He tolerated the long duration in prison and consistently refused to concede his political position to obtain his freedom. His resilient nature gave him strength and courage to find ways to liberate his people from apartheid. He endured the hard life in prison as he wanted to fulfill his dream of saving his people. In Feb 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and after he was released, he immediately planned to fight for people’s right. In 1991, he became the president of ANC and made the first national conference of the ANC. Nelson Mandela went through a lot of difficulties however; he never give up or release his dreams. His resilient nature helped him to lead and hold on to the dream that he has.
The life of Nelson Mandela transcends time and speaks to all culture the importance of being resilient and having the determination to achieve ones dreams.

Achieve your Dreams

Dream

Dreams float in the sky
Carrying wings of the birds
Don't just dream, try to achieve

Achieve your Dreams

In the Alchemist, Santiago travels around the world to fulfill his destiny. He had many obstacles and problems however, he never give up and continue his journey until he achieve his dream. One of the reasons why Santiago successfully complete his destiny is because he has clear vision and dream that he want to achieve. Even though, Santiago faced many difficult tasks, he didn't sto; continue his adventure until he gets that treasure. Everyone has their own dream but sometimes people didn't realize or just want to shirk their dream because they think it's just a fancy dream. Therefore, people always just thinking about dreams, not try to achieve it. Like Santiago, we need to realize our dream and try to get what we want in order to achieve our dream. If we could do that, everyone in the world will feel self-contentment.

Resilient

Pursuing Destiny

“It’s true; life is really generous to those who pursue their destiny.”(Coelho, 160) This quotation means those who are brave enough to go after their dreams, they will be able to have a better life. In the Alchemist, this quotation is true for Santiago, a young shepherd, who decides one day he must fulfill his dreams and follow his destiny. He had dreamed about a treasure in the Great Pyramids and felt that he must travel to Egypt to fulfill his destiny. Santiago bravely stays away from his comfort zone and starts his long, worthy journey. Throughout Santiago’s journey, he met different mentors who helped him to achieve his dream. By overcoming obstacles, he understood the true meaning of love and self-worth. Adventurous and resilient are two qualities, which enabled Santiago to achieve his destiny successfully.

The adventurous characteristic of Santiago gave him the confidence and the push to venture out from his comfort zone and proceed on his journey. Since young, Santiago has always wanted to travel around the world. Initially, Santiago became a shepherd because he “was able every day to live out his dream” (Coelho, 10). When his father said the only people who can travel among them are the shepherds, Santiago decided to become a shepherd. Being a shepherd allowed him to travel out of his village which gave him opportunities to meet many people. Some of the people he met gave him advice and guidance to fulfill his destiny. For example, while Santiago was in the Andalusia, he met Melchizedek, who told him to start his journey to find his destiny. After Santiago met Melchizedek, he thought about traveling to Egypt and “the boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind” (Coelho, 27) because he thought wind can travel anywhere it want. After a while, he realized that he could have same freedom as the wind and there was nothing to hold back him except himself. Therefore, he got rid of his fears and worries, determined to start his journey to Egypt. His adventurous nature convinced him to make the decision to follow his destiny. He took the risk of handing over his flocks of sheep to Melchizedek which was the sign that he came out from his comfort zone and followed his adventurous nature to travel. Santiago was determined to travel around because of his adventurous characteristic. However, only being adventurous can’t guide him through his journey successfully. Santiago used his resilience to go through his tasks.

Santiago’s resilient nature helped him to carry on his journey until he achieved his destiny. Santiago is very tough and flexible; therefore he was able to face obstacles and challenges during the journey. Even though Santiago didn’t have any money after being robbed in Tangier market, he didn’t give up but continued his journey as “He is an adventurer, looking for treasure” (Coelho, 40). This supports his character that Santiago doesn’t give up easily until he reaches his goal. Also, during his journey, he went through many places which were not suitable for him. However, he was able to fit himself in to the situation that he faced and managed to keep his journey going. For example, Santiago went to the desert and joined the caravan. It was not an easy journey because they travel long distance and at night, they couldn’t even rest comfortably because of war. This shows that Santiago doesn’t really care about the situation that he faced and even if the situation is hard to go through, he has courage to face the problem that he has. Furthermore, it was quite shocking to Santiago as the treasure was located in Spain, the very start of his journey. After realizing the location of the treasure, Santiago went back to Spain without a single regret or hesitation even though he faced outrageous difficulties. This highlights Santiago's eagerness and his resilient nature as he wasn't regretful but delighted by the fact that he knew where the treasure was placed, and that he was finally about to achieve his goal.

Santiago was able to strengthen his bravery and knowledge through his journey. When Santiago went back to Andalusia and finally found his treasure, he realized that life is generous to people who want to fulfill their destiny. As he used his two traits, adventurous and resilient, he was able to complete his journey successfully. Santiago was brave enough to travel around for the treasure and he managed to fulfill his dreams by following his destiny, always taking a risk that he face and didn’t give up easily until he achieve his final dreams. By achieving his destiny, he found love, treasure and learn about the world and understood himself better. Therefore, we can all learn from this story that even if the process of achieving destiny could be hard, it is worthy and also showed that everyone can fulfill their destiny if they really want to pursue their own destiny.

Reflection : My Destiny


Life is tough. Sometimes, we have to go through hard tasks or something we don't want to do, however, from overcoming these hard tasks we gain a resilient nature. Just like Santiago resilience helps to carry me and pull me to reach my destiny. I was a person who was easy to give up when I faced a new task or situation. Therefore, I couldn’t get the results that I wanted to get. However, after I came to Malaysia, I realized that people who challenge themselves and don’t give up will succeed in the future. My resilient nature gave me the tenacity and flexibility to fit into any situation that I faced. I’m an ESL student, and therefore I faced many tough situations at ISKL. The first time when I came to Humanities class; it was hard to finish my task perfectly and in time. However, I kept asking advice from my teachers and friends, and therefore I managed to finish my work and get quite good results. This experience helped me realize that if I didn’t give up and tried my best, I could do anything that I wanted to do. Even though I continue to face outrageous difficulties, my resilient nature helps me to overcome obstacles that I face and achieve my goals.