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In the 11th grade English, Ron Paul Curriculum online class, I have been assigned a 2,500 word essay with the following topic: “How important has the theme of optimism been in the development of Western literature since 1493?” In this essay, I will answer this question, and hopefully give you a little more about the English I am doing.

First of all, I have to break this paper down into smaller pieces, so that I can answer this question more effectively. First, what is optimism? According to the Dictionary, optimism is the “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.” In my opinion, I think optimism just means to be cheerful, and positive, no matter what. If you said “I am super optimistic today” (you may not say that though) you may be feeling happy and positive. Remember the glass is half-empty half-full scenario? If you are optimistic, you would say that that glass is half-full, but if not, you would sat that that same glass is half-empty.

In western literature published from the year 1493 up until now, optimism has been an extremely important theme in those years. In this essay, I will take you through some important works of western literature, and describe how and where the theme of optimism is in those works. I will also explain why the theme of optimism is so important in those works.

The first of the works I will explain is the book Candide, written by Voltaire. Basically, this book talks about a person going through very improbable (not likely to ever happen) events. Optimism is everywhere in this book! According to LitCharts, “Candide pits the optimistic doctrine of Pangloss—that we live in the “best of all possible worlds”—against the long and senseless series of misfortunes endured by Candide and the other characters. Candide begins the novel as a faithful student of Pangloss, but painful experience prompts him to reconsider his views….Candide suggests that the struggle of human life—an endless cycle of optimism and disillusionment—might in fact be preferable to a static faith in the “best of all possible worlds.” In the end of the book, Candide realizes that the New World is filled with the same war and evil as the Old World, and good is not always rewarded with good. During this time, people began to wonder, “if there was a God, why would he let awful things happen?”. A man named Gottfried Leibniz (the real philosopher and mathematician whose teachings modeled Pangloss, a philosopher in the book) argued that evil existed because God was using it to bring about an ultimate good.

Another good work of optimism happened in 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 theses. According to Wikipedia, “The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences was a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, which was controlled by the Electorate of Saxony.” It was originally published on October 31, 1517 and was written in Latin. Now, some of you readers may be wondering “What does Luther’s 95 theses have to do with optimism?”. Basically, in his 95 theses, he teaches what be believes to be the righteous and Godly way to live your life on Earth. He says that if you follow these standards that he gives in his theses, then you will have eternal life in heaven, therefore having the theme of optimism.

The next work of Western Literature with the theme optimism is one you have most likely heard about. Its name is Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe (if you want to know more about Robinson Crusoe, I have other papers specifically on this novel). Let me give you a quick summary of the book just in case you have not heard of it. In the beginning of the book, Robinson Crusoe leaves his home in search of adventure. Later, he is on a ship, sailing to a place where he can build a life, and a storm rolls in, and damages the ship, but does not sink it. Later, another storm comes in and sinks the ship, but Crusoe and some other people escape in lifeboats. Eventually they get rescued by another ship and this ship takes Crusoe and the crew to Brazil. Later into the book, Crusoe builds a plantation in Brazil and becomes very wealthy. Eventually, he listens to some people to go to Africa and get some slaves to bring back, and he says he would. On the course to Africa, another storm rolls in and maroons the ship a ways back from the shore of an island. Crusoe himself survives, everyone else dies. Crusoe then tries to empty the ship of everything useful so he can survive on the island, but he is worried when another storm comes and sinks the ship, along with everything on it. Crusoe then tries to empty the ship of everything useful before the next storm hits. About a little under a month later, he finally empties the ship of anything useful, and a storm comes that night, sinking the ship. He then built for himself a home on the island, on which he stayed for years, 28 years to be precise. He eventually gets off the island and returns to civilization. This novel has the idea of optimism in many parts of the book. For example, for a time before he was shipwrecked, he was a slave, but he escaped and sailed to South America, where he became a very wealthy man. And when he was shipwrecked, he was the only survivor, and he looted the  ship of anything of importance that he needed for survival on the island. He also found a pleasant place to live on the island, and he had a way of harvesting food on the island, so he never starved. And at the end of the book, Crusoe gets onto an English ship, and the captain takes him back to Europe. Also, in the middle of the book, there are four different storms which could have killed him, but they did not. In fact, when he was shipwrecked, the storm that shipwrecked him and the ships crew killed everyone on the ship, except for him. Earlier in the book, he was traveling on a ship with other people, and a storm came and damaged the ship, but did not sink it. Later another storm came and sank the damaged ship, but the crew and Crusoe escaped in lifeboats, where they were later picked up and rescued by a passing ship. The ship took Crusoe to Brazil, where he built a plantation, and became very wealthy. As you can see, this man has a lot to be grateful for. This novel is just teeming with optimism!

Yet, another author who preforms optimism in his works is William Shakespeare. There are themes of optimism in most if not all of his works. Here are a few examples: In his play Romeo and Juliet, if you read it you would know that it has a sad ending, right? You could be thinking ‘How can there be any optimism in this?’. Well, first I will give you a recap of the play. To begin, Romeo meets Juliet at a party. Now, they are each on different sides of a family rival. But they love each other, so they get married in secret. Now, Romeo goes on a trip, and while he is on the trip, Juliet’s father arranges a marriage for Juliet with a different man, not knowing about her marriage to  Romeo. Now, the pope that married Romeo and Juliet did not tell anyone of the marriage. So he gives Juliet something that will make her seem as if she is dead even when she is not. Then the pope told one of his servants to tell Romeo to come at once. Well, the news of Juliet’s “death” reached Romeo first, and he was devastated. So he bought poison, went to her grave, and killed himself. When Juliet woke up, she found Romeo dead, so she stabbed herself. Well, now the families were really angry, so the pope tells the families about the marriage, and even the prince of the region came and rebuked the families. Then the two families finally unionize together after years of rivalry. So where is the optimism in this? Well, in the end, the two rival families agree to unionize together after the death of Romeo and Juliet because they never saw hope for their future together. In another one of his works, The Taming of the Shrew, the ‘Shrew’ has a harsh tongue. Then she gets married to a man whom, without her knowing, teaches her to be a better wife, and he also teaches her to control her tongue. He even challenged other husbands to see whose wife was more obedient, and he won the bet. These plays do not have a lot of optimism, but at least they have a little bit of optimism. Most of his plays have the theme optimism, maybe even all of them (I would not know because I did not read all of them, I only read a few).

Another of these optimism-themed books is called Utopia, written by Thomas More. This book tells of a perfect society living together in perfect peace and harmony. In this book, it tells that there are six thousand houses in each city, and sixteen adults in each house, so that each city has a limit of ninety-six thousand people. He also factors in slavery as a means of everyone getting served, and everyone is taught about agriculture, and the list goes on and on with principles like these. Also, he mentions that this society builds a military and army for war, but they never start a war. They only build up a military so that they can either prevent a war, or fight in a war if the time comes, but the never start a war. There are many principles like these that More gives throughout his book that he believes is necessary for a perfect society. Now, we probably do not think that some of these principles are necessary for a perfect society today, like slavery for example, but this is what More thought, that these principles are absolutely necessary in every society in order to obtain an absolutely perfect society.

Another book in Western literature with optimism is Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. If you have not read this book, I will give you a swift recap. Basically, a man named Gulliver is shipwrecked on an island inhabited by tiny people. He wakes up only to find out that he is tied up with tiny threads and taken to the kingdom of Lilliput. There he is greeted by royalty and treated hospitably. They feed him, by he consumes more food in one day than a thousand of the tiny people can. They even risked famine by feeding him so much of their food, but it was all worth it. Eventually he is used as a military weapon against the kingdom of Blefuscu, because these two kingdoms hate each other. However, despite all the good he has done, Gulliver is accused of treason because he put out a fire in the royal palace. The people said that they should poke his eyes out and starve him to death. Well, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu where he finds broken down boat. He eventually fixes the boat, and escapes. So, where is the optimism in this book? Well, he is treated hospitably by his captors, he he is able to learn their language in two months. They also feed him enough food, despite his size, and he helps out in the war between the two kingdoms. It all starts to go downhill when he is accused of treason, but he escapes to Blefuscu, and discovers a broken down boat. He then fixes it and sails away.

Another book with the theme optimism is H. G. Wells, The Time Machine. Here is a brief overview of the book: Basically, a scientist invites some people to his house to tell them of a breakthrough in science: his time machine. He shows them a model of his time machine, and sends it into time, forward in time or backward in time, he does not tell us. A week later he invites new people to his house to tell them his breakthrough. He is late. He finally shows up, all dirty and raggedy. He tells them his story: Last Friday, he tested his real time machine. He went 800,000 years into the future, and there was tiny people living in a completely perfect society, there was no death, no work, no anger, no sadness, it was paradise, except for one minor detail. They were afraid of the dark. Why? Because of the Morlocks, subterranean creatures that hate light. They terrorized the tiny people for years. Now, the time traveler (we are never told his name) wants to escape, but he lost his time machine. He finally finds it in a giant statue of a Sphynx, and narrowly escapes the Morlocks. He went further into the future, and giant crabs almost had him, so he escapes that. Then he went three million years into the future, and when he got there, everything was gone. There was no life, nothing. Death was everywhere he looked. So he went back to his house in modern time just in time to tell the guests his story. The next day he packs up and leaves into “time”, and he takes a camera with him for him to take evidence and show people back home. Again, we do not know if he went forward or backward into time. And this time, he never returns. So where is the optimism in this? Well, he built the world’s first time machine, and it works, so that is definitely good. Also he makes friends with the tiny people, and saves one from drowning. And he escapes the Morlocks and the giant crabs, and he returned to his guests alive to tell the tale.

How important has the theme of optimism been in the development of Western literature since 1493? I do not know if most of you will agree with this, but this is my opinion. I think that the theme optimism is in so many books is because people like optimism. They like happy endings. These books I just gave a survey over have a lot more optimism than what I covered, these books and hundreds of thousands of others. Everybody likes optimism. Some books that rarely have any optimism in it, or maybe no optimism at all, I do not like to read in my opinion. I bet that books with more optimism are more widely sold than those books with less optimism. I just think that optimism is a vital theme in most literature and even some movies.

In what ways did revenge figure into the strategies of the countries fighting in World War II? If you go and read and learn about the entire World War II, then you will find a lot of revenge “stories”. Here are just a few: To begin with, when World War I ended, many people thought that Germany was the cause of the war, and Germany mostly was. So Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, take the guilt of starting the war, pay reparations, Germany lost territory, and was forced to keep a small military. So Germany was super angry with this, so when Hitler came to power, he began to build a secret military and stock up on an army and weapons. Then when Hitler thought Germany was ready, be attacked Czechoslovakia and Poland, so then World War II started. Now, I know that Hitler just wanted to make Germany strong and wealthy again, but I can not help but wonder if revenge was woven into Hitler’s ambitions. I mean, what if Hitler also wanted revenge on the world for making it pay all these payments to the rest of the world for starting the war? It could be.

Also, the United States acted on revenge too. Let me tell you how. So you know about the Bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, right? Well, the day after the bombing, the United States declared war on Japan, thereby acting on revenge.

Also, the countries who were fighting in the war acted on revenge all the time. When an enemy invaded or attacked there territory or an allies territory, they attacked the country who attacked them first.

The war was partly built on revenge!

According to Wikipedia, “Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling’s works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology, Kim, the Just So Stories and many short stories, including “The Man Who Would Be King”.” What is one of Kipling’s copybook headings that applies to recent public opinion? According to Poem Analysis, “‘The Gods of Copybook Headings’ by Rudyard Kipling was published in 1919. The speaker of this piece is interested in “copybook headings.” Now mostly unknown, copybook headings were short phrases written by teachers at the top of a piece of paper. These sentences were then copied by students, over and over, in order to improve their handwriting. Generally, these phrases were expressions of traditional wisdom about life.  Things that teachers could easily convey to students and ideally, might inspire them to work harder or be better.” So what is one of these copybook headings that apply to recent public opinion? Honestly, it is very hard to understand these copybook headings. I would say that a lot of them refer to recent public opinion from what I’ve gathered, though, I just don’t know which.

In this essay, I will discuss three questions given to me by my teacher explaining the brutality of World War II.

#1: Did World War II become more brutal as time went on? I believe it did. In the beginning of the war, only a few countries were involved, so the war was brutal, however, it became more brutal as time went on because more countries were joining half way into the war, like the United States. I think that the more countries that were in a war the more brutal it becomes.

#2: In what ways? In what ways did WWII become more brutal as time went on? Well, as I told you, I think that the more countries there are in a war, the more brutal it becomes, but also because new weapons and inventions were being used by the armies of the different countries to help them win the war. Like planes, ships, and even tanks. Planes could drop bombs on the enemy army to weaken them, and ships were used in Naval warfare. And also the tank could be used by the army to fire missiles at the enemy army. So weapons are a way that the war became more brutal later in the war.

#3: Was the brutality on only one side? No, of course not! Brutality could be used on both sides of the war, it just depends on how they use it. Sure, some countries could be more brutal than others, but that does not change the fact that brutality could be used by anyone in a war.

In what sense did World War II become more “global” during its first two or two-and-a-half years? Now, for the first two years of the war, the war was mainly focused in Europe and Asia, so it was a pretty big war, almost as big as World War I, but it was not quite a “global war”, at least not yet.

To start, I would like to say how World War II started. After the first world war, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, take the guilt of starting the war, pay reparations, Germany lost territory, and was forced to keep a small military. There was also the Great Depression, and the economies were shrinking, trade was reduced, businesses closed, prices fell, banks failed, and unemployment rose. In some cases of a depression, people look for a political leader to resolve there problems, and the people chose Hitler. He promised to make Germany wealthy and powerful again. Hitler then began to built a secret military and was building up Germany’s army and weapons. Hitler then invaded Czechoslovakia. At this time, neither France nor Britain were prepared to make war, so they let it be. But then Germany invaded Poland. By this time, France and Britain had had enough of Germany breaking its promises, and declared war on Germany. At this time, World War II had begun in Europe, and would soon spread to other parts of the world (this was taken from my “What problems from World War I helped contribute to the outbreak of World War II?” essay).

I believe that World War II became global after the United States joined, and the US joined the day after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The day after the attack the US declared war on Japan, and thereby entering the war.

What problems from World War I helped contribute to the outbreak of World War II? There were many problems that helped contribute the the outbreak of WWII, but only some of them were a result of WWI. After the first world war, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, take the guilt of starting the war, pay reparations, Germany lost territory, and was forced to keep a small military. There was also the Great Depression, and the economies were shrinking, trade was reduced, businesses closed, prices fell, banks failed, and unemployment rose. In some cases of a depression, people look for a political leader to resolve there problems, and the people chose Hitler. He promised to make Germany wealthy and powerful again. Hitler then began to built a secret military and was building up Germany’s army and weapons. Hitler then invaded Czechoslovakia. At this time, neither France nor Britain were prepared to make war, so they let it be. But then Germany invaded Poland. By this time, France and Britain had had enough of Germany breaking its promises, and declared war on Germany. At this time, World War II had begun in Europe, and would soon spread to other parts of the world.

 Now after World War I, the League of Nations was established. Basically, the League was supposed to solve problems peacefully between nations without there being war. Well, this failed because not all nations joined the League, and the League had no army to prevent military aggression between the nations.

These are probably the main causes of WWII.

In this essay I will be going over three specific points I am required to write about that have to do with the Russian Revolution, but not the Russian Revolution itself (just to avoid any confusion).

(1) What are the primary differences between Marxism and Marxism-Leninism? Basically Marxism predicted a revolution by a proletariat, whereas Marxism-Leninism forcefully demanded of the need for leadership lead by a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries (for example: Vladimir Lenin). Marxism also predicted a short-lasting dictatorship of the proletariat, while Marxism-Leninism established a permanent dictatorship of the Communist party, in practice. Marxism also imagined a revolution of proletarians in industrialized countries, but Marxism-Leninism gave special importance to the revolutionary potential of peasants in mainly agrarian societies (for example: Russia).

(2) Historian Richard Pipes wrote, “Soviet Russia was the first society in history to outlaw law.” What did he mean by that? What he meant was Russia had accepted people becoming judges who were clearly unfit for the job. These people didn’t go to law school, they knew almost nothing of the law, these people had to just rely on their own personal morals. This decision was disastrous. This policy seemed to have outlawed the law.

(3) What was the Russian government under Lenin like? What kinds of tasks did it attempt to achieve? According to Wikipedia, the Russian government under Lenin was like “Formation. Traditionally, the executive part of a government is directed by a council of ministers nominated by a ruler or by a president. The Bolsheviks considered this to be a bourgeois institution, and wanted to create what they believed was a new government made up of a ‘soviet’ of workers and peasants.” What did Lenin want to achieve in the Russian Revolution? According to Wikipedia, “From his Marxist perspective, Lenin argued that this Russian proletariat would develop class consciousness, which would in turn lead them to violently overthrow tsarism, the aristocracy, and the bourgeoisie and to establish a proletariat state that would move toward socialism.”

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States of America. He was president from 1913-1921, and was also president during World War I. He was famous for creating the Fourteen Points. According to Wikipedia, “The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson.” According to the National WWI Museum, the Fourteen Points are: “1. Open diplomacy without secret treaties 2. Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace 3. Equal trade conditions 4. Decrease armaments among all nations 5. Adjust colonial claims 6. Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to define its own independence 7. Belgium to be evacuated and restored 8. Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories 9. Readjust Italian borders 10. Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-determination 11. Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro 12. Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in the Dardanelles 13. Creation of an independent Polish state 14. Creation of the League of Nations” These Fourteen Points mainly support the idea of lasting peace between the different countries and nations of the world.

How did an assassination lead to WWI? The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 led to the outbreak of WWI, but how did this assassination lead to war? After the assassination, Austria-Hungary sent a list of demands to Serbia (the nation that lead the assassination). They said that if Serbia does not do what they have command Serbia to do, they will declare war. Serbia accepted these demands, but nevertheless, Austria-Hungary declared war anyway. This set off a chain reaction of military mobilisations that eventually lead to the outbreak of WWI in 1914.

So, what did begin World War I? The main event that began this great war was the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After this assassination, Austria declared war on Serbia, and as Austria’s ally, Germany declares war on Russia, who was an ally of Serbia, then Germany declares war on France, an ally of Russia, Germany begins invasion of Belgium, the U.S.A. declares that it will remain neutral, and the war began. The war began in August 1914, and lasted up until November 1918.

What is Modernism? According to Tate, “Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life.” The 5 Key Characteristics of Modernist Literature are individualism, experimentation, absurdity, symbolism, and formalism. What does Modernism mean? According to Vocabulary.com, “Modernism describes things you do that are contemporary or current.”

What was the Kulturkampf? According to Wikipedia, the Kulturampf was a “fierce conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck.” The main issues of this conflict were clerical control of education and ecclesiastical appointments. It began in 1871 and ended in 1887, and took place in Prussia.

What arguments did Gladstone make in favor of Home Rule for Ireland? According to Weebly, “Gladstone believed that Home Rule, no matter how radical or progressive it seemed, was the only means of avoiding a catastrophe between Ireland and Britain.” He worked very hard to establish this, but it failed and was rejected.