sabato 6 aprile 2019

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM


The feudal system was made up of lords who would reward their vassals with land in exchange of military service, also there were knights who fought for the king that developed a code of conduct knows as chivalry.

BEOWULF

The only long literary text in Old English is the epic poem Beowulf, that recounts the deeds of the Scandinavian prince Beowulf. During the story, the protagonist comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, to defeat Grendel, that is a monster. Subsequently, he kills Grendel with his bare hands and also his mother with a giant sword that he finds in her lair. Then Beowulf becomes the king of the Geats and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon. After that, the protagonist attacks the dragon, but he doesn't succed, for this reason he follows him in his lair. In the last battle, Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but he is mortally wounded. The poem ends with the funeral of Beowulf.
In this epic poem the character called Beowulf represents the braveness, the goodness and the salvation for the society. Instead, the Dragon represents the fear of the people during that time. 

   






THE CELTS began to arrive to England's coasts to colonize the territory from Germany around the 700 BC. They practised agriculture, fishing and hunting and they were orginised in tribes. Moreover, Celts worked iron and worshipped natural elements such as the sun, the moon and everything could be a symbol of something supernatural.

THE ROMANS arrived in the 43 AD, when the Emperor Claudius decided to invade Britain. Furthermore, Romans built different forts, walls, roads and bridges in order to make easier to travel around England. Some of this constructions, still exist nowadays.                                            

THE ANGLO-SAXONS the roman occupancy in England continued until Germanic tribes decided to invade the island. These tribes were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes who, subsequently, merged into the Anglo-Saxons. Moreover, most of them were fishermen and farmers and they were organised in groupes called clans.

THE VIKINGS lived over one thousand years ago and they came from three countries of Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Furthermore, they first invaded England in 793 AD and last invaded in 1066.

THE NORMANS conquest of England happened in 1066. In fact led by William the Conqueror, the Normans won the battle of Hastings and took over the Kingdom of England. In addition, they brought french language and culture.


                                                                                                                                                                  



GEOFFREY CHAUCER


Geoffrey Chaucer was a professional courtier. He was born into a wealthy family of wine traders and he was from the class of the new wealthy city gentleman. For much of his life he served as a soldier and a diplomat during during the Hundred Years' War, since he was fluent in French, Italian, Latin and other languages. After his retirement from his job, he worked primarly on his masterpiece namely "The Canterbury Tales".






                                                       THE CANTERBURY TALES
                                                
The Canterbury Tales is a long narrative poem, set in spring, that tells the story of thirty people and Chaucer himself, who are going on a pilgrimage. They are travelling to Canterbury in Kent, to the shrine of Thomas Becket. Moreover, every pilgrim have to tell two stories while going to Canterbury and two while coming back, in addition, there will be a prize for the best story and a penalty for the ones who gives up. The birth of this poem is due to the fact that Chaucer wanted to give a portrait of English society.

Thomas Becket was a saint that fought against his best friend called Henri II, the king of England and there he was killed.

Also, the pilgrimage was famous because it was the only way to travel for normal people but also to save their souls. The principal destinations of pilgrimage were Rome, Canterbury and Santiago de Compostela.

                                                         THE PRIORESS

The Prioress is one of "The Canterbury Tales", that tells the story of a nun prioress, namely, the abbess of a convent. It might well be understood that the protagonist is very rich and she really cares for her dogs by giving them food that even normal people can't afford. This factor is emphasized by the author to highlight the corruption of the church throughout this period.

                                                        THE WIFE OF BATH
The Wife of Bath is a storyteller who recites her autobiography of her travelling around the world as a pilgrim. Furthermore, she confesses that she got married five times and she had many lovers when she was young. Nevertheless, she seems proud of it and she resembles the typical wicked woman of that period.

THE MIDDLE AGES



The Middle Ages is the period that is situated between the fallen of the Roman empire and the beginning of the Renaissance. It is divided in three parts: Early, High and Low Middle Age.

This is also known as the Dark Ages of humanity's history. Throughout this period the religion is the main thing and it is divided in two faiths: Christianity and Muslim. The Church was corrupted, but then later there will be the Reform. In addition to this, the Pope was being accused of nepotism and also they thought of translating the Bible in order to let other people being able to read it. So, because of the religion there was a sort of regression, people stopped studying Science and started to think that natural events were in consequence of God's punishment.

Furthermore, the theater dies, and the coins disappeared making barter to be practicable again. The main building was the castle and it was made of deep ditches and large walls. They started to live in this building in order to be protected by other populations' invasions.

sabato 6 ottobre 2018

Globalization

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. Globalization is grounded in the theory of comparative advantage, which states that countries that are good at producing a particular product, are better off exporting it to countries that are less efficient at producing that good. One of the most important factors that contributed to the globalization were the e-commerce that is the activity of buying or selling of products on online services. This is an important factor, because for thousand years, people had to wait long time for the arrival of specific products, instead with the e-commerce, the products arrive also in two or three days. The most important e-commerce in the world is Amazon. The globalization has also speeded the development of multinational companies, for exemple the most famous fast food in the world, that is the McDonald or the famous american coffee company Starbucks. Nevertheless the globalization has some negative aspects, in particular the exploitation of workers. For exemple the Apple, The Samsung and the other major phone companies, use a ore called "Coltan" to make smartphones,computers etc. This mineral is situated in the caves of African countries, where people work all the day and their salary is very low.



giovedì 24 maggio 2018

Breaking Bad

My favourite tv series is called Breaking bad. Breaking bad is an action tv series that takes place in Albuquerque, in the State of the New Mexico. The story discuss about a chemistry teacher that after he found out he had a terminal cancer, he started to produce metamphetamine to give money to his family after his death. The main actors of this series are Bryan Cranston, that played the part of Walter White and Aaron Paul, in the role of Jesse Pinkman, which is the assistant of the teacher. Moreover the actors performance is brilliant and the story holds your attention from beginning to end. I think that there aren't other words to describe this masterpiece.