There are a lot of questionable actions made by citizens and the government in our world today. From President Trump’s opinions on other countries and wall-building proposals, to the way some Americans treat their fellow citizens because of their gender, race, or sexual identity. One may ask, “Why that would pertain to a Humanities III paper?” It pertains because history has a tendency to repeat itself, and I want to highlight some things from the past. In this paper, I will summarize the characteristics and explain the current significance of Executive Order 9066, George Orwell’s 1984, and Mark Rothko’s “color-field” works.
Many people my age, nineteen or younger, do not recognize Executive Order 9066 when they see it. I, myself, didn’t know what it was until I did some more research and remembered the brief time I spent learning about it in the sixth grade. Executive Order 9066, according to The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, is an order that authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In simpler terms, many Japanese people, whether they were American citizens or not, were sent to assembly centers, and later internment camps from February 19th, 1942, the day the order was signed, to March 20, 1946, when the last internment camp was closed. For four years, 110,000 Japanese people who lived in the military zone were evacuated from their homes and forced to live in one of ten internment camps across the west side of the United States. The military zone stretched vertically from the top of Washington, down through Oregon, California, and ended after cutting through the bottom half of Arizona.
President Roosevelt signed this order shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For a long time, American citizens seemed to be against Asian immigration among the west coast. The war with Japan did not do anything to mend these feelings. Instead, it increased the fear and suspicion of Japanese Americans. President Roosevelt thought he was doing the right thing, keeping the American citizens safe, by signing this executive order.
This situation from 1942 still pertains to our world today. It is a prime example of the government handling a situation the wrong way. After Pearl Harbor, the terrorist attack on the twin towers was handled differently. The government learned from their past mistakes and didn’t imprison innocent Muslims or people of Islamic faith, but the fear of these people is growing stronger every day. With a president who strives on picking on the scapegoat, Muslims and people of Islamic faith are more vulnerable in the United States than ever.
George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel, meaning it was written about a terrible, unfavorable world. It was written in 1949, but meant to portray what the world would look like in 1984, hence the title. George pulled a lot of his inspiration from Joseph Stalin’s control over the Soviet Union at the time, the 1940s. Many people often say that George was just twenty years off. George’s ideas about what life would be like in 1984 were more current with the world in 2014. His idea of a telescreen, a TV like thing that not only gives information but also receives, is extremely similar to a smart phone. Today we are constantly surrounded by technology and different ways to communicate. While this is a very good thing, it can be terrible too, because there is no way to know if you are being monitored or not.
Another idea George has in his book is the rewriting of history. A famous case study of this would be the story of Jessica Lynch. At the time of Jessica’s rescue from Iraqi forces in a hospital in Nasiriya, Iraq, she seemed like a young hero with a dramatic story. The media reported her shooting at the enemy forces until she ran out of ammunition. Jessica became the face of the Iraqi war, but she recounts the event quite differently, saying she never shot a single round and that her injuries were from a vehicle accident. Jessica did everything she could to set the record straight, and get across her point that she didn’t want to be used as a symbol. This is an example of the government trying to rewrite history to increase citizen support, which George Orwell predicted.
Mark Rothko’s “color field” works are the most abstract art can get. They are huge blocks on color on top of other colors. The works themselves are also very large. This is because Rothko wanted to get the feeling of the painting enveloping you, almost surrounding you like music. He layered colors to make the painting seem misty or hazy at a closer look, and he put a new meaning to the colors. Rothko read the colors as bright colors being sad, and darker colors meaning a happier subject. The only thing you might be able to see in these works of art are horizon lines, but Rothko made these to have a spiritual impact. He refused to have them shown by other works, because he wanted the viewer to make and intimate connection to the painting, without the distraction of another. Rothko’s paintings are as far as abstract can get. What is next in the world of art?
Without knowing the past, history tends to repeat. The Executive Order 9066 had similarities to how Hitler treated the Jews, and our treatment towards Muslims today is starting to, and George Orwell’s 1984 predicted our world today with inspiration from the Soviet Union’s communist government of the 1940s. Mark Rothko’s works have gotten as simple and abstract as they go. In this paper, I have summarized the characteristics and explained the current significance of Executive Order 9066, George Orwell’s 1984, and Mark Rothko’s “color-field” works. Will history end up repeating itself?