Humanities Portfolio - Jason Zhao by Jason Zhao https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan Poem, Prose, Peel en-us 2022-02-16 09:37:59 UTC 2025-11-02 01:06:16 UTC hello@padlet.com jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477199 Every morning, before the sun rises. I woke up, took a hand of breadcrumbs and rushed to the factory. I got to my textile mill on the second floor of the cold stone box trapping us from the golden summer. I was in a line with dozens more machines lined up together. We were next to the solid wall which on the other side was the green yellow park. They didn't let children near the windows, if we go near them we'll get poked. Our wall was special, there was a single window. It was always closed, and it was too small to fit one of us. Across of it was the mill that was empty for the last few weeks. Last time we heard screaming and no one was there ever since.
I got back outside at night, and my family did our daily ritual before our night bread. They taught me to disconnect my soul from my body and let it connect to god. The next day I got to my mill. Behind my mill I saw a new girl skipping, she was different from everyone else. She looked cheerful, she wore a bright pink dress and cheerfully observed the factory like it was paradise. Then I saw our supervisor walking over, needle equipped in hand and I went back to work. I continued working and for the next hour didn't see or hear the new kid again. Suddenly I looked to the left and saw the girl dressed in dark gray like everyone else now operating the empty machine. It was a shiny day, and a ray of sun shined upon her hands as she carefully used the machine like she had a new toy. The next day, the girl came skipping over to work. She was reunited with her new toy mill. It was so unfair why the new kid got to work next to the window. In the middle of the day I saw her staring outside trying to wave at two children on the outside. Our supervisor also saw this and dragged her to his office. I didn't see her for the rest of the day. That night a storm broke out. I went to work the next day, I was almost late running through the heavy rain. No sun shined through the window. When the new kid came, she didn't skip to work today, she looked gray and wet. Her cheerfulness was gone. The storm worsened overnight, I could hear banging on our thin wood wall all night. I couldn't sleep. I thought about my first day of work. I was proud to get money for my family, I was excited for work. I didn't know what I would be doing, none of us did. I almost didn't sleep that night and it was time to go back to work. At least the storm cleared up early in the morning. When I arrived at my mill, I saw the window was shattered, the storm must have broken it last night. When the girl arrived, something extraordinary happened. She was happy as if her soul had escaped from the smashed window into the shining sun, but her movement became robotic.

This story explores the idea of spiritualism and child labor. The speaker is a child worker in a dark factory where there is a single window on the side of the building. The story is placed in a "cold stone box trapping us from the golden summer". A new girl takes the spot in the factory. She starts out happy but when exposed to abuse hinted at in the story "our supervisor walking over, needle equipped in hand" she becomes sadder and realizes the truth of her work. As the story progresses the girl's mood is characterized through the window, when the window is golden and shiny she is happy but as the storm happens her mood becomes "gray and wet." This shows the contrast between the girl's expectation of work compared to reality. Finally when the window is cracked giving her an escape into the summer day, her body cannot fit through the tight window but her spiritualist soul freely leaves her body leaving the body spiritless becoming just another another child slave of the factory.


]]> 2022-02-16 09:38:34 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477199 jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477442 When Thomas Savorys fame came
the gray started to rain
the sky became a burnt out flame
the scrap became a chain

A roaring new machine
A roaring new economy
A roaring new intelligence
They came to america

the boats sailed across the seas
overpopulated our land
needed more of our trees
they didn't give us a hand

A roaring new smoke
A roaring new hunger
A roaring new population
They came to take our resources

We couldn't keep up
In the early we are awakened
Pierced to be closeup
our friends all taken

I wrote this poem from the perspective of a child of a family in the working class of america. The story is placed in the late industrial revolution where the revolution started spreading to america quickly industrializing america too. In the first stanza, i try to talk about the new pollution in america, the "gray rain", "burnt out flame", and the chained up scrap. The third stanza speaks to the millions of people suddenly migrating to America and the vast amount of resources required to  keep up with the sudden burst of population. The final stanza is about the hardships of being woken up "in the early" and being "pierced" to be forced to work.



]]> 2022-02-16 09:38:43 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477442 jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477747 The industrial revolution was a sudden outburst of rapid innovation throughout the world. The invention of the steam engine gave inventors a power generator that is hundreds of times more efficient than its predecessors, however with a great invention, came its consequences. Overall looking at the long term benefits of the revolution, the positive impacts strongly outweigh the negatives. The largest implications of the steam engine was the steam train. At the time of the revolution most people were bringing items over distances by horse or foot. Suddenly this machine could carry the largest amounts of payload over a virtually infinite distance. Such a machine allowed businesses to connect over the continent creating large expanding trade routes and allowing society to have access to resources from all over the continent. The super efficient engine allowed factories to exist and produce hundreds of times faster compared to its previous handmade manufacturing techniques. This was dangerous for workers often performing maintenance on  the machines while they were running. They also were powered by burning coal hugely polluting the environment, also creating a dangerous coal industry. Coal towns were also made by companies having small towns where citizens' only purpose was to mine coal. The main concern is the pollution which is caused by the burning of coal, humans can only stop pollution once we have the technology to create a self-sustaining green power source such as a near future nuclear fusion reactor. To create such a clean power source humans need the technology and innovation to do so. Even though the industrial revolution did not create a green power source, it boosted human innovation making humans closer to having a truly green power source ultimately improving the environment in the long term. The bloom of new factories also opened up many jobs for workers and wages paid more than what farmers previously would have gotten. The industrial revolution created jobs for citizens however the jobs were dangerous and often the workers were children. Children were abused and the industrial revolution made child labor to be acceptable and common worldwide. This is morally unjust and was a horrible moment in history, however this had taught modern humanity about labor and we see many labor laws regulating child workers, minimum wage, and maximum working hours. Fortunately the horrible past had improved the future which to me, overall is a positive impact to the world but took a heavy sacrifice. Unfortunately less developed countries have not been about to move away from child labor wich is a modern day problem humanity should work towards solving. We see a few with large corporations moving to developing products in countries with proper labor laws such as taiwan and inside the united states. The issue of child labor will get better as time. The boost of the economy and innovation outweighs the negatives of pollution and child labor. The industrial revolution withheld a large sacrifice but the benefits it gave makes the industrial revolution's impacts positive to humanity.


]]> 2022-02-16 09:38:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050477747 jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050479147 2022-02-16 09:40:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050479147 jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050480473 2022-02-16 09:40:53 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050480473 jasonzhao5_1 https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050482617 2022-02-16 09:42:21 UTC https://padlet.com/jasonzhao5_1/65ockv4o0u198gan/wish/2050482617