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In the early 20th century, the Mexican government was plagued with corruption, greed, injustice and violence. Although the Mexican Revolution, which started in 1910, resulted in the end of dictatorship in Mexico and the drafting of a constitution in 1917, periodic violence continued throughout the nation well into the 1930s. A number of revolutionaries rose from the Revolution, including Francisco Madero, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. This paper will look at Zapata\u27s life, his participation in the Mexican Revolution, and the enduring influence Zapata has had on Mexican politics and culture

Staputyte, Kotryna

English

The Legacy of Emiliano Zapata

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1987/thumbnail.jp

2013 Celebration of Academic Excellence_38

ESSAI
Volume 14 Article 6
Spring 2016
Foreword
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V 
 
Foreword 
 
Created in 2002 by a cross-disciplinary faculty, ESSAI, The College of DuPage Anthology of Academic 
Writing Across the Curriculum is an annual academic journal that represents a unique but inclusive 
discourse community of student writers; it fosters student success through writing across the curriculum 
and in all levels of learning at College of DuPage. It rests on our belief that writing empowers and 
prepares our students for meaningful careers and advanced academic pursuits and that, to realize such 
goals, the entire college community is responsible for incorporating writing into their courses as a vital 
part of the academic experience at our college. 
 
Like all the past volumes, this Volume XIV continues to harvest our belief in fertile cooperation with our 
cross-disciplinary faculty who implement writing to learn and promote discipline in their teaching. Some of 
the published essays, therefore, have resulted because our students made use of journals, logs, 
microthemes, and other informal writing assignments encouraged in the classroom. In this way, students 
wrote frequently and improved their writing skills enabling them to comprehend better and to retain 
information longer. Others – expository work such as reports, article reviews, criticisms, research papers 
– attest to students’ successful participation in academic discourse according to the conventions of 
language use and style expected in specific disciplines. 
 
That we practice the philosophy of student success through good writing will become even more apparent 
in the journal’s name. It harkens back and pays homage to Michel de Montaigne whose seminal style of 
writing “essais” connoted one of trials and attempts. Thus ESSAI chronicles our students’ intellectual trials 
wherein they dialogically encounter diverse culturescapes, critically weigh various issues at hand and 
then engage in analytical exercises, while each evolving from a personal to a public writing self. The 
resulting published work is their expanded cultural and epistemological self endowed with talent, 
sophistication, and fresh scholarship, all expressed with clarity, eloquence, and grace. 
 
We continue our editorial tradition in making the best selections for publication. The most exemplary of 
the year’s submissions are those that: 
 
 Are completed according to assignments’ purposes 
 Have mechanics, grammar, and other technical points in place 
 Are imaginative, creative, logical, and risk-taking with respect to assignments’ purposes 
 Exhibit clarity of writing with respect to purposes 
 Follow the disciplinary format 
 Include relevant literature reviews where required 
 Demonstrate analytical abilities 
 Generate interest 
 
Join with us in honoring the exceptional talents of our student authors and our student artist whose 
graphic design adorns our cover. And watch for Volume XV of ESSAI which will be published in 2018. We 
appreciate your readership. Through your interest and support, our anthology will keep growing. 
 
The ESSAI Editorial Board: 
 
Brian Blevins, Graphic Design 
Franz Burnier, English 
Richard Jarman, Chemistry 
Keith Krasemann, Philosophy 
Sarah Magin, English 
Lynda Randa, Biology 
Ben Whisenhunt, History 
1
et al.: Foreword
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Foreword

Careddu, Jasmine

Hollywood Before the Camera Flashes

Krebaum, Emily

Exploring the Sublime in Art

Lee, Jessica

ESSAI
Volume 14 Article 24
Spring 2016
Fathers and Sons
Jessica Lee
College of DuPage
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Lee, Jessica (2016) "Fathers and Sons," ESSAI: Vol. 14 , Article 24.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol14/iss1/24
92 
Fathers and Sons 
 
by Jessica Lee 
 
(History 2225) 
 
 
 
he novel Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev showed the differing ideals between the old 
generation and the young generation and the paths they each felt Russia should be taking. 
Turgenev showed through his characters that one does not nor should, as was also the case 
with Russia as a country, negate the past, thinking that would build a better future. He then showed 
another option; a happy marriage of the two ideals, where melding of the old Russia and the ideas of a 
new Russia produced a better and beneficial result. In fact, those characters in the book who 
represented opposite and far ends of the spectrum did not end with happy lives. 
In 1861 Alexander II moved forward with the first of many reforms by emancipating the 
serfs. This huge reform affected eighty-five percent of the population or about fifty-two million 
people.1  There were groups within Russia that were not happy about these changes, “they insisted on 
long-established values and fought bitterly to preserve privilege and autocratic rule.”2  The nobles and 
the Russian Orthodox Church made up the largest group that did not support the emancipation of the 
serfs. Not all nobles were against this reform. Many understood the necessity for the change, not just 
from the side of economy, but also for the moral philosophy against owning another human being. 
While some noble families did not object, there had been many who were not keen on losing such a 
large portion of their income, land, and labor. Emancipation was not the only change that society had 
been going through; many had a hard time parting from long standing and deep rooted traditions 
about social classes. In the novel Fathers and Sons, we were introduced to the character Pavel 
Petrovich Kirsanov. He was the epitome of Russian nobility. Pavel was the elder brother to Nikolai 
Petrovich Kirsanov and the uncle to Arkady Kirsanov. He was a very proud and elegant aristocrat 
who took impeccable care of his appearance, being described as “so elegant and well bred” that he 
had been able to “preserve a youthfulness of figure and an upward striving”, and had “beautiful hands 
with long pink fingernails.”3  He held to strict principles and had a hard time giving favor outside of 
them. We saw this in his disapproval of his brother’s relationship with a lady, Fenechka, who had 
also been a hired laborer in the house. Pavel’s life was one that was rooted in strong and deep 
tradition and ideology, and while he was more moderate to the changes, such as emancipation, he 
still had a hard time moving past those long lived and deep traditions. To Turgenev, Pavel Petrovich 
was the embodiment of the old Russia. Pavel was everything that is pre-reform, pre-Alexander II. 
This was why Pavel takes an immediate disliking to Arkady’s friend Bazarov, who stayed for a visit 
while on the way to his home. When Pavel was introduced to Bazarov he barely acknowledged him 
except to give him a faint smile, making it clear he was not impressed with their guest. Instead of 
shaking hands and welcoming Bazarov, he had puts his hands into his pockets making his distaste 
more apparent. Upon learning that Bazarov would stay with them a few days, Pavel, exclaims “That 
long-haired person?”4  Bazarov’s personality and ideology went against everything that Pavel 
 
  
1 John M. Thompson, Russia and the Soviet Union: A Historical Introduction from the Kievan State 
to the Present, 7th ed. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2013) 162. 
2 Thompson, Russia and the Soviet Union, 161. 
3 Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 16. 
4 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 17. 
T
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93 
believed in. His neatly ordered and calm life had been disrupted by the chaos that Bazarov brought. 
In the context to Russia these reforms to the Russian aristocracy were the same. The aristocracy’s 
standing in Russian society, the neatly ordered life they lived, was changing in ways which they 
could not foresee the results. While nobles still held their title of nobility their customs and rules 
were being modified. Throughout the novel it was very hard for Pavel to try and reevaluate his 
principles. He was so entrenched in his aristocratic life that he realized he could not live at Marino 
where perhaps life had changed too much for him to be comfortable. We got a glimpse of Pavel 
Petrovich at the end of the book - he had retired to Dresden and was living a life in a circle of society 
where he was most comfortable and was able to hold his Slavophile views. He “has a particular air 
about him which is acquired by a man only through long acquaintance with the higher strata of 
society”5 yet we saw that he was unhappy, “he finds life hard...harder than he’d suspected. One only 
has to glance at him in the Russian church when, leaning sideways against the wall, he falls into deep 
thought and does not stir for a long while, his lips pursed tightly together in bitterness”6, his life was 
not what he wanted. Turgenev showed that if Russia did not progress and reform, willing to work 
with the changes necessary for a better, modern Russia, the country would be “Indeed...Dead as a 
Dodo”7  
On the opposite end of the spectrum in Russia we had those who believed in a radical 
ideology of reform. They believed that while these reforms were needed, they were too little, too 
late. One of these views at the time was the philosophy of Nihilism, which was the rejection of any 
values or ideas held by society, “they approach everything with a critical point of view…who doesn’t 
acknowledge any authorities”8  Bazarov portrayed this idea of Nihilism and radical philosophies. 
Yevgeny Vassilyitch Bazarov was the son of a military medical doctor, who had been away at 
University. He was arrogant in thinking and held his ideals above everyone. Since he held in 
contempt all things that could not be proven through scientific fact he did not respect anything 
around him. He felt it was his duty as a Nihilist to tear down or condemn any institution, especially 
within the aristocratic society, whom he felt were the worst kind. When appealed to by his friend 
Arkady to not judge or treat those in his family so harshly, he responded, “As if I’m going to play 
along with provincial aristocrats! After all, it’s just a matter of their self-esteem, their acting like 
society lions, their being such dandies!”9  The problem with these radical views was that they 
became tiresome, frustrating, and even dangerous when they did not include anything constructive or 
good. Even going so far as missing the mark on what was really needed for reform. John. M. 
Thompson, in his book Russia and the Soviet Union said while discussing radical views and 
practices, they “only repelled much of educated society, puzzled the peasants, and strengthened 
conservatives position and determination”10  In fact toward the end of Fathers and Sons, Bazarov 
went into town to talk with the villagers, as was his practice, to reinforce his prejudice against the 
peasants. Bazarov asked a villager how their peasant world was run and the peasant responded with 
more or less what he thought Bazarov wanted to hear. Upon Bazarov’s departure, another villager 
arrives to ask what Bazarov wanted and is told that Bazarov only wanted to “wag ‘is tongue a bit. 
Like all them masters, you know, he doesn’t understand nuthin’.” In the eyes of the peasants,  
 
  
5 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 199. 
6 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 200. 
7 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 164. 
8 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 23. 
9 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 27. 
10 Thompson, Russia and the Soviet Union, 167. 
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ESSAI, Vol. 14 [2016], Art. 24
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94 
Bazarov looked “a little like a village idiot.”11  By the end of the book Bazarov has contracted 
Typhus. He realized he was not going to be the great person to make an impact on Russia as he once 
thought. He died with only a few people around him, his parents, and Anna Sergeevna Odintsova. 
Bazarov came in with his arrogance and anti-establishment ideal, but in the end did not leave much of 
a lasting impression. Turgenev did not feel that radical views were the best path for Russia to take. 
Turgenev leans toward a more moderate view of progression for Russia. 
Turgenev's stance through Fathers and Sons on reforms seems to be a middle ground. He 
understood there was not a future in the old traditional ways but also understood that there was not 
one for the radical thinkers of the time either. There was a better way that included taking the best 
parts of Russia’s past and the best parts from the new ideas or views and marrying them together. 
Turgenev literally does this in Fathers and Sons with his father and son characters Nikolai and 
Arkady. Arkady Kirsanov was the son of Nikolai Petrovich and university friends with Bazarov. 
When Arkady brought Bazarov home he realized over time that the Nihilistic views he held at school 
were not really what he wanted. He knew there needed to be reforms and changes and he was ready 
to move forward with them, “No thought Arkday, this isn't a rich region, it doesn't strike one as either 
prosperous or industrious. It can’t, just can’t stay like this. Reforms are essential. But how to go 
about them, how to start?12  Yet he also realized the folly in turning his back on the good parts of the 
past that were uplifting and productive. He discovered, as Bazarov took apart and mocked all that he 
held dear and loved, that he was not ready to turn his back on those things that are good. When 
Bazarov was making fun of his father Nikolai for playing the cello in the country, Arkady’s response 
was, “Bazarov went on laughing, but Arkady, despite the respect in which he held his teacher, on this 
occasion did not even smile.”13  Arkady was moved by the beauty around him. When Bazarov 
ridiculed him for these thoughts and called his uncle stupid for the same thinking, he immediately 
jumped to his uncle's defense.14  Arkady had no problem with the change in class system that was 
taking place. He encouraged his father to marry Fenechka who was a hired laborer with whom the 
father had a relationship. He loved the arts and loved music, institutions a nihilistic mind thought 
would tear down or disregard because they were built on the past. The idea of love and marriage, the 
oldest institution, was not something a nihilistic point of view could tolerate, and Arkady through 
music and nature had fallen in love with Katya Sergeevna. He was able to combine his desires and 
views for a better Russia with his desire to own the land and the business that came with it. 
Nikolai Petrovich was also a character who was able, or at least trying, to move forward. He 
was still able to hold onto some of his old ways while at the same time he helped to achieve a 
progressive Russia. He was a Russian noble who went beyond the requirements of emancipation 
reform. He redrew his land to distribute it among the serfs and even moved his own household. 
While talking to his brother Pavel he lamented that he thought he had been doing as much as he could 
to keep up with the changing times. In fact, he had done more than most, “I thought I was doing 
everything I could to keep up with the times, fixing things up for the peasants and setting up a farm, 
so much so that I’m being branded a ‘red’ throughout the province.”15  He saw that there was 
something the younger boys had that the older generations did not and concluded they were less class 
conscious. Yet Nikolai was still able to retain parts of himself that he felt made him Russian, such as 
 
  
11 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 185. 
12 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 12. 
13 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 44. 
14 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 129. 
15 Turgenev, Fathers and Sons, 47. 
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95 
his love for music and Russian literature. By the end of the novel he was able to look beyond the 
social class system and marry Fenechka. 
 Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons was not just a theme of old Russia versus new, but that 
the country had to find a way to include the good from past as well as find the good in the future. It 
was not beneficial for the country to forget the past. Russia needed to move forward to a progressive 
future with respect to the past. The book closed with everything tied up neatly as if all things had 
come to their proper ending. It was not a coincidence that the characters who were able to achieve 
this blending of old and new were the ones who ended happily. This was the same for Russia. It had 
been through many experiences and produced wonderful accomplishments that its people should be 
proud of, not turn from, just because they were still growing as a country and needed to make 
reforms. 
 
 
 
4
ESSAI, Vol. 14 [2016], Art. 24
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Fathers and Sons

Melara, Candy

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 49
Spring 5-1-2016
Esos
Candy Melara
College of DuPage
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The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Melara, Candy (2016) "Esos," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 49.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/49
1Melara: Esos
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Esos

Kotyuk, Ida

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 51
Spring 5-1-2016
The Embrace
Ida Kotyuk
College of DuPage
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Recommended Citation
Kotyuk, Ida (2016) "The Embrace," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 51.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/51
I never dreamed I would wear it to bed every night. At first, it was simpler 
to reach for it, hanging on my “nightgown” nail in the closet. How did it get 
there? Did it follow me home? 
  
The shirt was never a favorite—never an obsession, but every night I de-
pended on it to help me sleep. Also, I could throw it into my laundry bag 
along with my other cotton clothes. A plaid flannel shirt doesn't need to be 
coddled; it only needs to be worn. 
  
I have no memory of how it got into my home. The shirt began its life and 
lived in another state. I would have had to drive across state borders, carry 
it out of that house, and walk it up one flight of stairs into my apartment. 
My first memory of it is to see it hanging on that nail in my closet on one of 
the many nights I grabbed for it. No matter. Startled, I would feel its soft-
ness as I slid my arms into its sleeves. I would feel its embrace. 
  
I wore it night after night, month after month, laundry after laundry. The 
shirt lost its original colors and faded into neutral. It began to look like a 
dust rag. 
  
"I can't give it up," I said one day at lunch. "It's beginning to shred and once 
it's gone, I know I won't sleep again." 
  
My quilter friend asked, "Does it have a pocket?" 
  
"Yes." 
  
"Why don't you cut off the pocket and sew it onto something else and wear 
that to bed?" 
  
Only a quilter would see and understand the importance of a pocket and 
find a place for it. I would never look at quilts the same way again. But 
I also knew it was time to say goodbye. I carefully folded the shredded, 
no-longer plaid flannel shirt and placed it in a drawer. 
  
That night, I prepared for bed. I found one of my frilly silly nightgowns, 
put it on, walked to the photograph of my mother and father, and said, 
"Goodbye Dad." 
  
I slept that night.
The Embrace
Ida Kotyuk
Spring 2016 451
Kotyuk: The Embrace
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The Embrace

Lavelle, Teri

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 53
Spring 5-1-2016
Strawberries
Teri Lavelle
College of DuPage
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Recommended Citation
Lavelle, Teri (2016) "Strawberries," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 53.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/53
Garnering a myriad of colors from the sunlight 
and sparkles from the silvery moon 
She embraces nature in her wide bosom 
and embellishes the cerulean sky. 
 
No God can be born without a womb 
nor the devil without being first 
conceived in the mind; 
Her loin spawns the firmament 
as she breathes the universe into motion:
Her tears form the streams, the lakes, 
the flowing rivers and the vast oceans, 
Her milk forms the rolling clouds 
and nourishes the flora and fauna. 
She rides upon the wings of the wind 
and heralds the sun-god each day 
in its burning chariot. 
 
When she shuts her eyes 
she causes icy wilderness.
When she opens them 
she blossoms into the Elysian Fields.
Gaia
Abdul Malik Mandani
Rejoice fertile fruit! 
Your summer opulence, 
perfumed and shapely, 
still sparks romantic interludes. 
Sun drenched and idle, 
your wanton hue whets lips. 
Your rosy fragrance joins hands, 
sweet and pinkened from a picnic’s tattoo. 
You— whose innards are outward, 
whose freckles on rich soft flesh 
fix your immortality, 
you— whose humble title 
humbles your lustrous legacy. 
You taste of memories ripe and passionate. 
STRAWBERRIES
Teri Lavelle
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Strawberries

Jefferies, Madeline

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 38 | Number 2 Article 74
Spring 5-1-2016
Deep Vibes
Madeline Jefferies
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Jefferies, Madeline (2016) "Deep Vibes," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 38: No. 2, Article 74.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol38/iss2/74
The stars disappear in blinding light of day. 
Still they shine. 
  
Stars seem invisible. 
They never really go away. 
  
Moon flees from the harsh sun of noon. 
Somewhere, the moon is alive. 
Where does the moon hide? 
We will see it soon. 
  
Shadow and mist blow to a far land. 
Clouds travel far but they return. 
Shades of the elm tree shelter us again 
like a strange, benevolent hand. 
  
We are never totally abandoned. 
We are always watched by someone. 
We are always under something. 
  
We are never fully parted 
from those we love.
Fingers stinging, brow dripping, 
soul singing, notes ripping, 
every word a story about you. 
  
Decipher this code to thoughts swirling like a toilet bowl. 
Nothin’ like you’ve ever heard before. 
  
My turn to speak, so listen here 
this ain’t no lie, and it ain’t no truth, 
but, Baby, ain’t no one hurts like you. 
  
Believe this soul as you hear the melody, 
groove with that smooth clash 
and let the beat fill you. 
  
Eat your deceit and feed your frustration. 
Baby, it’s what you’re best at, 
Just leave me to my music, 
And I leave you to your hate.
Deep Vibes
Madeline Jefferies
Never Gone, Reassurance
Mardelle Fortier
Prairie Light Review64 1
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