The Hall of Mirrors Essay

Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. By David G Gutiérrez. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

The Palace was constructed after an earthquake on the island of Crete. “…the Palace of Minos covered nearly 22,000 square meters (~5.4 acres) and contained storage rooms, living quarters, religious areas, and banquet rooms.” (1). The term labyrinthine describes the palace perfectly because of all the rooms. The palace was created using stone and wood and hand many stone carvings in the entrance and walls of the palace. Bright colors were painted on the columnar and vibrant colors covered the walls. It was said in the textbook and online that this place was created for king and queens. It had to be extravagant for the king and queen to live there. Since the palace was extravagant, it was very rare to see it during that time

Castles, palaces, and cathedrals are scattered across Europe. Each one possesses unique characteristics and architecture bearing resemblance of their time. Some castles incorporate Greek influence, roman or gothic influence in design. Other castles and palaces are surrounded by sculptures outside in the courtyard or include sculptures worshiped as an altarpiece. While any one of these things would serve to make an ordinary castle more elaborate there is one palace that possesses all of these: The Palace of Versailles in France. The Palace of Versailles has managed to incorporate classic architecture, exquisite sculptures, and amalgamated the old design with the newer design trends of the day.

Takaki’s book, A Different Mirror, offers the multicultural history of the United States. This book provides the reader with the American experience of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Irish Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Jewish Americans. During this time, America demonstrated manifest destiny and the Master Narrative. They were led by the belief of “white purity,” which these ethnic groups threatened. America exhibited supremacy over all of these ethnic groups. Takaki’s work allows me to become aware of the history and the outcomes of manifest destiny and the Master Narrative.

The concept of mirrors and windows in photography can be easily defined, but also vague as well. To state it simply, since the rest is figurative and metaphorical, mirrors are reflections of what is looking into it, and windows are panes of glass that allow you to see out. When photographing a picture, based on what you're looking at and what you're trying to capture, one can symbolize a window or a mirror. When a photo is resembling a mirror, it is an introspective narrative between the photographer and the viewer. It is an internalized dialogue when piecing it together to see the reflection. The viewer must approach it as if a literal mirror, to interpret what the message and main theme of the photo is. Meanwhile, a window is more of a direct observation; of a person, thing, or message, it doesn't matter. When a photo is symbolized as a window, one can usually see a clear message, and can decipher what the photographer was aiming to convey.

Throughout history, dominant ideologies have often clashed with other ideologies, causing contradictions. In Chapter 7 of A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki writes about the contradictions found in ideologies in US history, especially those concerning the Mexicans in Texas and California. In the 1800s, the market revolution ran the country. As new inventions, such as the cotton gin, were introduced, Americans sought to make raw goods faster and cheaper. As a result, they looked for cheap labor and more land. Believing in the Manifest Destiny, they looked westward, where there was an abundance of land. In moving west, the Americans encountered Mexicans that had recently become Americans due to the change in the Mexican-American border. This

become known to them due to mirrors which weren’t objects included in the life that they

He tried to remain calm, but a panic was taking hold of Jim at his very core. Susan and her safety played on his mind, regardless of the danger he was currently facing. Jim shook his head back and forth as a means of clearing away the mental fog. He refused to remain trapped in an “inescapable” room of mirrors.

Dracula casts no reflection. The first time that we have a notion that he does not like mirrors is when Jonathan Harker makes the statement "there is not a single mirror in the entire castle". The most memorable mirror scene is when Dracula comes to see Jonathan he(Dracula) is exposed to mirror and he become enraged when he sees it. Dracula takes it and throws it into the courtyard below and it shatters on the rocks below.

King Louis had his builders construct the Palace of Versailles to stay in during hunting trips. Although many builders contributed to the palace, they could not have done it without Colbert, Le Brun, Le Vau, and Le Notre. Colbert directed the works, Le Brun and Le Vau decorated the palace, and Le Notre was the chief gardener. The area around the palace was full of animals for King Louis to hunt.

The reign of Louis XIV was the longest of the modern era, and during his time, France reached remarkable achievements in art and architecture, such as the Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV was responsible for creating the lavish complex that was filled with Baroque interiors and surrounded by French and English gardens. In its later years, it was further renovated for other kings then given to the Republic for public use. Through its elaborate ornamentation and massive scale, the Palace of Versailles represents the glory of the Sun King and expresses the power of the French monarchy.

Architectural buildings around the world make up one factor of the beauty and culture of each country. The Winter Palace is an incredibly beautiful architectural building in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Winter Palace consists of great importance politically, culturally, and symbolically in the city’s third century. In 1708, the Winter Palace was first built as a wooden house with a Dutch style to be the Imperial residence of Peter the Great and his family. In 1711, the wood was replaced by a stone building. However, in 1731 Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was assigned to reconstruct the palace into a much larger and newer design. The third reconstruction of the palace was completed in the year of 1735. Nevertheless, it only lasted 17 years before Rastrelli was asked again to expand the building even more. Two years later, he decided to completely rebuild the Winter Palace after the confirmation of the empress. (saint-petersburg.com) Ratrelli’s designs for the exterior were in a Baroque style, which have remained the same till this day. (about-eastern-europe.com)

The Louvre was not founded as a museum, and the road to attaining today’s program expanded across six centuries of monarchies, wars, treaties, and revolution. Dating far back to the 12th century as a fortress for King Phillip II, the Louvre laid foundations with protective walls, and underground crypts to function not as a gallery for the public, but rather a stronghold for the private. As the decades turned, the old Louvre acclimated to the needs of the monarchies, undergoing usage as both a stronghold and a retreat, but entirely defense-based nonetheless (Deitz). Two centuries passed when Charles V altered the program from a bulwark of protection, changing it into a residency. Here the program shifted towards a notion of more public structure. Several French kings after, Francis I decorated the bulky fortress with a French renaissance style, further changing the Louvre’s appearance and adapting the architecture to the art style of the time. This move would be seen again in I. M. Pei’s controversial addition. Under King Henry IV, the Louvre underwent reconstruction (Kostof). During the rise of Versailles, artisans resided within the Louvre’s halls, giving way to the notion of an art influenced program for the building

Day-to-day life in the palace you would wake early in the morning before Louis XIV woke up to see him was up. If you were Louis XIV you would wake up to all your servants watching you. The man with the highest rank of nobility would hand the king his shirt. Reason why they watch him wake up is because they consider him as the Sun King and they want to see the “sun rise”. Another reason he is the Sun King is that everyone revolves around him like the sun in our solar system. People did many things in the Palace like dancing, hunting, and playing cards. Though I am pretty sure they always let him win. Also he would take many walks in the garden everyday with his servants. Everyday his cloths would get fancier and fancier as well as a haircut also a shave everyday. Each of the salons was name after each of the seven known planets in our solar system. There was also a grand theater that all the aristocrats would go to and watch Louis XIV perform.

In the introduction to The Fabrication of Louis XIV, Peter Burke expresses his ambition to write a study of Louis XIV 's public image as a whole and the changes it underwent throughout Louis 's reign. This book examines the relation between art and power and the official structures responsible for making – fabricating – the image, or more appropriately, the images of Louis XIV, as well as their contemporary reception. As the title suggests and as Burke himself reminds the reader, the book as a whole focuses on the ideas of royal myth and royal narrative, and the manipulation of information.