French Revolution Writing Prompt

Due Date: 3/05/17

In this assignment, you will take on the perspective of a French citizen during the French
Revolution in order to demonstrate your understanding of how the Revolution impacted the
population. To begin this assignment, pick five events and/or characteristics of the French
Revolution that you view as having a high degree of importance. Any event discussed in class or
your textbook is fine, but some examples include: taxation, famine, meeting of the Estates
General, storming of the Bastille, Tennis Court Oath, Womens March on Versailles, the
revolutionary wars with Austria and Prussia, execution of Louis XVI, the Reign of Terror, and
the Napoleonic Empire. List your five items below:

1. Meeting of the estates general 1789

2. Tennis Court Oath June 20, 1789
3. Storming of the Bastille July 14, 1789
4. Womens March on Versailles October 5, 1789
5. Execution of Louis XVI January 21, 1793

The French Revolution did not just affect Frances political leaders. French citizens from many
different backgrounds were directly involved and/or influenced by Frances dramatic political
shifts. For this assignment, you will take on the perspective of a French citizen in creating a
piece of historical fiction. Your prompt is writing a letter to one of your relatives that lives in
America and describing to him or her how the Revolution has impacted your life. Your
letter needs to incorporate a discussion on each of your five chosen items. Do not just describe
these events. You need to explain how your character feels about these events. You may
choose any date as the time setting for your letter as long as it is within the time period of the
Revolution. If you pick an earlier date, make sure you do not include events that have not
happened yet. For example, if you choose to write in the days following the assault on The
Bastille, you cannot talk about the Reign of Terror because it had not happened yet. You are
strongly encouraged to be creative and expressive in your writing while taking on the perspective
of someone from Frances past. Your assignment should include all the features of a letter: date,
greeting/opening (ex. To ___, Bonjour ___,), and a closure (ex. Sincerely, Adieu).

Briefly describe your historical perspective below (Estate/social class, job, age, etc.).

My historical perspective is:

 Please start your letter as a new page on this document so that you only have to submit one file to
the drop box at the end. It makes things easier for both you and me. I will go over the
assignment live on Friday, 1/29/16. If you still have any questions after attending the
class/watching the recording, please email me.

My name is Madeline Bowman; Im categorized into the third class/the bourgeoisie. Im 29 years
old and I am a doctor. I am not married, I have no kids, I live with my 19-year-old sister Zoe. I
will be writing my letter to my cousin Abigail Bowman who moved to American about 8 years
ago.

Point Breakdown (60 Points Total)

10 points for discussion of each listed topic (5 x 10 = 50 points): Demonstrates a clear

understanding of the topic and provides their characters thoughts and reactions to the topic.

10 points for overall story and creativity: Letter is clear to follow and historically makes sense.
Does more than just repeat the information from the textbook and instead creates a historical
narrative told from the point of view of a person living from the time period.

Extra Credit: Grading Your Own Work

To help encourage careful review and self-reflection of your work, you have the opportunity to
grade your own project. After you finish writing your essay, start a new paragraph and title it
Self-Evaluation. Then, let me know what grade you think you earned on the project (A, B, C,
D, or F) and WHY? I will then award you extra credit based on the grade you give yourself
(A=5, F=1) as long as you provide a clear written explanation on why you gave yourself that
grade. Please use the grading guidelines below to help you in writing your self- evaluation:

10 points for discussion of each listed topic (5 x 10 = 50 points): Demonstrates a clear

understanding of the topic and provides their characters thoughts and reactions to the
topic.
10 points for overall story and creativity: Letter is clear to follow and historically makes
sense. Does more than just repeat the information from the textbook and instead creates a
historical narrative told from the point of view of a person living from the time period.
Written explanations that will not get you the extra credit:
I did a good job! You need to explain what about your project you did well.
I worked really hard on it. or I spent a lot of time on it. Your grade is not based on how
 much time you spent on the project. It is based on the quality of what you produce and
how well it shows off your understanding of the topic.
I always do good work. or I get As in all my classes. Your self-reflection is not about
how you have done on previous work. It is about how you did on this assignment.
Begin writing letter on this page and submit to the drop box as one document.

February 2, 1793

Bonjour Abigail,

How are things in America, what kind of place are you living in, I bet its beautiful. Hows
work, have you met anybody? Im a doctor now, and Zoe is already 18! Time flies huh? We miss
you here, but things havent been so well. Theres a lot going on, and I have a feeling its not
over yet. I wanted to write to you and catch up on how things are in America, and catch you up
on things here.

It all began in 1789 when Louis XVI became king, he was left with big money issues that he
couldnt solve. These financial issues cause the French monarch to call the Estate General, they
wanted to tax land to hopefully solve the financial problems. The estates general wanted each
estate to vote, but us in the third estate didnt like that, we would always be outvoted by the first
and second estate. And why would that be fair, if no matter what we were outvoted?

After several days, we (third estate) took it into our own hands. We met on June 13, 1789 and
declared ourselves the National Assembly; which meant we would begin making our laws and
running the country. The National Assembly had meetings at the Salle des Etats. Which I
personally was happy about, if you have a king that isnt doing any good for your people you
need to step up and put matters into your own hands. King Louis XVI didnt accept the National
Assembly, and ordered for the Salle des Etats to be closed. That didnt stop us, we met on a local
tennis court called the Jeu de Paume, we made an oath that we would continue meeting until
King Louis XVI seen us as a legitimate government body. We called it the Tennis Court Oath,
created on June 20, 1789. I think the King was very selfish for not wanting the third party to be a
part of the law, him and his wife Marie Antoinette only wanted money and power in my eyes.
But we werent going to let that stop us.

A month later the king STILL didnt want us to have power, and many of us in the third estate
were worried the king was getting the French army ready to attack. So, we decided to be
prepared and get armed. Many men from the third estate took over the Hotel des Invalides in
Paris, they got muskets but still needed gun powder. There were rumors of The Bastille being
filled with political prisoners, it also had the gun power they needed. So, in the morning of July
14, 1789 about 1000 men from our estate went to The Bastille. They demanded that Governor de
Launay, the military leader at the Bastille, hand over the gun powder and surrender the prison.
Once he refused, and no negotiations worked the crowd became frustrated, they got into the
courtyard and a fight broke out. Some soldiers at the Bastille switched sides and De Launay
realized it was hopeless and handed over the fort. After the fight, there were 100 people killed,
De Launay and three other soldiers were killed after surrendering. We did it, we got the power
that we needed to be safe. King Louis XVI and his wife had to learn, we needed a say in the
government and we were going to fight to fight until we got it. Thats only 3 events in half a
year, its been hectic, but if you believe in something you must fight for it.

Now a little while after that there was another big event, this time I, ME was physically
involved in a fight for what was right. So, me and the rest of the third estate mainly ate bread.
With the poor economy bread prices rose, when us women went to the market for bread, what
little they had was very expensive. I was furious with this situation, not only was I thinking about
how I would feed myself and Zoe, I saw all these angry mothers and thought of their young
children. What would they eat? Something had to be done! So, on October 5, 1789 a group of us
women joined together and marched through Paris demanding cheaper bread. More women
slowly began to join with us and we soon had thousands of women marching together. It was so
amazing how so many women came together to do what was right for their families. We took
over the Hotel de Ville in Paris where we got some bread and weapons. Some women in the
crowd suggested we head to the palace in Versailles, and confront the king and queen. Although
the crowd was mostly women, there were some men included. It was pouring rain, and we
marched for six hours until we finally arrived at the palace, we demanded to meet the king. A
group of women met with King Louis XVI and he offered food from his store and said there
would be more in the future. Me and a lot of women blamed the queen and her awful habits of
spending money; I think its ridiculous how a king and a queen of so many people can be uptight
and only think of themselves. They have children of their own, they should think of the needs of
everyone elses children as well. I didnt like the King, not one bit, I just think hes just a selfish
person, but all that was soon to be over.

On January 20, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers, and
his sentence was death by the French National Convention. After he was executed by the
guillotine we didnt have to worry about King Louis XVI anymore, which made me happy. I do
wonder what made him so selfish, I know money can change people but he had a family. I
thought family warmed your heart, but I guess his love for power and money made him the way
he was, not to mention his awfully money indulging wife.

But that about sums up the craziness Ive dealt with hear in France. And quite honestly it all
has stressed me out, I feel like things here in France are going downhill fast, now with King
Louis XVI executed it might get better. Im hoping anyway. So, now that Ive caught you up on
the things thats happened here; I would love to hear about America. How different it is from
France; I hope things arent going bad there as well. Ive heard that its such a lovely country,
maybe me and Zoe could visit it one day and you could show us around at all the places you
love. I hope youve made a wonderful life there; and that youre happy. Me and Zoe hope to see
you soon one day, and I cant wait to hear back from you. Nous envoyons notre amour!

Avec Amour, Madeline Bowman

Self-Evaluation:
I think for this project I deserve an A, and not because I just want a good grade but because I put
a lot of thought into this project, maybe because it was a wonderful writing prompt and Im an
English freak but I put a lot into this. I took the first week deciding the right topics to choose and
the ones that fit together just right, I then went on to read about each topic. I took way more
notes than I probably should have, and then got started on a layout of how I wanted the topics
order, and my thoughts on each topic. And in the end, it was super easy to piece together into a
letter. I have taken French class and learned it on my own so I wanted to incorporate that into the
letter, because I was acting as a citizen of France. Im not sure if I deserve a complete 100
because I may not have described the events as detailed as you wanted, or I may have added too
much of my thoughts into the letter or maybe not even enough. But I do see the potential in my
letter to be an A, and I hope you do too!