Sacrifice for honor

Sacrifice for honor

Honour has been prevalent throughout the world's cultures’ and history, and also has been a constant struggle to maintain.  It has a strong influence on people and their lives because of its importance to everyone, one way to gain honour is through sacrifice.  Sacrifice is so significant that it can gain honour, which is why any type of true sacrifice that one makes is honorable.

One type of sacrifice is in this image, which shows the sacrifices in the battle of Thermopylae, which is known for the 300 spartans that fought in this battle. In the battle of Thermopylae, the spartans were to keep the persian army of 70, 000 men from advancing into Greece until cities were evacuated and more Greek warriors arrived. This Image conveys the strength the spartans have to get through their sacrifice as individuals and together even in their final moments, which is suggested by their muscles them working together as they die as one. The poses that the spartans are shown in, in the painting convey the intensity of their sacrifice, because the image suggests that the spartans are going to die for their sacrifice.  Altogether the image shows the severity of the spartans sacrifice for Greece and how their sacrifice to risk their lives in battle makes them honorable, which is true because even today everybody knows the spartans as great honorable warriors because of the sacrifice they made thousands of years ago.

Another sacrifice that was made a long time ago is the feet binding in Japan, where women of high class would physically manipulate their feet to look ‘better’. In this image the normal foot going into the small shoe shows the transition these women’s feet go through and how the this change sacrifices their feet.  because through the process they endure a lot of pain and give up the ability to walk to look pretty enough to bring honour to their families. The white background in this image conveys the perfection and innocence that these women want to honour their families, since the colour white usually stands for: purity, perfection,innocents and wholeness.So this image uses the white in the background to give off this effect of what the women want to be. This image shows how much of a sacrifice the Japanese woman make to be perfect and to bring honor to their families, and honour to them, because any type of true sacrifice that one makes is honorable.

This image is about the Red Cross helping in Nepal, this may not be one of the bigger sacrifices that have happened throughout history such as; your own life,or ability to walk. But this woman from the Red Cross doesn’t have to be across the world helping people when she could be at home getting on with her life. In the image, the boy smiling shows that even in hard times that the sacrifice of the Red Cross volunteers, is making a difference. Since every sacrifice is honorable, this act, makes the Red Cross honorable people.  The light in this image, or lack of light that is put on the Red Cross team conveys that the Red Cross team is in the background helping with kindness, and not for praise. Which is what a real sacrifice is, giving up something for no personal gain. So even though this is not a big sacrifice for the Red Cross  team, but even small sacrifices show honorable actions and honorable people.

A more brutal sacrifice is the aztec sacrifices, which is about people sacrificing their blood, and limbs, essentially their lives  to feed their gods. In this image, the sun is smiling as the tributes blood is being thrown down the stairs which conveys that that the gods are happy that there was a sacrifice to them. The multiple people in the image shows the importance of the sacrifice, that the sacrifice isn’t just to please the and help the gods, their sacrifices means something to the Aztec people. From this image we can see one person's’ sacrifice is important to the gods and to the rest of the Aztec society, and that the sacrifice to the gods in a honour sacrifice and death.

Throughout history, and multiple cultures, we see that true sacrifices are a way to achieve honour. People can sacrifice themselves; for other people, their country, culture, and religion, etc. Every true sacrifice by one of these people, because sacrifice is so significant that it can gain Honour, which is why any type of true sacrifice that one makes is honorable.

Citations:

300 spartans: http://www.historynet.com/greco-persian-wars-battle-of-thermopylae.htm

Feet binding: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/983581/thumbs/o-FOOT-BINDING-SHOE-570.jpg?7

Red Cross: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/health/

Aztec Sacrifice: http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-sacrifice.html