The Louis Riel multi-paragraph response was the first project we did after we got back from winter break and I think it was a great way to start off the new year. This project was about developing our literary skills and how the Canadian Hero Louis Riel was portrayed over time. Before we started writing the drafts of the paragraphs we were focusing on making the words we use when we write more interesting and descriptive. We used different charts to try making basic words more interesting and I think that has helped my vocabulary expand. I think that its important that we learn about the history of our country and see what lead to where we are today. The paragraphs I wrote for the multi-paragraph composition met the criteria but I wish I had done extra and made the paragraph less flat. Looking back I definitely think the paragraphs were missing something.
When I was in grades 5 and 6 covid was happening and the long time we spent out of class is when we should’ve been learning how to make our sentences more enticing, therefore I had to do some catching up. Although I feel my paragraph was still lacking I feel I definitely improved my writing. Thiswasn’t necessarily a fun project but I know the skills will be useful down the road. I also enjoyed learning about history so who knows, maybe that could be a career.
Louis Riel multi-paragraph composition
How has the portrayal of Louis Riel changed over time?
Louis Riel has been portrayed as an insane man and a hero, which one was he? Louis Riel has been a controversial figure in history, well up until recently where most people are on the same page about him. Many people viewed him as a hero of the Métis people but many also viewed him as a enemy of the Canadian government. Louis Riel was a Métis man from Saint Boniface, Winnipeg who was born in 1844. He grew up in the Red River settlement but when he was a young adult he left for Quebec to continue his schooling, there he faced discrimination because he was Métis. In march of 1865 he dropped out of his priesthood but stayed in Montreal with his aunt Lucie Riel. During the last year he spent there he had a failed romance with a woman named Marie–Julie Guernon and they were set to be married. The engagement fell apart when the woman’s family opposed her marriage to Louis Riel due to the fact that he was not white. Métis were often seen as inferior to both sides, the white people thought they were to much like First Nations and the First Nations thought they were to white.
Nowadays, Louis Riel is seen as a great Canadian hero but it was not always that way. Back in the late 1860’s, early 1870’s Louis Riel was one of the biggest adversaries of the Canadian government. He was seen as an enemy for thinking the oppression the Métis were facing was unjust. In Winnipeg in 1970 a statue was unveiled, sculpted by a man named Marcien Lemay which depicted Louis Riel as disfigured, malnourished, and trapped. This statue outraged people because it showed him in the way he used to be seen, the statue got so vandalized that the city had to remove it. It was replaced by one sculpted by Miguel Joyal in 1996, it made Louie Riel look regal, smart, and like a statesman. In the Heritage minuet video by Historica Canada it shows Louis Riel’s last thoughts before being hung and in the background a man calls him insane, this is supposed to depict how he was viewed at that time.
The Métis people have always viewed Louis Riel as a Canadian hero but when did other people start seeing him of less of a mad man and more like a hero? In the late 1900’s people started seeing him for the heroic actions he made. The controversy around Louis Riel will never end but currently more people consider him a hero than not. . Over all, how people see Louis Riel will never be a set thing but certainly more people view him as a hero than not.