Epilogue

The multi-genre research project has provided me with such a detailed and indepth learning experience of what life in the Victorian era was like. My research
answered any obscurities that I had about the time period and gave me statistics that
really the put the Victorian era in a much clearer and explicit perspective. Until I began
writing my genre pieces, I thought that I had learned just as much as I could about this
specific time period, but this was not the case. I truly began to understand what life was
like in the Victorian era when I applied what I had learned to the five genre pieces.
Placing myself in the shoes of these different people and explaining their life situations
showed me how unique and different this time period was to different people. Society
deteriorated while technology and national culture prospered.
The specific subject that I focused my project on was social segregation in the
Victorian era. I felt this would be the strongest subject to revolve the project around
because it was the so common and provided many derivative subjects and outcomes.
My personal pieces such as the diary entries, personal letter, and newspaper editorial
display some of the things that resulted as outcomes from the social segregation such
as drug abuse, mistreatment of the poor, crime, and universal selfishness among the
majority of the population. My research allowed me to see much deeper into my main
subject than I believed was possible. To think that the lower class was an astounding
three times larger than the percentage of what it is today in America is still mind-blowing
to me. Americas current population appears so divided in views of what is best for our
countrys policies and future, so comparing that to Victorian Englands populational
divide is nearly impossible. The society of Victorian England was dealing with borderline
chaos.
This project has gave me a much more extensive idea of how the Victorian era
affected life. If this were simply a research paper, I most likely would have researched
pieces relating to only one point of view, but this project pushed me to research life in
the Victorian era across the spectrum. I had to create pieces that displayed the lives of
people from different situations and social classes. This provided me the ability to truly
understand how diverse the lives of different people were in the same country. Realizing
how separated and selfish a population was in this time period makes me feel very
blessed and fortunate to live in the society and time-period that I do. My research and
work showed me that compared to history, 21st century America is indeed extremely
unified. Social connectivity is such a crucial aspect to a successful society, and without
it many will suffer while few will succeed. In the Victorian era social segregation was the
most damaging element to society as is brought numerous negative effects and singlehandedly divided the population.