Character Impact - Event
Your task:
For this task, you will now respond to the event you’ve researched and explain the
links to your character. You will express your character’s reactions through the
analysis of a selection of primary sources that your character has viewed.
Questions and Brainstorming
For primary sources, try:
1. Photographs
2. Video footage from the time
3. Newspaper articles from the time
4. Diaries, songs, paintings, letters, etc.
1a. What is the first primary source that you read/viewed?
- The Guardian
1b. Provide four (4) specific details that you learned about this historical event from
reading/viewing this primary source. Write these in your own words.
Crisis peaked in 2008, but it is rooted in earlier years
Major banks and financial institutions like Merrill Lynch, AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HBOS,
Royal Bank of Scotland, Bradford & Bingley, Fortis, Hypo and Alliance & Leicester, faced
insolvency or required government intervention.
Bank credit markets froze due to a lack of trust in the solvency of financial institutions.
Governments worldwide intervened to prevent total economic collapse.
2a. What is the second primary source that you read/viewed?
- The New York Times
2b. Provide four (4) specific details that you learned about this historical event from
reading/viewing this primary source. Write these in your own words.
Rising borrowing costs hurt businesses, leading to job cuts and less consumer spending.
Investors moved to the safest investments, like Treasury bills, causing borrowing costs for
companies to soar.
Investor psychology shifted to pessimism, with growing fears of further economic decline.
Despite government interventions, many feared worsening conditions, leading to a “denial”
phase in markets.
Money market funds faced fallout, with one fund’s net assets falling below $1 per share.
Investors shifted to more conservative funds to reduce risk exposure.
Treasury yields for short-term bills fell to historic lows.
3. Now imagine that your character has just witnessed these primary resources,
perhaps through their local library. Your character has learned about this event
for the first time. How do you think your character would respond to this news?
Why do you think your character would respond in this way?
When Evelyn read about the market crash in the newspaper she would be immediately nervous
since her father owns and runs a major bank. She would have reached out to her family and
wondered about what it meant for her future. She would have worried about whether or not her
family would be able to recover if it got worse, and she would have wondered about how she
would continue to pay for university if her family lost their fortune.
4. How does this event impact your character moving forward? Is their life forever
changed? Do they think about things differently? Have things in their everyday life
changed?
While the crisis is going on, she would have to get a job to help pay for university, she would also
have to cut back on her spending.
This event would have changed Evelyn for the better, she would have realized what it was like to
worry about money for the first time in her life. She would become less conceited and learn to
understand the middle and lower class better.
5. Anything else to add?
Evelyn Hills went on to become a world famous photographer and philanthropist, after the
economic crash in 2008. During the crash she experienced what it was like to live without the
security of a wealthy family, and what it was like to have to work so you can pay your bills.
