F+Tanner

Name: Frédéric Age: 24 Gender: Male Occupation: Tanner Social Class: Third Estate Financial situation: Very poor Appearance: black squinty eyes, big nose, greasy hair Location of home and/or business: Must be in the Paris region, but doesn't have to be IN Paris: (Use these maps to find your neighborhood: Map of France, Map of Paris ) Neuilly Habitual locations: Neuilly Daily routine: Tan all day, attend customers, take in orders, meet up with currier to work together, eat half a slice of bread for dinner, go back to bed. Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits: Has wrinkles between the eyes from frowning too much from his own odor. Past / Family History: Father died early leaving him the tanyard. Has a mother to support. Family: None Social relations with your own and other classes (people you deal with or know about in other classes, AND your opinions and feelings about them): Disapproving of the first and second estate for having all the money and power while the third estate lives in poverty. Religion: Protestant Education: None; illiterate. Style of speaking (i.e. formal, "down-to-earth", crude): crude Main privileges and/or conflicts: The job of tanning, especially the process of softening the animal hides, is dangerous and stinks from the vats in which hides were soaked to loosen the hair. Portrait (avoid anachronisms -- clothing or objects in your portrait that are from the wrong time period):

Dear Diary, Oh, Diary, What a day it was. Today I saw the most beautiful girl in all of France. It began like a normal day of my life. I woke up, got down stairs to start tanning. I was following my tedious routines; cutting off any worthless ends and then splitting the hide in half, soaking in water with some lime added to it to "burn" the top hair-bearing layers of skin off, removing the hide from the soaking vat and spreading across a "beam", adding tannin madefrom tree bark to the vat, etc. Of course, after all that my best friend, Bernald, the currier came and helped me to bring the piece of leather to its final state. He brought the news of the shortage of bread these days. Come to think of it, I noticed the prices of bread going up. Again! Can you believe it? Anyways, we were **s**tretching and burnishing the piece of leather like always, gossiping about the things that went around in the village when the door opened and my life was changed forever. A beautiful girl in a delicate dress came in and asked for me. Me! A poor stinky tanner at a local village. Turns out, she was a courtier who wanted leather for her gloves and heard that I was the best in town! When I took her hand to measure how much leather would be needed, my heard was pounding crazy. I'm pretty sure that she heard it too. I was just so nervous for having such a beautiful high class woman in my hand. She left pretty soon though, commenting that she was very busy. After she left, Bernald told me that I looked like a fool. He also said that girls don't go for stinky guys. That really hurt. From now on I am going to clean every day because I never know when she'll come back. Hopefully I'll have the courage to ask her name the next time I see her.

Dear Diary, I'm sorry I haven't been writing. It's just that so much has happened. Things in Paris are definitely different from the last time I wrote. First of all, you remember the most beautiful girl that I met? Well her name is Olivia and is a quite popular courtier in the palace, apparently. She came back a couple of times a nd it was only a matter of time before we fell in love. But you see, there has been a revolution going on that is conflicting our love. It all started wh en that stupid fat King Louis XVI called the meeting of the Estates-General. I mean, things would have been fine had he for once listened to the Third Estate. All we requested was equal treatment, each delegate having a vote. But no, he had to be stubborn. And look where that got him! Ha. You see diary, we, the Third Estate, thought that it was time that we united our powers and fight for our beliefs. After the King refused to listen to our wishes, we established the National Assembly and took an oath at the Tennis Court. Then we stormed the Bastille with weapons and killed the prison guards and paraded around the streets with their heads on pikes. Oh, how proud I was of myself that day. Recently, us the Third Estate has been going around the town burning and terrorizing the nobles. They call it the "Great Fear." But this is where the problem with me and my darling, Olivia, arises. Believe it or not, she is terrified too! I guess I can't blame her for having grown up inside Versailles where life is full of parties and no worries. It's just that I don't know what to do. She wants me to stop burning down the nobles' houses and stealing their food when I love doing so! This is the first time in my life where I actually feel like I am important being, not just a mere tanner rotting in his tanyard! I love being able to take revenge on those nobles who made our lives miserable. But then again, I love Olivia as well. I don't know what to do Diary.

Dear Diary, Things in France have finally settled down after what seemed like decades of riots and violence. I am glad to say that our glorious emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte has taken control of France. Although, it was literally a "blow to the state" how he gained his power so fast. Anyways, I'm really thankful for Napoleon for everything. Everyone in the town loves Napoleon's establishment of national bank and efficient tax-collection system because it really helped the economy. Some of the peasants are especially happy with him for setting up lycees, government-run public schools, because it gives them a chance for them to work at the public office without having family connections. However, I must say that I was disappointed to hear that Napoleon signed a concordat with the pope to recognize the influence of the Catholic Church as I am a devout Protestant. I was hoping that he would strip the power of the Church. Also, while I was excited of the Napoleonic Code when Napoleon first introduced it, after hearing from my good friend Andre, the newspaper editor, tell me that it actually limited the freedom of speech of the press, I became a little reluctant of his leadership. I think I'll have to wait and see to decide whether Napoleon will bring our nation to glory or once again fail.