Abstract This paper is a character examination of the protagonist Alex, from the novel "A Clockwork Orange". It specifically deals with the role that music plays in this character's life. It shows how Alex develops a need for control over himself and over his friends as well and how he finds it through music.
From the paper:
"In the dystopian future that Anthony Burgess creates in the novel "A Clockwork Orange", our protagonist, Alex, shares with us his passion for violence. Alex finds an aesthetic quality in the physical torture and rape of faceless victims. Alex has other passions as well. As a child of the new ultra-violent generation, chaos is ever present in this young droog's life. Because of this, Alex develops a need for control over himself and over his friends as well. It is through music that Alex finds this control and it is through music that we learn the most about his character."
Abstract This paper examines Alex Haley's "Roots" with the focus on the setting, summary, moral and main character of the story. Its relation to current events is also discussed.
From the Paper "Through his novel Roots The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley shattered the stereotypical images of slavery and slaves as happy childlike individuals with no sense of their African heritage. In depicting the experiences of seven generations of his family .."
This paper looks at Alex Molnar's approach to changing behavior and argues that even though Molnar's approach is an old idea, it is still one of the best.
Abstract In this article, the writer discusses that throughout the country, at-risk adolescents regularly experience many varied behavioral problems in school, including low grades or proficiency scores, a high number of school absences, disciplinary infractions, grade retention and dropping out. In many cases, the writer notes that the continual experiences of economic pressure, unstable family relationships, and a negative environment, in conjunction with the stress and uncertainty of daily life responsibilities and expectations may be too overwhelming to handle. The writer maintains that an approach by Alex Molnar for changing behavior, that dates back to the 1980s, is a reversal of this negative paradigm - thinking that a student has a positive reason for his/her behavior. The writer claims that this is an old way of looking at an old problem in a new way. The writer concludes that what Molnar suggests for educators to do unfortunately goes contrary to standard human behavior--thinking the worst before the best. However, as shown many times, if these teachers are able to transpose their own thoughts and behaviors, they can greatly enhance the entire classroom ecosystem.
Outline:
Introduction
Conclusion
From the Paper "Although problematic behavior by adolescents has long been a given at public schools in the United States, it was not until the end of the 19th century that cities began to face the issue and only early in the 20th century that an emphasis was placed on the emotional health needs of these troubled youths. Since then, this issue has received increasing prominence with the dissemination of numerous studies, models, and authoritative reports on how to work with children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral needs by educators and government."
"Studies began to research information about the causations of problem behavior, which was then incorporated into specific prevention and intervention programs. As they began to analyze similar problem areas, researchers recognized the common antecedents."
Abstract In this examination of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley", by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, the author highlights many pertinent points from the book and about the life of Malcolm X. The author tells us that the book looks at the era in which Malcolm X lived as a time when racism was running rampant in the United States. As a result of his experiences Malcolm X became an angry activist who hated everything that white society represented. The paper describes how Malcolm X himself became a racist and he believed that all whites were evil, after his conversion to Islam. The author delves into this further pointing out what made Malcolm X change his way of thinking to become a well known civil rights activist, who is still thought of in a positive light today. Finally the paper reiterates the major changes that Malcolm X went through during his life to make him a key leader of the black civil rights movement in the United States.
From the Paper "Malcolm continued to have a great loyalty to Muhammad, even when Muhammad became too old to actively participate in Nation events. Malcolm then became more and more active in the groups decision making processes. It was at this time that Malcolm and Muhammad noticed that have had some differences in ideology. While they both wished to fight for black rights, Muhammad's goal was to create a completely separate black nation-state that would have a different economy and culture than the rest of the country. Malcolm, however, believed that this would only happen if they took care of the poor black people living in ghettos first. Malcolm wanted the group to become more involved with politics and to change America as a whole, rather than just trying to separate black America from white America. These differing philosophies, as well as Malcolm's growing influence led to Muhammad trying to have Malcolm killed. While this was very difficult for Malcolm, it led to another change in philosophy for him."
Abstract This paper analyzes how Alex is sent to Borstal and punished, after which he is returned to society essentially no better than before. Alex is given a choice and chooses the brainwashing that allows him to be returned to society, supposedly a better person. The writer explains that Burgess affirms in this novel, is the power of the human spirit and the belief that we have to respect that spirit even when it is anti-social.
From the Paper "Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange looks to the near future and extrapolates from his own time to one where many young people have become urban marauders, taking out their frustrations in violence and living completely amoral lives. Alex tells his own story as well, doing so in the cynical pseudo-language of his generation. Burgess uses the issue of "free will" and the way human beings prize it as a way of taking the reader from his or her contemporary world to the fictional world of the future."
Abstract This paper discusses the novel "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer and looks at how there are several different stories inside this single novel. It examines how the main story is set in modern day Ukraine and is recorded as the main character, Alex's own memoir. Another character, named after the author of the novel himself, also is in the midst of writing a story. It examines how the story takes place over several generations and how toward the end of the novel Alex's grandfather reveals insight into himself through the story of his youth during World War II.
From the Paper "In Jonathan's letters to Alex he also includes chapters from his novel. Jonathan's book is written to depict his family's history using the little facts he has uncovered about the generations preceding him, as well as his own creative imagination, which fill in the missing pieces. Jonathan's novel beings with the story of Brod, his great great-great-great-great grandmother, who as a newborn was the only survivor as her family's carriage plunged into the river of an unnamed village. This accident becomes the backbone of the village, which celebrates the anniversary of that mysterious accident with an annual festival and soon takes the name "Trachimbrod" after the river at the center of everything. Brod herself is named after the river she was "born" from and is adopted by Yankel who she believes is her real father until the day of his death. "
Abstract This paper shows how the biography of Malcolm X by author Alex Haley helped the author understand the true derivation of racism.
From the Paper " The constant references to racism by Malcolm X made me curious about the concept of race. I discovered that almost 200 years ago, Johann Friedrick Blumenbach, a German naturalist and the founder of Anthropology, decided to use differences in head shape and skin color to classify mankind into five different races. Although there has never been any scientific evidence to support "racial inheritance" by blood type, mankind has clung to Blumenbach's concept of people being of different races."
Abstract This paper traces the life of one of the most controversial Muslim leaders of America, Malcolm X. It focuses on the changes that his ideologies and beliefs underwent through the course of his life and it examines the events and incidents that caused those changes. The paper is based on Alex Haley's biography, entitled "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", and it includes evaluative comments on Haley's book.
From the Paper "Malcolm X, the most influential Black Muslim leader, was a man whose views and personality underwent so many changes that the final version of him bore little or no resemblance to the original one. In the book, "Autobiography of Malcolm X", Alex Haley has highlighted all the changes that his political and social ideologies encountered and this helps us understand the complex multi-faceted personality of the man who had a profound impact on Black Muslims in America. The paper covers all the changes and carefully analyzes the events and incidents that caused those changes."
An analysis of two novels, "House Made of Dawn" by N. Scott Momaday and "Indian Killer" by Sherman Alexe, both of which bring to light the plight of the Red Indians.
Abstract This paper shows how the works of both Alexe's and Momaday commonly highlight Red Indians, representing them as a generation of people neglected, looked down, oppressed and severely under represented in nearly all spheres of an average American life. It examines how the authors, through their characters, portray the lack of understanding present in the American society for the Red Indians and the anger prevalent amongst the Red Indians. Both novels have awakened the literary world on the existence of a culture that had always been there for possibly thousands of years, but only through an occasional perspective from an anthropologist and or a historian.
From the Paper "The depiction of other characters, such as Francisco and Reverend Tosamah too is suggestive of the evident and prevailing diversity on and about the Indian people and their culture. The first is both a staunch believer of the Catholic faith, and a medicine man for the tribal, and the second is the modern age preacher living in Los Angeles preaching the Native Indians on the Word of God and Christianity. Yet, the most important character is Abel is given the assignment of eliminating the growing difference between the Indian reservations where he and his ancestors grew up, and the city, which has trapped him, but all in vain. (Pinkmonkey, 2002)"
Abstract "In Alex Haley's transcribed work, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), readers are treated to several valuable lessons in sociology. Without summarizing the book in great detail, the story of Malcolm X reveals the significance of social and economic stratification in affecting people's religious beliefs and people's perspectives on social problems and life chances
From the Paper "In Alex Haley's transcribed work, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), readers are treated to several valuable lessons in sociology. Without summarizing the book in great detail, the story of Malcolm X reveals the significance of social and economic stratification in affecting people's religious beliefs and people's perspectives on social problems and life chances. This story shows a Malcolm X who grows out of a socialized value system emphasizing violence and hatred, into a de-socialized system emphasizing a new ideological orientation on race relations, to a re-socialized system nearing the viewpoints of Martin Luther King--a civil rights leader once despised by Malcolm. This research will examine this process of social development through the eyes of Malcolm X.
The Nation of Islam began in the early 1930s in the United ..."
From the Paper ""The Autobiography of Malcolm X" as told to Alex Haley, the author of Roots, is a powerful book because it carries through on the theme of discovering black identity. Malcolm X was one of the primary religious leaders and reformers of the 1960s, but it took him a number of years to shed his old preconceptions of who blacks were in America. As he learned to accept his black identity, Malcolm began his short-lived career as a powerful force in the fight against racism in the United States.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. From the very beginning, even though Malcolm had not discovered his black identity, he had a very clear picture of what it meant to be a black in the United States. "When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded ... "
Abstract This paper discusses how Alex Marshall has been studying the matter and following the development of major players in the urban planning community for years and uses examples to demonstrate where cities work and where they fail to provide an adequate and enjoyable context for human social interaction. The comparison between cities in Europe and cities in the United States are examined in this paper.
From the Paper "Since the end of the Second World War, most new development in America has taken place in Suburbia - that grey zone between the last city block and the amber waves of grain. Opinions on this uniquely 20th century innovation in human living vary. Many see a detached house, complete with a two-car garage and a swing-set as the American Dream. Others, who grew up in such an environment, seek to replace it with one that re-vitalizes or mimics traditional urban centers and villages that engender communitarian virtues while preserving the environment. To evaluate the suburb as a social phenomenon, we must look at it through the eyes of policy makers and those who have seen it evolve first-hand."
Abstract This essay presents the summary of the magnum opus "Twice the Work of Free Labor- The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South" by Alex Lichtenstein. This paper shows how Lichtenstein provides an overview and his personal review of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century criminal justice system in order to single out the possible reasons behind the current massive figures representing African American prisoners. The last paragraph is based on personal opinion of the book.
From the Paper "The long-lasting heated debate took its origin from C. Vann Woodward, one of the foremost advocators of the discontinuity thesis. He presented his controversial views regarding the emergence of the New south and its history. He was of the view that as an aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, a distinct group of tradesmen and business tycoons appeared resulting in the demise of the prestigious class of ancient farmers and agriculturists of the south. However, the real debate began in the 1970s when the "new abolitionsists" or "new continuarians" headed by the pioneer Jonathan Wiener vehemently opposed Woodward by refuting his claims. This group suggested that the society of New South had slightly deviated or changed from what it believed, practiced as rituals and ancient manners. Thus maintaining that southern society was built on chained and enslaved horticultural working class and uncovered the resistance of the people of south toward industrial growth. This class of observers took jailbird labor, sharecropping, and deficit subordination as apparent and potential symbols representing servitude. In addition to the above, they were of the notion that it was due to the act of enslaving blacks that the South remained economically and socially unstable. Where the two clashing groups of historians addressed two major aspects of south that is forced labor and capitalism, Lichtenstein rejects both point of views, he established his own thesis thereby throwing light on a highly neglected yet critical aspect of the underlying issue and settles the continuity debate forever. The convict lease system of the south as well as the chain gang system are considered as the "most appalling features" that the author considers as responsible components for replacing South "to the process of modernization itself" (p. xvi)."
Abstract This essay will argue, if we understand the historical and biographical context of this story, that these questions become resolved as we see them reflecting key aspects of Alex La Guma's literary and political attitudes.
Abstract This paper discusses how few lessons on slavery can compete with the impact that "Roots" by Alex Haley has had on American society. It looks at how the story, said to be written from true stories with fictional twists, provides a graphic and accurate portrayal of life for a slave in America at that time. It shows how the author puts together a time-line that spans several generations and begins in the African homeland in a journey that few can imagine with text books and other school lessons. It also analyzes how the author's work has impacted American society for the past three decades because of the story he brought to the public eye.
From the Paper "The reader is treated to examples of both pushes and pulls from sociological standpoint while the story unfolds. The examples of such occurrences are interspersed through out the story while clearly illustrating the influence the story had on not only the immediate society of Kunte's family but also the societal attitudes and changes that rippled from the path his family endured, and also chose throughout the story. One example is the ship trip to the states when Kunte is first captured. He is pulled into the situation and the society around him at the time is also being pulled because there were no choices."
