Abstract This is a critical essay on Richard Wright's short story, The Man Who Was Almost a Man. This tale is a twisted parody of the hunt, where a boy becomes a man by learning to take responsibility for his actions and doing what is best for himself. This parody shows the protagonist's desire to become a respected equal among the other adults with whom he feels he has earned the right to belong, through his growing age and hard work in the fields. The paper includes many quotes from the story exploring themes and symbolism.
From the Paper "Wright subverts a typical hunt genre to create a parody of a boy reaching manhood. In ?The Man Who Was Almost a Man,? the protagonist, Dave, tries to reach his potential as an adult and earn respect from other men. However, his position in society as a downtrodden adolescent, who toils like a workhorse, does not allow him the dignity he deserves. By shooting the mule, he is given a chance to become a man in the only avenue available to him; he runs away on the train to find a new future. "Ahead the long rails were glinting in the moonlight, stretching away to somewhere, somewhere where he could be a man"? (1128). This newfound freedom and manhood, which comes from his first ironic kill, satisfies the rite of passage in the hunt and brings him the independence and responsibly he deserves. "
Abstract The paper provides a critical analysis of Christine De Pisan's medieval book, "Treasure of the City of Ladies". Originally composed in 1406. The author describes the emphasis of the book on the treatment, roles and lives of women throughout all classes in medieval society.
From the Paper "By addressing all classes of females in society the text expresses that exploitation and oppression were not just conditions suffered by the peasant class. The author espouses consistent, redundant expressions of women's roles throughout all classes, demonstrating that feminine life was in constant comparison with the image of feminine perfection in medieval society, one of religious virtue and piety. "
Abstract A look at Martin Luther King's "Why We Can't Wait". A brief review of the themes in the book of justice, struggle and civil rights and a personal account of the book by the author.
From the Paper "Why We Can?t Wait by Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. He gives a background on some of the issues and events related to the African American population, and explores those issues to show how they influenced the nonviolent ?revolution.? King describes the struggle of African Americans over many years for freedom and for equality. He shows previous efforts of the white people to ?hand down some equality,? which was more of a token action than anything else. He says the government oversimplified the racial discrimination issues and interpreted it as giving blacks better housing and a few important jobs.
Abstract This paper analyzes the poem, "A Supermarket in California", written in 1955 by Allen Ginsberg. The author examines how the poem expresses the anxiety of this key period of change in Western history through Ginsberg's own unique form of socio-political criticism.
From the Paper "The decade of the 1950's was the beginning of a new era. Society was changing. The industrial revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the two World Wars, and the threat of the Cold War had all pushed America to the forefront of change. Television brought ideas to the masses like never before. Progress was the ideal. "
Abstract In this paper, via examination of Virginia Woolf?s, "Mrs. Dalloway", the author looks at societal pressures on people. The author compares the lives of the two main characters in the book, and notes that although they both lead totally different lives, there are many connections between the two of them in terms of how they feel they must conform to what is regarded as the norm in society. The author also compares war with the internal struggles that the characters are fighting. The author contends that Ms. Woolf's novels centered on, "silence"- the things that people don?t say.
From the paper:
?The narrative technique of Woolf's book gives us a chronological sense not of real time, but of the way thoughts flow through the mind of the character. This is why Woolf's style is best characterized as "a stream of consciousness" style. (?Stream of Consciousness.? Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf's stream-of-consciousness narration makes clear, simultaneously feels apart from the average individual, in the sense she is quite aware of her own class.?
Abstract This paper presents a detailed look at the positive and negative effects of capital punishment. The writer examines historical events on the topic and discusses the pros and cons to each viewpoint. There were twenty sources used to complete this paper.
From the Paper ?Few issues can get the public stirred up as well as the issue of capital punishment can. When we talk about the death penalty we open a very emotional subject that can become quite heated even between friends. For every argument one finds in favor of capital punishment there is a counter argument against it. It seems to be a never ending battle with each side making valid points. The positives and negatives of the dilemma end up becoming a personal choice based on which side most closely matches one's personal views."
Abstract This paper presents a discussion about school prayer. The author of this paper believes that prayer in school is a direct violation of the constitutional mandate that church and state remain separated, and discusses the intent of the founding fathers when implementing such a separation.
From the Paper "For many years now, the issue of school prayer has made the forefront to the news. We hear that students defy direct orders from school officials and stand to recite the Lord's Prayer at graduation. We hear about principals being hauled into court by the ACLU for allowing students to pray on campus. It is a volatile issue that remains close to the heart on both sides of the argument. The bottom line, however, is that America proudly waves its diversity banner to the rest of the world. We brag about the fact that we welcome and encourage diversity and we are founded on the premise that freedom of religion should be a right of every person."
Abstract This paper discusses the conditions of how immigrant women were treated when they came to America. This is done by examining the book "Out of the Furnace". Through the trials of the Kracha family, characters in the novel, one almost experiences the hardships these women went through.
From the Paper "When the struggles and early tragedies of the industrial revolution are discussed, most often we hear of the endless work days, unsafe conditions and corruption within the corporations. In Thomas Bell's Out of This Furnace, the reader is exposed to all of these horrors and more. Yet what is so different about Bell's version of the early days of steel mills and railroad monopoly's is his inclusion of female characters. While they are not the main focus of his novel, women are ever present characters, and Bell succeeded in displaying how the poverty of the industrial age affected women and their day to day life, as well as the lives of their husbands."
Abstract The author reviews Flannery O?Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". She states that O"Connor's writing reflects her Southern and Catholic traditions. Although she cannot be read as part of the feminist literary tradition, O"Connor is important to contemporary American fiction.
From the Paper "The words of the grandmother might seem sentimental, were she not speaking to a man who is a homicidal killer, about to blow her away to ?kingdom come.? "A Good Man is Hard to Find" depicts a rather repulsive young family, including June Star who "wouldn"t live in a broken-down place? for a "million bucks" and the rather irritating grandmother. (7) But because the grandmother is able to see some brief snatch of humanity in the "Misfit" who eventually kills her, O?Connor bestows her with a kind of grace in terms of the narrative's judgment."
Abstract This paper examines the text of this poem from a African-American perspective. The analysis uses poetic devices and the background of the literary environment. Line by line analysis is provided to show how the poem uses the everyday ordinary dialect of blacks, and gives insight into the poverty and discrimination that blacks faced during the 1920's.
From the Paper "Between 1919 and 1926 there was a major population shift of African-Americans to the cities of New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C (America Online). In 1921, Langston Hughes was one such African American who had traveled to New York to attend Columbia University. This population shift resulted in an obvious display of creativity among the African-American race. The creativity broadened the scope of African American influence on the American society, culture and primarily literature. The influence was so enormous and collective that it took form of a movement, which began in about 1920 and lasted until about 1930. This period was first known as the ?New Negro Movement,? but it later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance represented the African American intellect and the consequent intellectuals who celebrated their heritage and background with immense pride and gusto. It was during this movement and into this heady climate that the poem "Mother to Son" was introduced. The politico-literary climate was charged and just ripe and the need for African American contribution was being recognized. One of the critics voiced the urgent need when he cried, "what American literature decidedly needs at the moment is color, music, gust"If the Negroes are not in a position to contribute these items, I do not know what Americans are.? "
Abstract This paper examines the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar's 1903 poem "We Wear the Mask", which is in open defiance of the commonly accepted fallacy of his day that African-Americans were happy in the subservient roles they were forced to assume in the face of white racism. The paper describes Dunbar's uses irony and the religious rhetorical to convey the disparity between the false face African-Americans were forced to wear to earn a living in white society. The author shows how the prose illustrates the theme of the socially assumed mask.
From the Paper "The title of Dunbar's and first lines of the poem may at first suggest a mask that an actor or a performer wears. ?We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our checks and shades our eyes.? (Lines 1-2) However, the next lines of the poem suggest that the nature of the mask that is worn is far more complex than a mask made of paper or plaster. The poem strikes a contrast between African American's exposed social faces and the bleeding hearts within their apparently smiling, happy exteriors."
From the Paper "Russell Baker's Growing Up should be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for both content and style. Baker has written a work which humanely and vividly portrays the coming-of-age of a young man at in an era crucial to the development of the United States as a modern nation---the era of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Baker's book is valuable for its entertainment value, its humor, its humanity, its poignancy, and for its masterful and seemingly effortless blending of the personal and the historical. We come to know not only this young man and his family, but also the spirit of the nation in this turbulent time.
Baker is a well-respected journalist who in this book looks back over his childhood and young manhood in order to honor that childhood, his family, and the courage and steadfastness of America between the two world wars. It covers not only the urban..."
From the Paper "Goldratt constructs The Goal as a split-track narrative which focuses on Al Rogo, a plant manager, who is presented as struggling to salvage both his ailing manufacturing plant and his expiring marriage. By juxtaposing two tales where collapse appears imminent, Goldratt heightens the story's narrative suspense while showcasing multiple instances where his innovative crisis management skills would be best applied. His twin focus reinforces his only slightly camouflaged attempt to establish philosophical underpinnings as the basis for all acts of problem solving. While The Goal centers upon developing improved management skills in the midst of crisis, equally it invests itself within the classical format of a quest narrative."
From the Paper "Some things about fairy tales we know to be true. They begin with "once upon a time." They end with "happily ever after." And somewhere in between the prince rescues the damsel in distress.
Of course, this is not actually the case. Many fairytales omit these essential words. But few fairytales in the Western tradition indeed fail to have a beautiful, passive maiden rescued by a vibrant man, usually her superior in either social rank or in moral standing. Indeed, it is precisely the passivity of the women in fairy tales that has led so many progressive parents to wonder whether their children should be exposed to them. Can any girl ever really believe that she can grow up to be president or CEO or an astronaut after five viewings of Disney's "Snow White"?"
Bacchilega (1997, chapter 2) chooses "Snow White" as a nearl
Abstract This paper examines Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America" about her experiences in trying to live on the minimum wage. She spent a year on the road working from everything as a Wal-Mart clerk to a maid to a waitress and discovers it is nearly impossible to survive, let alone live, on $6 to $7 per hour, which is well over the $5.15 Federal minimum hourly wage. It analyzes her experiences trying to hide her education, finding cheap accomodation and living with out health insurance. The paper updates us on basic information about minimum wage regulations, welfare reform and other relevant details and makes us realize that there are a whole class of people that we see every day such as waitresses and clerks whom we take for granted.
From the Paper "In 1996, Barbara Ehrenreich was enjoying lunch with an editor from "Harper's" magazine, and together they fleshed out an idea. Ehrenreich would write a magazine article on what it was like to be one of America's working poor. She would take a low-paying $6 or $7 per hour job, and see what it took to survive. Her basic premise for her research was ""is it really possible to make a living on the kinds of jobs currently available to unskilled people"" (Ehrenreich). The result of her research is "Nickel and Dimed." She spent a year on the road working from everything as a Wal-Mart clerk to a maid to a waitress. What she found about the working poor in America is the basis of this book."
