Abstract "Dispatches" is not a history book written in conventional style. This paper examines Herr's graphic account of the horrors of war from a first hand perspective on the front line. It discusses how the fast moving, boldly descriptive style of the author fits the subject matter, an educational and stirring account of what Vietnam was about.
From the Paper "The section called "Hell Sucks" describing the Tet Offensive and the battle of Hue is especially effective in conveying the extremely bizarre nature of this war to someone unfamiliar with it's horrors. Perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war, the effects of the warped psychology created by this war of confused causes becomes clear. As we have heard for generations, War is Hell, but it quickly becomes apparent that this particular war creates a Hell beyond Hell . "Hell Sucks" is one of the slogans written on flak jackets and helmets, showing the perverse bitter humor of Vietnam. In it's irony this war is double hell. Not mere hell, but hell in the slang of the participants that truly deserves the descriptive verb "sucks" -- that pessimistically perfect example of everything negative and nasty and rotten."
Tags: war, vietnam, battlefield, hell, america, marines
From the Paper "In her extensive semi-formal study of marriages and the sharing of household and childcare duties, The Second Shift, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild found that women continued to assume the primary responsibility for these tasks even when their outside working hours, earning power, and theoretical commitments to altered gender roles had increased. Hochschild concluded from the limited degree of change she discovered between the 1980s and earlier decades that, while society was changing as more women worked, couples were usually caught in a "stalled revolution" as women made the greater part of the change and absorbed the greater part of the extra work the changes generated. Despite the poor state of sharing in marriages in general, however, the arrangements between couples, and the ways in which people truly think about them, are gradually changing--..."
This paper reviews two Holocaust books describing personal experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II: "Night" by Elie Wiesel and "Survival in Auschwitz" by Primo Levi.
2,025 words (approx. 8.1 pages), 2 sources, 1982, $ 71.95
From the Paper "This report reviews two books describing personal experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II: Night, by Elie Wiesel, and Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi. Both books convey similar horror stories about the Holocaust. The stories of the two men will be compared, and the styles and treatment of the subject will be contrasted.
Wiesel's account of experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald and a few points in between projects a family focus. His youth was undoubtedly a factor in his perspective: he was only twelve when Jews in his Hungarian town of Sighet were initially rounded up for slaughter, and only fourteen when he and his family were shipped to Auschwitz. Wiesel recalls the attitudes of the townspeople when the first stories of mass genocide reached their ears -- overwhelmingly, the stories were met with disbelief and ... "
From the Paper " In the book, Ishmael, author Daniel Quinn addresses several social issues from the viewpoint of a talking gorilla named Ishmael. Ishmael's goal in the story is to teach his pupil, a human being, how to save the world. Ishmael and his student spend hours discussing what is wrong with the way humans view the world. According to Ishmael, humans are constantly and unnecessarily destroying animals as well as the Earth's fragile ecosystem.
Ishmael believes that the world is divided into two categories of living things: the Leavers and the Takers. The Takers are Americans, Europeans, and other races that use agriculture as opposed to hunting and gathering their food. The Leavers are animals and people like the Hopi Indians who only kill animals when they need them for food, as opposed to killing..."
This paper compares four characters in Emile Zola "Germinal" and their strategies for winning the support of workers in their struggle with capitalists.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, 1995, $ 47.95
From the Paper "This study will compare and evaluate four characters in Emile Zola's novel Germinal, focusing specifically on the contrasting strategies and philosophies of Etienne, Rasseneur, Pluchart, and Souvarine in their efforts to win the support of the miners. The study will also speculate about which of these potential leaders' philosophy for action Zola most agrees with, and why.
Zola has deliberately created these four characters in order to demonstrate the various alternatives to action available to the workers in their struggle against the oppression of the mineowners, the capitalists. The four characters are meant to stand in stark contrast to one another, so that the reader can clearly see these alternatives in their various imperfect personifications."
Abstract This paper gives a stanza-by-stanza analysis of John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale", written in 1819. It shows how Keats mingles the beauty of the nightingale with the morbidity of death in his poem. It also questions whether Keats actually witnessed the nightingale he wrote about or whether it was a fancy of his imagination.
From the Paper "In the fourth stanza, Keats rejects his desire to get drunk as a means of escape. Instead, he turns to ?the viewless wings of Poesy.? Poetry can remove him from himself faster and better than wine can. He allows the bird song to carry him off: ?Away! Away! For I will fly to thee.? In so doing, he escapes "the dull brain, which perplexes and retards" and forgets himself long enough to see ?the Queen Moon is on her throne/Clustered around by all her starry fays.?"
Abstract Analysis of Yuan-tsung Chen's 1980 story of a young Chinese woman. Fictional tale is paralleled with struggles Chinese people go through as their country adopts Communism. Role of women in China and how the Revolution effected them. Protagonist's fight for equality; breaking down barriers between the sexes.
From the Paper "In Yuan-tsung Chen's The Dragon's Village (1980), the coming of age of a young woman, Ling-ling, is paralleled with the struggles that the people of China are going through as their country adopts communism. In the middle of revolution, land reform, and the Korean War, Ling-ling matures and discovers who she is as a woman and a person. Her tale reflects how the role of women in China frequently vacillated between emancipation and oppression during this time in history. Chen uses Ling-ling as well as the other women in her story as an example of what women in China were experiencing during this turbulent time, whether they were old, young, rich, poor, bourgeois, urban, or rural.
To understand how the revolution effected the lives of these women, one should first take a look at Chinese society and..."
Abstract This paper examines Michael Drayton's sonnet "Since There's No Help" which describes the uncertainty associated with ending a relationship. It analyzes how Drayton begins by asserting that the relationship is ending and by trying to convince himself that he is glad of this. Then he surrenders to his real feelings and offers the real sadness of the situation. It looks at how, overall, the poem shows the process of being powerless to another person, fighting this power because of pride and then eventually admitting true feelings and begging for love to continue.
From the Paper "The first eight lines set up the problem, with these lines focusing on the confusion of the individual. The first line introduces the fact that the relationship is ending, "Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part." This line expresses the certainty that the relationship is ending. There is no question in this line over whether or not the relationship will end. Instead, it is clear that the two will part. This introduces a tone of needing to accept the situation. This is important because the following seven lines all suggest uncertainty. This assurance that the relationship will ends means that the poem is not focused on whether or not they are parting, but on how the individual feels about their parting."
Abstract This paper relates Thomas Bell's late nineteenth century portrayal of life in Pittsburgh to the of a melting pot, or gathering of immigrants of all shapes, sizes and cultures into one community. The late 19th century in Pittsburgh, much like anywhere in the U.S. during the time reflected an era of economic and social growth and change. This influx of people from so many different countries, with little skills and high hopes paved the way for low-paying labor. Thomas Bell's "Out of this Furnace" tells the story of three generations of Slovaks that moved to America, and the challenges they faced in the new land.
From the Paper "Djuro Kracha is a recent immigrant from Hungary in Bell's novel that desires more than anything to leave his native country and restart life in America. America became a melting pot because of immigrants such as Kracha. Many people flooded the U.S. during this time, from Hungary and other Eastern European countries, from Ireland, Mexico and China, all in the hopes of economic opportunity. Ethnically, socially and politically all of the people that came to live here were different. In Bell's novel, Djuro is the first member of his family to come to live in the U.S. Like many immigrants his initial struggles include working in a Steel Mill for terrible wages and long hours."
Tags: immigration, melting, pot, culture, labour, class, society
Abstract This paper introduces and analyzes the book "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream" by H.G. Bissinger. Specifically, it discusses the philosophical, psychological, social and ethical views from the book, in regards to life, sports, coaching and the students/players. Football in Odessa is the only reason most people live, and "Friday Night Lights" vividly shows the petty small town bigotry, small mindedness and mentalities that create a culture out of football and create life or death drama over winning or losing.
From the Paper "Psychologically, the people of Odessa seem not only extremely simple minded, they obsess over the games as if they were life and death. One prominent businessman says, "'Life really wouldn't be worth livin' if you didn't have a high school football team to support'" (Bissinger 20). It would be funny if it were not so sad. These people, even those who are happy and successful, seem to have nothing else in their lives but these Friday night games. What causes them to lead such empty and superficial lives that football is the only entertainment? Admittedly, Odessa is a "wretched" place to live, and there seems to be little else to do there to keep society interested and involved."
Abstract The poet Pablo Neruda is renown for his exploration of themes of love within his poetry. These themes of love range from the traditional portrays of passion to representations of political commitment. This paper critically assesses Neruda's poems of love in respect to the themes that are manifest within his presentation of love, where he argues that emotion and passion allows the individual to better experience life.
Abstract This paper will compare the poetry of Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor as they implicitly set forth their perceptions of God and his kingdom and their stance toward divinities in two or three works. By understanding this way of divine poetry, we can see how they use God as a position for inquiry into the matters of theology and the beliefs they have in a higher power.
Abstract This paper will discuss Edward Abbey's book entitled "Desert Solitaire" and begin to understand the motives that lie beneath the book's seemingly barren landscape. By visualizing Abbey's philosophy, we can see why he wrote this book in the way he intended to. This analysis will argue for the "values" that Abbey places within the text about the region of desert that he lived in and find out what he meant by these values within the scope of the book.
Abstract This paper summarizes the main points of the book, while examining the capitalistic implications of the immigrant family's experiences and horrific situations they face. The trials and tribulations of one such immigrant family are written about in detail.
From the Paper "Upton Sinclair's devotion to shedding light on the corruptive system known as capitalism is evident and clearly illustrated in The Jungle. Sinclair uses a fictional family of immigrants from Lithuania to display his theory that capitalism has no ends beyond a corruptive, manipulative and eventually deadly demise. Jurgis Rudkus, then hopeful and optimistic, convinces his then fianc?, her family, and his own to leave Lithuania to pursue his dream of wealth and comfort in America. Rudkus forms a dream of sorts of what American society can offer to him and his family. The story begins at Jurgis's and Ona's ceremonial Lithuania wedding that illustrates that the family is not going to fully assimilate into American life, but rather implement their religious and cultural former lives into their new lives in America."
This paper reviews Julia Alvarez's "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accent", which is about four sisters who experienced a lifestyle change in coming to America from the Dominican Republic.
Abstract This paper examines the four sisters, their parents, the political backdrop, and the Dominican Republic's male-female nexus, which is so different from what one has come to view in America. The author points out that, in "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accent", which is set from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s, each sister brings her own dimensionality, which is a slice of what constitutes a woman. The paper states that the sisters? accents have completely changed; but, for better or worse, they have been fully assimilated into American culture.
From the Paper "It is in Fifi's relationships with men that we see the most vagaries. The start of the novel shows that she is really a person who would support a stable family. She is headstrong and independent. She generally gets what she wants. She presents her parents with their first grandchildren"a boy. She is the only one among her siblings that does not have a college degree, though there is no lack of intellect. Her husband is the most accomplished of all" ?? the German nobody turned out to be a world class chemist.?(p. 31) She seems to hold equal say in her marriage though her husband's character is not explored. Surprisingly, Fifi can adopt different roles."
