Abstract To understand the point of the humor in "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, it is necessary to examine the point of the story itself. All of Vonnegut's books touch on broad social issues in a rather cartoonish way that serves a much darker and difficult purpose than what they appear to address. Like Breakfast of Champions, and Hocus Pocus, Cat's Cradle, is a humorous take on the organizations and social structures that the world holds as absolutes with the angle that such things do not exist - all is arbitrary. In this work, we find that there is a brilliant combination of lampoon (in the form of the polarized roles taken by the two friends who created the island nation dictatorial politics and religion, Bokononism; which are intended to oversimplify the arbitrariness of politics and religion) and of black humor (which is clearly marked in the violence, deprivation, and oppression that are used only to perpetrate the lie that is the society). Irony, perhaps, is the constant of every event and passage in this book. It is irony that makes us understand that the humor in the story is a rather caustic, disbelieving, and disenchanting look at our own and every other society.
Abstract In this paper, the writer notes that as a profession that directly involves working with people, teaching is a very arbitrary profession. What constitutes "good" teaching is considered even more arbitrary, as the writer points out that definitions of good vary from person to person. Furthermore, the writer discusses that perceptions of teaching vary from student to student, each of whom has his or her own ideals and expectations regarding good teachers. A good teacher, in the writer's view, should connect with his or her students in a personal and targeted way. Most importantly, the teacher has a responsibility to make the teaching experience enjoyable for students. The writer concludes that students tend to be more responsive to a learning experience that is associated with enjoyment than one associated with pain or worse, boredom.
From the Paper "Aesthetic enjoyment can also be used to bring about the integrated sense of humanity that has become so important in the more tolerant 21st century. Multicultural classrooms can for example learn to appreciate the aesthetics of the art from a variety of cultures. In the scientific classroom, children can learn to appreciate the visual beauty created by combining certain formulae. Nature, as Haynes also states, can also be appreciated in an aesthetic sense for its beauty and uncorrupted wildness."
"While aesthetic appreciation is conventionally associated with the visual and the other physical sense perceptions, it can also relate to other forms of enjoyment, such as the imaginative appreciation of literature. Students can learn to expand their imagination via not only an appreciation of work written by others, but also by creating literature of their own. This can again be combined with pragmatism and functionalism in terms of learning language and grammatical structures and usage."
This paper looks at child characters acting as adults in literature, focusing on 'The Ozma of Oz' by Frank Baum and 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll.
Abstract In this article, the writer notes that there are many examples in children's literature where child characters act as adults. The writer points out that the characterizations of Alice in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' as well as Dorothy in 'Ozma of Oz are excellent examples of the phenomena in literature. The writer also points out that the reality of the phenomena is that, for the most part children's literature is created by adults, and these same adults, as children wish they had been able to act as adults, upon the arbitrary world of adults. The main characters in these two works demonstrate this phenomenon by calmly dealing with the world around them as if they had years of adult conflicts under their belt, as the desire to be recognized as having power, as a child demonstrates a desire to emulate adults and therefore resolve the arbitrary conflicts that occur in the adult world. The writer concludes that part of the the purpose of the writer is to recount the innocence of a child, and still manage to fulfill one's obligations as an adult. The writer maintains that the children in these two fantastic stories are reflecting the need to remember the fantasy of childhood as well as the obligations of adulthood, without losing either.
From the Paper "The resolution to resolve the arbitrary conflicts of adults, in the magical world of mystery, as well as in the real world are clear intentions of personal growth. To act as an adult, and to have the influence of an adult, is the aspiration of all children, especially in a world where such actions are recognized as brave and necessary. Adults who write works of fiction for children, remember their own days as children, being unable to navigate the mysteries of the adult world and wishing more than anything to have influence over them. The reflection of the desire, as a child to understand and resolve the mystery of the adult world is reflected in fantasy. Childhood is a period of clarity and innocence, that writers of children's works wish to retell to children of the younger generations. There is no sense of real childhood fear, as the innocence of a child drives his or her clarity in the world of adults, no matter the level of mystery. The idea of personal growth and influence, drives the child's actions, and the child seeks this recognition in the real as well as the world of imagination. Upon waking, Alice's sister, now an adult recognizes in Alice's recalled dream the nature of children and the need to remain innocent."
Examined in terms of history in U.S., compared to other nations, methods of execution, state laws, views of public, deterrence vs. retribution, racial & social bias, arbitrariness. Includes examples.
3,375 words (approx. 13.5 pages), 18 sources, 1999, $ 119.95
From the Paper " Capital punishment is an enduring American tradition. The United States is the only Western country in the world that executes prisoners, and in recent years the number of executions has increased dramatically. Americans firmly believe in capital punishment despite the findings of most social scientists that it has little or no effect on future acts of homicidal violence. Thus America appears to have retained the death penalty merely based on its psychological effect on the public.
Capital punishment is imposed for any crime that is judged worthy to be punished by death. Such punishment has traditionally been reserved for the most serious of crimes. In the modern era, a death sentence is only carried out after a prisoner has exhausted a lengthy appeals process.
Although it is difficult to pinpoint with accuracy when.."
Abstract This paper analyzes Bret Easton Ellis's novel, "The Rules of Attraction", a commentary on society's loss of family values where the pages are filled with the characters? mindless bouts with sex, drugs and alcohol. It questions why each character accepts the meaningless, arbitrary sexual and drug-related acts they commit on a regular basis and attributes the answer to the idea that true love is unobtainable and senseless sex is the only thing that is real. Ellis has created a world where everybody loves someone who loves somebody else or who does not care to love anyone.
From the Paper "From the very first sentence of the novel, the reader can see that The Rules of Attraction will offer no fulfilling conclusion. The book begins in the middle of a sentence. If there is no clear opening to the story, how can it be concluded in a standard sense? The sentence also runs on for roughly 13 lines. It is Lauren discussing the loss of her virginity. The passage is amazing though because in its several lines it provides no real information. The sentence is pointless because Lauren only remembers flashes of the experience, not including the date of the event or the man present."
The paper discusses many of President Lincoln's encounters with opposition during the Civil War, in order to under his actions in an attempt to preserve the Union and the nation.
Abstract The paper shows that Lincoln's actions during the Civil War towards agitators against the government may not have been completely justified. If one were to examine the arbitrary arrests, and temporary closure of antiwar press, it is seen how Lincoln was able to curb dissent that may have gotten out of hand. It discusses that if his actions were solely to protect the people's liberty as a whole, by punishing a few opponents, Lincoln was just assuring his victory. It shows how Lincoln was bombarded by "Peace Democrats" that were purposely pressuring him by, "resisting the laws of embarrassing in every way the action of the Government, of communicating information to the rebels in arms, and in many cases inflicting serious damage on the lives and property of the Unionists". The paper uses sources such as Kunhardt, Mark Neely Jr., John Nicolay and John Hay.
From the Paper "So when Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeas corpus in order to arrest those accused of treason, the "Peace Democrats" had more ammunition against the president. There was much controversy as to whether the president had the power to suspend habaes corpus, and it was argued that only Congress had that right. The writ of habeas corpus protects people from arbitrary arrest and detainment. The power to do so was both that of the legislative branch as well as the judicial branch. It was unclear whether the Philadelphia convention placed it in Article I, just to identify it or define it as a legislative function. Either way, Lincoln did so, and the suspension of the writ of Habeas corpus brought on thousands of arbitrary arrests. Many of those who were arrested were spies, foreigners and smugglers. The question is: Did Lincoln go too far and unlawfully exercise his executive powers to manipulate constitutional limits?"
This paper analyzes the logic of arguments against capital punishment: As deterrence, respect for life, arbitrariness and cruel and unusual punishment.
1,575 words (approx. 6.3 pages), 7 sources, 1994, $ 55.95
From the Paper "Arguments about the right of society to demand the ultimate punishment through the death penalty have been made for decades in the United States. In the 1970s, the issue might have seemed more academic than real because the Supreme Court had thrown out the nation's death penalty laws as being improperly drawn. Since the court did not say the death penalty could never be applied but only that it was not being applied correctly in law at the time, the death penalty has been reinstituted with language that conforms to the parameters set by the Supreme Court. In spite of a number of challenges, capital punishment has been affirmed by the Court and continues to be enforced. There is considerable public support for the death penalty, much of it related to a general trend toward demanding harsher penalties for criminals because of a fear of street crime and violence."
Abstract If all countries had the right institutions, the world would be more peaceful, prosperous and just, but the institutions considered "right" do not necessarily have to be democracy, human rights and free markets. Evaluating international relations is difficult because each situation requires different institutions; however, history provides a reasonable basis for analysis. History suggests that the correction or elimination of troublesome institutions would greatly contribute to world stability and cooperation, but recognition of the "right" institutions to replace them proves difficult and arbitrary. This essay evaluates American ideals for international relations. It questions the universal appeal of democracy and other "right" institutions. It uses historical examples such as the two World Wars as case studies to support its claims.
From the Paper "In contrast, the institutions causing World War II could have been avoided more easily. World War II was largely the result of an inadequate conclusion to the war preceding it and growing institutions such as nationalism. The victorious countries of WWI were blinded by their pursuit of the "right" institutions such as democracy, so they inadvertently recharged international tension by thrusting a weak democratic republic on an unwilling German populace. In this case, the "right" institution would have been one that the Germans chose rather than necessarily requiring democracy. Also, the quest for an adequate balance of power had created poorly constructed boundaries between countries, often ignoring the nationalities of the inhabitants. These causes of friction led to unrest and the escalation of conflict to yet another World War."
Abstract America has one of the worst alcoholism problems in the world. This paper asks what America is doing differently compared to other Western countries and why alcohol is such a large problem here. The paper argues that it seems that the best answer to the problems caused by underage drinking is to end youth prohibition and replace it with intensive alcohol-responsibility training, zero-tolerance drunk driving laws and putting more social pressure on parents and establishments to monitor the drinking of the young. The paper shows that by reducing situations conducive to binge drinking, secretive drinking and drunk driving and replacing them with socially controlled situations, we reduce both health risks and drunk driving risks. The paper suggests that all arbitrary age-restrictions be revoked in favor of better societal monitoring and more pervasive anti-drunk driving regulations, aimed at risky behavior rather than specific targeted groups.
The paper includes a detailed outline.
From the Paper "Another important benefit of a change in the laws would be that less law enforcement money spent on prohibition means more money and time spent on serious problems like drunk driving and crime. By decriminalizing under-age drinking -- by removing the age limits which define it as underage -- then one ends the problem of illegal drinking. Of course, there's a certain degree of Orwellian double-speak at work here. If one were to nationalize personal property, that would also strictly solve the problem of theft as well. Obviously removing underage status makes underage drinking an impossibility and therefore not a problem. The real question is whether or not this move would decrease problems. It does seem reasonable, though, that more focus on enforcing drunk driving and erratic driving rules would be far more successful than wasting societal time checking IDs."
Abstract Many medieval political thinkers observed that power and authority came first from God and then from a social mandate. In "Leviathan", Thomas Hobbes proposes that power comes from the social mandate first. He makes this assertion on the basis that it is within the human nature to secure its life through banding together with others to form a community. Each community, then, is held together by a common desire for protection from the wild while maintaining isolation of the self from others. One person, and in Hobbes' view it really doesn't matter who, must be able to make decisions on behalf of the community, that person, even if he/she does not enjoy unanimous support, becomes the sovereign. Hobbes' concept of authority and power, then, stems from the belief that people have leaders because such people are necessary to maintain the unification of society and thus maintain the protection of the people from the wild. Niccolo Machiavelli had a slightly different idea as to the justification and origin of power and authority. Machiavelli concurs with Hobbes that a sovereign is necessary for the unification of the society. But, rather than being the arbitrary selection of a society, the Machiavellian sovereign is, by necessity, a member of an established and influential family, a man with long blood-lines to other rulers who, by nature of his heredity, has less cause to offend others and thus rules effectively through his urbane nature.
Analyzes two books on the importance of scientist Louis Pasteur's laboratory work, ""Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World" (B. Latour) and "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur" (G. Geison).
1,150 words (approx. 4.6 pages), 2 sources, 2002, $ 44.95
Abstract In B. Latour's "Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World" and G. Geison's "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur" readers are given a glimpse into the laboratory practices of one of the icons of modern biological science. The two works share a vision of laboratory practice as central to the scientific method and, moreover, consider that the popular distinction between "inside" (the laboratory) and outside (the socio-political world) is both arbitrary and inaccurate. However, as this paper will argue, the two works differ radically when it comes to perspective. Geison's book is iconoclastic in that it interrogates the mythmaking process that he perceives as integral to Pasteur's laboratory work. Latour's chapter, on the other hand, may be seen as iconic for its militant defense of Pasteur's personality and practice as models of laboratory science to be adhered to in the present day.
Abstract Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Blithedale Romance", is the first person narration of a man bent upon joining a world that has no need of him by imposing an arbitrary order upon his reality. Blithedale, is a novel of polarities. Just as Coverdale imposes order on reality, Zenobia, the feminine voice of creation, understands reality as a fragmented thing that cannot have order forced upon it. We see in the novel oppositions in communities, in social order, and in place. But, Hawthorne also gives us a richly crafted story about what it is that defines community and the common spirit or communal soul. The romance, of this book, is not just that of man and woman, but of the romantic ideals of society and of order. Coverdale, who is the namesake of the primary translator of the King James bible, is a man bent upon making the world be what he wants it to be. Hawthorne's, The Blithedale Romance, provides the reader with a set of beliefs, ideals, and aspirations, that become ideologies that actually mask reality thus pitting the utopian hopes of Blithedale against actual human behaviors - which makes for a difficult conflict at best.
Abstract Freidrich Nietzsche observed that the world has had two dominant self concepts and systems of morality - that of the slave who views the world in terms of good and evil, and that of the master who views the world in terms of good and bad. Marx perceived the world as being divided not by morality, but by social structures and economic differentiating points that are as arbitrary as the pattern of stars in the sky. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the differences between Marx and Nietzsche in terms of the polarization of society.
Abstract This is a character study of Hector in Homer's "Iliad", describing the 4 turning points in the reader's opinion of his character. His moral and ethical appearance is tarnished by actions that he is led into by fate and the gods; it is only these arbitrary occurrences that bring about his downfall, and his overall upstanding behavior as a warrior is recognized at the end of the story, when he is given a hero's burial.
Abstract Chess is an important theme in "Through the Looking Glass". The rules of the game, as well as the characteristics of the pieces, are Carroll's metaphor for society in Victorian England, particularly in caricaturing governmental and public figures. The game is also Carroll's way of conveying that social relations in the Victorian era were an arbitrary, but deadly serious game.
