Abstract
This paper is about something bizarre that happened to a waitress involving black roses. One Friday night a strange, bizarre experience happened. On the back table where employees usually sit to take their breaks, a black rose with thorns was left. These black roses continued to be left there every Friday for a month. The story focuses on how these roses appeared but no one knew who was leaving them.

From the Paper
"In 2006, 2,503,000 people worked at the job of being a waitress, including fast food restaurants (Food and Beverage Serving). Most waitresses work part-time until they find the career they want. This is true of me. I enjoy waiting on people and visiting with them. I love the ability to make sure that people enjoy their meal as they sip their drinks and eat what they have ordered, but one Friday night a strange, bizarre experience happened. On the back table where employees usually sit to take their breaks, a black rose with thorns was left. These black roses continued to be left there every Friday for a month."

Tags:roses, waitress, bizarre

Abstract
The paper looks at how both novels, "Brave New World" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four", highlight the control of power in their societies and how it is achieved. The paper compares how both works address the issues of discrimination and social stratification, the capitalist system, the destruction of the concept of family and sex. In conclusion, the paper examines the socio-cultural implications of the ideas presented in these novels.

Outline:
Introduction
Issues Raised and Challenged

From the Paper
"The classical novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell are often compared because of their similar dystopian character. Both novels present perverted worlds set in the future that is chaotic in the sense that people do not enjoy their freedom and individuality. Brave New World introduces a 'frightening vision of the future' and posits a society-norm-controlled world where people are conditioned since birth to hold the values that the World State idealizes thus, loss their individual identities and submit to the standards set by society in fear of becoming outcasts. According to Bessa (2007), Huxley suggests that people in the World State destroys each other. Nineteen Eighty-Four on the other hand, zeroes in on a repressive totalitarian era and discusses a society that is government-controlled, ruled by party headed by Big Brother. The government's invasive character is captured in the caption of the party's poster BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. Indeed, the two worlds described in the abovementioned novels depict oppression by states that seek to cling to power so they can incessantly manipulate their people. Although fictional in nature, the novels have introduced issues that leave more questions than answers, which the present world could think about and address."

Tags:conditioning, brainwashing, totalitarianism, dystopia, discrimination, capitalism, family, sex

Abstract
This essay, entitled "DRUGS AS A THEME IN FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS," is an attempt to read some coherence into the bizarre, and drug filled account by Hunter Thompson of a trip he made at the expense of Sports Illustrated, nominally to cover an off-road motorcycle race, and effectively to explore the death of his version of the American Dream. Along the way, Thompson is supposed to have said that Las Vegas was so bizarre that it made drugs unnecessary. For himself, however, he created an exemption.

From the Paper
DRUGS AS A THEME IN FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAW VEGAS Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson is a book about drugs, and a great deal more. Drugs are something of a theme, and something of a constant in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Little else can be said of a book in which the author very early announces: The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt-shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers, . . . and

Tags:thompson, drugs, dream

Abstract
This paper provides an analysis of how Edgar Allan Poe uses the eerie and the bizarre in his short stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Premature Burial" to reinforce the common theme in each - human fear and anxiety over premature death.

From the Paper
"Arguably, American author Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest authors of the macabre or horror tale. Whether it be his poems like "The Raven" or his short stories like the "Tell Tale Heart", Poe is a master of using the eerie and the bizarre to develop his themes. The case is no different in two of Poe's short stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Premature Burial". The theme of both of these short stories is the human..."

Tags:tombs, mansions, Gothic, darkness, gloom, entombment, madness, horror

Abstract
The paper discusses and analyzes the topic of Peter the Great, his life and contribution to Western Civilization. The paper notes that Peter the Great ruled Russia as a Tsar and Emperor for nearly 50 years, and he brought reforms and modernism to his country, but many of his reforms were controversial. In addition the paper comments that he made some great accomplishments, but his reign was contentious, at best.

From the Paper
"Sofia was ousted by a failed coup d'etat in 1689, and spent the rest of her life in a convent, while Ivan died in 1696, leaving Peter in control of Russia. Another historian notes, "When his time did come, conditions were less than auspicious for his success. The country was in disarray, riven by conflicts among the leading boyar clans and plagued by the deep social and religious divisions that had given rise to violent spasms of popular unrest throughout the seventeenth century". It was Peter's task to reunite the country and create more harmonious relationships between the people and the ruling class".

Tags:agrarian, state, feudal, peasant-oriented, economy, power, struggles

Abstract
The paper analyzes and reviews "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. The writer suggests that, in the book Christie seems to be commenting not only on the social injustice of the caste system in England, but also on how it is so ingrained in society that everyone adheres to it, no matter what.

From the Paper
"The author also shows this in Vera's seemingly compulsive need to let everyone know she is an employee, rather than a guest. She immediately indicates she is a "lesser" being than the guests, and there to serve them, although she does not even know how at the beginning of the story. England's society is based on societal levels and the book helps the reader understand how important they are to English people. Americans may not understand their need to categorize people into societal levels, but at least they will understand how it works a little better by reading this book. It also shows there is something decidedly different about all the guests, which makes the reader want to continue on and discover just what it is."

Tags:strict, caste, system, compulsive, societal, frontier, justice

Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the literary elements of setting, symbol, and characters which supports the argument that the grotesque yellow wallpaper is Gilman's metaphor for the entrapment of women by social conventions in a patriarchal society.

From the Paper
"Personification is defined as giving human characteristics to things that are not human. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper" appears to be a horror story about a woman who loses her sanity and suffers delirious hallucinations when the wallpaper in her bedroom becomes personified. But it can be argued that this story, written in the late 1800s, is actually Gilman's autobiographical dramatization of the destructive effects of the Victorian male-dominated society upon women. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the author personifies the setting - the grotesque wallpaper in a chronically depressed woman's bedroom - to create a symbol of feminine oppression. Editor Linda Kriszner states that the story "makes a point about the dangers of women's utter dependence on male interpretation of their needs" "

Tags:Gilman, Victorian, sanity, horror, delusion, personification

Abstract
This paper discusses that Hamlet's delay in acting questions whether Hamlet was a coward or a man worthy of admiration despite his flaws. The author points out that some critics believe that the complexity of Hamlet's character indicates that he is aware of his own indecision resulting from his inner turmoil. The paper concludes that Hamlet was suffering from "information overload"; his delay is not a crime, and Hamlet should still be viewed as the tragic hero of Denmark.

From the Paper
"Margreta Grazia notes the importance of this struggle. She also points out that in modern drama, "character is destiny" noting, "Action thus issues from character and is expressive of the agent's subjectivity." She believes that "Hamlet is held back by reservations bears witness to his compulsion to move forward." This conflict leads to Hamlet's glory and doom, according to Grazia. The doom is present from the beginning of the play when Hamlet realizes the world is "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." Grazia claims that Hamlet's infinite spirit is mired in materiality through the entire play. He becomes the victim of his own "spirit's war with itself," which prevents him from making a step in any direction. This point cannot be argued. We begin to question Hamlet's character and it appears obvious that his struggle begins within his mind."

Tags:delay, turmoil, flaw, overload, hero

Abstract
This paper utilizes original thought as well as scholarly criticism to analyze the themes of luck, money and love in the short story "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence. Central to the discussion is how the themes become unified to create a symbolic representation of how materialism creates a perverted imitation of life to the extent of actually causing the death of the young protagonist, Paul.

From the Paper
"In the short story "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence, the writer creates a spooky fantasy in which three major themes, luck, money, and love combine to form a bizarre and deadly unity. The boy Paul, intuitively feeling the lack of love in his family, becomes the embodiment of his parents obsessions with money. Riding his toy rocking horse he receives supernatural messages that allow him to pick winners in real horse races. He believes that he thus renews his family's luck, by winning money which he equates on an unconscious level with love. Lawrence uses the unified themes of luck, money and love to create a symbolic representation of life that is not truly lived, but in which concepts of luck, money and love are perverted into an imitation of life, the falseness of which kills the boy Paul. "

Tags:paul, materialism, symbolism

Abstract
This paper explains that Pop Art uses images of consumerism and everyday objects, often placing mundane objects in bizarre situations as a form of social commentary. The author points out that, although Andy Warhol is perhaps the best-known pop artist, Richard Hamilton, born in London during the 1920s, created the first piece of Pop Art, ?Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing??, a collage poster design for the ?This Is Tomorrow? art exhibit. The paper describes the author?s attempt to reinterpret this collage by using images of the latest technology of our era -- the plasma TV, the DVD player, the PlayStation ? just as Hamilton?s collage shows the latest technology of his era -- the reel-to-reel, the television.

From the Paper
"I experienced some particular problems in creating my collage. Hamilton's background in advertising and the arts gave him an incredible skill for cutting out the magazine photos, and although the proportions are somewhat skewed, he was able to piece the individual photos together in an almost seamless fashion, creating a completely believable new world. In my collage, the scissors lines are obvious, and there is not the artistic flow of the created environment. The models in my collage do not have the creepy Outer-Limits air about them, and the sense of discord within a stable environment that Hamilton captured simply is not there in my collage, which does not have a proper sense of chaos or stability. It is an important lesson to be learned, however, that even if presented with the same basic supplies, it is the artistic skill and merit of the artist that creates a true piece of art. Simply incorporating similar themes into a piece does not necessarily make those pieces companions or comparable. Hamilton had an incredible sense of the impact of the media and consumer-based society on the individual, and it was due to his own brilliance that his collage is impressive, not just, because he found pretty pictures in magazines."

Tags:consumeriems, mundane, bizarre, worhol, technology