Abstract This paper examines Jonathon Kozol's "Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America" which discusses the many problems associated with homelessness, such as keeping the family together. It argues that the cause of homelessness is simply the lack of housing and gives reasons for the lack of housing.
From the Paper "Jonathon Kozol argues in Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America that the cause of homelessness is simply a lack of housing. The families he describes in this book including the woman he calls Rachel and her children are ..."
Tags: homelessness, Rachel and Her Children, Jonathon Kozol
Abstract RachelCarson's 1962 book, "Silent Spring," unquestionably served as a catalyst in the formation of the modern environmental movement, rousing many to action, and profoundly altering the public conception of government, industry, and the human relationship to the natural world. This paper explores the myriad ways in which Carson revolutionized nature writing and her profound impact on American life.
From the Paper "Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of Carson's writing is its lack of overt glorification of the natural world. Gone are Muir's mountain "temples," "bathed in light, bathed in floods of singing water," or "the wild sheep of God" that populate Mary Austin's' landscape. Carson boldly does away with the grandiose language usually used to evoke emotion, and in its place she creates an overriding tone of objectivity. A trained biologist, she presents a vast body of information in a style that is succinct and straightforward, designed to have a logical, rather than artistic or spiritual, appeal. References to the divine, for example, are almost entirely lacking - a marked contrast between her work and that of most other writers. Rather, one races through a series of vividly sketched case studies and statistics, which together paint an increasingly convincing and dire picture. It is this tone of objectivity, somewhat ironically, that creates much of Silent Spring's tremendous emotional impact."
Abstract The paper looks at the life of Christopher "Kit" Carson, an almost mythic character in American history. He played an important role in the United State's expansion as a major player in the government's war with the Navajo Indians, finally forcing them off their lands. The paper reports on Carson's childhood. As his father died when he was nine years old, the need to work prevented him from ever receiving an education. His story is remarkable because in his lifetime Carson played so many roles that aided in Westward expansion in addition to Indian fighter: mountain man, trapper, guide, and sheep rancher. Both during and after Carson's life, astounding stories were told about his bravery, great strength and heroic deeds he had performed. The paper concludes that the story of Carson reveals both the good and the bad; while playing an important role in the Untied States expansion, he participated in important ways in subjugation and mistreatment of Native Americans. He was an army officer who followed his orders, but today those actions are recognized as wrong. His life is an example of those complex times.
From the Paper "Christopher "Kit" Carson, who was born in 1809 and died in 1868, has become an almost mythic character in American history. He started out as an apprentice to a saddle-maker, but made his way to the West, where he became a fur trapper and guide. He started out enjoying good relationships with Native Americans and even married Native American women twice in his life. Eventually he was an officer in the Civil War, and he played a major role in the American government's war with the Navajo Indians, finally forcing them off their lands."
Abstract This paper attempts to assess why Rachel, a fifteen year-old Jewish girl, attempted suicide, and what can be done to improve her quality of life. The paper prevents the fictional character of Rachel as a teenager who was admitted to a psychiatric ward after taking 10 Panadol tablets. Rachel's sister brought her in, disclosing that Rachel had had a fight with her father for dating the 18 year-old son of a Kosovan asylum seeker. The paper attempts to explicate the three primary issues impeding Rachel from gaining full confidence in her life: (1) infatuation, (2) inter-religion dating and (3) depression. The paper concludes by extrapolating lessons from Rachel's life to the experience of adolescence in general.
From the Paper "Human love and close relationships which involve social behaviors include issues at several levels and which are spread across through the subjective and the objective cultures. The processes involved in the development, maintenance, and/or dismissal of love are greatly influenced by several internal and external factors. (Tzeng, 1993, p. 83) It now needs to be understood as to whether romantic love is eternal, or would it fade as time passes? If love is to fade off, we need to understand as what are the consequences? For most people, these would look to be strange questions. Definitely, the songs, poems, novels, and films being witnessed by our society have shown love as the ultimate value in life and they can be energetic, overwhelming and perfectly blissful. Love is being believed by our younger generation as which makes the world progress; there is absolutely nothing which is not possible for lovers, love has no limitations and a life without having love is not a life at all and that exists forever. (De Munck, 1998, p. 17) But this is not the true face of love. Love is sometimes sad, and it can be as sad as death which is a supreme and mortal pain. It would lead to endless miseries for those involved and also for the near ones of the lovers. As time passes love tends to show its negative side and it leads our younger generation to depression and to commit suicide when they are unable to face its consequences. (Toner, 2003, p.39)"
Abstract This paper is a critique of James Rachels' four main arguments for the legalization of voluntary active euthanasia. Rachels argues that voluntary active euthanasia is more passive than "letting someone die," that it is morally acceptable for doctors to assist terminally ill patients in voluntary suicide. The author illustrates how, since Rachels is a philosopher, he quickly dismisses the legality of most of his suggested answers.
From the Paper "James Rachels discussed euthanasia in a very liberal view in his article ?Active and Passive Euthanasia,? included in the sixth edition of Thomas Mappes? Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy. His challenges to the status quo are four-fold. First of all, active euthanasia is more humane than passive. Next, the doctrines in practice decide life and death on irrelevant grounds. Third, there is no moral difference between active and passive euthanasia. And his last argument is that the most familiar reason for keeping active euthanasia illegal is invalid."
Abstract This paper examines Anne Carson's prose poem "The Glass Essay" in terms of the post-modern condition, which reduces human experience to the self and fragmented meanings, to loneliness and senselessness. It focuses on particular events in the poem, such as Carson's descriptions of her mother and a past love affair, and her insights into the mind of Emily Bronte. The paper ends by pointing out that, though the poem is written in the post-modern form and tradition, its conclusion presents a not so post-modern self but rather a very human, heartening, and timeless self.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Past Love Affair
An Aging Mother
On Emily Bronte
The Post-modern Self
Concluding Remarks
From the Paper "Throughout "The Glass Essay" Carson describes the profound loneliness that has always been part of human experience known to some individuals more than others and that is seen as a strong part of the postmodern personality. The world is thought to have changed with a great loss of faith in authorities, institutions or ideas of art or value that leave many people feeling they have no bearings, or that life is only absurd and senseless. People are believed to be more cut off from one another than was true in the past and with the resulting loneliness involving only the self as a reliable reality. It may be said that postmodern ideas of the self stress this extreme individuality and its results, no past grouping or category seeming to have relevance."
Abstract This paper is an analysis of the paper, "Active and Passive Euthanasia", by James Rachels, published about 30 years ago in which the question of the morality of all forms of euthanasia was examined. The paper presents a critique of the theme, style, language choice, contents, conclusions and strength of Rachels' paper.
From the Paper "In his essay "Active and Passive Euthanasia", James Rachels explains that the traditional distinction between active and passive euthanasia requires critical analysis. The conventional doctrine is that there an important moral difference between the two that must be carefully examined. Rachels writes that the distinction between active and passive euthanasia is thought to be critical for medical ethics. This idea can be challenged in a number of ways. One is that active euthanasia is in many cases more humane than passive euthanasia. Another is that this idea rests on..."
Tags: ethics, euthanasia, passive, active, assisted suicide, right to die, NDR, James Rachels, moral ambiguity
Abstract This paper, based on James Rachels' essay "Killing and Letting Die", explains that, although killing and letting someone die may be very different from some moral perspectives, from other viewpoints and in certain scenarios, they can be equivalent. The author uses examples from Rachels' essay to explore the issue of intentions and the concept of action versus inaction. The equivalence thesis, which implies that nothing separates killing and letting someone dies because both actions have the same consequence in that both persons end up dead, is evaluated and supported by the author.
From the Paper "The reasoning Corrie ten Boom exercised was somewhat a combination of a few of the viewpoints that Rachels covered. What she did was refuse to reveal the name of a man (who would be killed if she spoke), but this man himself was responsible for many other deaths, and would continue to cause the killings of others. She felt that her revealing this man's name was an action equivalent to killing him, and it is from that that I will explain her view. She believed it was better not to kill this one man (by revealing his identity) than to save others."
Abstract This paper reviews the short story "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud" by Carson McCullers. The writer describes the main characters of the story, their interaction with each other and explains their literary roles as defined by the author.
From the Paper "There are three central characters, two of whom have minimal dialogue, and only one of whom is given a name. Leo is the owner of the cafe where the story takes place. The newspaper boy who visits the cafe early in the morning while on his rounds is twelve and is never named. The focus is on the drunken man sitting alone at a table, a man who makes a surprising comment to the boy and who then expands on his comment by telling his own story. The situation between the boy and the drunk involves a series of implied contrasts between youth and age, innocence and experience. A secondary contrast is evident between the drunken man and Leo, here between an open and accepting spirit and a closed and angry one. What the drunken man imparts to the boy is a difficult lesson learned, and the rather elliptical way the older man imparts this lesson suggests that the boy will have to learn it for himself, probably through experience, just as the older man has."
Abstract This three-page undergraduate paper discusses the work of Carson McCullers and Katherine Paterson in terms of which writer is more realistic in dealing with adolescent identity problems. The paper compares their major novels and concludes that Paterson's portrayal of the issue is more realistic than McCullers'.
Abstract This paper centers on the character of Frankie Adams' incomplete development and the symbolic use of music in Carson McCullers' classic novel "The Member of the Wedding." One of the most important examples of how the author uses music to signify Frankie's development is illustrated through the jazz horn in part one of the book while in part two the music of the piano foreshadows her progression towards maturity. This paper also examines how music signifies Frankie's instability within herself and the world around her.
From the Paper "In part two of the novella, the music of the piano also foreshadows Frankie's progression towards maturity. As the neighbor's piano is being tuned, it carries out the sound of interrupted music. With every repeated stop and start, it shows the music is out of Frankie's control. Because the music is disoriented, it represents the unpredictable ways of Frankie not finishing her transition to young adulthood. The musical references symbolize the confusion and chaos Frankie associates with her transition in the world."
Abstract This paper explains that, in Carson McCullers' novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", which is set in a small town in the South in the late 1930s, five main characters are isolated from the rest of the society for different reasons. The author relates that Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, the noblest character in the novel, is isolated because he is alienated from his family and from the other black people of the community. He is well educated and knows what is needed to solve the problems of the black community in his small southern town. The paper concludes that his isolation is because he has a very intellectual approach in explaining his viewpoints through his speeches, which cannot be clearly understood by people who have little or no education.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Overview of the Story
Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland
Facts
Principles
Conflicts and Isolation of Dr. Copeland
Speeches of Dr. Copeland
Conclusion
From the Paper "Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland is a man of principles and believes that furthering one's education will further one's standing in life. As a young man, Dr. Copeland went to the North to get a good college education. When he became a doctor, he came back to the South so that he can make use of his education in order to uplift the way of life in the black community of his small southern home town.
Dr. Copeland also believes that blacks are being stereotyped as ignorant because of the way they speak. This is why Dr. Copeland is very cautious on how he speaks."
Tags: isolation, flaws, physician, education, pride
Abstract In this article, the merits and demerits of Utilitarianism are considered. The writer discusses Utilitarianism in light of James Rachels' essay, "The Elements of Moral Philosophy". Ultimately, the writer concludes by abondoning this theory for its inconsistency with liberty, justice and fairness.
From the Paper "'The Elements of Moral Philosophy' by James Rachels contains an exposition of Utilitarianism that considers the strengths and weaknesses of this unique moral philosophy. Like all ethical theories, Utilitarianism advances a conception of the Good that is expected to prevail. All action if it is to be considered moral or Right must conform to that ethical conception of the Good. In Utilitarianism the Good is happiness and action that produces the most happiness for the most people is Right action. Conversely, it is wrong to take any action ... "
Tags: utilitarianism, james rachels, moral philosophy, ethical theory, principle of utility
Abstract This paper describes the lives and works of four people who's collective positive impact on the environment and on society's understanding of the natural world is powerful: John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Henry David Thoreau, and RachelCarson. The author illustrates that an understanding of their lives and professional contributions is necessary for any student who wishes to become informed as to the effect the expansion of American cities and technologies has had on the planet. The paper includes a brief sketch of each individual, and concludes withe the author's impressions of their place and impact on environmental studies.
Outline:
Henry David Thoreau
John Muir
Aldo Leopold
RachelCarson How have these Ideas Affected me Personally?
From the Paper "If that sounds a little esoteric, what the author is basically saying is that Thoreau was very experienced in the ways of humans and the wilderness; he lived next to Walden Pond for more than two years; he climbed mountains; he explored forests and hiked a great deal; and yet his "excursions...were not mere physical journeys but contemplative odysseys through which he gradually overcame the alienation of the person..." (137). When he wrote about his journeys into nature, he certainly wasn't writing a travelogue; he was in fact expressing through the creative genius of his mind's eye the many ways the bright spirit can interpret an experience with the wilderness. "
Abstract An analysis of RachelCarson's literary work "Silent Spring". The author analyzes the message in the novel and Carson's use of language and symbolism to convey the message.
From the Paper "Be it known that the tapestry of life is formed by the lives of people. Each person is like a thread and it is difficult for the thread to see how it affects the whole. In this blindness, institutions are sometimes accepted that are not necessarily healthy. Once accepted the institutions begin to mar the design the tapestry. Sometimes in these moments a voice will arise that will help those who were blind to see. This voice in the wilderness will rush upon the consciousness of people like a mighty wave changing peoples perspectives demanding them to reevaluate their actions. This was so during the American Revolution when Tomas Pane wrote Common Sense. This literary worked helped lead Americans to the overthrow British rule and to found the United States. Later in American history Harriet Beacher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin which demanded that black slaves be freed. In recent history Rachel Carson shocked her reader into action when she was able to blend her talent as a writer with her scientific expertise into the literary work Silent Spring."
