Abstract
Ralph Ellison's use of "dark" and "light" motifs are explored in the construction of this tour-de force novel. The publisher argues that Ellison often inverts our traditional notions of dark and light, or black and white to help blur the line between right and wrong. The essay intends to examine the many different passages that deal with direct contrasts between the symbolic meanings of black and white (good vs. evil, or vice versa) and the passages indicating fundamental differences between literal and figurative blindness.

From the Paper
"In this novel, there is a sense of good-men and bad-men, and the central journey of the novel is the narrator's, as he tries to find both goodness, and self. In a sense, the Invisible Man is searching for the basic human goodness that he understands lies in all men. The novel portrays certain characters as these so-called good-men that must bear the "white man's burden." Such a burden is usually taken to mean the subordination of black men at the hands of the whites, but groups who appear on the surface to help the blacks often disguise its meaning."

"It must be noted that not all of man's darker side is repulsive to Ellison, because he often refers to certain good emotions that spring from this darker well of the human psyche. However, man does seem to have a darker side that is totally evil, a side that he tries to hide with rationalizing and conjecture."

Tags:black, catharsis, ellison, equal, literature, race, ralph, rights

Abstract
This paper explains that Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" confronts the complex philosophical issues of gender and individuality through the obligations of friendship and patriotism between two characters, who share an exhausting journey across a frozen world where loyalty and trust become the fundamental components for survival. The author points out that "The Left Hand of Darkness" is a concept that means that there cannot be light without dark; it is the balance between all things including male and female, positive and negative and opposing forces, which best represent the symbolic struggle between society and mankind within the novel. The paper concludes that this novel profoundly exhibits that men owe patriotism not to a nation or planet but to a humanity, which is built on the ideologies of trust, loyalty and truth.

From the Paper
"This novel is set on a primitive planet named Gethen located on the outskirts of discovered space. Genly Ai is an ambassador from Human Ekumen, one of some eighty human worlds in existence at the time, that travels to Gethen to trade knowledge and create better communication between these and other foreign worlds. Gethen is a harsh cold world where snow falls everywhere and only the regions closest to the equator are habitable."

Tags:androgynous, space, survival, humanity, journey

Abstract
In Joseph Conrad's novella, "Heart of Darkness", Conrad displays the power and colonizing effect that the white people have over the racial 'others'. It explains how, in the so-called 'heart of darkness', which is not only the jungle, but a concept that forces one to examine one's own, dark sense of self, Kurtz feels the need to colonize the primitive natives. It shows how, in doing so, Kurtz realizes he is unable to change this uncivilized culture and ends up becoming part of it, realizing his worst nightmare.

From the Paper
"Historically, the natives of Africa have been mistreated by the whites which is part of the reason for their violent and uncivilized ways. When Conrad is speaking of the Europeans he refers to them as "hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they had gone out on that stream bearing the sword."(Conrad, 137). In this passage Conrad is establishing his definition of the white people in Africa as pilgrims. Conrad refers to the whites as pilgrims because it seems as though they have had their way in colonizing and ruling over the natives much like the first time the pilgrims came to America. A pilgrim can be defined as one who travels to a very sacred or religious place. These pilgrims may indeed have traveled to a very religious place but the main object of their pilgrimage was to colonize the natives and gain wealth through the quest for ivory. These examples basically show the readers that the natives had restraint while the whites did not."

Tags:discrimination, imperialism, native, race, relationships

Abstract
This paper discusses how Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" are in essence descriptions of what happens when Europeans attempt to force their cultural values on other countries. The paper contends that both stories have something important and valid to say and that even though they place their characters as the speakers, the authors' voices are also heard in these pieces. The paper also examines how Rudyard Kipling's book is much milder and less cautionary than Joseph Conrad's and how Kipling's Kim is a character that takes on many characteristics of both sides, the British and the Indian. On the other hand, Kurtz, in "Heart of Darkness" absolutely shows the reader the horrors and evils that colonialism inflicts on the colonized.

From the Paper
"Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim presents two sides of colonialism in the British rule of India, but the British side is presumed right as much as Kipling did not want to be labeled racist. In this novel, the white man has the burden of ruling the dark and therefore inferior races. Kipling wrote this novel at a time when British rule was, in fact, being questioned. As Mistry says in a critique, "These characters enable Kipling to explore the way colonialism defined its own social boundaries and Kipling uses this to show how native mentality and British supremacy often came into confrontation. (Mistry). These two forces are in conflict as Kipling writes the book. "

Tags:colonialism, kurtz, india

Abstract
This paper discusses the Soviet phenomenon of forcing prisoners to confess, staging legal trials and finally executing the prisoner, regardless of his confession. Arthur Koestler's book, "Darkness at Noon" is examined, illustrating the insights provided by the author, into the logic of forcing confessions. The paper presents the scenario of how the state gains the confessions and uses them to undermine the cause of the dissidents.

From the Paper
"One aspect of confessions is to implicate a person in a plot against the state. For example, the authorities are able to get a prisoner to use his confession against Rubashov. Ivanov explains to Rubashov, "I told you. We have proofs. To be more exact: confessions. To be still more exact: the confession of the man who was actually to commit the attempt [to kill No. 1] on your instigation (90)." Later the reader finds out that the confessor is the son of an acquaintance of Rubashov. The confessor has been tortured over time until he will say whatever the authorities want him to say. The goal is to break down one person so they will supply information about another. Elements of truth in the information cause the accused to question there own memory of the setting. These doubts weaken the accused's own recollection of what really happened."

Tags:rubashov, ivanov, political, prisoners, soviet, executions, gletkin, bogrov

Abstract
The paper addresses the fast food industry's attitude and actions towards its low-income labor force, using Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal" as guide. The paper notes that while purchasing goods from Wal-Mart, given its labor practices, may be ethically dubious, eating fast food also robs the consumer of his or her health, through obesity and poor nutrition. The paper then discusses how while processed food may have become endemic to American life, fast food restaurants make such food infinitely easier and more pleasant to consume. The paper argues that fast food robs the land, numbs the soul to worker abuses, and numbs the palate with unsanitary and unhealthy food.

From the Paper
"According to Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal", the fast food industry has completely and irrevocably changed the American landscape, workforce, and culture. Many of the aspects of fast food culture Schlosser demonizes are also applicable to other forms of American capitalism--for example, Wal-Mart also makes use of poorly paid workers who receive few benefits, and are used as disposable commodities, rather than participants in a company who can look forward to being promoted and share in its profits."

Tags:labor, force, nutrition, obesity, food, diet

Abstract
The paper comments that although "Dubliners" by James Joyce is a collection of short stories that reads like novel because the characters and situations all come together and relate the same story, the main theme is the spiritual and political paralysis of a nation. The paper then explores how this theme is presented in the book and how the paralysis experienced by those in "Dubliners" is both personal and national.

From the Paper
"The paralysis of Dublin also extends to the Church which acts as both a paralysing force and is itself in a state of paralysis. Indeed none of the priests in Dubliners are portrayed favourably: In "Araby" the priest who had formerly lived in the house had left it littered with papers, left his rusty bicycle pump outside, and had left his sister nothing but his furniture in his will. Fr. Keon in "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" is referred to as "a black sheep" and though he belongs to no "chapel or church or institution" he is quite "thick" with the politicians and financially does quite all right although no one is sure how. Even Fr. Purdon, whose ascent to the pulpit literally entails a struggle (173), gets his name from Purdon Street, which in Dublin makes up part of the red-light district. These unflattering portrayals of the clergy exemplify the corruption of the Church and its resulting paralysis."

Tags:corruption, dominant, priests, economically, paralyzed, oppressive, force

Abstract
This paper explains that the poetry of Dylan Thomas demands to be read aloud especially his poem "The Force that through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" in which the Welsh force dominates every syllable and needs to be heard forcefully. The author points out that it is important to remember that Dylan lived during WW I and II and the Cold War; much of his poems seem to have a dark, almost wintry side to them, some of them dealing with the havoc of fire bombs,air raids and the bruised bodies of soldiers and civilians alike. The paper concludes that, although written generations ago, this poem still exerts a magnetism in its few, short lines: Even with all the hi-tech and modern machinery in the 21st century, man is still a slave to nature.

From the Paper
"Even in this early youthful poem, there is a rage within the poet- a force that is angry and not at peace with Nature, resenting that factor of growing old, growing apart, having lovers leave and/or die. This can easily be seen in the two-time use of the adjective "crooked": first, the crooked rose, indicating a slow decay, and then the crooked worm, which tends to indicate the worms that invade one's mortal remains, even getting under and through the shroud, the sheet.
Thomas, the poet, mourns a dead lover, and, perhaps to soothe her as well as to be at one with what will happen to him one day, says "How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm." We cannot escape our fate of death and decay. It is all around us. It is an insurmountable force that impels us through life. Yes, we can stop of "smell the roses", but roses die before we do, and then, we await the following spring's revival, only to see the force of nature rob us of the presence and the smell of that new "green" rose, as well. It is in imagery that Thomas is forceful."

Tags:magnetism, nature, slave, war, welch

Abstract
The paper discusses how hip-hop, rap and gangsta rap are not just entertainment, but are a cultural force that black leaders have come to see as a Pied Piper leading its children down a dark road. The paper considers the hip-hop ethos.

From the Paper
"Public conscience has dumbed down under electronically hyped but primitive sounds, words and social insults of hip-hop sneers and a stomping beat. It generates a billion dollars in sales thereby winning friends in high commercial places. Beyond the profit circle, concerned black leaders count the social cost. Cedric Muhammad thinks rapsters and hip-hoppers ought to stop behaving like strutting juveniles and grow up. He draws an analogy between Puffy and Shyne in the hands of the law they hold in contempt..."

Tags:Entertainment. Race relations. Music. Popular culture. Black studies. Urban studies. Gangsta rap, hip hop

Abstract
This paper discusses Dickinson's portrayal of death as a masculine figure, reflecting the fact that, during the nineteenth century, masculinity was portrayed as the ruling force both in celestial and earthly terms. By further portraying this power as a devious Victorian suitor, the weakness and naivety of the female speaker is made apparent, especially in poems 712, 1445, and 1053. The writer describes how in these poems the speaker is won over by the charming wiles of her suitor only to be violated and then abandoned by him. This representation of Death as the "supple Suitor" and violator illustrates the balance between the desirable aspects of love and marriage, and the fearsome aspects of sex and childbirth, and probably also Dickenson's personal fears, since she spent her life secluded and unmarried.

From the Paper
"The largest twist of the poem, however, takes place in the fourth stanza as the atmosphere shifts from that of a sunny afternoon drive in the country to that of a journey into eternity. The speaker seems to have been thrown out of the confinement of the carriage, or perhaps jolted from her conception of "we" - for death is eternally solitary and belongs to no one - and especially not to her. The speaker is abandoned and left exposed to the harsh world of reality, and as the Dews cease to be inanimate, like the fields of grain in the previous stanza, they bring "quivering and chill" to the speaker which easily penetrate her flimsy garments. This personification of dew serves to illustrate the vulnerability and naivety of the speaker as she fails in protecting herself from them, and allows her trust to be violated by all-powerful death."

Tags:violation, abandonment, helplessness, submission, identity, entrapment, masculinity, assimilation