This paper discusses the influence of evil in three novels, "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.
Abstract This paper analyzes the evil component in the personalities of Captain Ahab from "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, Roger Chillingworth from "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Pap Finn from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. The author believes that Captain Ahab is one of the most evil characters in fiction because Ahab's evil is all encompassing because he is so obsessed with finding and killing the whale that took his leg. The paper concludes that Hawthorne and Melville's views were concerned with the danger of carrying revenge too far; while Twain was concerned with illustrating the evils of petty larceny and drunkenness, but with a tongue planted firmly in his cheek.
From the Paper "Unlike the other characters, Pap's evil is self-directed, and only really takes in Huck when he beats him and gets drunk around him. Pap does not influence others the way Chillingworth and Ahab do, and his evil is not based in vengeance or hatred. Pap is pitiable and comical because of Huck's amusing descriptions, while the other characters are anything but pitiable. Thus, Pap is the least evil of all three characters, and he is more sympathetic than the others are, because his evil is based on a disease of the body, rather than a disease of the soul. Alcoholism is not funny, but Pap is about as funny as a child beater can get, while there is nothing funny about Ahab and Chillingworth, who are far too serious about their goals of revenge and hatred."
Abstract The paper briefly reviews the history of the Civil War battleground at Shiloh, when a drunken General Grant battled to preserve the Union, then moves into an analysis of the story. The paper makes a comparison of the history of the battle with the battle between the husband, Leroy, and wife, Norma Jean; the drunken General Grant is contrasted with the stoned Leroy. In conclusion the writer, noting the unresolved tension in the story's abrupt ending, hopes that Leroy will keep battling for his own continued union with Norma Jean.
From the Paper "In historical terms, the title setting of Bobbie Ann Mason's, Shiloh, was a Civil War Union camp under General Grant's command. Grant's aim as a military representative for President Lincoln was to keep the nation united. The camp turned bloody battleground in 1862 when the Confederates' made a daring attack in attempt to gain freedom from the Union. There "General Grant, drunk and furious, shoved the Southerners back to Corinth," successfully thwarting a stab at secession by the "boys in gray.""
Abstract This paper discusses the changes that have taken place over time regarding alcohol, its consumption and alcoholism. The paper looks at beliefs about alcohol in colonial America, discusses how the rise in drinking and drunkenness started to cause concern and describes attempts made to decrease heavy drinking and drunkenness and encourage more of a moderate form of drinking. The paper also explores how negative attitudes regarding alcohol abuse began to change and how the body is affected when alcohol is consumed. In addition, the paper explains why alcohol is considered to be a depressant and looks at studies on alcoholism.
From the Paper "The belief that wine was a gift from God was carried to colonial America, thus, alcohol use was accepted and often encouraged during this time. On the other hand, drunkenness was viewed very negatively. As the production of alcoholic beverages increased in colonial America, so did the rate of drunkenness. In fact, the Virginia colony even tried to outlaw it. Although their attempt failed, this showed society's attitude to the abuse and over- consumption of alcohol. As the production of alcohol increased, so did public drinking facilities, such as taverns. For this reason colonies increased their attempt to outlaw drunkenness. Like the Virginia colony these attempts failed. After the American Revolution, alcohol consumption changed from drinking during public celebrations and socialization to solely drinking in taverns. As alcohol increased in production, prices fell and it began to be widely available to the middle and lower classes. "
A comparison of the common themes of wealth, drunkeness and sex in "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway.
3,143 words (approx. 12.6 pages), 2 sources, 2000, $ 91.95
Abstract An examination of works from both authors which closely examine American realities through characters that pursue wealth, drunkenness and sex with the hope that they will provide at least the possibility of some sort of meaning.
From the Paper ""The Great Gatsby" and "The Sun Also Rises" by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Wealth, Drunkenness and Sex
Like other writers of the 1920's, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway were fascinated by what had become of the American Dream. The impact of World War I on both Fitzgerald and Hemingway and on their generation was tremendous. Indeed, many writers in the postwar period took on the unpleasant task of exposing the degradation of the American Dream; of covering the grossest aspects of selfishness, hypocrisy and moral vacuum. Fitzgerald and Hemingway's characters are a careless, aimless, pleasure-seeking crowd ?which is clearly emblematic of a generation of lost souls. Before Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, opens, he quotes Gertrude Stein who names the generation that came of age during the First World War as the ?lost generation.? Indeed, the pre-war values of love, faith, manhood and womanhood, which previously gave meaning to life, fail to offer an adequate answer to Fitzgerald's and Hemingway's characters who try to produce meaning in a world seemingly lost to rampant, amoral consumerism and loveless-ness. Both authors closely examine American realities through characters that wander through endless experiences of wealth, drunkenness and sex with the hope that they will provide at least the possibility of some sort of dependable meaning. "
Tags: daisy, east, ernest, hemingway, jake, tom, west
Abstract The paper begins with a general overview of the meaning of religion in Michelangelo's art and then moves its focus to the panel of the Drunkenness of Noah. It explains the basic story that this piece hopes to capture and compares how this Biblical story differs in a way to what is portrayed in the picture.
From the Paper "Michelangelo's frescoes for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are regarded by nearly all art historians as being amongst the most significant ? and most lovely -- of all works of art created in the West since the beginning of the Christian era. It is no doubt because of their artistic importance that it is easy to overlook their religious significance, for while the religions stories that Michelangelo gave vision to are well known and in no way original to the artist, the images were overwhelmingly original. We cannot fail to be impressed by their beauty when we look at them and so we may forget to see what is actually contained in them."
Tags: Noah, flood, Seth, Ham, Japeth, Genesis, Italy, art
Abstract This paper discusses the concept of conformity and non-conformity through one of Jack Kerouac's greatest books "On The Road." It analyzes Kerouac's writings and relates it to the idea of conformity/non-conformity. It also discusses these ideas through the lifestyles of the beat generation which is embodied in the characters of the book.
From the Paper ?During the early post war era, the presumed conformity in middle-class white American literature where enormous, and it should come as no surprise that a reaction against that conformity-the beat generation-should arise and attain notoriety.? --Robert Holton(265-266) Jack Kerouac, a "self-proclaimed spokesman for the beat generation" (Miles 171), wrote a book that challenges the concept of conformity in a post war America. This book entitled "On The Road" takes its two main characters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, in numerous journeys across America and to Mexico as well. These journeys, that takes them back and forth from the east coast to the west coast, illustrate the rebellious notion that Kerouac has towards rigidity and responsibility: two concepts that has embodied the idea of conformity. Through this, Kerouac is conveying the idea that living life to its fullest means the destruction of barriers to personal freedom. As Sal and Dean aptly demonstrates, life can indeed be lived to its fullest. They disregarded conformity to lead their own lives with their own rules. In many ways, they are the representations of the beat generation: they are Kerouac's tools to profess his belief in non-conformity."
Tags: beat, conformity, dean, drugs, drunkenness, jack, jose, kerouac, life, maldia, moriairty, non, road, sal
Abstract The paper shows how mystery novels have a habit of portraying murder as a discrete affair for the middle class and nowhere is this more apparent than in English mystery novels, as novel writers in England, being a literate caste, usually manage to present the world through tweed-colored spectacles. The paper discusses how English author, Peter Lovesey exemplifies this, as his characters always seem to evoke images of tea-sipping old women sharing a well-loved table at their favorite local haunt and recounting stories of life during the blitz. This is a far cry from the real world of murder, which is often one of drunken and drug-crazed rage, teenage street rivalries, or quiet, festering sexual perversion. This paper contrasts the differences between one of Lovesey's most recent works, "The Vault", and one of his readers? favorites "On the Edge".
From the Paper "In On the Edge, Lovesey pays careful attention to developing the way in which the two main characters play into the national consciousness of the time, which can almost be described as a sense of angst. This is played out in the sense of divergence one feels when following the lives of Rose and Antonia. Lovesey was a child in London during the war, when one of his most poignant memories was that of his house being hit by a V-1 rocket. Lovesey's heroines spent the war plotting the courses of Royal Air Force attacks on Germany, and part of the post-war angst they felt had to do with returning to traditional female roles. By comparison, The Vault is set in the sleepy seaside city of Bath that provides the context for his other Diamond novels."
From the Paper "This study will analyze Bob Dylan's speech of December 13, 1963, to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee on the occasion of Dylan's receiving the Tom Paine Award, given to "some public figure who epitomized the good fight for freedom and equality" (Shelton 200). The method of analysis will be Neo-Aristotelian Criticism.
The importance of the study from the viewpoint of rhetorical criticism is that it will analyze a speech which intends to have a most negative effect on its audience. From the point of view of Neo-Aristotelian Criticism, the analysis will be particularly meaningful because the speech flies in the face of most speeches which try to affect some positive change in the audience. As we shall see in Dylan's speech, however, the intended and achieved effect was to inflame the audience for no other discernible..."
Abstract This paper discusses the poem "I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed", by Emily Dickinson, comparing the effect of the beauty of nature to the effect of alcohol. The paper portrays the impressive use of imagery to represent drinking, nature, and purity, and the even more remarkable use of imagery to convey eternity and time sequence. The paper provides a stanza by stanza examination of the poem, further illustrating Dickinson's masterful application of imagery throughout the poem.
From the Paper "Emily Dickinson's poem, ?I taste a liquor never brewed,? compares the effect of the beauty of nature to the effect of alcohol. While the poem's use of imagery to represent drinking, nature, and purity is impressive, even more remarkable is the use of imagery to convey eternity and time sequence. From the poem's very beginning, ?The liquor never brewed,? until the last line, ?Leaning against the sun!? Dickinson uses imagery to relate the eternity of her persona's love for nature. But more cleverly, she also creates a subtle time continuum for events that she mentions throughout the poem. It is common for poets to use imagery to call upon the reader's senses, most commonly sight. However, Dickinson crosses new boundaries by adding imagery to communicate a time dimension that is evident in the transition from one stanza to another. Additionally, Dickinson is unique in her use of imagery to express humor. This is evident in the selection of the metaphor she has chosen as well as lines she uses to develop her metaphor and thee sequencing of stanzas."
Tags: alcohol, drinking, nature, purity, eternity, time, drunkenness, virtuousness
Abstract This paper discusses the Miller who appears in English author Geoffrey Chaucers "Canterbury Tales". The paper covers the Miller's flaws, his strengths and the character elements revealed through his story, as well as Chaucer's descriptions in the general prologue. It demonstrates how the Miller is a drunken, lavious man, but he is honest in his opinions and avoids affecting a religious or noble pretense like his companions.
From the Paper "The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, begins by describing twenty-nine people, each of whom is making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, England. By chance they meet in Southwark and decide to make the journey together. These twenty-nine characters encompass all areas of medieval life. There are religious figures, a pardoner, a prioress, and a monk. Then there are military figures, a knight and his squire. But the most numerous, and perhaps the most eccentric characters are the commoners, the Wife, the Merchant, and especially the Miller. Chaucer includes the Miller in order to contrast him with characters like the Knight and the Parson, who are noble and religious. Chaucer's descriptions of the Miller in the general prologue, when combined with the content of the Miller's tale, portray a character whose perspective is a sharp contrast to nobility. The Miller makes no apologies for his disposition. He is lecherous, outspoken, ostentatious, and a drunk."
Abstract A look at how, in Shelley's novel "Frankenstein", the creature has an extremely unsuccessful father-son relationship with the creature he creates. The father is appalled with what he has made and the son takes revenge on the father for having made him in the first place. It shows how in some ways this is similar to the relationship between Huckleberry Finn and his real father, the terrible drunken Pap.
From the Paper "Frankenstein describes his relationship with his own father as perfect--up until the point where his younger brother has been born and his mother has died. Then there is a growing sense of antagonism toward his father in Frankenstein's account. He does not really wish to leave Elizabeth and the family. But his father insists that he leave for the university and when his mother died Frankenstein could only "obtain from my father a respite of some weeks" (Shelley 47). In his disappoint over leaving Frankenstein turns to the studies that interested him and begins his creation of the creature. He blames his entire later course on his father--but subtly limits the blame to his father's quick dismissal of the ancient science that was to mislead him: "If . . . my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had . . . much greater powers . . . I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and . . . it is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin" (Shelley 40)."
Abstract This paper explains that the marriage relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is ironically close, given their overwhelming personal ambitions. The author feels that their relationship disintegrates not because they lack love or respect for one another, but because they succumb, by the end of the play, to guilt and other personal psychological demons. The author relates that the porter's joking about his drunkenness is an analogy for Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's being drunk on power, as well as the clouding of their moral judgment.
From the Paper "Macbeth's soliloquy at the time of his wife's passing is as full of sorrow as Macduff?s, but Macbeth also lapses into self-absorption and bravado. At first, he mourns his loss, saying ?She should have died hereafter,? (V, v, 19). Macbeth then begins the "Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy, which reeks of hopelessness, despair, and nihilism. He feels that life is meaningless, and in so doing may be attempting to extricate himself from his own guilt. Lady Macbeth committed suicide because of her immense psychological trauma. Her husband transforms his guilt into self-righteousness and even after Lady Macbeth's suicide he still feels invincible because of the witches? prophesy. Whereas Macduff incorporated his loss and pain into a healthy psychological makeup, Macbeth transforms his grief into denial."
Abstract This poem describes and analyzes how two different poems, "Those Winter Sundays", by Robert Hayden, and "My Papa's Waltz", by Theodore Roethke, portray a father. The paper also describes the feeling that the reader gets about the father and the relationship he has with his child.
From the Paper "In reading Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays," one gets the feeling of the speaker's finally having achieved enough distance from the subject of the poem to consider with equanimity what had to be a painful experience. "Sundays too" the father "got up early," the poet confides, and however the reader might feel in later lines about the coldness of the man, she or he has to deal with the fact that this man is not slothful. He got up early not only six days a week but "Sundays too...." The father performs a variety of services for the child: he reinvigorates the banked fire into a blaze to make the house warm for a rising that is not required before a modicum of comfort has been provided. And, not only did this father drive out the cold, but he polished a pair of "good shoes," having provided, one must assume, at least another pair of shoes that are not so "good."
Abstract This paper explains that the problem of discretionary police judgment, in some cases, clearly leads to abuses of police power, even among police who are academically educated and have attended structured training in discretionary decision-making. The author points out that any time a police department uses racial profiling as part of a process to decide whom to stop, that practice requires judgment and discretion on the part of the officers. The paper reveals that police officers routinely choose whom to stop for traffic violations and how to deal with them once they have been stopped because they do not have time to stop everyone who commits a traffic violation; but the departments should have clear priorities about traffic violations, so that officers can be free to deal with more serious issues, such as reckless driving and incidents of road rage.
Table of Contents
Public Substance Abuse
Different Neighborhoods Handled Differently
Racial Profiling
Traffic Violations
Public Soliciting
Public Drunkenness Domestic Abuse
Public Disturbances
Police Chases
From the Paper "When William Bratton, former New York City Police Commissioner, was interviewed, he argued that different neighborhoods might want laws enforced differently. He argued that this was the basis for ?community policing.? He said that different communities want different kinds of crime made a priority. He used Harlem as an example, and said that in 1994 and 1995 they had to deal with drug dealing, prostitution, gaming, and other public crimes. He also said that after public street problems were under control the police were under pressure to make more arrests, which to Bratton didn?t make sense (Newfield & Jacobson, 2000). However, it's hard to imagine any neighborhood that would be willing to have those crimes, when taking place in full view of the public, ignored. If the police target drug dealing say, in Harlem, more than, say, the Upper East Side, charges of racism would inevitably follow. While there may be a place for police discretion, it should not be up to the police officer on the street to decide which public crimes get ignored and which get dealt with."
Abstract This paper explains the origins of Mardi Gras. It looks at the original customs and how the traditions have evolved over time. It also discusses how the media have recently portrayed this festival in a bad light because of the drunken crowds, but that the real traditions of the festival do not support this behavior.
From the Paper "Mardi Gras or "Fat Tuesday" had roots in the Middle Ages and was later reformed when the Catholic Church adopted the event. The Europeans of the Middle Ages celebrates Mardi Gras as a festivity before the commemoration of Jesus? death. A "carnival" is traditionally related to a Mardi Gras celebration. "Carnival" which means "without flesh or meat" is being celebrated in relation to the religious event of the Lent. After years of Mardi Gras celebration, the Catholic Church decided to adopt the event as it relates to religious beliefs. The celebration was eventually passed down to other countries especially during those times when the Europeans were able to conquer some lands. One example of a country that was influenced by the Mardi Gras celebration was America. Because of the French conquerors, whose countries traditionally celebrate the Mardi Gras, the tradition of the event was handed down to the Americans."
