Abstract
This paper introduces, discusses and compares the hardships faced by pioneer women as they traveled across the American continent in the 19th century. Specifically, it looks at the long and grueling journey, depression, financial ruin, disease and death on the trail.

From the Paper
"Most of the women who traveled west were part of a family - they had to follow their husbands or lose them. Some of them traveled with great anticipation of what was to come, and some of them dreaded leaving the comforts of the East to head toward what they knew could only be hardship and loss on the trip west. One such woman was Lucetta Rogers, who travel to California in 1853 to meet her husband. He had left her in Connecticut, and she traveled by ship to reach him faster after she learned he was sick with typhoid fever."

Tags:pioneer, settler, gold, rush, frontier, trail, immigrant, indian, settlement

Abstract
This paper is an analysis of a story in the form of a quest, "The Journey of Ibn Fattouma." The author finds that this literary journey becomes increasingly metaphorical as the story progresses and that Fattouma, the protagonist, has by the end of the book come to understand himself better as a man and has found his soul even though he has supposedly not found love.

From the Paper
"It has been argued that there is only one story, that of the quest, the seeking after something that is either lost or that was never obtained to begin with. Quest tales do of course differ from each other in important ways. There are great differences among the heroes and villains who set out in search of something, and what it is that they are searching for changes the nature of the story at least as much as does the character of the traveler. And then there is the important distinction between those quests that are successful and those that are not although to this a third category of stories must be added, which is the kind of quest that may or may not have been successful, but either the reader or the seeker does not know if the goal has been obtained.Nagib Mahfouz's The Journey of Ibn Fattouma is certainly a story in the form of a quest. It is must transparently about a quest in that it takes the form of a story about a journey. This literal journey (as is true in all good quest stories) becomes increasingly metaphorical as the story progresses, and Fattouma's traveling becomes by the end of the novel a symbol and a way of understanding many different things. The protagonist has by the end of the book come to understand himself better as a man and as an individual and he has also come to a fuller understanding of what it means to be a person of faith who is guided by the complexities of making moral choices along the path of life."

Tags:Ibn, Fattouma, quest, journey, love, soul, travel

Abstract
The paper discusses how Ming Dong Gu argued that "The Journey to the West", a Ming Dynasty classic, is not really a novel though it is often given as an example among other Ming novels. The paper explains that Wu Chen'en's effort depended on the historical chronicle and record of the monk who reached India in the late 7th century, wanting answers on Mahayana concepts. The paper comments on Chinese versus Indian Buddhism and the Taoist themes in "The Journey to the West" that fitted the time of its writing.

From the Paper
"Ming Dong Gu commented on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) classics, including "The Journey to the West", as cultural achievements that are just short of being fiction because they depend on history, a great many Chinese aware of the story adapted to produce the novel of 1592. (Ming 85) This paper examines "The Journey to the West" for its intensely Buddhist and Chinese nature telling a good deal about a 16th century civilization that is more apt to be associated with Taoism. "The Journey to the West" needs to be studied in the light of the ongoing influence of Hsuan-Tsang (596-664),..."

Tags:ming dong gu, ming novel, journey to the west

Abstract
This paper begins by briefly summarizing the 16th century legend about a Buddhist monk and his journey to India. The paper then goes on to analyze the character, spirit, and flaws of Monkey, the main character in the story.

From the Paper
"The story of Monkey, his myth, parallels the growth of man and the growth of a religion at the same time (Hanabakate, 2003). Monkey is born from a rock and becomes par with the gods (Hanabakate, 2003). The beginning of his life is filled with one act of defiance after another as he fights his way to the top (Hanabakate, 2003)."

Tags:sun, wukung, journey, west, wu, cheng'en, legend, sutras, india, tale, gods, immortal

Abstract
A critical and analytical essay on the play "Long Day's Journey Into Night", written by one of the most esteemed American playwrights, Eugene O'Neill.

Tags:long, day, journey

Abstract
This essay discusses how Eugene O'Neil's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" uses the Freudian theory of the unconscious in the stream-of-consciousness dialogue. The play is about a dysfunctional family, whose summer on the shore is filled with abuse of alcohol and drug addiction. Yet the family is in severe denial about this abuse. In this context, we see Freud's theme of how the unconscious operates.

Tags:long, day's, journey

Abstract
This paper examines works by William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Mark Twain. "As I Lay Dying," "On the Road," and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" are discussed in terms of their common theme of the "journey." In each story, the characters are analyzed and shown to undergo growth and development which enables them to achieve their goals.

From the Paper
"As I Lay Dying is a representation of the Bundren family's search to Jefferson to bury their dead matriarch. The novel explores the nature of sorrow, community, and family where among people Addie fought against the journey threats of flood and fire (As I Lay Dying: Commentary).
The book On the Road by Jack Kerouac's explores an alluring, sincere and emotional story of a friendship and four trips across America. The narrator in the story is Sal Paradise who is a young novelist-to-be living with his aunt in Paterson, New Jersey. As most of his friends were out west already, he on invitation of a college friend went to live with him in San Francisco, as well as went on a journey and visited Denver to meet his crazy friend Dean Moriarty (Literary Kicks).

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about a young boy called Huck who was in quest of freedom and adventure. The shores of the Mississippi River provide the backdrop for the complete book. The book explores the nature, freedom and during his journey he leaned many things from his surroundings (Book Rags)."

Tags:Twain, Kerouac, Faulkner, travel, journey, quest, growth, development, friendship, freedom, adventure

Abstract
This paper looks at both sides of the outsourcing dilemma in America. On one hand outsourcing temporarily takes jobs away from American workers', while on the other hand it gives Americans more room for growth in the workplace, and they still live better than those who are now doing their jobs across the globe. The author argues that it is important to look at the issue of outsourcing as a sort of workers' guarantee to fair employment instead of making it a political and inflammatory issue.

Outline:
The outsourcing 'market'
The loss of jobs in the U.S.
Outsourcing and offshoring costs: too often overlooked
Current examples of outsourcing
Benefits of outsourcing
Is outsourcing over-hyped?
What does the laid off American worker or manager lose?
Conclusions

From the Paper
"Outsourcing is not a recent phenomenon. The American textile industry was decimated when cheaper goods were produced in Asia and Latin America. Remember the outcry over Kathie Lee Gifford's "sweat shop" factories in Guatemala? Even auto parts for Detroit auto makers were outsourced to Mexico, despite union objections.
""Critics charge that the information revolution (especially the Internet) has accelerated the decimation of U.S. manufacturing and facilitated the outsourcing of service-sector jobs once considered safe, from backroom call centers to high-level software programming" (Drezner 2004 2).
"The hard questions that need to be answered are (1) Does outsourcing really hurt the American economy, or is it more an emotional issue? (2) Has outsourcing caused significant unemployment, or is one result merely a redistribution of jobs? And, (3) while outsourcing may help a corporation's bottom line, has the average consumer really been hurt by outsourcing?"

Tags:outsource, outsourced, offshoring, offshore, jobs, america

Abstract
The paper explores how the slave trade was practiced in Europe and Africa before 1550, in comparison to the slave trade in and between the two regions after 1550, and also examines the main differences between the two periods in terms of their origins, motivations and effects on African society. The paper finds that prior to 1550, slaves were sold to the 'Old World' of Europe however, following approximately 1550, the slave trade business concentrated on selling slaves to the 'New World' or that of the American continent. The paper discusses how after 1550, when the demand for slaves began on the American continent, the slave trade business exploded and many of the slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic died from diseases or simply from the journey itself. The paper also notes the forts and castles that were used to house those captured to be sold into slavery that demonstrate how the involvement of Africans in the slave trade business was great indeed.

Outline:
Introduction
ISlave Trade Prior to 1550
Slave Trade After 1550
Commercial Motives of Europeans
Who 'Really' Controlled the Slave Trade
How Patterns of Trade Were Set
Discussion
Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper
"Economic relations existed between Europe and Africa from the time of the landing of the Portuguese and in 1441 it is reported that ten Africans were kidnapped from the cost of Guinea and take to Prince Henry the Navigator as gifts. Expeditions following this one to the West African coast resulted in individuals being taken and sold as slaves. The Portuguese were the first European nation to make contact of a sustained nature with sub-Saharan Africa. Slaves taken from Africa in the beginning were taken to Europe and sold for use as domestic slaves however, during this period the demand for slaves was limited and was only a portion of the trade involving many other commodities. The indigenous population of Africa was initially used by the Spanish and Portuguese for purposes of manual labor. From the beginning of their relations those existing between Europe and African were economic in nature.
"The early plans of Prince Henry for Africans was to provide them with education and to civilize them however, when Henry died in 1460, more than "eight hundred Africans were exported to Portugal annually and sold on arrival at the Lisbon dock as slaves." (Sesay, 1986) Prince Henry did not support such actions however successive kings and princes did support this practice."

Tags:Europe, Americas, forts, castles

Abstract
This paper explains that one of the strangest issues about gas prices is that, even though they are rising rapidly, the variance of how much gasoline costs per gallon on any given day across the country is fascinating. The author points out that many people believe that the reason gas prices have risen so high is that America basically is at war in the Middle East now; however, there are gas stations across the country that do not buy gasoline from the Middle East and instead purchase it from gasoline and oil suppliers within the United States and other countries. The paper stresses that gas prices are rising so rapidly because demand is coming from not only consumer transportation but also from almost everything, which is brought to the various grocers, supermarkets, department stores and other stores, which comes by truck at least for some part of its journey. This increased price of transportation will result in increased prices for every item in the transportation-based economy.

From the Paper
"Naturally, the reasons behind why gas prices are rising are important but how gas prices and their rise is affecting the economy is even more significant. There are several affects on the economy. First, those that are involved with the ownership of gasoline stations, oil refineries, and others that work closely with this type of product are seeing higher profits, but they also have to spend more money for the items that they need to create an end product for the purchaser of gasoline (Kirms, 2005). In other words, companies that buy oil from the Middle East and other suppliers are making money because the gas prices are so high. On the other hand, these same individuals must also pay more money than they used to pay to get the barrels of oil that they need to create gasoline. Many people think that the economy is being affected generally by gas companies and oil companies gouging the public to make huge profits. In reality, however, most of the gasoline companies and many of the oil companies are not actually making any more money, because it is all being spent to purchase what is needed to finally get the gasoline to the consumer."

Tags:stations, transportation, war, profit, variance