Category: Literature Review

‘Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry’, is an interesting story written by Mildred D. Taylor. A story of courage, love, and pride, are the three words displayed on the front cover and are also the three words most people would describe in this story. The story is an award-winning best-seller book and is definitely a must-read book. The story displays a range of different aspects to do with Prejudice and how the whites treat the blacks poorly just because they have a different skin color.

“We have no choice of what color we’re born… what we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we’re here” is a quote located on the back of the book and it is quoting about how it doesn’t matter what skin color you have, it’s your life so you should be able to live it the way you want to live it without being judged. In this assignment, I am talking about the use of prejudice in this story and also how the author uses characterization to position the audience to view the issue of prejudice.

The book ‘Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry’ is about a colored family that has to fight to keep their land due to them being the only black family owning land. The whites don’t believe the blacks deserve the privilege to own land, so they have to try their hardest to not lose their land to the whites. Prejudice is shown in that because the whites don’t believe that a black family deserves land, so they are trying to take it away from them just because they are a different skin color to them. Skin color should never be a reason to treat someone differently because that’s showing a lack of respect and we should treat all different cultures the way we want them to treat us.

The book ‘Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry’ has a lot of different examples of prejudice on how white families treat black families. For example, in Chapter 3, the black kids were sick of having to walk to school every morning, so they decided to catch the bus instead. They stood outside in the rain waiting for the bus driver to pick them up and take them to school. However, as the devilish bus drove closer and closer towards them, the bus driver veered dangerously close to the right edge of the road where the kids were standing, forcing them to attempt the jump to the bank. But all of them fell short and they all landed in the slime of the gully. This is another example showing prejudice due to the author outlining that the white people don’t want anything to do with the black kids by not letting them get on the bus and also yelling racist and nasty words at them out the bus window.

The author uses characters to position the audience to view the issue of prejudice because she wants to make it obvious to the readers that whites are being racist toward blacks. For example, the character TJ is a black, young man who is constantly being used and deceived by a couple of white folks because of the color of his skin. TJ showed up to the revival meeting with The Simms, claiming that the Simms will do anything TJ wants. However, it was just a scam.

After the incident at the Burnett’s store, the white folks were not happy. A white mob tried to murder TJ by hanging him and the Simms were in on the plan too. The Simms portrayed TJ and was only being friends with him so the Simms could get TJ in trouble. This example is showing how Mildred D. Taylor has used a character such as TJ to explain the issue of prejudice.

Overall, Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, written by Mildred D. Taylor, is a well-written story outlining issues of prejudice by using characters so it is obvious on what is going on. Using characters to view the issue of racism is a well-done idea so the author can get her point across to the audience that racism is a thing that goes on in the world every day and it isn’t ok to pick on anyone just because they have a different skin color. So, this is how the author uses characterisation to position the audience to view the issue of prejudice.

Within the closing remarks of his outstanding work Mans Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl set the stage for which meaning-orientated therapy (Logotherapy) was to be born. For Frankl, human beings were meaning-seeking creatures; compasses tilted towards meaning; towards carrying out the appropriate activities that could help to contextualise a purposeful future, despite the inherent trials of life, or external tragedies of their situation. Frankl (2004), who bravely survived the torturous conditions of the German Nazi concentration camps, arrived at the ultimate conclusion that “meaning is possible even in spite of [humans] suffering” (p.117).

Other existentially inclined philosophers and theorist-practitioners share this view, taking the stance that existence itself is the attempt to construct meaning; that being and meaning are threaded through the lives of each individual. From this ontological standpoint, existential philosophy considers human beings as freely choosing individuals who are responsible for, and organically orientated towards, constituting their lives through meaning (Cooper, 2003; Frankl, 2004; Maslow, 1966; Spinelli, 2007; van Deurzen, 2002). As Frankl (2004) further explained that the absence of meaning can subsequently merit the arrival of suffering, he argued that human’s frustrations in the will-to-meaning-searching endeavours were noögenic (deriving from a dimension of existence, not stemming from intrapsychic conflict) in nature. When a person’s existence is inherently shrouded in doubts about the meaning of life, such uncertainties may manifest themselves as preoccupations with large and metaphysical questions devoid of predetermined answers (Yalom, 1980); anxiety and depression (van Deurzen, 2012); nihilism (Nietzsche, 1888); and, in extreme cases, questions of suicide may also arise (Camus, 2018). Therefore, a psychotherapeutic task may indeed be assisting clients in such struggles by helping them to discover more engaging ways of living.

Recent outcome reports on the Existential Therapies (TET) clearly demonstrate their effectiveness in helping clients substitute feelings of personal emptiness with fulfillment (Raynar & Vitali, 2014; Vos, Craig & Cooper, 2015). Not only does this begin to confirm TET capabilities of translating their often perceived esoteric body of theoretical works into practice (Keshen, 2006), but may also confirm that existential meaning is in fact a fundamental tenet of primary concern to the individual. However, as existentialism is deeply rooted in indigenous European philosophical thought, can it be said that these ontological assumptions cross over to a shared west-east cultural understanding? That is to say, is the lynchpin of human existence universally focused around carving out meaning through one’s own responsibility? Or, and as aptly asked by Hoffman, Yang, Kazlauskas & Chan (2009), are we in danger of merely ascribing these Western existential ideas to a non-Western context?

I share in the views put forward by Vontress (1979) and Moodley & Walcott (2010), who explain that the above questions indeed transcend all national, ethnic and cultural boundaries. Not only do these researchers argue that concerns of existential meaninglessness are inevitably encountered by all people, Basma & Gibbons (2016) further suggest that ubiquitous questions of uncertainty, freedom, purpose and meaning are tantamount to the refugee population, as they are “thrown into crisis and attempt to grapple with these anxieties on a daily basis” (p.160). Based upon my therapeutic experiences with clients forced to migrate from their homes (which, as Cilia La Corte & Jalonen (2018) document is commonly coupled with complex losses, fears, terrors and social-cultural adjustments along the way), it seems plausible to suggest that these disassembling, even tyrannical events, throw refugees towards stark questions of meaning and existence itself.

In this paper, I will be explaining the main points of the essay called Philosophy and The Meaning of Life by Robert Nozick, where Robert Nozick begins to talk about how we have to understand the unquestioned assumptions and do we really want to know about the meaning of life. In his essay he talks about what a meaningful life should be, he starts with the modes of meaningfulness, the conflict with his meaning of life with death, a person’s traces, god’s plan, and transcending limits.

Firstly, the modes of meaningfulness, are notions that Nozick has set in order to determine a meaningful life. The modes are a way that…….the first five modes that he describes were one being the modes are a way to determine/describe if a person has lived a meaningful life or not. The first mode that Nozick starts explains… that meaning as an external causal relationship where causal antecedents or causal concomitants that serve as a basis of inference, the second mode is meaning as external referential or semantic relationship, this means giving synonymy, reference, stating a fact or symbolizing someone or something the third mode is something that has meaning as intention or purpose, for instance when there is intending and action or purpose, the fourth mode is meaning as a lesson, the fifth mode is meaning as personal significance, importance, value, and mattering, based upon a positive evaluation of transparent features of our life plan. This is recognizable as what some have meant by a meaningful life: a life organized according to a plan and hierarchy of goals that integrates and directs the life,

“…having certain features of the structure, pattern, and detail that the person intends his life to have…and show forth; he lives transparently so others can see the life plan his life is based upon…and thereby learn a lesson from his life… a lesson involving a positive evaluation of these weighty and intended features in the life plan he transparently lives. In sum, the pattern he transparently exemplifies provides a positive lesson” (Nozick 69).

This quote explains how Nozick thinks that a meaningful life should consist of these sets of ideas, it for him it is a way to see if one had lived their life in a meaningful or an unmeaningful way.

Secondly, in the essay, Nozick talks about death, where if scientists were trying to find a solution to make one immortal it will defy his definition of a meaningful life. “It would appear, then, that persons who were or could become immortal should choose to set a temporal limit to their lives in order to escape meaninglessness” (Nozick 70). this quote explains how if we were to become immortal then we would lose the

Thirdly Nozick also talks about the idea of a person leaving it traces after death “A significant life leaves its mark on the world. A significant life is, in some sense, permanent; it makes a permanent difference to the world— it leaves traces. To be wiped out completely, traces and all go a long way toward destroying the meaning of one’s life. Endurance, however, even if a necessary condition for a meaningful life, is certainly not sufficient” (Nozick 72).

In conclusion, the summary of this writing explains what some of the reasons may be for in order for a person to live a meaningful life through Robert Nozick’s ideas of modes of meaningfulness, how death has a crucial part in defining that allows for people to see/think that the person has lived a meaningful life,

Linda Rodriguez McRobbie address in her article ‘Should We Stop Keeping Pets? Why More and More’s Ethicists Say Yes’, right of animal’s self-determination. Dr. Hal Herzog, cited by McRobbie, claimed we give our pets the characteristics of a family but restrain them with our choices. McRobbie argues that keeping pets is unethical and people are taking away their freedom. Even though she also suggests how dog and cats are euthanized every year and leaving them alone is as good as letting them die. Instead of focusing on animal’s free will we should improve their life as we keep them as pet. It might give them a better life and keep them safe.

Although I agree with McRobbie up to a point, I cannot accept her over riding assumption that animals need their own will, for the following reasons. First, as we know, pets can’t tell whether they are happy or not, we only decide what we think is the best. Letting an animal go on the street, is the same as letting them die. Though I understand that it’s morally problematic to not giving your pets the choice when we think them as our family. Animals may be happy when they are outside without a collar on their neck and freely roaming on the street with their free will that doesn’t mean it safe. A car might hit the animal and driver couldn’t care less about it or it might starve without food because nobody taking care of it. But a pet owner could provide the best shelter possible and it will be safe and comfortable. Also, all pet owners take their pets for walk in park or street every day. Second, a pet is cute and harmless when it has owner but what happened when you let it go by giving a free will. For example, a dog won’t bite or bark when its owner says to stop but it won’t happen when it’s outside without any guidance. You may ask it could happen other way around, think about when it will happen, we could arrest the owner for not teaching the dog, but you can’t arrest the dog or kill which is outside just because it bit you. Even if you do arrest the dog or kill it, what about others. McRobbie isn’t talking about one pet or two, she’s talking about them in whole. It’s not only about the animals which will bite you but others which needs food for surviving or without food it may die in your backyard. A rotten dead body could spread disease in your neighborhood. Like it or not it will first affect your child in the house. Lastly, animal’s self-determination the main point of McRobbie but it all comes to whether we should have pets or not. Even though McRobbie strongly argue against having pets but she has a gecko of her own. People have pets not all because of hobby, but they need pets as a family, for their kids to play with or for them to talk to someone. It’s not all so bad, as I said before we don’t what our pets thinks, assuming that they need freedom more than having a family, it’s nothing more than someone’s opinion.

In the article, McRobbie argues on both side of the coin means she suggest how we shouldn’t have pet because they have their own will. On the other hand, she shows how people develop good relationship with animals over time and how so many dogs and cats euthanized very year. As I said before I agree with her up to some point like how people have good relationship with their pets and think them as family. I believe it’s because we still have humanity left inside us. Many people have pets for their safety because they are best in security. Even though all animals aren’t as smart human but they understand the basic of good and bad. When a stranger tries to break into your house, your pet will save you or alert that someone uninvited is here. Also, people who are blind they use dog as a helper, they are also pets but trained. But in one thing I agree with not having a pet. It’s with the treatment of pets. Whether it’s human or animal nobody likes mistreatment, it’s even worse for pets because they can’t express their sorrow. Some people think pets as a property or just an ‘animal’, they hit them as they think they wouldn’t feel anything. People might say only few people would do something like that or we could just investigate it and punish those owners who hit their pets. I agree that we could identify them and arrest them. But it’s not only physical attacks what about those people who adopt a pet and forget about taking care of them. Our pets do need food in daily basis and exercise or they will get sick and lazy. In my opinion, if that’s how people want to take care of their pets it’s better to stop keeping pets.

At the end of the article, Herzog, cited by McRobbie claimed that our relationship with pets will change and robots will replace them. Even though the idea is intriguing I don’t think that will happen anytime soon or not happen at all. People keep pets not because of fashion because we need them. They are very important part of our society. As McRobbie and I believe they are part of family even though they are animal because they make us happy, and believe it or not, they are the reason we are more active than before. When we take our pets outside for walk, we also get exercised. People might suggest you could also take your robot for a walk, but you forgot one thing we take our pets outside because they need it or they will get lazy and it might affect their health. It’s a necessity but you wouldn’t do it for your robot because they are made of metal and a non-living thing.

Whether you should keep your pets or not, it’s up to you, because you are the only one who understand your pet better than anyone. People who are against keeping pets they should think about how to improve animals’ life with their owner.

It is in our blood as humans to have the need for meaning in our life, but did we ever consider the questions; what is that meaning we constantly search in need, will we ever find it, and how? American philosopher Susan Wolf asks lots of questions but many of them concern what we should do with our lives also, and she is introducing us to how to live a moral life, in what way can we find meaning, and how to find our existence meaningful? “What, in a universe without purpose, can make an individual’s life worth living?” (Wolf, 2015, p 3.). To sum up she is making us ask the questions on what we should do, so we don’t waste our lives away. Her study is mainly focused on moral philosophy and philosophy of action, and she has taught at several American universities, lately at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Susan Wolf debate the difference between meaning in life and meaning of life. She discusses how people often came to think about the meaning of “my” (their) life, for example, what is the purpose of life and why are we put on this Earth for, and she states the opinion that this feels more like going in religious way ” But this is out of reach for philosophy since it requires the existence of a creator who created life (mankind) with a purpose in mind, a creator commonly known as God.” (Wolf, 2015, p 2). This is the part where we can see the difference that she is mentioning, it is different from what is the meaning of “my” life from is our life meaningful, is there something in our life that gives us a point, a meaning.

She believes that theorists, philosophers and even us, sometimes tend to think of life in terms to the other categories, neither which meaning fits the best. Meaning has two kinds of characters in people’s eyes, it can be subjective, it changes from one individual to another, but it can also be objective, independent of people’s feelings and needs. Wolf advances these ideas further, saying that there is a false dichotomy between these subjective and objective views. She argues that “meaningfulness is an element or ingredient of a good or happy life”, and she is devoted to meaning being in somebody’s self-interest in the objective sense for the goodness of a meaningful life. Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist philosopher, in his well-known public lecture “Existentialism Is a Humanism” he is introducing one of his first ideas of his existential philosophy and its relationship to the question of the meaning of life. He is stating that you must create your own meaning in life from your subjective choices, there is no objective value and that is just a human condition, and that contrasts on what Wolf says, that there are no categories of meaningfulness if there is none of the objective values. “Self-fulfilment” according to Wolf is “one most follow one’s passion”, which means that one person can find a meaning from something that gives them enjoyment. Leading us to active engagement, being excited by something, “…meaningful life is life of active engagement in project of worth.” (Wolf, 2010, p 232.)

Active engagement relays to being passionate rather than being alienated about something. “Projects of worth” suggests that objective value are present, and Wolf stands that meaning and objective value are connected. She also claims that “there can be no sense to the idea of meaningfulness without a distinction between more and less worthwhile ways to spend one’s time, where the test of worth is at least partly independent of a subject’s ungrounded preferences or enjoyment.” (Wolf, 2010, p 232.) This point lead Wolf to repeat that meaningful life is when a person is actively engaged in worthwhile projects. If a person is engaged in life, then life has a point. Searching for meaning is looking for worthwhile projects ““I suggest that my view might be seen as a combination… of two other more popular views that one often hears offered, if not as analyses of meaning in life, then at least as ingredients – sometimes the key ingredients – in a life well lived… The first view tells us that it doesn’t matter what you do with your life as long as it is something you love… The second view says that in order to live a truly satisfying life one needs to get involved in something ´larger than oneself” (Wolf, 2010, p 10). This view shows us why some projects are assumed to be meaningful and others are not.

Wolf suggests us that when we find that passions that fulfills us and gives our life meaning, we should stop, and think is there anything worthwhile about spending your life on this activity and devoting our time to it. She asks us many questions on this topic, such as; to reflect on the circumstance of people whose lives are useless because it is lacking activity, to reflect the case where somebody is actively engaged but not on a project with positive value. We can see that she argues that a meaningful life is when our life project brings some positive value, and not just what an individual believes; “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness…meaning arises when a subject discovers or develops an affinity for one or typically several of the more worthwhile things…”(Wolf, 2010, page 234-35). She considers even the small acts of love towards someone you deeply love and care about, ““When I visit my brother in the hospital or help a friend move… I act neither out of self-interest nor out of duty… rather, I act out of love.” can make moral and meaningful life, then just doing something that does not give you satisfaction or meaning ““A person who is bored or alienated from most of what she spends her life doing is one whose life can be said to lack meaning. Note that she may in fact be performing functions of worth.” (Wolf, 1997, 14.p). Susan Wolf uses Albert Camus book “Myth of Sisyphus” to describe how people often tend to look at their lives differently, are their lives more like Einstein’s, where something important is happening or are their lives and jobs more like Sisyphus, where we are doing the same thing all over again without any meaning.

Bibliography:

1. Wolf, Susan R, and Koethe, John. Meaning in Life and Why It Matters. Princeton University Press – M.U.A, 2010. Print.
2. Wolf, Susan. the Variety of Values: Essays on Morality, Meaning, and Love. Meanings of Lives, Oxford, University Press Scholarship online 2015
3. Wolf, Susan. Happiness and meaning: two aspects of the good life, Social Psychology and Policy, 1997,

In both Ozymandias and London, the poets William Blake and Percey Shelley critique social structures that award power and authority to the wealthy minority; to the disadvantage of the poor and those who hold a lesser status in society. This is explored in numerous ways in both Ozymandias and London.

Shelley and Blake have both manipulated structural techniques in order to portray how those of higher power have the ability to dictate society as they please. In London, this can be seen through the exploit of the simplistic form. Composed of: quatrains and a regular alternate rhyme scheme. The overly simplistic rhyme form appears intentionally as childlike to serve as the purpose for it to be remembered. The reason for this is because the aim was for the poem to serve as a silent protest against the misapplication of power in the hands of royalty and nobility, challenging the establishment of hierarchy. On the other hand, in Ozymandias, Shelley uses a tight, short structure; representing strict power and the control that leaders have over their people. Further reinforced by the use of a continuous and isolated stanza, symbolising how one mighty power has the control over the majority, highlighting the lack of democracy. Shelley was opposed to the monarchy and by using this structure he is thereby reinforcing his own political beliefs and projecting these onto his reader. Likewise, Shelley’s challenging of social structure can be additionally exemplified through the ironic use of sonnet. Whereby he integrates the Patrarchan and Shakespearean style of sonnet, giving way to a ‘new’ structure. This symbolises that all power ultimately gives way to new power. Nothing remains forever:not even the form of the sonnet. This is solidified by the isolated, continuous stanza, representative of the continuous cycle of power: it always passes.

There is a stark contrast between the language used by Blake and Shelley. Shelley uses language that connotes strength and authority, however, Blake uses language that explores the misery and after-effects that such power implored in Ozymandias creates.

Blake uses language that has connotations of misery and anguish to blame and portray how establishments such as religion, that idolise and hand power to an individual, wantonly create this authority contrast to gain from the vulnerable. This can be perceived where it states ‘mark in every face I meet Mark of weakness, mark of woe’ the noun mark, can alternatively be interpreted as an intentional allusion to the gospel ‘Mark’. Blake claims the ‘marks’ on the faces; a reference to the established religion and his protest against it. He is suggesting that people in society have been marked by established religion. This is a direct reinforcement of Blake’s views on established religion: he was opposed to it. Therefore, Blake is exclaiming that religion is a tool used to oppress the vulnerable people within society that fall to religion for hope, allowing for a figure of authority to gain power from their vulnerability. The idea that it is linked to ‘woe’ and ‘weakness’ solidifies the idea that religion oppresses; therefore forcing a societal reliance on religion, reinforcing the authority of one supreme figure over a majority. The double meaning of ‘mark’also suggests that people are branded with their place in society; tied in with the alliteration of the ‘w’ sound in ‘weakness’ and ‘woe’ connote misery and inability to challenge authority. As a result reflecting the poet’s intentions: to challenge established social structures that give power to the wealthy and profit off the most vulnerable in society. This is also clearly distinguished throughout Ozymandias, however, Shelley demonstrates the after-effects. The deeply negative connotations of ‘sunk’ ‘shattered’ ‘visage’ portray impermanence and suggests a sense of replacement, therefore suggesting that political power never lasts. However, this contrasts starkly with the language that Ozymandias himself uses. Exemplified here in: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’. The adjective ‘mighty’ is imposing and intimidating along with the hyperbole and religious language; it portrays the king’s arrogance. This creates a sense of irony as the reader knows that power is not eternal, as portrayed through the use of contrasting language. Therefore reinforcing and proving the poet’s intentions. This allows for the audience to adopt Shelley’s political views.

Later on, Blake’s criticism of established religion and social structure that hand power is further developed where it states: ‘Every blackning church appals’. The subtle juxtaposition of imagery of ‘blackning’, which connotes decay, corruption and misery with ‘church’ which has connotations of purity, innocence and holility. Furthermore pushes forward Blake’s beliefs of how the church and established social structure use the vulnerable to gain societal power. However, in Ozymandias, Ozymandias himself uses religious imagery for social gain. For instance : ‘King of kings’, which is a biblical allusion, to reinforce his own power. He is masking himself behind religion in an attempt to gain power and control over the socially vulnerable; this is exactly what Blake accuses the church of doing.

To conclude, both poets employ structure and form to present their ideas about power. Although both poems are similar and contrast to each other in many ways, they both prove the misery and corruption social structures bring to society.

Annotated Bibliography

Research Question:

What were the biggest influencers of Progressive sexuality/morality ideas during the era, and what institutionalized deterrents were set to counteract them,?

Secondary Sources:

Abrams, and Curran. ‘Wayward Girls and Virtuous Women: Social Workers and Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era.’ Affiliate 15, no. 1 (2000): 49-64.

During the Progressive Era, many immigrants and working-class woman were being tried for crimes solely based on ethics and immorality, according to the article. There are various cases in which women were subject to punishments that included things such as being held under confinement in reformatories, as well as more drastic cases in which many were being sterilized. Abrams and Curran’s work discusses the criminalization of sexuality within populations of adolescent females. The significance of this work, in regards to my paper, lies within the ideals that were being maintained and enforced over these women. There was clearly a predominant opposition to the progressive morality/sexuality being exhibited by the girls, otherwise radical ways of enforcing this would not have taken place. Through understanding why this was able to take place, it will better paint the picture for the justifications of these actions.

Abrams, Laura S. ‘Guardians of Virtue: The Social Reformers and the “Girl Problem,” 1890‐1920.’ Social Service Review 74, no. 3 (2000): 436-52.

In her work ”Guardians of Virtue: The Social Reformers and the “Girl Problem,” 1890‐1920”, Laura S. Abrams examines the states of gender and sexuality during the Progressive Era. Abrams also investigates the construction of these “states of being”, as well as how these progressive ideas were viewed and or deterred due to them contrasting previous Victorian-based models of life. During the turn of the twentieth century, there were a lot of rapid social, economic, and cultural transformations taking place within urban industrial living centers. It is important to investigate these changes and social interactions in order to better understand the mindsets, as well as ideals, that people maintain during this period of change on both ends of the spectrum. This work largely pertains to women involved with being in the working-class, unmarried, and or immigrants. These social reformers challenged normative gender and sexuality expectations.

Odem, Mary E. “Statutory Rape Prosecutions in California.” In Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920. Gender & American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

In her chapter, “Statutory Rape Prosecutions in California”, Mary E. Odom covers the topic of the “Age-of-Consent Law” and the effect it had on young girls in and around Alameda County and Los Angeles County in 1915 California. Throughout her piece, she provides different examples of separate instances where cases were mishandled or treated unfairly because it was in regards to morality/sexuality and women. This work provides insight into the way the government handled these cases and how major reform was a necessity for this generally biased system. Odem also explains how some female victims were also scolded by judges and officials on different occasions for having ‘tempted’ defendants into immoral behavior. Somehow judges and lawyers would find a way to establish consent as well, which is a trend Odem brought up. They would establish this by using information such as what they were wearing, previous partners, and things that should not matter when it comes to statutory rape. This piece aids in my research by showing how against, even in non-direct ways, the government and people were in regards to sexuality and morality. As well as forms in which they were able to make these opposing ideas known.

Primary Sources:

National Endowment for the Humanities. ‘Sexuality/Morality Articles during the Progressive Era.’ Chronicling America | Library of Congress. Accessed March 07, 2019. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?state=California&date1=1890&date2=1925&proxtext=sexualitymorality&x=0&y=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&rows=20&searchType=basic.

Through the use of “ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov” for my research, I have found countless newspapers that deal with the issues of sexuality and morality during the Progressive Era. Many of the newspapers that I have read so far question the new progressive ideas of sexuality and morality through comparing them to previously established Victorian-based ways of life, as well as how the church believes people should act. There are plenty of headlines and stories within the newspapers that effectively discuss and outline issues/ideas of sexuality and morality during the Progressive Era. Newspapers serve as an excellent source in regards to my topic due to the collective ideals they show and explains. They show how people were generally thinking, thus making it easier for historians to gather ideas on what life was like during whichever period being studied.

Comstock Act/Sexuality Regulations

There were various ways in which sexuality was repressed during the Progressive Era. It is important to understand that laws and regulations, such as the Comstock Law, served as methods not merely just socially look down upon, but institutionalized ways to repress sexuality and encourage morality during this period. On 3 March 1873, Congress passed the new piece of legislation known as the Comstock Act. This statute defined contraceptives as wrong and immoral, thus making birth control a federal offense. The Comstock Act reflected the underlying American belief that contraceptives were unacceptable to society, and only sought to encourage more immoral promiscuity to go on. Through the analysis over the use of regulations and such which had been implemented/enforced during this period, information such a this contributes to my research by showing just how much grasp Victorian-based models of life had on society. As well as various methods of repression that were used during this period.

Progressive Era Films on Sexuality/Morality

During the age of reform American films were born, thus starting a new wave of information and ideas coming at people rapidly. These films took major social and economic issues during the Progressive era such as Birth control, Child labor, Immigration, Divorce, Prostitution, Corruption, Poverty, Prisons, Sexuality, and Women’s suffrage, rendering open dialogue and conversations on subjects that otherwise probably would not have been talked about as much. In regards to my research, early films offered raw and new ideas on sexuality and morality during this period which might prove useful in terms of transforming ideas.

Chronic Sleep Deprivation

Chronic sleep deprivation (CSD), sleep less than 6 hrs a day over a long period of time, is a prevalent condition exiting among many adults and teenagers worldwide, which leads to various lasting effects on brain and health. This essay explores natures of a review article regarding CSD as well as the journal the article is published-in, offering comprehensive descriptions of one primary research referenced in the review article and explaining connections between these two resources, also personal reflections are provided throughout.

Based on the results from different primary experiments and other resources, ‘Neural Consequences of Chronic Short Sleep: Reversible or Lasting?’ by Zhao et al. is a review article that focuses on the lasting impacts of CSD on brain cells, particularly the ‘neurobehavioral performance’, it also discusses possibilities of recovering neural injury due to CSD. This article is an open resource for both specialists and the public, especially targeting at workforce and adolescents since CSD is more common in these 2 groups due to work and study pressure. Providing understandings of long-term effects of CSD on neurons and brain, the article educates the audience on the significant health effects of CSD, evoking the awareness of the importance of sufficient sleep. Neurology is the main discipline of this article, most obviously, as it is published in the journal ‘Frontiers in neurology’ and headings of the article also helped me determine the discipline. I think neurology is the study related to the nature and functions of nerve system. In my opinion, this article could also fit into neuroscience, since neuroscience and neurology are interconnected and related to the study of nerve system, but I am not sure how to distinguish one from another.

According to Frontier, the publisher of this review article, Frontiers in Neurology is a journal that publishes free access scientific literatures, allowing effective communications of scientific discoveries and knowledge. As shown in the title, neurology is the discipline of the journal, although this journal-is not directly linked to particular professional societies, it, however, is run by over 4000 editors worldwide, including university professors, directors of science institutions and scholars who are specialised in neurology, which contributes to the academic diversity of resources. Diverse scientific articles are published here for educating the public with respect to the understandings, treatments etc. of neurological disorders, it assists researchers to better proceed with and exchange scientific information, findings and ideas. This journal targets an international audience with different educational backgrounds as it is available online. To my mind, reviewed articles are more accessible for non-researchers as vocabularies and concepts are relatively understandable and conclusive. By comparison, primary articles mainly serve the scientific studies for professionalists since specialised concepts and jargons are widely used.

‘Sleep Deprivation During Early-Adult Development Result in Long-Lasting Learning Deficits in Adult Drosophila’ is a-primary research constructed by Seugnet et al. at Washington University. Its purpose is to investigate impacts of sleep deprivation on brain developments and provide first-hand results indicating various kinds of impairments of eclosed drosophilae caused by sleep loss. This research is primarily for scientific studies for scholars and some outcomes are neural related, which is beneficial for future studies in neurology. This research aims to determine if eclosed drosophila can be used for mimicking sleep loss in human to identify in what degree the developing processes involving memory, learning abilities etc. can be influenced by sleep. It started with the hypothesis that sleep plays a crucial role for ‘neonatal plasticity’ of and developing brains, which is based on the existing facts that ‘children with disordered sleep breathing display on average decreased IQ, deficits etc.’ [Seugnet et al., 2011].

The results of the experiment suggest that damages of ‘short-term memory and response inhibition’ [Seugnet-et-al., 2011] were observed on the eclosed flies that were sleep-deprived on the first 24 hours of their adult life followed by 3 days of unerupted recovery, the damages lasted for more than 6 days. Whereas for adult flies that were exposed to the same condition, the impairments were reversed few hours after recovery sleep. This outcome is significant as-it provides scientific data which acts as experimental evidence, allowing researchers to justify their hypothesis and come to the conclusion that sleep plays an essential role in developing brain. Furthermore, the results become scientific resources for-other scholars to do extended researches on the topic. In addition, the outcomes can confirm existing knowledge and imply other possibilities to be further explored. The results also allow improvements of experiment methods, measurements etc. as some data attained in the current experiment may not be accurate due to uncontrolled variables.

In my opinion, this primary article is well structured using headings, which makes it logic and easy to follow. Visual evidence and diagrams used also support the statements, enhancing its reliability. I could understand the general ideas of the article, however, it-is challenging to understand some results in depths due to many jargons applied, especially in the section ‘Sleep deprivation and dopamine’, I tried using dictionary to understand it but it was not time efficient. I particularly like the critical thinking in discussion section, the researchers are not only limited to the results obtained, they discuss possible factors and uncertainties that may also contribute to the experimental outcomes. This allows further exploration and more accurate results to be gained. Interestingly, I also learnt some fun facts that are outside of this topic, for instance, I did not know that flies share many commonalities with human, I was surprised that flies have memories too! This leads me to a new point of view about creatures and biology.

To conclude, primary literatures provide first-hand resources and evidence to certain topics, indicating the original work of the author(s), they are mainly for scientific researches and studies. Whereas secondary literatures are works that summarise, interpret and reflect a range of primary literatures, they target at broader audience as they are more understandable for non-scholars. The-primary article directly contributes to the formation of ideas and the structure of the review article, it provides professional knowledge and primary data which allows summarisation and ideas to be clearly conveyed in the review article. Meanwhile, the reliability of the review article is enhanced by applying first-hand scientific evidence. Therefore, primary articles are interconnected and significantly contribute to review articles.

References

1. Zhao Z, Zhao X, Veasey SC, 2017, “Neural Consequences of Chronic Short Sleep: Reversible or Lasting?”, Frontiers in Neurology, vol.8, pp 235
2. Seugnet L, Suzuki Y, Donlea JM, Gottschalk L, Shaw PJ, 2011, “Sleep deprivation during early-adult development results in long-lasting learning deficits in adult Drosophila”, Sleep, vol. 34, no. 2, pp.137-46.
3. Frontiers in Neurology About, n.d., Frontier, accessed 17 Apr 2018,

Sleep deprivation is a huge problem for many Americans to deal with every day. From late nights working through a double shift to staying up till 4 in the morning to study for that test the next day getting sleep is one of the basic needs. People are finding it harder to get a good night of sleep since they are busy. in a society where time and production equals money sleep fits in nowhere. This can be seen even in our education system, with teachers giving projects, essays, test every other day giving kids no time for anything else. Activities like jobs, school, sports, clubs, and personal responsibilities. People today just get no chance to get any of the sleep they need without sitting at the desk and doing nothing but work. The lack of sleep will affect the peoples body their driving, their jobs, their awareness, and their brain will not be as effective as if they had a full night of sleep. Sleep is one if not the most important thing that affects your mind and how it functions properly. Sleep deprivation has a huge effect on the body functions, especially in children, it affects people’s comprehension, fatigue, emotion, and memorization. “Scientists estimate that 80% of Americans are chronically sleep-deprived” (Munson). Most of America is suffering from sleep deprivation and it is not going to stop anytime soon with more and more work being pushed for to be complete. Sleep is the one thing that a keeps us running human need it to survive besides from food and water. If we don’t get the amount needed, then there will be an observable decline of activity throughout the day. Some of those things that people will see a decline in is during your shift at work or during school/class. When you are during class it is very important to be an attentive listener, so nothing is missed. In high school students get the same if not more work to do than jobs it is not just school, they have homework, clubs, and projects and it is expected to be done in less than 24 hours.

Two articles support this idea well. One being “Lack of sleep Blights pupil’s education”

The author is Sean Coughlan. The author is writing to adults concerned about sleep deprived teens, school administrators, and the students themselves to inform and persuade them about the increasing problem of student sleep deprivation. The motivating occasion is that there is a high number of sleep deprived students with the US ranking number one in the world and that this lack of sleep negatively affects their academic performance. The publication and genre of the text encourage the author to use formal language and a sense of structure to group ideas. The angle of vision used is the author’s persuasive perspective that lack of sleep negative impacts students, especially in school, and empathizes his point by focusing mostly on the negatives and omitting some points that contradict his position. He also uses some logos, ethos, and pathos, for appealing to the reader. The angle of vision used is the author’s persuasive perspective that lack of sleep negative impacts students, especially in school, and empathizes his point by focusing mostly on the negatives and omitting some points that contradict his position. He also uses some logos, ethos, and pathos, for appealing to the reader. This text is logically developed and consistent with facts, research, and statements from experts. The argument is well supported with relevant evidence. • The author appears to be reliable, knowledgeable, and authoritative because he supports his view with reliable evidence and research. Although, he is fair to a certain extent because he mainly focuses on the negatives and believed caused from sleep deprivation while only talking about the positives or anomalies associated with sleep deprivation for shorter section in his article. The paper talks about Sleep deprivation is a significant hidden factor in lowering the achievement of school pupils, according to researchers carrying out international education tests. It is a bigger problem in more affluent countries with sleep experts linking it to the use of mobile phones and computers in bedrooms late at night. Sleep deprivation is such a serious disruption that lessons must be pitched at a lower level to accommodate sleep-starved learners, the study found. Boston college found that in the united states had the highest number of sleep deprived kids with around 80 percent Other countries with the most sleep-deprived youngsters were New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, England, Ireland and France.

The second article Diagnosing the wrong deficit written by Vatsal G. Thakkar explains how sleep deprivation emits ADHD-like symptoms and the effect of sleeping on the children who do have ADHD. So, sleep deprivation causes a decrease in delta sleep which is a deep, slow-wave kind of sleep and in children, this is vital for their proper growth and development. The best point made in the article was when 22 patients with diagnosed ADHD with tonsils breathing problems causing sleep deprivation had surgery and had them removed and “a full half of the original A.D.H.D. group who removed their tonsils — 11 of 22 children — no longer met the criteria for the condition.” There was another point mentioning a study that found that children who suffered from “sleep-disordered breathing in infancy were more likely to have behavioral difficulties later in life and were 20 to 60 percent more likely to have behavioral problems at age 4”, and “40 to 100 percent more likely to have such problems at age 7” which does make a good argument that sleep deprivation does affect us in many ways. This article use the angle of vision that shapes the text is the authors view on whether enforcing that sleep deprivation in students can behave similarly to ADHD and to stop Diagnosing people with ADHD. The authors use personal stories as well as logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to the reader. The text is logically developed, For example, in the text the most developed and concise point states that 22 patients diagnosed ADHD with breathing problems caused by tonsils resulting in sleep deprivation had surgery and to have them removed and “a full half of the original A.D.H.D. group who removed their tonsils — 11 of 22 children — no longer met the criteria for the condition.”, which supports logos in which ADHD is not the culprit in most situations. There is one other concise point mentioned in this article which states that a study found that children who suffered from “sleep-disordered breathing in infancy were more likely to have behavioral difficulties later in life and were 20 to 60 percent more likely to have behavioral problems at age 4, and 40 to 100 percent more likely to have such problems at age 7” which leads the reader to believe that sleep deprivation is not joke and must be handled with care considering that children can develop with behavioral difficulties. the authors’ arguments are supported with evidence.

The plant (a course of action of sun based boards) which changes over sun powered vitality to light vitality from the sun into electrical vitality (charge outflow) is known as a sun based power plant process. In sun oriented plant there are numerous sun based boards are associated and in boards there are numerous cells units which make boards. In which uncommon metal is utilized which is as lines and these lines are likewise associated with meager lines and every one of these lines are associated with a metal line outline which is predominantly quadrilateral fit as a fiddle. So there is expansive region to trap light for example presently there is a reasonable zone for light to fall on it as the metal course of action in huge to fall on it electrons begin’s to emanate from slim lines to metal edge and current goes into a diode box which is behind the board and afterward comes into supply wires.

Sunlight based energy is brilliant light and warmth from the Sun that is outfit utilizing a scope of regularly advancing innovations, for example, sun powered warming, sun oriented warm vitality, photovoltaic, artificial photosynthesis and liquid salt power plants.

It is a important source of sustainable power source and its advancements are comprehensively portrayed as either latent sun powered or active sun based energy upon how they catch and convey sunlight based energy or convert it into sun oriented power. Active sun based methods incorporate the utilization of photovoltaic frameworks, concentrated sunlight based power and sun based water warming to bridle the energy. Passive sun powered systems incorporate arranging a working to the Sun, choosing materials with great warm mass or light-scattering properties, and structuring spaces that normally circle air.

At the point when a reasonable light of certain recurrence (i.e E=hv energy of light relies upon its recurrence) is fall on a unique metal like silicon, electrons get some vitality of appropriate recurrence which is more prominent than work function[work work is least vitality required by an electron to discharge from metal surface . So there is no photoelectric emanation conceivable beneath work (w≤E) and radiate from the conduction band and turn out from metal surface. Like that other electron turn out and structure a major unit of charge stream which is in charge of electric flow Technologies and resources.

Solar powered energy alludes to wellsprings of energy that can be straightforwardly credited to the light of the sun or the warmth that daylight creates (Bradford, 2006). Sun powered vitality innovations can be ordered along the accompanying continuum:

passive sun based technology collect the energy without changing over the warmth or light into different form of energy. It incorporates, for instance, expanding the utilization of light or warmth through building plan and avtive sun powered vitality technology store it or convert it for different applications for ex. Electric energy.

The PV innovation changes over brilliant energy contained in light quanta into electrical energy when light falls upon a semiconductor material, causing electron excitation and firmly improving conductivity (Sorensen, 2000). Photovoltaic innovation are as of now accessible in the market are two type (a) thin film advancements made out of a scope of various semi-transmitter materials, including nebulous silicon, cadmium-telluride and copper indium gallium diselenide and (b) crystalline silicon-based PV cells.

Sun based warm innovation utilizes sunlight based warmth, which can be utilized straightforwardly for either warm or warming application or power age. it very well may be partitioned into two classes: (I) solar energy thermal non-electric (ii) sun based thermal electric. The previous incorporates applications as sunlight based water warmers, sun based air radiators, sun powered cooling frameworks and sun based cookers; the last alludes to utilization of sun based warmth to deliver steam for power age, otherwise called concentrated sun powered power (CSP). Sorts of CSP innovations are right now accessible in the market are Parabolic Trough, Fresnel Mirror, Power Tower and Solar Dish collector.

The CSP market first emerged in the early 1980s but lost pace in the absence of government support in the United States. However, a recent strong revival of this market is evident with 14.5 GW in various stages of development across 20 countries and 740 MW of added CSP capacity between 2007 and 2010 While many regions of the world, for instance, Southwestern United States, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Israel, India and China, provide suitable conditions for the deployment of CSP, market activity is mainly concentrated in Southwestern United States and Spain, both of which are supported with favorable policies, investment tax credits and feed-in tariffs (Wolff et al. 2008). Currently, several projects around the world are either under construction, in the planning stages, or undergoing feasibility studies6 and the market is expected to keep growing at a significant pace (REN21, 2011).

PV cells Convert Sunlight to Direct Current (DC) power. Charge Controller fill in as control the power from sunlight based board which invert back to sun based board get reason for board harm. Battery System go about as capacity of electric power is utilized when daylight not accessible (for example night).From this framework associated with inverter for proselyte Direct Current into Alternating Current (AC).

The cells changed over sunlight convert specifically into power(electric). It comprise different sorts of semiconductor materials. It has two sorts: positive charge and negative charge appeared on fig.1.This cell innovation are utilized to structure sun oriented cells with ease just as high transformation productivity. At the point when the cell consumed photons from daylight, electrons are thumped free from silicon molecules and are drawn off by a framework of metal conduits, weight a stream of electric direct flow. Sun powered cell PV made up of numerous synthetic compounds.

Physically, sun based vitality establishes the most copious sustainable power source asset accessible and, in many locales of the world, its hypothetical potential is far in abundance of the present all out essential vitality supply in those areas. Sun oriented vitality innovations could help address vitality access to country and remote networks, help improve long haul vitality security and help ozone depleting substance moderation.

The market for innovations to tackle sunlight based vitality has seen sensational development over the previous decade – specifically the extension of the market for matrix associated circulated PV frameworks and sun oriented boiling water frameworks have been wonderful. Strikingly, incorporated utility scale PV applications have developed firmly in the ongoing years; off-matrix applications are presently predominant just in creating markets. Additionally, the market for bigger sun oriented warm innovations that initially developed in the mid 1980s is presently assembling energy with various new establishments just as tasks in the arranging stages.

While the expenses of sunlight based vitality advancements have shown fast decreases in the ongoing past and the potential for noteworthy decreases sooner rather than later, the base estimations of levelized cost of any sun powered advances, including tower type CSP, which is right now the least exorbitant sun oriented innovation, would be higher than the greatest estimations of levelized expenses of ordinary advances for power age (e.g., atomic, coal IGCC, coal supercritical, hydro, gas CC) regardless of whether capital expenses of sun based vitality advances were diminished by 25%. Presently, this is the essential hindrance to the huge scale organization of sun oriented vitality advances. In addition, the scaling-up of sunlight based vitality innovations is additionally compelled by budgetary, specialized and institutional obstructions.