Category: Literature

I would like to concur with Abrams words that writing is a form of animism. This portrays writing as a kind of magic output advanced in a creative way by man. Abram argues that human beings tend to complicate the meaning of magic yet they do perform magic every time they get a book to read or a pen to write.

Magic can be defined as the art of producing effects by superhuman means. From the definition of magic, human beings tend to perceive magic as being a supernatural thing. This is however not the case for Abram. Despite the common human perception of magic, he tends to disagree with the fact that magic is superhuman.

Abram describes human beings as extraordinary animals but nonetheless they are animals. He tries to put across the fact that the alphabet is a sign of magic. However, people see it to be normal and obvious. He argues that human beings are not born with the knowledge of reading or writing but after sometime, they are able to do it. Magicians are also human beings who are not born with the knowledge of how to perform magic.

They learn after sometime due to their interest in performing magic. The efficacy of these pictorially derived systems necessarily entails a shift of sensory participation away from the voices and gestures of the surrounding landscape toward our own human-made images, (Abram David, P.31). This implies that writing is not a magic but an occurrence that comes about mans interaction with the environment.

Abram argues further by giving an example of a person reading a newspaper. When someone is reading a newspaper, he sees words and pictures talking to him yet they do not have mouths to speak.

Despite the fact that they are producing sound, they speak to the person and the person is able to get the message that the alphabet is communicating. In the same way, people are able to pass messages from their minds into paper through writing to other people. A person speaks to a pen or a writing material by way of magic and so does the writing material does to the recipient of the message.

Magic is a result of humans five common senses which are: sight, hear, touch, taste and smell. It is therefore the way a human being associates with the environment that enables him to perform magic. It is therefore important to note that the way the alphabet speaks to us is the same way other non human things can speak to us.

This however requires deep sensual communication for one to be able to learn to communicate with it. If a person is able to talk through the use of the alphabet and vice-versa, I wonder why people think it is magic for the same person to see a stone and hear from it.

Serious questions abound as to what really differentiates the sound of the stone and consequently the sound of the alphabet. Writing therefore is magic because it is equated to the same way the Hopi elder sees a stone and hears from it or the same way a Lakota man sees a spider on a tree and communicates with it.

Writing therefore came with the application of senses to the environment and the ability to use the senses to get messages from our surrounding and so is magic. This shows that writing is bodily and people learn to write from their body contacts with the environment.

When one decides to pass information with an emotional feeling, he is getting the message from his brain onto the paper and also to the mind of the intended recipient. The aspect of communicating emotions through the written word is magical in its own right. The receiver of the message reads and gets himself into the same mood that the message was written by the writer.

This shows that the writer of the message had the same senses with the reader. For example, if a teacher writes a note, Poor work, see me, on a students assignment, the student perceives that the teacher is annoyed and puts up a mindset that he or she is likely to be punished.

This shows good communication initiated through the magic of writing as evident in Abrams words, A direct association is established between the pictorial sign and the vocal gesture, for the first time bypassing the thing pictured (Abram David, P.33).

Writing is magical in the way it is able to explain pictures or symbols. This is evident because before the era of computers, there were no symbols or graphics which could be printed to take up the place of words (Abram David, P.36). If words are capable of drawing a picture or a symbol in ones mind, it is beyond doubt that they are magical in nature.

For example, if a driver driving on a high way finds a board written Bumps Ahead, and another finds a board with a bump drawn on it, both drivers are likely to slow down because the words and the symbols bring out a similar message.

Abram puts it clear that the computer era is affecting the magic of writing because it is providing shortcuts to writing. He points out that the graphics and symbols that are being used in a computer make writing less of a magic.

He however remains firm by stating that a person can learn how to use a computer without knowing how to write. He says, Human utterances are now elicited, directly, by human-made signs; the larger, more-than-human life-world is no longer a part of the semiotic, no longer a necessary part of the system, (Abram David, P.33)

Abram also came up with a good example of the word, Spell to show that writing is a magic. The word, Spell can be used to mean the spelling of the letters that make a certain word or, Spell meaning a natural disaster like the dry spell.

The magic in this case is shown by the fact that before the introduction of technology, the word spell used to give one meaning (Abram David, P.37). After the introduction of technology, it was so magical that the word got a different meaning hence the magic in writing.

Abram concluded that there is magic in writing and for people to understand this, they are supposed to let things live and use their senses to interact with the environment. Through this, people will be able to discover the influence of things to them. I therefore agree with Abrams statement that writing is a form of animism.

Abrams,  Ways of Reading will never cease to predict the coaching of writing techniques by initiating a unique and motivating approach in composition writing to learners. This goes in hand with learners writing, reading and thinking of the appropriate features.

This is evident when he says, Our first writing, clearly, was our own tracks, our footprints, our hand-prints in mud or ash pressed upon the rock, (Abram David, P.30). He tries to show how writing has been a form of magic that human beings have not yet come to discover.

It is truly magical especially in the eyes of learners because it guides them on ways of determining how to select the best features to value or to specialize in. The learners read and internalize the message of the reading. We can therefore conclude that learners are able to uphold writing as form of magic and define their understanding through their writing.

Introduction

Letters of the Earth by Samuel Clemens narrates about Satans visit to earth after banishment from heaven for one heavenly day. One heavenly day is equals one thousand earth years. He is punished by God for talking sarcastically about his creations in the universe. Having being deported to space, he decided to visit the earth to determine the progress of Gods experiment. He wrote private letters from earth to his fellow archangels, St. Gabriel and St. Michael to informing them the development of Gods creation.

Analysis

In his first letter, Satan found the man as a curious being who believed he was a masterpiece crafted by God. Satan found this to be sarcastic since he viewed man as a low graded angel yet God viewed him as his masterpiece. Clemens elaborates how Satan criticizes the way human beings pray crudely to God. He believes God does not enjoy the praises and worship by men nor does he answer their prayers. Clemens believes humans are taught by salaried teacher about hell and everlasting fires which will be used to punish sinners.

In his second letter, Clemens critics mans ideology of heaven as a place filled with activities that he hates while on earth. According to man, heaven has people singing, playing musical instruments and praying yet only a handful of men on earth can sing, play instruments or pray. In heaven, people from all nations and races live peacefully with each other, yet these people dislike, oppress and hate each other while on earth.

Clemens sees it ironical for men to enjoy a variety of life while on earth, yet they all aspire for life in heaven which is full of monotony. Ironically, man forgot to include sexual intercourse as an activity in heaven, an act people enjoy while on earth. According to Clemens, man will risk everything he values on earth only by the thought of sexual intercourse yet he does not believe it will be in heaven.

In the third letter, Clemens criticizes the current Bible as lacking the originality of the earlier Bibles. He believes the earlier Bible contained imposing events unlike the current one which contains only hell and heaven.

According to Clemens, Adam and Eve never understood what God meant when he told them not to eat the forbidden fruit. He believed it would have been fair for God to show Adam and Eve of what would have happened if they ate the fruit. The forbidden fruit contained knowledge on how to identify ethical and evil ways to engage in evil acts.

Clemens believed God has different a moral code for himself and another for the people. He punished Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit yet the snake which was responsible for their actions escaped unpunished. He believes that God should have given them another chance since the Bible requires people to forgive each other.

According to the Bible, humans lost everything they had after eating the forbidden fruit. In the fourth letter, Clemens believes humans walked away with the Supreme Art which is valued higher than what they had before. Currently, this art is no longer forbidden since God allowed sexual intercourse as a way of filling the earth.

Clemens believes the animals learned the Supreme Art after watching Adam and Eve. He believes that they avoided the knowledge of morality without eating the forbidden fruit. According to Clemens, God would have made his reputation had he followed the teachings of the Bible as required by men. He believed God was responsible for the behavior of the human beings since he created them.

Instead of saving Noah and other few people, he should have saved or killed all of them without showing any favoritism. Clemens believes Adam ate the forbidden fruit and learned the Supreme Art of multiplying the worlds population.

Conclusion

In the first letter, I found Clemens view of man as a low grade angel to be unconvincing. According to the Bible, God created humans in his own image thus he views us as his masterpiece. God also answers prayers as it is written in the Bible, &Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive (Matthew 21:22).

Clemens is also wrong with his believes that salaried teachers teach people about heaven and hell. The bible clearly states the existence of heaven and hell where sinners are punished by eternal fire. The salaried teachers teach only what is written in the Bible.

In his second letter, I found his views on the way people treat each other as convincing. I believe that humans cannot fight their neighbors while on earth and yet when they pretend to be friends while in heaven. His arguments on people singing, playing instruments, praying and monotony in heaven are unconvincing since no one is sure if people will do these activities while in heaven. I believe the activities in heaven will not be monotonous to human beings.

In the third letter, Clemens argues that the current Bible lacks originality. I find this unconvincing since over the years, the Bible has been translated to different languages, but the contents have remained the same over the years. Clemens argument that Adam and Eve lacked the knowledge of morality is unconvincing. The Bible clearly states that even though they were sinless, they could choose what was right or wrong. Contrary to Clemens belief, the snake is punished to crawl on its belly for its role in the Garden of Eden.

In the fourth letter, Clemens argues that humans lost everything except the Supreme Art. I find this as unconvincing since God only punished Adam and Eve but they did not lose any other thing. I find Clemens argument that the animals watched Adam and Eve having sexual intercourse as convincing. The Bible is silent on how the animals came to learn the Supreme Art; thus there is a possibility that Clemens argument is true.

Introduction

Materialism has taken precedence over humanity in contemporary society. Melville had foreseen this fact when he wrote Bartleby the Scrivener. This is a masterpiece expounding how materialism can derail humanity and men turn into selfish brutes that care less about fellow men. Bartleby the Scrivener revolves around a scrivener, working for a lawyer who doubles as the narrator.

After the lawyer places an advert in the local newspaper, Bartleby applies for the position of a copyist and the lawyer hires him. The first few days in job are great for Bartleby, given his swiftness and accuracy in writing. However, as the story unfolds, things change as Bartley starts to shun his duties for no good reason.

The Lawyer tries to fire him but he cannot hear anything of that sort. Finally, Bartley ends in prison on charges of vagrancy and dies few days later. This story is important for it highlights how philistinism and consumerism rose in American society and its effects on charity and humanity.

Analysis

As aforementioned, the Lawyer, who runs a law firm on Wall Street, is the narrator. He apparently has two copyists, Turkey and Nippers but they do not astound him as Bartleby does.

Turkey is the Lawyers age mate (over sixty years) and even though he is a prudent copyist, as afternoons approach he wears out quickly and makes silly mistakes in typing. On the other side, Nippers, a twenty-five year old energetic lad, is the precise opposite of Turkey. He has issues in the morning sessions but as afternoons approach, he concentrates more in his work giving better results.

However, this story concentrates on Bartleby, a newly employed copyist. His enormous output in the job delights the Lawyer for he works day and night without complaining. However, Bartlebys vibrancy lasts for a few days after which he starts to refuse doing his job. After the Lawyer consults him to do some work, he says, I would prefer not to (Melville 5).

The Lawyer does not realize this stance would later turn to a mantra until Bartleby uses it often and sticks to it. Bartleby, courteously but firmly refuses to do his routine job; something that puzzles the Lawyer, who calls it passive resistance. The Lawyer seeks to find out why Bartleby does not want to do his job; however, he gets the same reply of &not to.

Bartlebys behavior puzzles the Lawyer forcing him to ask other copyists what they think about Bartleby. They confirm that his actions are strange and unreasonable. After a final try to get Bartleby do his job, the Lawyer rushes out to attend some business but he vows to investigate the issue.

After scrutinizing for a few days, the Lawyer realizes that Bartleby does not leave the office or take lunch or tea; he only takes snacks that Nuts, the errand boy brings him. The lawyer rues that, nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance (Melville 12).

Nevertheless, he starts pitying Bartleby for he concludes that whatever he does, he does it involuntarily. The lawyer resolves that he will cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval (Melville 21), by keeping Bartleby as his workers for he thinks if he lets him go, he would be mistreated by other employers; therefore, to the Lawyer, he is doing charity to Bartleby. Nevertheless, Bartleby does not care and he refuses to do any work even collecting some letters from the post office.

As the story unfolds, the Lawyer passes by his office on one Sunday morning only to find Bartleby inside, wearing shirtsleeves. Bartley asks the Lawyer to come back after few minutes but when he returns, he finds Bartleby gone; however, he can clearly tell that Bartleby lives in the office.

The Lawyer pities Bartleby more and even though he tries to gather information about his life, Bartleby does not divulge anything significant. After couple of days, Bartleby tells the Lawyer that he will never write; something that makes the Lawyer suspect Bartleby has lost his sight.

However, to the Lawyers disappointment, Bartleby insists that even if he regains his vision, he would not write. Consequently, the Lawyer asks Bartleby to leave the office but he quietly refuses. Regardless, of this, the Lawyer thinks that by letting Bartleby live in the office, he would be practicing some good Christian habits.

However, after few days, Bartlebys presence draws attention of some friends and customers and the Lawyer decides to move his business to another apartment to save it. Few days, the new tenant of the Lawyers previous apartment visits the Lawyer and asks him to deal with Bartleby. The Lawyer states clearly that Bartleby is no longer his worker so he has nothing to do with him.

Few days later, the new tenant comes back to the Lawyer and pleads with him to talk with Bartleby and the Lawyer agrees. To his disappointment, he finds that Bartleby is stubborn as ever and even after the Lawyer invites him to come live in his house, Bartleby refuses. The Lawyer simply leaves for he cannot do anything more and this leads to Bartleby arrest on charges of vagrancy.

The Lawyer pays Bartleby a visit in jail but he does not even want to see him so Bartleby refuses to talk to him. Even after the Lawyer arranges with prison warders to feed Bartleby well, he declines to eat. As the story closes, the Lawyer finds Bartleby dead under a tree shade in the prison compound. The story ends by revealing that Bartleby previously worked in the offices of the Dead Letter but new administrators fired him. The Lawyer cannot help thinking whether copyist job was so depressing to make someone mad just like Bartleby.

Why Read the Story

The worthiness of this story comes from its two major themes, materialism, and charity. Given the time that Melville wrote this story, it highlights how materialism was on the rise around this time. The strategic setting of the story in The Wall Street echoes this theme because; The Wall Street was popularly becoming a hub for financial gains.

Melville uses Bartlebys passive resistance to carry out his duties symbolically. It symbolizes the passive resistance that people had towards economic control. Therefore, this story is important for it underpins how Americans rose to materialism that is so prevalent in contemporary America.

On the other side, this story tackles charity work, giving insight of how philistinism and consumerism corrupted it. The Lawyer has a new definition for charity as he defines it with respect to cost and returns. He says, Poor fellow! Thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence I can get along with him. If I turn him away he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval.

To befriend Bartleby will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience (Melville 32). The Lawyers thoughts are clear in this context. Even though he sympathizes with Bartleby, he sees an opportunity to use him for he is useful. He cannot believe another employer using Bartleby.

In pretext of helping Bartleby, by practicing good Christian habits, he only leverages self-approval by cheaply purchasing delicious self-approval for his conscience (Melville 21). He approves his conscience by pretending to keep Bartleby as a worker.

If anything, he frequently asks Bartleby to do some writing which will largely benefit him. The Lawyers charity actions come under question when he decides to move his business because Bartleby is affecting it. This is not charity work at all.

It is true that the Lawyer offers to take Bartleby into his house but this is an act of justifying his conscience. Materialism overrides charity in this context; the fact that the Lawyer decides to leave Bartleby, shows that money is important to him than charity. Melville highlights how materialism drowned good principles like charity work.

Peoples consciences tell them that they need to uphold humanity; regrettably, the quest to get more money overrides this natural call of conscience. Therefore, this story is informative and this qualifies its worthiness.

Conclusion

Melville, through his story, Bartleby the Scrivener, highlights crucial issues that are important for anyone to know. Through Bartlebys quite resistance to carry out his duties, the reader can get a picture of how rise of materialism gave people impetus and zeal to resist economic regulation. On the other side, the Lawyer tries to justify his conscience by offering half-baked charity actions. He does not want to let Bartleby leave; he offers to keep him and pretend he is charitable to purchase a sweet conscience.

Materialism has taken the better part of peoples lives and they do not care what is happening to others. Naturally, human beings have humanity conscience that compels them to help others. However, they do not have time for that; therefore, they resort to shoddy charity actions like the Lawyer, to purchase their peace of mind.

Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Bartleby the Scrivener; A Story of Wall Street. Plain Label Books, 1977.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Charles Darwins evolutionary theory exerted such a powerful influence on multiple aspects of human life that its echo could be traced as far as in the literary fiction of the period characterized as literary Naturalism.

One of the most innovative writers of his generation, the American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist Stephen Crane produced a series of works remarkable for their Naturalistic tendencies.

Among those literary pieces, Cranes short story The Open Boat is singled out by its thematic and stylistic correspondence to literary Naturalism. By means of such literary devices as setting, characters, and atmosphere, Crane efficiently develops and supports the main theme of The Open Boat  the impossibility of struggling against the eternal and permanent Nature.

As it is obvious from the name of the movement, Nature is the central notion that determines the course of events in a Naturalistic story. It is represented as an eternal and impregnable matter that exists independently of the worldly vanity. Natural determinism reveals itself in the fact that despite all the mans attempts to change the natural course of events, everything happens according to the predefined scheme.

Nature is objective and remote from all the earthly suffering of man; it is neither brutal, nor friendly; it simply pursues the eternal order of things. Setting The Open Boat amidst the stormy sea, Crane depicts the objectivity of Nature, exactly following the Naturalistic interpretation of it as an indifferent and impartial matter:

This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants. It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual  nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him then, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent. (Crane 142)

In this fragment Crane emphasizes that Nature does not possess any emotional characteristics and only acquires them through human interpretation. Nature per se is an objective course of fixed events, and it is only through mans vision of them that those events gain some meaning.

Placed in the objective setting of Nature are four men, the only survivors of a shipwreck who are now trying to reach the shore in a tiny dingy boat. All of them  the intellectual correspondent, the comic cook, the strong and industrious oiler, and the remote yet compassionate captain  initially pursue one aim: to survive by way of struggling with the nature. They view the sea deep as a hostile enemy who can engulf them in the twinkling of an eye, and therefore their eyes are steadily focused on it in fearful apprehension:

None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. (Crane 123)

Throughout the whole story Crane comments on those colors of the sea that change in accordance to the mood of the remaining crew: the waves gradually change from dark lead to emerald green with amber lights, to black, to carmine and gold (Crane 123124, 136137, 141).

Those changes of color correspond to the alteration of the survivors mood: from despair and anger at their disastrous state, to the growing feeling of camaraderie towards each other, and finally, to the understanding of the necessity for cooperation not only among each other but also with the nature for the overall success of their rescue.

Mutual support and association with the forces of nature appear to be the key to ultimate survival of men in the seemingly hostile natural environment. It is no mere chance that the injured captain, who has demonstrated a high level of tolerance and encouragement to his team, realizes the dangers of coming too close to the shore and being trapped into a current instead of waiting for help from the rescue station.

He demonstrates an insightful understanding of the Natures powers from the very start of the misfortune, answering the correspondents question on whether they will make it to the shore by the phrase If this wind holds and the boat dont swamp, we cant do much else (Crane 127). It designates his obedience to Nature and destiny and his awareness of the higher powers that guide human existence. Another revealing fact in support of the Natures importance for human life is the fate of the oiler.

Being the most physically fit and trained for the battle of survival, he ventures to reach the shore swimming without any support from the dinghy and is the only one who perishes. Such is the result of his presumption and conceit in face of the omnipotent Nature which does not forgive petty arrogance and rewards cooperation instead.

Stephen Cranes short story reflects such key concepts of literary Naturalism as natural determinism and Natures indifference and objectivity as opposed to the vanity and frailty of men. This story of human struggle and survival in a hostile natural environment teaches the lessons of necessity for cooperation and illusiveness of mans free will in face of the eternal laws of Nature.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. The Open Boat. The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories. Eds. Anthony Matthew Mellors and Fiona Robertson. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. 123146. Print.

The writer discloses the actions taken by the Easter Island people a couple of centuries ago. The details indicate destruction of forests, vegetation and animals through the chaotic and cannibalism behaviours.

According to Diamond (1995), the end of Easter Island is visible from the abandoned buildings and the mystery of isolation evident from the lack of vegetation and the gigantic stone statues and skyscrapers that seems to outgrow everything else such as the temples at Angkor. The writer indicates the story of Easter Island is not only a historical tale but also an imperative warning to current civilization.

As indicated in the writing by Diamond (1995), the view of the Island is a land without habitual vegetation such as trees lacks animal life and particularly comprises of a low populace of approximately 2000 people. The stone structures that appears gigantic on stone platforms shows devastation from which the writer proposes an inhibition by Polynesians.

On the analysis of the natural resources, the writer shows the richness that existed before the reforestation stopped. Deforestation is the cause of death of animal life and the devastating effects eventually destroys the crops. The deforestation was as a result for the need to erect strong stone statues in competition over power among the local clans. The fight for power was probably one of the causes of the lands demise.

The writer indicates and emphasizes on the aspect of brutal misuse/abuse of nature as the root cause of the destruction. The leaders or those who were in authority never had the will and ability to prevent the destruction. The final indication of the writer is that, the historical destruction of the Island is a prospect for the future of the whole world.

From a personal point of view, the authors initial argument regarding destruction of nature that causes devastation is very logical and authentic. From the beginning, the writer tries to raise the subject relating to the importance of civilization. However, from a defensive point of view, some indications of the theory such as the approximation of the population and the prediction over probability to have enough basis resources seem hypothetical.

It is not easy to judge the economical life of Easter Island population as well as the effects on the natural resources by considering a single aspect. The evidence may lack sufficient basis over the economical life. Economic status is the main influence over other human activities such as political eminences, peoples attitudes and social existence.

The damages on Easter Island were catastrophic but the writer only focuses on the human negative activities. Various factors would have catalyzed people to obliterate the forests or other ecologically related aspects to cause the destruction. Natural catastrophes can equally damage a countrys civilization.

Even if people destroyed the Island as the writer claims, there is a high probability that they never realized the consequences because their low level of development, considering the time possibly influenced the activities as opposed to their conscious mind.

The social-political or economical system in existence then is not accurate or definite; therefore, they might have reacted as part of nature. Does it mean that implications over existence of dry land or desert where it used to be a sea or a tropical forest always befall the people who live nearby? It is not possible to predict the future or analyze the past base on one important economical factor.

There is a wide difference in the level of development; therefore, the prediction of a similar future regarding the fall of civilization is not eminent or logical.

There is a close connection of countries today and thus the characteristic or growth of civilization. Advancement in technology can allow destruction of the world in a couple of days but civilization does not permit. People need to learn from the history of such civilization as the writer specifies but the probability of the fall is almost zero.

References

Diamond, J. (1995) Easter Islands End. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from
Http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html

Introduction

The themes of innocence and/or experience come out clearly in A good man is Hard to Find by OConnor, Salvation by Hughes, A&P by Updike and Advice to My Son by Meinke.

The characters in these three stories portray innocence while the theme of experience stands out conspicuously in the poem. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, grandmother shows innocence for she has blind faith and she considers everyone a good man. Sammy in A&P shows a lot of innocence as he struggles to handle his feelings towards some scantily dressed young women.

Langstons innocence leads him to give up on his faith in Salvation while on the other side; Meinke shows experience as he gives, Advice to His (My) Son. The characters in these three stories portray the theme of innocence whilst the narrator in the poem portrays the theme of experience.

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother exhibits innocence of a small child. She simply believes everyone is a good man without questioning his or her goodness. After Red Sammy questions why he has allowed some strangers to bill their gasoline, grandmother says, you did it because you are a good man (OConnor 30).

Simply because Red Sammy allowed two strangers to bill their gasoline, grandmother calls him a good man; this is innocence mixed with gullibility. When she recognizes Misfit and says that he cannot shoot a woman, the grandmother brands him, a good man and calls him one of my own children (OConnor 33).

Due to the grandmothers innocence, she believes Misfit is a good man and thinks that he qualifies to be one of her children simply because he would not shoot a woman and he believes in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, her innocence turns fatal when Misfit shoots her dead. Grandmothers actions are driven by her innocence as OConnor brings out this theme.

In A&P, Sammy is very innocent. Due to his innocence, he allows the three girls to enter the grocery even though they are appareled for the beach; something not allowed in this grocery. After the general manager of the grocery reproves the women because of their dressing, Sammy feels embarrassed, removes his apron, and resigns immediately. He says, &but remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside (Updike Para. 7).

He innocently sympathizes with these girls for no good reason to an extent of feeling scrunchy. He runs out expecting that the three women would sympathize with him only to find they are gone. All these events underline Sammys innocence. The fact that Sammy is willing to quit his job because he feels his friends have been mistreated, highlights how innocent he is with feelings concerning women.

Hughes in Salvation presents a rare case of innocence. When Langston hears about Jesus sermon on the mountain, he takes it literally without knowing Jesus used metaphors. Auntie Reed tells him, when you were saved you saw a light, and something happened to your insides (Hughes Para. 5). Due to his innocence, Hughes expects to see light and feel something; he believed this because, hitherto he had heard, a great many old people say the same thing (Hughes Para. 6).

The fact that Hughes took what he heard literally and believed because he had heard many people say such things in the past underpins his innocence. To cap it all, he finally gives up in believing Jesus because he cannot hear anything in his insides or see any light as Auntie Reed said. The theme of innocence comes out clearly here because Hughes cannot figure out what salvation really means if he cannot literally see what he hears from the adults.

Finally, Meinke as he advises his son portrays the theme of experience. He starts by saying, live your days/ as if each one may be your last (Meinke line 1-2). From experience, Meinke knows that the only time a person has is now; yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never be; therefore, it makes logic to live life now.

However, from experience he knows that tomorrow may come and to be on the safe side, one has to plan and he says, But at the same time, plan long range (Meinke line 5). He has experience to let his son know that there is need to plan for future. Finally, tells his son, &marry a pretty girl/ after seeing her mother (Meinke line 17-18). From experience, Meinke knows that girls take after their mothers and these three statements portray experience in the poem.

Conclusion

The characters in A good man is Hard to Find, Salvation, A&P portray the theme of innocence clearly. The grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find, due to her innocence believes that everyone is a good man because of what he or she does now. Sammy in A&P resigns because he innocently believes that his boss has mistreated the three scantily dressed women.

Hughes in Salvation disowns his faith because he does not see or experience the things that his auntie had associated with salvation. He innocently pronounces Jesus for what people say does not happen like seeing light when someone is saved. Finally, Meinke in Advice to My Son shows the theme of experience. From experience he knows that girls take after their mothers hence advises his son to a girl after seeing her mother.

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. Salvation. Strange Fires. N.d. Web.
<http://www.spiritwatch.org/firelangsave.htm>

Meinke, Peter. Advice to My Son. 2006. Web.

OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. Asals, Fredrick. (ed). New York; The State University, 1993.

Updike, John. A&P. N.d. Web.
<http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/>

Compare and Contrast

Conundrum is a true story of Jan Morris hitherto known as James Morris. This transsexual realized that he was not meant to be a man. She says, I was three or perhaps four years old when I realized that I had been born into the wrong body, and should really be a girl (1).

James Morris; the man, underwent surgery to become Jan Morris; the woman. On the other hand, Twelfth Night is a movie based on Shakespeares play by the same name. In this play, Viola a woman masquerades as a man, Cesario to enter in a service that she really wanted to get involved. This is only a play.

Comparison

Twelfth Night compares strongly to a Conundrum. Both are stories of gender change. In Conundrum, James Morris realized that, even though he had been born as a boy, he felt like a woman from deep within. Genetically and phenotypically, James was male; however, he knew that he was a female.

He says, To me gender is not physical at all, but is altogether insubstantial; it is soul, perhaps, it is talent it is the essentialness of oneself (25). After consulting with many medical doctors, his dream finally came true and after a successful surgery, James Morris became Jan Morris, a female. This did not stop her from pursuing her dreams and today she is a successful journalist.

On the other side, Twelfth Night talks of a woman, Viola acting as Cesario who masquerades as a man. She fools many people in the play that she is a man until the final stages of the movie when she reveals her identity. Throughout the play, viola is only known as a man; actually, Olivia falls in love with her.

Both Conundrum and Twelfth Night talk about the same thing, change of gender. In both cases, there is change of gender from either male to female or female to male.

Contrast

Even though these two stories major on the issue of gender change, there are outstanding differences between them. First, in Conundrum, a man changes permanently into a woman; that is, James Morris becomes Jan Morris. On the other hand, in Twelfth Night, a woman disguises to be a man and people believe it for a long time. While in Twelfth Night gender change is temporal, in Conundrum this change is permanent.

Twelfth Night is fiction but Conundrum is a reality. The motives behind the change of gender in these two stories are different. While Viola masquerades as a man for protection and to enter Dukes service, James Morris undergoes operation to become a female because he knows that he was born a woman.

Role in Society

The role of these stories in society is profound. Starting with the fiction part of it, it is educative and entertaining. It appreciates the fact that there are situations when a woman can disguise as a man to achieve a certain purpose. On its part, Conundrum, a real story, is an awakening call.

It plays a main role in letting those people who feel that they were born in the wrong body to come out in public, say it and take the necessary steps towards self-realization and freedom. Just like James Morris, such people yearning for, liberation, or reconciliationto live as myself, to clothe myself in a more proper body, and achieve Identity at last (104) can finally have it.

Works Cited

Gorrie, John, Twelfth Night. DVD. Buena Vista International. 1980.

Morris, Jay. Conundrum. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.

Monograph Paper

From historical times, women have been at the center of attention for one reason or another. This monograph paper examines two women-based studies dealing with historical women issues. The two books analyzed here are, Arnt I a Woman by Deborah Gray White, and Plantation Mistresses, by Catherine Clinton. The two books talk of women suffering; however, the women in Deborah Whites book suffered and faced more challenges and difficulties than those in Clintons book.

Arnt I a Woman

In the history of slavery, especially North American slavery, a particular group of people suffered the greatest deplorable situations and that is African-American slave women. Despite this group standing out courtesy to its great suffering, many historians chose to focus on their male counterparts who did not suffer greatly as the women did. This fact might have led Deborah White to come up with this masterpiece.

To cap it, Deborah makes it clear that, men played the dominant role in slave society&Most recently light has finally begun to be shed on women. Emphasis of recent literature on slavery has been on negating Samboism (White 21-22). The thesis revolves around exploring the female slavery, bringing to light the challenges that these people went through at the same time demystifying long held flawed notions that society has come to accept about female slavery.

From the flawed notion that women were out to get a lover, everyone down looked women. White posits that, Slavery is terrible for men: but it is far more terrible for women (White 62). Women slaves did a lot of work just like any other slave; moreover, they had to face the challenge of bearing children, facing overcoming biting challenges that come with motherhood.

Bearing children was not a choice as many people think; no, it was a requirement from the masters so that there would be sustainable labor force throughout. Moreover, there was the ever present challenge of sexual abuse as White indicates that, From the very beginning of a womans enslavement she had to cope with sexual abuse, abuse made legitimate by the conventional wisdom that black women were promiscuous Jezebels (White 89).

As girls entered their teenage, they had to stay close to their mothers and other women to learn how to handle issues in slavery world. By late teenage, one was expected to give birth and if she could not bear children due to one reason or the other, she would be sold to other slave owners.

Barrenness destroys the ego of a woman; however, in addition to her broken and shattered personality, a barren woman had to face the challenge of living away from her relatives. This was more than brutality; it was suicidal. By robbing a barren woman, what she had; that is, a family to lean on, was tantamount to terminating her life.

A typical woman had to work in the fields like her male counterpart, cook, and take care of her family. Additionally, she had to protect her family because the husbands could not become defensive for fear of victimization on grounds of rebellion. It is unbelievable that women had to work even whilst pregnant.

White posits that, They were the only women in America who were sexually exploited with impunity, stripped and whipped with a lash, and worked like oxen (White 132). Despite these challenges, these women still endured to see the light of abolishment of slave trade as the Civil war commenced.

Plantation Mistresses

This masterpiece serves as a link between the blemished notions about southern white women and the reality or at least logical explanation of how these people were. Clinton focuses on elite women, married to plantation and slave owners in the South. Despite the fact, that many people assumed that these women lived good life by virtue of being wives of slave owners, Clinton posits that, These women were merely prisoners in disguise (Clinton 109). They encountered the abomination of slavery sometimes suffering like slaves.

These women lived isolated and restricted lives; they could not study as they were expected to remain back home to look after children and manage homes. Theirs was a life full of untold loneliness and probably this is what led many to laudanum addiction.

However indirectly, slavery affected these women as Clinton posits that, Patriarchy was the bedrock upon which the slave society was founded, and slavery exaggerated the pattern of subjugation that patriarchy had established (Clinton 6). This implies that women were there to be seen not to be heard and this amounted to slavery.

They lost their ability to make decisions concerning their lives. This ensured that a woman remained as securely bound to the land as her husbands other property&Every woman was an island, isolated unto herself (Clinton 179). Clintons argument is that plantation mistresses remained incapacitated dupes of the mythos of their culture and finesse that plantation owners developed.

Conclusion

These two groups of women suffered oppression and had to deal with different challenges. However, Women in Deborah Whites work suffered greater challenges and difficulties than women in Catherine Clintons work. The fact that the former were slaves whilst the former were wives to slave owners qualifies this conclusion supporting the thesis at the beginning of the paper that, the women in Deborah Whites book suffered and faced more challenges and difficulties than those in Clintons book.

Works Cited

Clinton, Catherine. The Plantation Mistress: Womans World in the Old South. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.

White, Deborah. Arnt I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc. 1999.

The novel is set in a mental hospital during the 1960s and it mainly focuses on the characters of Randle Patrick McMurphy, Nurse Ratched and Chief Bromden who is the narrator of the story. The plot of the story focuses on the antics of McMurphy who tries to thwart the efforts of the head of the ward, Nurse Ratched, when he is transferred to her ward.

The novel reveals the fact that he was a master gambler before being admitted to the mental hospital. He conned his way into the mental institution so as to reduce his prison sentence. Nurse Ratched runs the ward in tyrannical way with three other day shift orderlies.

Randle Patrick McMurphy who is the hero of the story is a rebellious convict sent to the mental hospital from a prison to serve out the rest of his sentence. He was sentenced to a prison farm after being charged with gambling and assault. On his arrival, he disrupts the normal routines of the ward and its patients as well as the staff that includes the tyrannical Nurse Ratched with his rowdiness.

He mocks the wards policies set by Nurse Ratched and he jokes about her with the other mental patients in the ward. The other patients are however terrified of joking about Nurse Ratched. McMurphy decides to place a bet with the other patients that he can be able to break her in one week. He manages to do this by making fun of Nurse Ratched every time she is near by making snide comments or joking about her body weight.

In an attempt to change the wards policies, McMurphy convinces the ward patients that they should vote to change the TV viewing times. The male patients adamant to follow McMurphys plan which makes him to force the vote on them. Nurse Ratchfed does not however accept their vote which leads McMurphy and the male patients to watch the television anyway regardless of the fact that nothing is showing.

He also goes ahead with organizing for a deep sea fishing trip as part of his plan to break the Nurses guard. McMurphy does all these things at first to win the bets he has made with the other patients but his attention is drawn to fighting for their rights because they cannot stand up for themselves.

McMurphys other indiscretions involve bribing a night orderly so that he can break into the pharmacy to steal medication. He also smuggles into the ward two prostitutes and bottles of liquor. McMurphy persuades one of the prostitutes to seduce Billy Bibbit so that he can loose his virginity to her. Billy is a timid man who stutters a lot and happens to be very shy around women. McMurphy ends up throwing a party in the ward that turns out to be a messy affair.

They forget to clean the mess up before the morning crew arrives because they all fell asleep. The staff find the mess in the ward and notify Nurse Ratched who goes round the ward and finds Billy with the prostitutes partially clothed in his arms. Nurse Ratched admonishes Billy for his behavior which in turn leads to Billy standing up to himself for the first time.

Nurse Ratched is however not fazed by his sudden confidence as she threatens to tell his mother of what he did with the prostitutes. The nurses reaction causes Billy to have a nervous breakdown. He is escorted to the doctors office where he commits suicide.

The nurse blames McMurphy for Billys death but he does not take her accusations lying down. He violently attacks Ratched and tries to strangle her to death but the orderlies pull him off of her and drag him away to the disturbed ward to be lobotomized before he is returned to the ward.

The nurse sustains serious injuries during the physical attack which makes her miss one week of work. During her time away, many of the patients in Ratcheds ward move to other wards in the hospital while others decide to check themselves out. When she returns, she is unable to speak making it difficult for her to keep the remaining patients in the ward to tow the line.

McMurphy is returned to the ward after having a cruel lobotomy procedure performed on him that has left him motionless and still. After seeing what has happened to McMurphy, the remaining patients leave the ward and hospital because they do not want the same fate befalling them. Chief Bromden who is McMurphys close friend in the ward eventually kills him by smothering him with a pillow.

The narrator of the story is Chief Bromden because McMurphys story is told through his eyes. Bromden was admitted to the hospital because he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a condition that made him interpret his surroundings to be nothing more than literal metaphors.

An example was when he tried to escape from the real world by sinking into a mental stupor. He is referred to as chief because he came from a reservation in Canada that was operated by his father. Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb, an act which is believed by many of the staff and patients until McMurphy arrives.

McMurphy and Bromden become good friends which leads the chief to confide in McMurphy that he can actually hear what people are saying and speak. So as to make the male patients loose their current inhibitions, McMurphy organizes a fishing trip for Chief and the other patients in the ward so that they can do things that they normally were not allowed to do by Nurse Ratched and the other orderlies.

At some point during his many run-ins with the head nurse, McMurphy lands himself and Chief Bromden into a shock therapy session after getting into a fight with the black orderlies. Bromden decides to end McMurphys life because the lobotomy makes him to be still and lifeless. He kills McMurphy by smothering him with a pillow after which he breaks a window with a shower control panel, escaping back to the reservation in Canada.

Portrayal of the Characters in the Film One flew over the Cuckoos Nest

The film was a 1975 adaptation of the novel written in 1962 by Ken Kessey. The movie follows the same script in the novel with the same characters and names being used in the movie. The main character Randle Patrick Murphy is portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the movie while Chief Bromden is acted by Will Sampson.

The character of Nurse Ratched is portrayed by Louise Fletcher. The movie focuses on Randle McMurphy who is sentenced to a prison farm for statutory rape. He is however transferred to a mental hospital because of a ploy he devised to evade hard labor in the prison farm. He uses the excuse that he is anti authoritarian and non conformist who has a history of violence but does not show any symptoms of mental illness.

In the movie, Nurse Ratched is depicted as a calm but unyielding tyrannical woman who suppresses the wards patients from speaking and breaking down up by punishing errant patients with humiliation, dangerous shock therapies, lobotomy and mind numbing daily routines.

When McMurphy arrives in the mental hospital, he finds that the patients most of whom are middle aged male patients are being kept under an institutionalized environment that shifts their focus on becoming functional and normal members of the society.

The patients that McMurphy befriends in the hospital are Billy Bibbit, a timid and shy person who suffers sever stuttering whose character is acted by Brad Dourif, Charlie Cheswick who has a disposition to sudden fits of temper and whose role was played by Sydney Lassick in the movie.

Other patients in the film are Martini played by Danny Devito, Dale Harding played by William Redfield and Chief Bromden Played by Will Sampson. Many of the patients and staff at the hospital belief Chief Bromden is both deaf and dumb. They mostly ignore him because of this but they respect him because of his 6 feet inch height and size.

At first McMurphys efforts towards Nurse Ratched are geared towards amusement for himself and the other patients in the ward but they soon become geared towards making her loosen control over the ward. McMurphy is seen in the movie gambling and playing cards with the other patients but is soon discovered by Nurse who confiscates the cigarettes.

She also ensures that their leisure time is rationed and the amount of time for TV viewing is limited. McMurphy reacts by calling for a vote that will see the policies being used in the ward facing some change. He does this so that he and the other patients can be allowed to watch the World Series baseball game.

He unsuccessfully places a bet with the patients that he can break out of the hospital by trying to lift a heavy hydrotherapy console that is still attached to the floor to break a nearby window. McMurphy organizes a deep sea fishing trip so as to improve the patients moral and self esteem which is low because of Ratcheds tyrannical control over them. They jump over the institutions fence and steal a school bus.

This scene is seen to be the only part that has been filmed outside of the hospital during the whole course of the movie. After the trip, McMurphy realizes that Ratched has the authority to keep him locked up in the ward for an indefinite period of time against his will after she discovers he escaped from the asylum with other patients in the ward.

Nurse Ratched does not punish McMurphy and the other escapees for their deep sea fishing trip. She however increases her control over the ward to try and suppress the slowly liberated male patients. McMurphy blames the other patients for failing to inform him of Ratcheds firm control in the institution and what she is capable of doing to any of the patients should they go against her orders.

He also learns that the patients other than himself, Chief Bromden and Taber played by Christopher Lloyd have voluntarily committed themselves into the mental asylum.

McMurhpy, Cheswick and Chief are detained for electroconvulsive therapy after they engage in a fight with the institutions orderlies. McMurphy and Chief have to wait for their turn as Cheswick undergoes the medical procedure. While they are waiting, he offers Chief a piece of gum to which he tells him thanks.

This leaves McMurhpy in shock because he thought that the tall man was deaf and could not talk. They later engage in a conversation where McMurphy discovers that Chief shares his distaste for the hospital and Nurse Ratched but he opts to keep quiet to avoid any confrontations with the nurse or the orderlies.

The two become good friends and Chief becomes McMurphys close confidant in the mental asylum. After the electroshock therapy session, McMurphy walks stiffly back to the ward assuring his friends that the therapy did not affect him in any way. He continues with his plans to throw Nurse Ratched from the ward by inviting Candy and her friend Rose to the hospital.

He sneaks them in through a window after bribing the night watchman, Mr. Turkle, to look the other way. A party is soon underway in the ward with Billy, who is known to be shy and awkward around women, flirting with Candy. Billy eventually ends up in a private room with Candy after being convinced by McMurphy.

McMurphy, Chief and the other patients in the ward all pass out after a night of heavy drinking. They forget to clean up the ward and the mess is discovered in the morning by nurse Ratched. She finds Billy with Candy and confronts him about his behavior to which he confidently says that he is not.

The nurse threatens to tell Billys mother to which he panics and has a nervous breakdown. He later kills himself in the doctors office by cutting his throat with a knife. McMurphy reacts to his death by trying to choke Ratched to death until an orderly knocks him down.

He is escorted away only to be returned later in the night under a state of unconsciousness. Chief Bromden on closer examination of his friend notes that he has been lobotomized. Because he cannot accept his friend living in that vegetative state, Chief smothers him with a pillow thereby ending his life. He then uses the hydrotherapy console that McMurphy tried to use before to escape from the hospital. He breaks through the grated window and climbs down. The movie ends with a shot of him running away into the distance.

Desert Solitaire, a phenomenal book by Edward Abbey starts at the Canyonlands National Park, located in Utah. In this desert, there lies Abbeys home base where he lived for three different seasons travelling and relishing the expanse land together with other activities like scouting, cleaning the environment and generally taking part in almost every activity that happened in the world surrounding him.

However, taking a scrutiny into the book, one realizes that Abbey is not talking of desert; no, he is only using it as a medium rather than a material.

For instance, Abbey says, Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here in the desert by the comparative scarcity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in sparseness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock.

The extreme clarity of the desert light is equalled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom (26).

In this context, desert simplifies the life that a coterie of some people live in America today. In the society today, we have different classes of people and they live different lifestyles. For instance, there is the affluent class, the middle class and the poor class. In this case, desert simplifies the affluent class.

This fragment from page 26 of Abbeys work opens up by emphasizing on the unfamiliarity and marvel of life in the affluent habitations. What strikes the writer most about this life is the scarcity of life in this area. Apparently, life in this region is not herded as in other places.

True to Abbeys observation, there are no many people in the flush areas. This comes from the fact that, not many people are wealthy. The rich form only a small group of people compared to the whole population of a place. In ghettos and shanties where the poor languish in poverty, people are many and crowded. The simplicity and scattered nature that Abbey observes in this desert, is conspicuously lacking in ghettos. This may explain why Abbey uses the word comparative in the excerpt quoted above.

In addition, Abbey notes the gift of space that the rich enjoy in this desert such that each of the people stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock (26). The lifeless sand and barren rock here simplifies the common person and the poor who have no produce in terms of wealth.

Towards the end of this excerpt, Abbey says that love flowers best in openness and freedom (26). For sure in crowded regions, there is no openness therefore restricting peoples freedom. However, in the desert, freedom and openness are paramount and this comes with wealth. Therefore, it is clearly now that, Abbey uses desert not as a material but as a medium.

He uses desert figuratively to signify the affluence that some people enjoy in this life. Literary, desert is a place set apart and only few plants and animal life can survive the harsh conditions that thrive there. Likewise, affluence is a life set apart for few people where not everyone can live the life that they live.

To cap it all, in the introductory part Abbey says, &what I write about in this book is already gone or going under fast (xiv). These things are happening right now in the American society.

Works Cited

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York, 1968.