The book Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer is a collection of stories describing different events in which the U.S. overthrew foreign and oppressive governments, or simply governments that were not beneficial for America. One of the stories he included was America’s annexation of Hawaii, a massive turning point in our country’s history. However, The way Kinzer writes and retells the story is slightly biased towards the side of the Hawaiians. This makes for a story that may change peoples perspectives on an important piece of history. The Majority of the accounts and sources he credits are Hawaiian, and the U.S. is not as well represented in his bibliography.…
Everyone has that one person that they think of when someone asks them who they think a leader is. For me, the person that instantly came to mind was a now junior at my high school named Alex Matz. He referred to exclusively as Matz by anyone who knows him and is one of the most inspiring and great leaders I have ever met. Matz is everything that I have ever looked up to in a leader. He is selfless, caring, disciplined, courageous, and an all around authentic guy amongst many other important qualities.…
Jon Krakauer’s “Into The Wild” is a book that is based on real life events that lead a young man on his own pilgrimage, end up dead in the harsh wilderness of Alaska. But Krakauer’s purpose of this wasn't to focus exactly on the young man’s story but to remark the fact that lots of people have love for the wilderness whether it's to be independent or just because it calls them, including himself. Krakauer wrote the book in an order that makes sense. He started off with Chris McCandless story in chapters 1-7 and then in chapters 8-9 he had analogies to compare McCandless to other folks, and the love they shared with the wilderness that ended up with their death, Krakauer also included his own love for the bush in chapters 14-15 in which…
In chapter 15 page 155, Krakauer shares his feelings about the actions that McCandless made. He reflects how his experience made him realize that humans usually dream about having the weirdest things in life. These dreams don’t usually get accomplished because they are so extreme and we never dream of something that can easily be obtained. However, he notes that there are some that believe that our dreams are waiting for us somewhere and if we never reach that place, we will never achieve our goal. Similar to Chis, they believe that if they escape their society, they will be a step closer to achieving their dreams.…
To me Kurtz was just the chief of the Inner Station and the object of Marlow’s quest. Didn’t give it much thought just a poor man who went mad in the Congo’s. But in the lectures we learned that it was much more than just that. Kurtz was doing more then just trying to make his way up the ranks Kurtz had been trying to bring light in the heart of the darkness he was trying to bring enlightenment into the Congo. Kurtz is an idealist; he proves his worth by helping humanity.…
I saw the play Peter and the Starcatcher, written by Rick Elice, on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. Elice’s comedic play acts as the prequel to J.M. Barrie’s play Peter and Wendy since it gives backstory to the character Peter Pan. Peter and the Starcatcher features the protagonist Peter Pan, originally a nameless orphan, who meets the brave Molly Aster while on a ship. The kids have a run in with Captain Black Stache’s band of pirates as they try to recover a chest filled with the Queen’s treasure. I will go into more detail analyzing the plot, characters, and production of Elice’s play.…
In the novel Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson, a fictional story of an apocalypse fostered by robotic intelligence is unveiled, along with the disastrous domino effect caused by their technological brilliance. Throughout each chapter, Wilson manages to clearly exploit the issues that encompass the constant battle of technology versus human nature. Each chapter contains a divergent collection of characters that specifically detail events from the apocalypse, all deriving from a broad pool of ethnic backgrounds. This book portrays apocalyptic stories from an Afghanistan soldier telling a scarring war story of a destructive SAP robot, to a toddler who has the unattainable ability to speak with toys. The book is well written in terms of ethnic diversity;…
Imagine the perfect city. It’s flourishing, and has lots of money, goods, and bustling markets. Not very many people are homeless and most people are prosperous. Now, all this is broken, ruined, and destroyed. A terrible earthquake and a raging fire demolished most of the San Francisco city.…
In the book "Overthrow" Steven Kinzer breaks down all the invasions and overthrows done by the United States government. By being an author and reporter he has written stories from more than 50 countries on 5 continents which gives him an open view on other nations. Through examples and evidence of numerous invasions throughout history Kinzer is able to portray his argument that "A century of American "regime change" operations has shown that the United States is singularly unsuited to ruling foreign lands" (309). Going battle by battle allows readers to see the buildup of how the United States handles countries they feel the need to fix and be involved in.…
Jon Krakauer writes his book “Into the Wild” in response to the similarities in background that Krakauer and McCandless had. His his Author’s Note, Krakauer writes that he had an urge to write more about McCandless’ story given the “unsettling parallels” the two seemed to have with the events of their lives (ii). The author seems to see a little of himself within McCandless, a young man with admiration of the wilderness. Another reason why Krakauer wrote the book was that the American people felt in touch with the tragic story of McCandless. In the Author’s Note, the author writes that his article for Outside Magazine on Chris generated the most mail than any other article that was published by the magazine.…
Throughout Hollywood’s years they have come up with several war films, some of them very good and some of them very bad. What makes them good and bad depends on the group or individual watching it. Some people like to watch to see how we have evolved as a country and others look to see people die. Though some Hollywood producers provide an accurate depiction of war in an unbiased manner, several glorify war to the extent of romanticizing what should be a serious topic.…
Kurt Vonnegut was a famous author who had experienced different life impacting events in his lifetime. He was born and raised in America but enlisted in the Army and fought in World War II. He had to deal with problems in his childhood that in a way carried on to his adult life. While he was in the Army, he went to war and he had experienced traumatic events. When going through traumatic events, or seeing those around you suffer, you do not forget those moments.…
2. Interpretation 2.1. In-Text The first chapter introduces us to Jim Gallien, a union electrician, is on his way to Anchorage when he stops for a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker introduces himself as Alex from South Dakota, although his real name is Christopher Johnson McCandless and he is from Virginia.…
Jon Krakauer’s “Death of an Innocent” appeared on the Independent’s website on 11 April 1993. Krakauer, an American writer and mountaineer, mainly known for his works about the outdoors, especially mountain climbing has produces yet another amazing news article among numerous others. This specific news article in fact have been the highlight of his writing career as it paved him to write his best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild. After reading “Death of an Innocent” by Krakauer, I have found myself left wondering of the perpetual psyche of Chris McCandless throughout his extreme odysseys. During my reading, I sense that Chris was not an ordinary person who lived according to the preprogrammed dogma of the society.…
Imagine you are boy live in Africa and come from a poor family. Imagine that your father cannot provide for your family and you owe a lot of money to friends and relatives, he has to pay back; moreover, he is not respected at all he has no titles. How would you respond, make a name for yourself, and prove that you are nothing like your father? Okonkwo perfectly fits this description. Written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria and centers the story about Okonkwo when he becomes a man.…