Fall 2015 History is often only taught but never questioned because of the impossibility to change what has already happened. However, Richard White, the author of “Railroaded” does exactly that, questions transcontinental life in the Gilded Age. White is a well-respected historian and professor from Stanford University who, during the 2007-2008 recession, was inspired to write about the strangely-familiar recessions of our nations past. This book provides great insight regarding the idea of railroads and whether or not such an invention was a good and needed advancement at the time. This paper will analytically criticize, praise and discuss Whites argument, effectiveness and credibility of the railroad industry.…
1491: New revelation of the Americas before Columbus, the non-fiction book argues about the popular image of the Americas before the arrival of columbus, which Charles goes on explaining that is inaccurate, basing his explanation into science such as demographic, climate, vegetation and intelligence. Charles Mann presents a more distinct picture of the life of the pre-Columbian Americas being more advanced, hustled civilization. Mann’s introduction starts with him explaining his airplane ride he took which flew from central Bolivia to east towards the Brazilian border and he writes about the landscape that he and his fellows riders “viewed from above.”…
Journal 2 Response The second journal in The Alternative by Galen Leonhardy explores his various relationships with students, teachers, and parents. Leonhardy discusses personal dilemmas regarding the proper interaction, and reporting of incidents between himself and the students, along with their families. Leonhardy teaches at an alternative school, and most of these students and families have very complex and dark variables in their daily lives. Leonhardy tries to draw on various cultural experiences with the Nez Perce tribe and the movie Schindler's List to bring in lessons of racism and dehumanizing in hopes of enlightening his students on how to better interact with different people.…
The Short Bus, written in in 2007 by Jonathan Mooney, is a story about Jonathan’s journey through the United States one summer, in a short bus. Jonathan, who was labeled as Learning Disabled in school, talks about his experiences with dyslexia and attention problems throughout his schooling experience, and recalls the short bus, used for students with disabilities, and is set out to change the meaning of the “short bus”. Jonathan states that to him, most of his life, the short bus he would see coming down the road was “the symbol of disability and pain” (Mooney, 2007, p.6) in his life. One of his main goals during this journey is to reinvent the word “normal”.…
Running Towards The Truth Would you choose a new car, good job position, and a high quality life or would you choose to give it all up for a journey in the wild to discover the truth? Christopher Johnson McCandless chose ultimate freedom and truth rather than security and material excess. The story Into the Wild is written by Jon Krakauer and it covers how Christopher lived for two years without the need of society and material excess. Chris journey enlightened him to the truth and made him feel the raw throb of existence. By mistaking people as part of society, not as part of God creation and natural will, he suffers and eventually dies.…
Plot Manipulation in Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” In Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” the author deftly manipulates the plot in order to suspend the reader’s disbelief and to keep the reader engaged in the story. The reader, along with what might be described as the soul of Peyton Farquhar (a man hanged by soldiers), is led to believe that Farquhar survives the plunge off of Owl Creek Bridge and the subsequent tightening of the noose. However, as the reader comes to discover by the end of the story, Farquhar does not survive; the events that occur after the fall do not take place in reality. This essay will trace the plot and discuss points where Bierce has manipulated it to achieve this effect.…
In Sarah Ellis's short story, "The Visitors," one of the major themes is: the right decisions have the hardest consequences. One way I am proving this theme is with Katie's two wrong decisions. First is when Katie was not careful with Ellen before the hiking trip. At this time Ellen needed somebody to make sure she was taking care of herself properly. For all that exercise with little food was going to lead to starvation.…
Poverty is a struggle that has been a part of America for several years. There has been different ideas and reasons behind why poverty has continued to be such a tough aspect of society. These articles are a great way to understand the reasons behind poverty. Poverty has and will always be a never-ending cycle for most people in America if the government doesn’t make fixing this problem a priority.…
Anxiety is a story written by James Lincoln Collier about why you should overcome your fears and not let them stop you from living life to the fullest. The thesis of this paper would be “do what makes you anxious; don 't do what makes you depressed.” The author list some very strong main points. He uses smaller ideas of anxiety to break down the thesis, such as this one displays what anxiety is, if you don 't take a chance to do something because you 're scared, you will soon find yourself kicking yourself for missing it. The character experiences a moment of anxiety when his friend as him to go on a trip with him, he says no then not long after he says, “As soon as Ted asked somebody else to go, I began kicking myself.”…
T. Caraghessan Boyle’s story, “Greasy Lake”, is a rite of passage story. This can be seen in the themes throughout the story. The story itself has coinciding themes in it. Right from the beginning the boys are looking for trouble.…
Whoa! I thought I would never like poems. The highwayman sure did change my thoughts about poems. It has so much emotion to it. You can almost feel getting shot like he did.…
Reece Jones, the author of the book Violent Border bring to light the the mass migrations problem going on in the world today. This is not a new issue, it’s been going on for as long as humans have govern or control land or states. Jones sheds light on the issue by letting us the reader read what factors play into the the migration problems and at the end explains his way of fixing or how to work toward a better future. He brings up problems like global poor, and the failure to address climate change , are among others points to be primary factors to this global problem. Let’s explore these concepts.…
The author takes us step by step on the “Yuma 14’s” tragic trek to the United States. We learn what extreme heat and dehydration can do to the human body and the human mind. We learn the lengths that walkers will take to avoid detection by the border agents. And finally we learn how the border agents, the U.S. government, and the Mexican government respond to the thousands of people who risk it all to make it to America.…
The Interlopers By:Saki Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym hated each other because of a feud. The feud was about a lawsuit in the days of their grandfathers. Scandals had damaged the relationship between the families for three generations. The lawsuit was because of a nasty dispute over a piece of land that was claimed by Ulrich’s family.…
At often times, the overbearing reality pushes an individual to escape. In The Wars, Timothy Findley embarks on the idea that a war is more than just a physical battle; it battles emotionally also. Findley emphasizes the development of desiring to escape the harsh reality. The protagonist, Robert Ross goes through this as he develops hardships internally and externally during the first World War. In the beginning of the novel, the distress of losing his sister appear to spark his new desire to escape from reality.…