Ang Lee

Jack and Diane is a 1982 single off of the album American Fool by John Mellencamp, then going by the name John Cougar. The song is in the genre of Heartland rock, which was pioneered by Mellencamp, along with Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger. The genre is characterized by songs that concern average blue collar American life and often carry a social message. Mellencamp grew up in Indiana, which is why many of his songs mention the Heartland (American Midwest). He is known for other hits such as “Hurt so good”, “Small town”, and Crumblin’ down”. Many of his songs contain social messages and he has been critical of the Bush administration and has spoken in support of legalizing same sex marriage. (Official website) The song exemplifies heteronormativity.(Witt, 299) With lyrics like “Two American kids growing up in the Heartland” and “suckin’ on chili dogs outside the Tastee Freeze” it is clear Mellencamp intended for listeners to see Jack and Diane as the typical teenage American couple. By making the couple represent the average or what is normal and having them be a heterosexual couple it might be argued that the song makes other sexual orientations seem abnormal or like they are deviating from the norm. It should be noted the Mellencamp chose to write this way, not because he thinks alternative sexual orientations are wrong, in fact he has spoken in support of gay rights, but because it is a perspective that is easier for him to write about and relate to, it is…

The short story, Brokeback Mountain written by Annie Proulx, begins in the summer of 1963. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist get paired together that summer to herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain. Ennis Del Mar is the main character and narrates the book. Ennis describes him and Jack as, "high school dropout country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough-mannered, rough-spoken, inured to the stoic life." (Proulx 3) One night on the mountain their relationship led to…

Danger of Conformity in Brokeback Mountain and All Souls A young Trump-supporter is helplessly skedaddling away from a crowd of Trump-protesters, whose back of head is spilling blood, and the crowd is hounding him in hot pursuit. When a reporter asks Trump-protesters why they ignite Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps, she receives responses of cursing Donald Trump without reasonable explanations. The election has ended, but the protests persist; some of the rallies are evolving into…

“It is a sin to kill a Mockingbird”. This means that is a sin to ruin something, or someone that is innocent, that does no harm, or just does there best to help everyone. This metaphor applies to everyone, and everywhere as in any community, anywhere there will be people and things uncorrupted by the world, and in most every case there innocence is lost in the process of life. This metaphor is used a lot in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, By Harper Lee. Sometimes, it is meant literally in the…

She is the reason that Poe has wrote the poem and is the main focus of the whole poem. Poe never really gives us any details about Annabel Lee herself; she doesn’t talk and we don’t really know what she looks like so this allows the reader to characterize Annabel Lee however they see fit. Also, this could be the poet’s way of showing that she is perfect in his eyes and is made of pure beauty. Annabel Lee is first mentioned in line 4 when the poet refers to her as a “maiden,” which almost makes…

individual can look at a situation in an unorthodox perspective, their position can be altered. This concept is presented in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Lee displays varying perspectives on a court case between a black man and a white family. Atticus Finch, the lawyer appointed to the case, changed the perspectives and beliefs of individuals regarding equality, by getting them to look past the promoted beliefs of society. The majority of Maycomb residents see themselves…

Harper Lee was born in Alabama in 1926. She was the youngest of four and considered herself a tomboy (similar to Scout). Her mother suffered from a mental illness and rarely left the house (similar to Boo Radley). Lee studied law (similar to atticus) and then published To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 during the Civil Rights Movement. Her novel went on to win the Pulitzer Prize a year later. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the social and gender inequalities are the main issues. Lee approaches…

Recently, I have had the literary privilege of reading two great novels, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Go Set a Watchman, both by the renowned Harper Lee. In my reflection of reading these two stories, I viewed one as an innocent example and the other as a wake up call to reality. I agree that the character of Atticus Finch has indeed been added value to – in some ways that most people would not prefer. The fact is, he is the same person in both stories, only to be distinguished by the…

This paternalistic theme continues in Lee’s work. This time, Lee denounces Northern liberalism. When Scout starts first grade she meets Miss Caroline, her new teacher who is implemented a new method of teaching that Jem incorrectly calls the Dewey Decimal system. While the Dewey Decimal system refers to the library classification, Crispino argues that the new method of teaching Scout is referring to the is the methods taught by John Dewey. Dewey has been described as "a philosopher who combined…

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay The film, To Kill a Mockingbird, confronts many intercultural conflicts. The story depicts the people of Maycomb County to be very ethnocentric. A majority of its inhabitants believe that white people are superior to black and the rich are superior to the poor. This becomes a very prominent barrier that prevents many people from trying to see things from another’s perspective. Many of the town’s residents contain a strong hold onto their traditional beliefs, in…