Bruce Jay Friedman

Hostess Baking Company: Never a Full Recovery Hostess Baking Company was founded in 1919 by selling their baked goods in the Continental Baking Co in New York City. Hostess began to succeed in the 1950’s after being exposed on the TV show “Howdy Doody” and has been well known ever since. In 2012, Hostess Baking Company, which is famously known for Twinkies and Wonder Bread filed for bankruptcy. Hostess had already filed for bankruptcy once before this time and had struggled financially for years…

Jefferson’s Sons is a historical fiction novel based on the true events of Thomas Jefferson’s life. Jefferson’s Sons describes the lives of Beverly, Harriet, Maddy, and Eston. These are the illegitimate children of Thomas Jefferson, or as he is called in the book: Master Jefferson. These four children were the sons and daughter of Sally Hemings, a slave on the plantation of Monticello. Sally Hemings is the sister of Martha Wayles, which makes Sally Thomas Jefferson’s sister-in-law. Sally and…

Casablanca, a world renown film with many Academy Awards, was filmed based off of the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s. Casablanca is a movie directed by Michael Curtiz and was released in 1943. Everybody Comes to Rick’s was a play written by Murray Burnette and Joan Alison, written 1940. On the cover of the movie poster, Burnette and Alison are not mentioned. This has become a very controversial topic whether or not Burnette has gotten enough credit. “The play was not produced when the Warner…

Golden glasses of expensive champagne clink as a lavish party roars in the background of the era of an emerging wealth. The 1920’s: a period in which the world, but the young and reckless America especially, struggled to get a grip on what true success and happiness were. Then, there were neither in the 30’s when the Depression smacked the world with harsh reality.W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge follows a young writer (a character named for himself) and the trials of his social…

I saw the 11/30 showing of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”. It was a play about two World War II veterans named Bob Wallace and Phil Davis who meet sisters Betty and Judy Haynes. The four go to rural Vermont where they run into Bob and Phil’s former commander in WWII, General Waverly, who owns an inn but is struggling financially. The four aim to help the General. The show was at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks, a Proscenium theatre. The stagecraft of the play was like most plays I’ve…

Dreams, Challenges, Hardships When people travel to America what is the reason for it, to live a better life, attain money, become something better than how they were etc. The common reason people travel is the ideal aspect for the American dream. In 1931 James Truslow Adams refer the American dream as “life should be better and richer and fuller with opportunity for each accordingly to ability or achievement". In old times that was their dream, leaving home to travel to a new land for an…

Great Gatsby do a great job of depicting these breaking points of main characters Precious and Jay, one of whom seeks life and the other death. The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story focuses on the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsession for Daisy Buchanan. Claireece “Precious” Jones is a 16-year-old…

Many times, the 1920s are referred to as a roaring and prosperous time in America. The country embodied many societal changes and innovations never seen before. Despite great advances, America faced great problems on the homefront. The events of World War I fueled strong nativism for one’s country and the idea that it was possible to revolt against government. Most notably, Russia faced a revolution of their own. In this revolution, communism took hold and its influence began to spread…

Zenith Shrestha Ms. Boyle American Literature 24 March 2017 White A tale of a tragic love story that reflects on the nature of the American Dream – The Great Gatsby is one of author F. Scott Fitzgerald's few novels. Yet it is one filled with allusions and ideas that ring true in society today. The plot of the Great Gatsby takes place after the end of World War I in 1920s New York, a time filled with jazz, glamour, and partying. Nick Carraway, previously a writer, is tired of his life in the…

Robinson Crusoe is a novel that took place about the times of the the 17th century and even earlier. Robinson Crusoe was born into a wealthy family and was born in Great Britain. Robinson Crusoe was widely liked and well respected, but not just to his people, but the whole town that knew of him really enjoyed having him around. Crusoe was always wanting to becoming an explorer that travels the seven seas and tries to make a living out of it. Although his father didn’t approve of it he still…