Five-pointed star

I chose the book Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley. Earley had been an award-winning journalist for thirty years and written about America’s criminal justice system but always from the “outside looking in” (p. 1). That all changed, however, when his son Mike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The central theme of Crazy is chronicling Earley’s year-long investigation into the de-institutionalization and ensuing criminalization of the mentally ill…

A Review on Freedom From Fear Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, by David M. Kennedy, is a historical work that describes the era of war and depression throughout the nineteenth century. David M. Kennedy is an prize-winning historian who specializes in American History. His work mainly focuses on depression and wartime America, and this book, Freedom From Fear, is what he is mostly known for, which he received Pulitzer Prize for History for writing it. The…

Context: The Gilded Age (1870s-1900) was a time of rapid industrial expansion in the United Sates, especially in the North and West. The Rise of Industrialism led to many natural resources and a strong work force for both skilled and unskilled workers, woman, and African Americans. Railroads were the biggest industry, and the importance in factory system, mining, and finance also increased. In the agriculture industries farms were growing more than ever and land was very cheap. Many…

Why is going to hospitals are always kind of a bad experience? I do not think going to hospitals frequently is a good idea. Is it good to know we have a problem? All hospitals have the same images: a smell of alcohol, doctors and nurses wearing almost the same uniform, and babies crying. It is a kind of sacrifice to go to hospitals and feel like you are in trouble because of your health condition. Also, although we have to visit doctor’s office constantly, I do not like it. Because of that, I…

On October 31st, 1517, a German, Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther made public his critiques of the Roman Catholic Church in a document called “Ninety-Five Theses”. From this document, came three more pamphlets criticizes the authority and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, “including the papacy, as corrupt and immoral, and questioned its right to rule over Christians and interpret Holy Scripture” (Carter and Warren, 75). As you can tell, Luther threw some pretty hefty accusations…

The Time I Got Stitches The worst thing that’s happened to me in my life was the time I had to get stitches. It was the summer of 2012. The weather was warm, but the wind was blazing. My cousin and I, who happened to live next door to each other in our old apartments were playing volleyball in the middle of the street, while our family were in the house hanging out. The ball we used was not hard so it could move with the wind. There were another set of apartments which everyone called the…

The Optics of Life, Death, and War The perspective of a novel is pertinent for understanding its theme and purpose. It is revealed early on in Slaughterhouse-Five that different perspectives contribute to the novel’s meaning. Upon introducing Billy Pilgrim’s character, Vonnegut identifies the protagonist’s profession as an optometrist and also emphasizes his career’s importance to the story, stating that “Ilium is a particularly good city for optometrists” (Vonnegut 24). The phenomenon of…

Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the reader gets a unique insight on the life and experience of Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim has gone through unspeakable things. There are three major aspects of Billy Pilgrim’s life that perfectly represent his experience in isolation, and how, or how not it was able to connect him with others. His experiences in the slaughterhouse, on Tralfamadorian, and with his son all answer this very peculiar question. When looking at the question itself, it…

“War” the amount of power behind this non important word is immense.This world does not know how brutal war can be; it can completely shatter a person's mental status. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut does not only write about the history through his life and the Dresden bombing, but more about the impact it made on Billy, a former soldier who fought in the war. Vonnegut sorts out the rhetorical devices proper such as repetition, hyperboles, metaphors and other rhetorical devices to help give a…

The Protestant and English reformation were both reforms that took place in the 16th century against the Roman Catholic Church. Comparatively these reformations are alike and different in some sense. For example, both of these reforms were led by two leaders and went against the church’s beliefs for different purposes. King Henry VIII went against the church for personal reasons, whilst Martin Luther did so because the church could not offer him salvation amongst other reasons. Martin…