Jab

The Age of Enlightenment was a time where major breakthroughs in the Scientific Revolution had led to a more intellectual endeavor on a public scale in society where, most notably in Western Europe, many individuals are in the pursuit of new knowledge obtained by the use of deductive reasoning as well as new scientific discoveries. A group of these free thinking intellectuals in France were titled the philosphes, people who applied reason to the study of areas of learning such as science,…

Marie De France’s uncanny, whimsically lai “Lanval” satirically challenges and reverses the themes of love through stereotypical gender roles, which are unique and romanticized to traditions of the 12th century. Women for eternity have been rendered as beautiful, physical objects, who where inferior to men, and needed nothing more then a body. Marie De France depicted these same stereotypes in her writing but just in a reverse methodology. She criticizes the stereotypes of women with very…

carefully dressed while her face is described as quite handsome. Emma makes the error of being eavesdropped when she says, "Don 't you think he should be a little blacker?" but our narrator has developed the knack of handling an insult with a reverse jab: "Who is she anyway, Brother Jack 's wife, his girlfriend? Maybe she wants to see me sweat coal tar, ink, shoe polish, graphite. What was I, a man, or a natural resource?" (Ellison 263). Finally, he pulls out in his head the ultimate male tool…

“Best Friend” I sit with my hand clutched at my heart and the other concealing my face while her car drove off with all of our memories with it. As she becomes smaller and smaller, I’m left detached with twilight approaching and the sound of crickets filling the air, I toyed with the idea of bringing her back, but decided against it. I clumsily kick a rock to the other side of the street, watching it fly into the bushes. As darkness overtakes me, recurring thoughts flood my mind and my eyes…

Ronald Reagan begins his historical speech with - ironically - a history, mentioning how he is continuing a presidential tradition of speaking in beautiful Berlin. Very quickly he mentions his motivation for speaking: freedom. To the citizens of Eastern Europe, he gives a special message saying that the city of Berlin should not be divided. The Berlin Wall behind Ronald Reagan at the time of his speech is a glaring symbol of the lack of freedom in Berlin. He goes on to explain that forty years…

There was a long silence in the kingdom. After a minute or so the king looked down at me “Make it quick Francis”. A Lot of things went through my mind then. Should I just stand up to him? What if he is still angry? Will he kill me? I said “Sir after what happened last year I...I...told you not to have a party this year”. “Do you mean when you let that man through into the castle and he killed my wife” Everyone was staring now no one was saying a word. “Sir you know that wasn’t my fault” “You…

Although nearly 200 years apart, both Austen and Shakespeare shared a literary sensitivity to the social customs that made matters of courtship such a trying experience. Pride and Prejudice is a comedy of manners that resembles some of Shakespeare’s own comedies, particularly Much ado About Nothing. As a strong-minded young woman, Elizabeth Bennet seems to enjoy fending off any romantic proposals made by the eligible bachelors that she encounters. Equally headstrong, Mr Darcy seems to enjoy…

On the surface, Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker is the story of the bonds connecting seemingly unrelated people in the aftermath of one man’s traumatic brain injury. Passages regarding the historical significance of cranes in relation to human development, or an anecdote about a hunter killing a father crane, feel trivial. Animal descriptors seem to be used only to compliment Mark Schluter’s primal behaviors post-trauma. Daniel’s beliefs regarding improving the environment seem like a means of…

Pia woke up to a sharp jab into her left side and Delphine right in her face. She had dark skin and luminous, brown eyes. “Wake up, sunshine. Today will be a wonderfully bright day,” she sang. Pia groaned while rolling over. Delphine was a seer, but could only predict the weather and loved to crack jokes about it. “Let’s hope that Zak is bright enough to have this plan work,” Pia said. She sat up and stretched. The sun poured through the window and illuminated her small servant's quarter.…

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story called “Harrison Bergeron” takes place in America, many decades in the future. In this society, everyone is “equal” in all ways. Physical and mental handicaps are given to citizens that otherwise, would have physical or intellectual advantages over other citizens. An Arizona State University professor, Darryl Hattenhauer has an essay titled “The Politics of Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron”. Hattenhauer argues that “Harrison Bergeron” displays America’s delusional…