James D. Houston

Somber, cheerless, regressive; typical personalities of rural Irish. In“Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics”, Nancy Scheper- Hughes, discovered a great amount of revelations. From questioning mental illness to making connections in human behavior, Scheper- Hughes’ discoveries of rural Irish were controversial to say the least. While some of her discoveries were easy to fathom, others such as the similarities in personalities were not. Due to the fact that I was raised in a diverse and…

Albert Einstein blossomed with the knowledge that “[s]olitude which is painful in youth, [is] delicious in the years of maturity” (Babauta). The term solitude is a diversion for the traditional definition of isolation, it added a favorable approach which initiated the gratification of being alone and the beneficial outcomes it has to offer. Gabriel García Márquez also reckoned with the idea that solitude can contain contrasting perspectives. Márquez was a famous magical realism author from…

Life’s Cruel Practical Jokes I wish I knew my grandfather as people want me to know him. Everyone pictures my grandfather in his prime. People tell me that my grandfather became an accomplished professor and chemist. Time and time again, others said to me that he built his art creations using science. Pictures shoved in my face tell me of the years my grandfather and my grandmother traveled the world. “When I headed off to college, he built my shelves by hand! Everything he did, he did…

In 1988 Paul Barber published Vampires, Burial and Death, which is probably the most extensive and influential of the new scholarship concerning vampires that came out of the late twentieth century. He sought to demystify the vampire all the while not completely discrediting the sources, just explaining what they saw scientifically. He makes the wonderful analogy of Copernicus’ epicycles, a logical and reasonable—albeit wrong- way of explaining a natural phenomenon. Barber goes to great length…

Mary Shelley and Ann Radcliff, both write in the Gothic Romantic genre which give rise to the theme fear by their means of execution. The theme of fear presented in Mary Shelley’ story Frankenstein shows the readers the deep meanings behind human nature. The story of Frankenstein also projects the theme of fear to give rise to human emotions and attentions. Ann Radcliff, the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho uses the theme fear to project the elements of human psychology and to engage her…

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, remains an influential piece of gothic literature utilized and widely studied in today’s society for its intricate writings. This chilling novel, inspired by a time of scientific advancement and misogynistic practices, contains various similarities to other literary works and theories. Various components of Frankenstein connect to the feminist theory, the Genesis creation story, and the Prometheus creation story through themes expressing…

Gender in Frankenstein In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells the terrifying tale of Victor Frankenstein whose fascination with Science leads to his constructing of a frightening monster. The novel goes through Victor’s journey from making the monster to realizing the horror he has unleashed into the world. However, there is much more to this story than the aspect of terror. Upon first glance, there seems to be an unequal dichotomy of men and women throughout the novel. The few female…

In “Portrait of My Mother” by Phillip Evergood, the artist uses both value and shape as well as proportion and gradation to illustrate the beauty of his mother while she was in physical pain in the last days of her life. Evergood, born in 1901 and died in 1973, began this work while his mother was dying in a hospital and subsequently completed it after her death. The portrait is oil on canvas and panel, and is a featured work in Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas. Furthermore, Evergood uses…

To better comprehend the nature of monsters two authors, take on different perspectives of monster culture. Stephan T. Asma demonstrates the personal experience of monsters in his piece “Extraordinary Beings.” While Scott Poole takes on the more educational stance in his piece “Monstrous Beginnings.” These two pieces are examples of presenting critical thinking through an emotional appeal to monster theory while providing logic to overall educate the reader on monster culture. The two authors…

Commonalities between characters The biggest commonality between characters is the love interest between Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne, and Rachel. Throughout the film, a love triangle was formed between the three characters. Officially, Dent was with Rachel, even though Bruce expressed his love to Rachel. As they all shared this commonality, they also all expressed their love for one another. In the warehouse scene, Rachel and Dent discuss their love for one another and their plans of marriage…