Leo Kanner

In his book Basic Education, Mahatma Gandhi wrote “I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all” to instill the virtue of truth for the creation of ideal citizens. Gandhi was the torch-bearer of civil rights movements during the age of British imperialism, and through his words and actions, the ideals of nonviolence and peaceful protest continue to this day. Gandhi showed that the actions of one individual can represent the sentiments of inequality and discrimination…

Oscar Wilde’s quote of “It is through disobedience that progress has been made” profoundly relates to the quote “When life puts you in tough situations, don't say “why me” say “try me””. Wilde states that disobedience creates opportunity for social progress; through the multitude of impactful nonviolence protest leaders like David Henry Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, it is crystalline that these memorable figures inspired change through civil disobedience. I firmly agree in…

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.”Elie Wiesel said this in his speech after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. We must know how to take sides to help us be the voice for all of these people that have been silenced due to dehumanization. The Holocaust was a genocide during World War II in which Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany systematically murdered some seven million European Jews.…

Death in Leo Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich and “Three Deaths” Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, author of the acclaimed novels War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich is well-known for applying the theme of death to his works. Tolstoy utilizes distinctive techniques to depict demise contingent upon the social positions of his characters. For instance, in The Death of Ivan Ilyich it is entirely evident that Tolstoy believes there are two types of lives—the artificial and authentic…

Leo Tolstoy pulls no punches when the story of The Death of Ivan Ilyich begins. The revelation that Ivan Ilyich has died was met with dismay and shock for all of the wrong reasons. Colleagues and “friends” became concerned for his death not because of the loss of his life, but for the inconveniences and changes it would cause for them. The lack of sincerity surrounding Ivan became very clear in the opening scenes of the story, and we quickly start to realize that Ivan lived a “false” life.…

Benjamin Franklin once said “[t]hose who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The message Franklin was trying to convey is that liberty is a gift, and it should not be used as a bargaining chip for ones personal desires. His warning to all about the value of vital rights is not just right-wing propaganda, but rather a warning with truth behind it. Throughout history many people have given total devotion to a ruler in hopes…

Romeo and Juliet, a classic that everyone knows as a romantic movie about two teenagers in love. Everyone being everyone who hasn’t read the play. The play is quite brutal actually, with there being five deaths major deaths by the end. Romeo being responsible for Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) and Paris (Juliet’s supposed to be husband). Romeo kills himself thinking his love is dead; who he had known, married, slept with, and ded with all in the course of a week. Juliet soon wakes up because she isn’t…

to live, and living to die is expressed throughout history in all manners of literary works. Of the endless writers whom illustrate the theme of death, four authors whom depict this leitmotif are John Keats, Rosalía de Castro, Emily Dickinson, and Leo Tolstoy. The works albeit different, transcribe the desire to accomplish their goals; to blossom, before they are faced with their mortality; to perish. This idea is both beautifully motivating to fulfill ones dreams, yet exceptionally terrifying…

Eternal Love To the Lighthouse, written by Virginia Woolf, is a novel about the effect relationships have on people’s lives. The first part of the novel The Window is about the Ramsay family and their guests’ time during a 12-hour span period at a summerhouse. All of them have the basic story of considering visiting the lighthouse the next day, but each character has a sub-plot. In the second part of the novel Time Passes, about ten years have gone by. Mrs. Ramsay has passed away, and the rest…

When Russian literature is mentioned, the two giants Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky overshadow the majority of other writers. However, it is not the case for Anton Chekhov. Chekhov emerged into the scene during the 19th century, the same time as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. As a short-stories writer and dramatist, Chekhov made a mark for himself, as he is “the only other one to make much of an impression abroad.” (Brians) Chekhov wrote during the early 1900s, when Russia saw “the rise of the…