Saint Leo University

This paper is my reaction to the “Jonestown Cult Suicides - The True Story – Documentary” that published on YouTube May 21, 2014 and narrated by Paul McGann. It tells a story of a preacher named Jim Jones that created and lead a cult; Peoples Temple, in the late 1970’s. Ex-members of Jones’s congregation incriminated him of physical and sexual abuse, mind control, and coerced drugging. Jones and his members were the object of media frenzy. His church, the members, and his family of over 900…

Two books, The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, give insight two men’s consequences of leading a specific life when faced with the thought of death. Their deaths mean more than just passing off from the mortal world, it reflects and questions their morals and behaviors in their lifetimes. Although Ivan realizes how meaningless the pursuits of his life have been in his final moments before death while Willy dies still delusional and dwelling in…

Thomas Hobbes and Niccolo Machiavelli, both grappling with regional instability and constant war, arrive at different frameworks for handling man’s inherent propensity for conflict from very similar models of human behavior. Hobbes, watching his fellow countrymen fight each other during the English Civil War, decided that humans perpetually desire more power to secure their well-being and therefore incline toward warfare as a means to achieve this. Machiavelli, similarly accustomed to the…

annoyance with the mundane of daily life, and in the case of literature, the eventual need to significantly improve said situation. Ennui, in many variations, is found in works such as Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy, and the poem “To the Reader” by Charles Baudelaire from The Flowers of Evil. I will be discussing the prevalence of ennui within these stories and the importance of the subject in literature. In Madame Bovary, the tale goes as such: boy…

Leo Tolstoy’s books The Death of Ivan Ilych and A Confession, the Gospel Brief and What I Believe show very similar experiences and thought processes between Ivan Ilych and Tolstoy himself. It is arguable that when writing The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy reflected himself into Ilych’s character and life. This is evident in both men’s early experiences, thoughts and beliefs, morals, and overall questioning and understanding of life’s existence. Very soon did Tolstoy write that he wanted to be…

Although science indicates that our brains are designed to focus one thing at the time, it is popular that we ignore this fact, and perform multitasking instead, particularly when driving. Detecting this problem, the print ad “Don’t Text and Drive,” thanks to its brilliant designs, its conveyable image, and its interaction with viewers, reminds us to think twice about our choice. In the jungle of colorful and complex designs, the “Don’t Text and Drive” print ad enacts viewers by its innovative…

Through their powerful renderings of war and politics, Niccolò Machiavelli's iconoclastic 1532 political treatise The Prince and Shakespeare's 1599 historical tragedy Julius Caesar mutually seek to explore the nature of human weakness. A manifestation of Machiavelli's radically realpolitik interpretation of Renaissance humanism, The Prince subverts the traditional Christian moral zeitgeist, redefining weakness in instrumental terms - that a leader's results are superior in importance to his…

As mentioned earlier Dr King believed that non-violence and civil disobedience are the only ways to fight for freedom. During my research on Dr. Martin Luther King and his attributes towards non-violence, I found his book “Stride toward freedom”. In this book Dr. King outlined his way of nonviolence. He tells the story of the Montgomery movement and his own personal journey, and then offers six basis points for nonviolence. Dr. King lived and taught these essential ingredients of active…

Today’s society as a whole is preoccupied by staying up with the latest trends on social media and considers binging their way through a season of their favorite TV show as an accomplishment. An unsurprising, yet disappointingly large portion of today’s population fails to live what many would consider a “good life” (needs to be in quotes?), one that has meaning and purpose. And while few would admit they lead and unaccomplished life, with a bit of further examination it is not hard to see why…

It is campaign time, and Enrique Perez, the new candidate started his campaign promising thousands of jobs, no more hunger and quality education for every single child, teenager and adult in Mexico. The more people he got, the more promises he did, he said that he will repair most of the roads, he said that he is going to build strong bonds with other countries to promote the country, he said so many things that he seems omnipotent compared with the other candidates. The time flew and he became…