The Great Debaters

Colby Williams Ms. Hillary American Lit 24 June 2015 Of Mice and Men “Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend”-Albert Camus .In the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, explores the elements of true friendship. Friendship is a very important theme in the novel, and Steinbeck does a mesmerizing job of portraying that you always need to be there for one another. The main characters George and Lennie have…

Wild Horses: A Dull Cowboy Soap Opera Robert Duvall wrote, directed, and starred in Wild Horses. Duvall indulges us with another gruff cowboy role as Scott Briggs, an old time rancher with a past full of mistakes. The film opens with Scott walking in on his son, Ben Briggs (James Franco) having an intimate conversation with another boy, Jimmy (Darien Willardson). Ashamed of his gay son he kicks both boys off the ranch at gunpoint. Fifteen years later Texas Ranger, Samantha (Luciana…

One of the most renowned and famous novels depicting life during the Roaring 20s era of America History, is that of The Great Gatsby. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author portrays key themes and components of the 1920s which paved the way for a restructure in American society. Choosing to write about a time of economic prosperity and societal happiness, Fitzgerald indicates clearly his beliefs that this time of growth in US history only resulted in a degradation of American culture. As the…

you party defines who you are. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young man named Nick travels from the Midwest to New York, where he meets jay Gatsby, a rich man with an extravagant past. Gatsby shows Nick the world of wealth, but inadvertently exposes him to the corruption that comes with that wealth as well. Throughout the novel, Nick is introduced to two different kinds of parties: those of the rich, and those who mimic the rich. The Great Gatsby contains two different types…

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is about two ranchers searching and dreaming for their place in Salinas, California, during the difficult times of the Great Depression. These two men, George Milton and Lennie Small are not just friends, they are each other's only family. Of Mice and Men displays the two ranchers friendship and illustrates qualities of friendship and exploring how to be a good friend or family member. Other times, Steinbeck illustrates the outcome of when the relationship starts…

In Ray Bradbury’s short story The Pedestrian, the portrayal of the main character Leonard Mead and his love for irrelevant, bygone practices, such as writing and going on walks, locked in conflict with the futuristic civilization that he lives in, who are all obsessed with anything that appears on their screens, symbolizes the unsightly truths of the corrupting nature of and flaws of society. Mead lives amongst a population that is solely focused upon the consumption of technology. Unimaginable…

Coincidence and the Poor Man’s Fate As his neighbor with a deteriorating mind is pursed by the local police for trespassing into the now-destroyed and abandoned, once-his-home, trailer park community of Times Beach, Missouri, the unnamed narrator “carefully considered both coincidence and fate” (26). The heart of “Book of Songs” by John Dalton struggles with the narrator’s contemplation: it was not a coincidence that detrimental waste oil ended up contaminating a trailer park, yet it was…

The Life of a Depression Era Baby (an interpretive essay on the life of Nancy Zabriskie) After my grandfather died unexpectedly, my family sat around the table mourning his death. You know what you do when you sit around the table? You talk and you eat. Because of this, I was very overweight at birth when I was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931. They could barely find my neck! After this, my mother swore to never get that heavy again. Unfortunately, she lost too much weight. My brother,…

Pain is a huge difficulty that needs much perseverance. For example, Buck, from Call of the Wild, is taken from his life in California and feels extreme pain through starvation, torture and harsh labor. In contrast to Buck, my friend broke her hip during softball from growing fast, moving fast, and quick sudden motions. Even though Buck and my friend don’t share the same story, they both had to use perseverance to overcome challenges. Anyone and anything must persevere to survive and thrive.…

Menagerie. Durang showed the true story in my opinion. I love parodies of things they are always funny, but I have never enjoyed a parody more than the actual story (or most of the time song) before. It is a valid parody to me, it is funny and does a great job of making fun of the story and making a mockery of it. Durang takes the small things from Williams’ story that you can read in between the lines and blows them up and makes them huge ordeals that also have some humor to them. I enjoy how…