The Smiths

Often described as a perfectionist, Sylvia Plath was an enviable, popular, academically successful college student when her losing battle with depression began. Having published her first poem at eight years old, Plath was a writer at her core, and her journey with mental illness can be revealed and analyzed in her writing which gave Plath a method of coping with and externalizing her many debilitating anxieties. In her many published poems, stories, and essays Plath covers topics on identity,…

I have conducted an interview with a sixty-two-year-old nurse to develop a better understanding of non-sharable problems and of rationalization. I was surprised with the understanding of these terms my interviewee had without really hearing the terms used often in her life. She told me of encounters she has had personally with rationalization and non-sharable problems, and she also told me of stories of co-workers and friends who faced similar issues. The main thing I took away from the…

William Easterly argues in his book The Tyranny of Experts that the support of autocratic dictatorships does not promote economic or political development in a more efficient way than what allowing a democratic and free regime to flourish would promote. He presents the idea that development experts who try to implement policies through dictators in order to promote the economic well-being of nations fail to support the economic or political well-being of individuals due to four things that…

On December 8, 1980 John Lennon was shot directly across from Strawberry Fields, by the Dakota building where he and his wife lived. In John Lennon 's memory, Yoko Ono, Lennon’s wife decided to create a memorial in his honor. She wanted to commemorate John Lennon as a rock legend and a peace activist, so Ono created the John Lennon memorial in Strawberry Fields, Central park. John Lennon’s memorial is an effective memorial because of its background, location, design, my individual experience,…

Originally coined in 1972 by psychologist Irving Janis, the term “groupthink” has its roots in 1984. The Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology defines the phenomenon as “a condition in which highly cohesive groups in ‘hot’ decision situations display excessive levels of concurrence seeking that suppress critical inquiry and result in faulty decision making” (Aldag). Janis chose the name groupthink due to Orwell’s “doublethink” in 1984, a similar condition marked by the simultaneous acceptance of…

In Gayl Jones’ Corregidora one of the main texts focus and themes is centered and founded upon the blues. Through Ursa; the main characters singing of this specific genre of music, the reader is forced to recognize that Ursa’s singing ties in completely to her defined belief that her sole purpose is to “make generations” and her singing in a way fulfills that purpose as she in body can’t. The reader is given evidence to this by past recollections in the text, current statements that repeatedly…

The ever-growing possibility of the panoptic design and totalitarianism ideologies are shown entirely within the pages of 1984 by George Orwell. The mind within, is a trap. Imagine living within the dystopian society of 1984, where thinking is wrong. Big Brother is the trigger that catches all those who question Big brother. There is only one way to survive in a world where ideas are commonly practiced and enforced is to become one with yourself. Which boils down and leaves but one choice, trust…

Marx explained in chapter one what a commodity was and the difference between exchange value and use value. A commodity is used to in order exchange for another commodity, therefore keeping trade and the labor force alive. As Marx would say “A means to an end”. Marx says “commodities must be realized as values before they can be realized as use values” (179) which further supports his point. Then they split off into either use value or exchange value which separate the commodities. One must…

Three Ideologies of Political Economy and beyond By Bernardo Creamer The ‘Prezi’ presentation “Copy of Three Ideologies of Political Economy”, used in class, is based on the ideas contained in the book by R Gilpin about political economics. Gilpin states that there are three ideologies that differ over a wide variation of questions such as: - What is the importance of the market for economic growth and distribution of wealth among groups and societies? - What should be the role of markets in…

This essay will discuss capitalism as a system using influential theorists such as Karl Marx and Erich Fromm to explain in detail the influences this system has on our modern day relationships; with specific focus on the western wedding as the epitome of capitalistic control on intimacy. Capitalism can be explained as an economic and political system in which a country 's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, as opposed to the state (Marx, 1956). It is characterised by…