Don Quixote Essays (Examples)

Don Quixote
In literature, the intrepid hero Don Quixote decides that his favorite courtly romances are more enthralling than life "outside" books because he did not believe his real life was exiting. Therefore, he thought his life should be like the stories in books. Don Quixote is a character that represents some people in real life who wish their lives were like the stories that they read. He knew he was not a real knight but that did not stop him from trying to be one as it can be determined from the following example. "Obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has read, he decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked. After a first failed adventure, he sets out on a second one with a somewhat befuddled laborer named Sancho Panza, whom he has persuaded to accompany him…

Don Quixote, a gaunt, middle-aged gentleman from Spain, is known throughout the world as one of the all-time greatest heroes. In many ways, he is similar to ancient heroes of the past. In other ways, he resembles modern heroes. There are traces of Don Quixote in fiction, films and even comics.
Like so many of the heroes of ancient times, including Jesus Christ, Don Quixote lived alone amongst men, as few people understood him. Like Jesus, people judged Quixote according to the general law and not the law of God. In addition, he shows similarities to Jesus with his constant good and selfless deeds, such as freeing a galley slave and trying to remove an evil spell. According to Quixote, his goal is "To right wrongs and come to the aid of the wretched" (p. 1254). However, while Quixote's intentions are good, sometimes his actions lead to trouble.

When looking…

Don Quixote is among the most influential novels ever written. It explores the shifting boundaries of truth and illusion. The author is a narrator who self-consciously narrates and makes us constantly aware of his presence and is preoccupied with literary criticism and theory. With his post-modernist tendencies he has become a novelist's novelist par excellence.
Often called the first modern novel, Don Quixote originally conceived as a comic satire against the chivalric romances. However, Cervantes did not destroy the chivalric ideal of the romances he rejected - he transfigured it. The works have been seen as a veiled attack on the Catholic Church or on the contemporary Spanish politics, or symbolizing the duality of the Spanish character.

Neither wholly tragedy nor wholly comedy Don Quixote gives a panoramic view of the 17th-century Spanish society. Central characters are the elderly, idealistic knight, who sets out on his old horse Rosinante to…

on Quixote
In the opening of his book on Quixote, Cervantes claims that on Quixote goes mad after reading too many novels about the heroic deeds of knights-errant. However, like the old argument of whether the chicken or the age came first, it could be argued that Quixote was going mad and latched onto these books, which he then incorporated into his madness. If this is the case, the problem was within Quixote himself, and if he hadn't built a grand delusion around stories about knights, he would have developed some other paranoid delusion to act out.

As the author says in the first chapter, " ... whenever [Quixote] was at leisure ... [he] gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the ... management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that…

Throughout it all, Don Quixote is trying to live a dream he has of a so-called better time, when Spain was filled with lords, ladies and courtly manners. The bad guys were evil and the good guys were heroes, winning every time. But by the end of the book Don Quixote wakes up from this dream, which wasn't so wonderful after all, and realize things aren't just black and white, that his lady and trusty partner are human after all. Actually, Sancho Panza becomes a better man from the experience, but it seems like Don Quixote turns back into a sad old man.

Cervantes is very sympathetic with Don Quixote in the estimation of this writer. Cervantes is just trying to show that in the world of today (or of his day), old traditions, ethics and motivations just don't work any more, if they ever did. hen an old person…

During Cervantes' time, the Spanish Catholic Church saw itself as challenged on all sides. After expelling all Jews who would not convert to Catholicism in 1492, the Spanish crown then became concerned that perhaps some of the conversions were not genuine and that some Jewish converts were still secretly practicing Judaism (1). Part of the Crown's concerns may have stemmed from the fact that part of what eventually became Spain was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, introducing Islam to the area. In addition the Reformation was spreading. Some Spanish people had converted to the Lutheran church, and in some European countries, Spanish students were not allowed to enroll in colleges (1). It was a time when many religions all took the posture that their religion was the only one and true one, and that others must be forced to join that church. The Inquisition was actually established by the Throne…

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is the story of a middle-aged man from La Mancha who, as a result of reading books, becomes obsessed with the chivalric code. This causes him to lose his hold on reality, and he embarks on a number of delusional adventures. The question is whether these delusions are the result of genuine madness or merely an intensified from of day-dreaming. Evidence from both the text itself and elements of form and context appear to suggest the latter. Don Quixote becomes obsessed with an ideal that is outdated. His problem is that he is unable to relate to the ideals of his time, and thus chooses to enter the world of what he perceives as a "glorious" past. As will be seen, this is a process of choice rather than an involuntary submission to psychosis.
At the start of the book, Don Quixote is portrayed…

Don Quixote by Cervantes is a novel that delves deeply into the themes of mental illness and the expectations of society. Ultimately, the protagonist's delusional life as Don Quixote is fueled by Spanish society's expectations that a man should be chivalrous, brave and macho. It is these expectations of society that lead the bookish, middle-aged Alonso Quixano to embark on a life as the great, noble adventurer Don Quixote.
This flight into a delusional life, and Quixote's myriad of delusional adventures clearly resembles the actions of schizophrenic. Nonetheless, it is important examine Quixote's behavior in the context of societies' malleable understanding of the norms of acceptable behavior. In other words, it is important to consider carefully whether Don Quixote was simply an eccentric and unusual man, rather than mentally ill with schizophrenia. However, a close examination of Quixote's behavior, even in light of a flexible understanding of the norms of…

Don Quixote
BRANDON LEE

The novel Don Quixote is both comic and tragic. This particular novel opens by briefly describing Don Quixote and his fascination with chivalric stories. With his "wits gone," Don Quixote decides to become a knight and travel the countryside righting wrongs and rescuing damsels in distress. He outfits himself in some old armor and professes his love and service to Aldonsa Lorenzo whom he refers to as Dulcinea Del Toboso. After a long, hot ride on his horse Rocinante, he comes upon an inn which he thinks is a castle and the innkeeper, whom he believes to be the king. That evening, Don talks the innkeeper into knighting him and the innkeeper agrees to do so, since it amuses him. He tells Don that he must return to his village for money, clean shirts, and other provisions. Don agrees, but before he is knighted he beats…

Yet this realization comes to Don Quixote as part of his journey, which is how age and experience also presents itself to any individual -- in a gradual, subtle manner that is learned with the passing of time. Therefore, it is accurate to state that Don Quixote's wisdom is a result of the experience he gains in his travels, both of which are linear components of time. The knowledge that he has acquired -- that there are indeed inns -- aids him later on in the novel when he passes a night at another inn. hat the knight has learned from experience helps him to eventually overcome his madness, and occurs with the natural marching of time that can best be measured as aging.
In much the same way that the inexorable passing of time cannot be reversed, the wisdom that Don Quixote eventually accumulates due to his experiences throughout…

Desdemona and Othello's love is a love of impossible dreams, killed by impossible dreams.
Othello is a play where individuals are incapable of communicating as 'real' people -- everyone, one could say, is an artist, but a bad one. Cassio becomes drunk and sings, losing his true morality and true self, and losing himself in Iago's plot. Rather than confronting her husband, Desdemona sings her "illow Song," of a dead maid to explain her sorrow and confusion over the fact she has lost her husband's love, apparently for no reason. These characters tilt at windmills of their imagination -- whether windmills of adultery like Othello, or windmills of perceived injustice like Iago.

No fiction leads to any positive ends throughout Shakespeare's tragedy. Othello first sees Desdemona as a kind of Dulcinea, an utterly pure and chaste being. Although she is no peasant girl like Quixote's Aldonza, she cannot live up…

Heroism
Classical heroes have tragic flaws: character traits that cause them and others immense suffering in spite of their physical and mental prowess. Don Quixote, Faust, and Candide all ascribe to the classical definition of heroism, as each of these characters demonstrates remarkable and tragic flaws. Don Quixote, the protagonist of Miguel de Cervantes' novel of the same name, emerges as a hero mainly because of his unwavering belief in a romantic vision. However, his delusions cause direct harm to others and contribute to his own mental anguish and eventual downfall. Don Quixote is therefore an ironic and paradoxical hero, for he does not succeed in his quests but nevertheless remains a powerful emblem of heroism. Faust, the titular protagonist of Johann olfgang von Goethe's work, bears a similar burden as Don Quixote: striving to maintain his personal vision he sacrifices his inner peace. Faust, however, succeeded in his quest…

Hamlet and Don Quixote
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, renaissance means "a revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor, the revival of learning and culture, a rebirth, a spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life (Renaissance pp). Hamlet and Don Quixote are not Renaissance men in the same sense as other notable figures such as Leonardo da Vinci. They were not artists or scientists, however, both Hamlet and Don Quixote did experience a rebirthing, and each set about to change the world around them. Moreover, each of the authors' works, which were written during the first decade of the seventeenth century, deal with the conflicts that arise between the harsh reality of life and romantic ideals. Thus, the characters of Hamlet and Don Quixote, as well as the plot of each work, possess the characteristics of the Renaissance Era.

Of the…

The main reason that Don Quixote is still significant for literature, both in the Spanish and European sense, is that much of what it has to say is universal. The story embodies the clash between what people hope for and wish to be so, and what is actually reality for them and for so many others. This hopeful dreaming, when not taken to the point of madness as it was in the story, is a vital part of human life. All humans dream of what they want and try to reconcile it with what they actually, have, which is all that Don Quixote was doing. Unfortunately for him, he was not able to reconcile the differences between what he thought should be and what really was. Even though it was published in 1605, much of it remains relevant today as a life lesson for many people, and this is much…

Past cannot exist simultaneously alongside present or future, and vice versa. This is how traditional Western theory and thought posits the nature of time. However, this is not the nature of time the reader is exposed to in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work One Hundred Years of Solitude. In this work, Marquez asserts a vision of time that is typically only seen in Eastern traditions. He asserts the possibility of a more fluid nature of time, which allows past, present, and future to interact with each other. Marquez also asserts the idea that time has a delicate relation to solitude, and that a conscious choice of solitude seems to lengthen any given period of time's duration.
In Marquez's work, the progression of time and chronological order of Mocondo and its people goes against traditional Western ideologies. It is not impossible to have a mixed view of time, where there is past,…

Quijote
"He asked if he had any money; Don Quixote replied that he did not have a copper blanca, because he never had read in the histories of knights errant that any of them ever carried money," (p. 31).

Irony, parody, and satire

Don Quixote is making fun of the tradition of knights-errant, even as he professes to be one.

This relates to the theme of illusion v. Reality or Appearance v. Reality because of the juxtaposition between the ideal image of a knight and the actual nature of chivalry.

This quote relates to the novel's purpose in providing a satirical view of time-honored traditions like knighthood.

F. This quote also satirizes the Christian faith in regards to the notion of being penniless, thus making fun of austerity in the Christian tradition.

A. "It must have been dawn when Don Quixote left the inn so contented, so high-spirited, so jubilant…

Sociocultural Relevance of 'Don Quixote'
The novel "Don Quixote" discusses the adventures of Don Quixote, whose true name is Alonso Quixano. As Don Quixote, Alonso Quixano pursued his adventures of rescuing "princesses in distress" and in helping out the peasants and poor people of La Mancha. However, what is remarkable in the novel's story is that instead of princesses, Don Quixote manages to save women that are far from the image of a princess, and he even sometimes helps people who are actually outlaws and thieves, which is actually a contradiction of his own concept of chivalry. In effect, Don Quixote is the anti-thesis of the usual image of chivalrous knights, and this is actually a point made by Cervantes, that is, that the common notion of chivalry and image of "knights in shining armor" are hardly the case in reality. Apart from this criticism of the romanticized, detached view…

The literature of the Renaissance illustrates the primary principles undergirding this momentous social, political, cultural, and ideological movement. As the heart of the Renaissance, Italy offered the world a flowering of both visual and literary arts, often woven together to impart a new sense of what it meant to be human. Building upon Greco-Roman literary and artistic traditions did not mean that the Renaissance was doomed to focus on an idealized past. Quite the contrary, Renaissance artists and writers fused a forward-thinking vision with the wisdom and merits of past literary and artistic giants. For example, Dante’s guide in the Inferno is Virgil, the Roman poet. Invoking Virgil as the guide through the levels of hell shows that Renaissance writers looked to the past for guidance through potentially tumultuous times. After all, the Renaissance was the first time that the authority of the Roman Catholic Church would be called into…

Miguel de Cervantes' 'Hero' Concept in Don Quixote
The novel Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605 (Volume 1) and 1615 (Volume 2), chronicles the life of Alonzo Quixano, popularly known in his village as Don Quixote. Quixano is a Spanish nobleman who assumes the role of the idealistic and chivalrous Don Quixote to help people who are 'in distress,' or dire need of help. In the novel, Quixano chooses his sidekick in the person of his servant Sancho Panza, labeled as the squire of Don Quixote.

Cervantes' depiction of Don Quixote/Quixano in the novel illustrates how he deviates from the usual characteristics, stereotypes, and image of a hero or a knight, which was a popular image of males during Spain's period of chivalry as a form of 'holy war.' In Don Quixote, the protagonist is portrayed not as a hero that is morally and physically courageous,…

Don Quixote, despite his inability to recognize between his conscious and unconscious selves, differed from Shylock in that made no conscious effort to allow his unconscious self to emerge. His continued exposure to an alternative life -- life in the world of fiction -- made him develop a stronger unconscious self: " ... he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise ... And what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry he lost his wits. His fancy grew full of ... all sorts of impossible nonsense ... " This narrative about the development of Don Quixote de la Mancha's character, the metaphorical self of Don Quixote, was associated with the Captain's Leggatt's persona, the individual who symbolized the man's innermost desire for freedom and adventure. In effect, the hero that was Don Quixote surfaced to dominate over the…

" The differences in these two lines seem to be only a matter of syntax but in actuality, it also differs in the meaning. The King James Bible version makes it seem like the Lord is making the individual do something, as if by force or obligation, while the Puritan version states that the Lord causes the individual to do something, as if out of their own will. This alone relays the message that faith itself is driving the action, not a perceived obligation.
Another distinction between the two translations can be found with the lines "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: / and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (King James Bible) and "Goodness and mercy surely shall / all my days follow me. / and in the Lord's house I shall / dwell so long as days…

For some people, beating on drums and meditation is a spiritual way to experience their religion on a higher level, which releases a different understanding.
The Decameron includes a frame story about the plague in Florence in 1348, which can be explained from the following.

AN EPOCH-AKING EVENT in the development of early Italian narrative is the canonization, thanks to the astounding success of Boccaccio Decameron, of the cornice, the framing device. The formula of the novelliere aperto, the loosely structured anthology of stories (such as the Novellino), becomes secondary to that of the novelliere chiuso, in which a meta-story encompasses all others. In contemporary developments within the genre of lyric poetry, the fragmentary collection evolves into the prosimetrum (Dante Trita nuova) and the canzoniere (Petrarch Rime). In order to monitor the progress of literary forms out of the archaic period, one must focus on the development of innovative modes…

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, better known as Miguel de Cervantes. The first section will be a brief biography of his life and times. Following will be an examination of his works, including Don Quixote, La Galatea, and Entremeses. Focus will be on how different classes of people appear in his works with examples of characters of lower, middle and upper class standing in Cervantes' world. The paper will conclude with ideas of class in general.
Miguel de Cervantes Saaverdra

Miguel de Cervantes Saaverdra's reputation rests almost entirely on the most famous figure in Spanish literature, Don Quixote. Known by most as Miguel de Cervantes, his production of novels, plays and poems was considerable. According to Jean Canavaggio, author of "Cervantes," a contemporary of Cervantes, William Shakespeare, had read Don Quixote. (1990) In spite of his fame throughout Europe, Cervantes spent his life as a poor man. Cervantes life was unsettled…

Prince
In Machiavelli's The Prince, an unnamed narrator dictates an instruction manual to up and coming members of the monarchy about the correct ways for a royal to behave if he wants to be successful. Many of the pieces of advice provided in the pamphlet seem absurd or even cruel . Among these are the ideas that a leader must be above his people, specifically that a feared ruler will be less likely to be discounted or his rule threatened and that a ruler who is beloved by his people will appear to be weak in the eyes of his enemies. Similarly, "The Ascent of Mount Vertoux" by Petrarch is a letter discussing the exploits of a man and how he is superior to others and the famed character of Don Quixote is a man inferior to many who refuses to see this in himself. These stories all satirize the…

The Lord will lead one to safety always. One can simply believe in something higher to get the meaning of this; it doesn't have to be Jesus. Psalm 127, contrarily is confusing because it states that unless the Lord builds the house, it is built in vain. This seems to be more literal, but I do get the idea. Unless the people building the house are doing it with the love of the Lord in their hearts, or building it for him, then what is the point?
Didactic poetry can be quite comforting as seen in Psalm 23 or it can be much too literal and seen as both confusing and condescending. Psalm 127 isn't very instructive spiritually speaking, unlike Psalm 23.

Updated Proverb: A broken toe can hurt, but a broken heart can kill.

Metaphors: Obscure or Illuminate? Didactic literature with its use of metaphors can sometimes obscure the…

Hyperrealism in Literature
The following criticism was made by Michael izza on Don DeLillo's Libra:

In Libra, Don DeLillo offers solace for the issue of achieving historical certainty; however, despite rendering fictive order to historical confusions, the attempt to describe events, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, has been complicated by him, through transferring individual agency to external forces. ejecting these forces' caricatures by astrology, paranoia and conspiracy, he lets characters makes decisions (izza 2008). Nevertheless, independent actions, apparently initiated by characters, become a system's products, while design springs from and in spite of individual intentions. Though chaos and system theories help shed light on the conjunction of determinism and randomness, the individual is incorporated in the global. Moreover, the unstable identity of Oswald is performative; he performs for a changing audience, which dictates every new act.

While the above critique has its views, I would agree with it.…

Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews
The protagonists of Henry Fielding's novels would appear to be marked by their extreme social mobility: Shamela will manage to marry her master, ooby, and the "foundling" Tom Jones is revealed as the bastard child of a serving-maid and Squire Allworthy himself, just as surely as Joseph Andrews is revealed to be the kidnapped son of Wilson, who himself was "born a gentleman" (Fielding 157). In fact Wilson's digression in ook III Chapter 3 of Joseph Andrews has frequently been taken for a self-portrait: "I am descended from a good family," Williams tells Joseph and Parson Adams, "my Education was liberal, and at a public School" (Fielding 157). Goldberg helpfully notes of this passage that such education was defined in Johnson's Dictionary as an education "becoming a gentleman," although fails to note that Fielding himself was educated at the most lordly of all the English public…

Darwin's Theory Of Evolution
The construct of irreducible complexity is a pivotal aspect of genetic theory and of Darwinian theory. Irreducible complexity is a nexus of the older science of biology from which Darwin built his theory and modern genetic engineering. Darwin's words for irreducible complexity, most commonly associated with his argument about the construction of the eye, were "Organs of extreme perfection and complication," and Darwin further explicates,

"Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed…

Quijote
Cervantes' Don Quijote is, above all, the story of a reader. The real question of the novel perhaps is why more readers do not behave like Quijote himself, and attempt to act out the things that they find so engaging in print. I would like to explore the way in which the main character's status as a reader in Cervantes' novel gives some clue to us as readers as to how we ought to behave. It seems evident that Cervantes' strategy in the novel is largely rhetorical and ironic: he uses the language of the books Quijote reads, while imparting an ironic distance to how this language fits into the actual world where Quijote finds himself. But the ultimate result for Cervantes' reader is to get a deeper form of literary enjoyment than Quijote is capable of: we are inside and outside the satisfactions of the storytelling at the…

Public Health Then and Now
I consider Fitzhugh Mullan's article "Public Health Then and Now: Don Quixote, Machiavelli, and Robin Hood: Public Health Practice, Past and Present" a very provocative yet utmost informative and challenging article for the health practitioner and interested layman alike that provides its reader with precious information about the qualities a health worker will have to have and the relationships he will have to entertain at the various stages of his work if he wants to meet his manifold professional responsibilities. Both the title of the article and its abstract (Mullan, 2000, 702) clearly describe the research problem the scope of which the author has appropriately delimited.

I think that the whole article is of eminent importance for the entire public health profession because it covers two areas that do not seem to have caught much attention in the scholarly literature: Dynamic political involvement of public…

Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding," written by Ian att.
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL

The novel is in nothing so characteristic of our culture as in the way that it reflects this characteristic orientation of modern thought" (att 22). This is how att defines the novel that he discusses and picks apart in his book. att wrote this book in 1957, after studying the 18th century novel for many years. He feels the writing of the three authors he discusses, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, was influenced by broad changes in their society. To make his point, he says, "Defoe, Richardson and Fielding were no doubt affected by the changes in the reading public of their time; but their works are surely more profoundly conditioned by the new climate of social and moral experience which they and their eighteenth-century readers shared" (att 7).…

Adams, Primrose and Yorick: A Comparison of 18th Century Church of England Clergymen
One of the clearest features shared by Fielding's Adams in Joseph Andrews, Goldsmith's Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield, and Sterne's Yorick in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy is relentlessness that the characters demonstrate, as though by sheer force of will they may manage affairs to a happy conclusion. In spite of their sometimes obtuse qualities, their evident pride in themselves, their naivete, their innocence, their ability to bungle their way into all manner of episodic conundrums, their resolute good humor through it all ensures the reader that whatever grace they do possess will be sufficient to make all well by the end of the narrative. Such is true of all three clergymen, and to the extent that all three clergymen represent the pastors of the Church of England in the 18th century, one could…

Balanchine to Petipa
George Balanchine was born in the year 1904. He was invited to come over the United States of America by Lincoln Kirstein, in the year 1933, and subsequently, Balanchine arrived in America in the month of October 1933. One of the very first things that Balanchine is reputed to have done after his arrival in the United States, was to found the 'School of American Ballet', which opened in the year 1934, with a class of twenty five students. It must be stated here that although Balanchine and Kirstein made several attempts through many years to start a Company, they did not succeed in their endeavor, but the School of American Ballet, however, has endured and remains intact, to this day. This was the Scholl through which Balanchine was able to present his very first ballet to the entire world, in America, which was named the 'Serenade'.…

Finally, there is a sense of release or uplifting at the end of the play. Linda's comment, "We're free" (Miller 1054) seems to encapsulate the family's struggles and inner turmoil. Willy has died in a blaze of glory, utterly convinced he is doing the right thing, and perhaps that has made his last moments happier than they have been in years. He will never know he failed again, and failed his family in the most permanent way. However, there was so much argument, turmoil, and strife in the family, perhaps removing himself was really the thing the family needed. There is a feeling, even though it may be implied, that the family will come together as a result of Willy's death, and that they will survive. There is also a feeling that the two sons will have some impetus to make something of themselves, even if it is because they…

And Sellers plays the repressed social engineer Strangelove, the timid Merkin Muffley, and the persevering Mandrake -- all with mechanical precision. Kubrick's unflinching camera acts as a character, too, slyly observing the exposition of humanity in all its grimly humorous glory.
This film belongs to a culture that has rejected the status quo -- the quaint picturesque comedies of the 1940s and 1950s; it belongs to a culture that is bordering on nihilism, anarchy, revolution -- anything that will help it to get away from the culture that has brought us the faceless, nameless idiots running the ar Room in Dr. Strangelove. The film offers no solutions -- it only asks us to present ourselves to world with fresh eyes, a pure soul able and willing to laugh at its human foibles and failings, and begin to meditate upon a new direction, a new solution perhaps to the problem of…

Jeffrey Paul Chan
In the past couple of decades, literature from cultural groups in the United States such as the African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans have increasingly become more common. It is only recently that Asian-Americans have become popular writers. With expected population changes, decidedly this literature will become more widespread. According to the U.S. Census, Asian is the fastest growing racial group in the United States. Since 1980, the Asian population has almost tripled. It is expected to increase 213% over the next 50 years. It will be essential for Asian non-fiction and fiction works to be read by students and adults alike to better understand this growing American population.

Writers such as Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada and Shawn Wong, who first co-edited Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Chinese-American and Japanese-American Literature in the 1970s, believe that most of the literature and films on Asian-Americans to…

As we have already mentioned, the mood and tone for moral corruption in New York City was prime in the 1920s and while it may seem there are the rich and the poor, class distinction among the rich plays an important role in the novel. Gatsby's success will only carry him so far because of a dividing line that exists between the new wealth and the old wealth. This is best depicted with the est and East Egg sections that divide individuals according to their wealth. Gatsby, regardless of how much money he makes, cannot hold a candle to the old wealth of the community in which Tom and Daisy live. Tom comes from an "enormously wealthy" (6) family and when he moved to the rich East Egg, he "brought down a string of ponies from Lake Forest" (6). The Buchanan's home is "more elaborate" (7) than what our narrator…

Dane Johnston gave a stunning performance in the title role of the play. In fitting with the modern interpretation of the classic, Johnston's rendering of Hamlet is akin to the "emo" youth subculture - just as Ophelia is meant to conform to the "gothic" subculture. At the same time, Johnston delivered Hamlet's numerous long monologues with sophistication and ease, proving to the audience that you do not have to fake a British accent in order to accurately capture the Shakespearean essence of the role.

Hamlet's best friends, Horatio (Kit Fugard) and Marcella (Vanessa Downs), were also portrayed as "scene kids," but obviously of an artistic and intelligent nature. Angela Donor's interpretation of Ophelia tended to be a bit melodramatic at some points during the play; at the same time, it can be said that such over-acting may be necessary, as it is part of Ophelia's true nature.

Overall, the technical…

hen Edith harton tells us that "it was the background that she [Lily] required," we understand that both Emma Bovary and Lily have a very important thing in common. They are first of all women in the nineteenth century society, fettered by social conventions to fulfill any kind of aspirations or ideals. A woman, as it is clearly stated in both novels, had no other means of being having a place in society than by acquiring respectability and money through a good marriage. To marry was the only vocation of a woman, as harton tells us.
Of course, there interferes a great difference between the two heroines here, because Madame Bovary, as her very title proves it, is already a married woman, while Lily in harton's book is in constant pursue of a redeeming marriage. But, essentially the frustration of the two heroines is the same, as Emma is as…

Gustavo Gutierrez did just that in Latin America, employing Marxist analysis to interpret the Jesus' teachings in the Gospel. Gutierrez founded Liberation Theology, which is, essentially, the twentieth century take on Violence and the Cross. Christ is viewed less as Redeemer and more as Liberator.
Evans discusses this same interpretation in black theology, which is, essentially, a continuation of Liberation Theology: "In spite of the ravages of their kidnapping and the disorientation that they endured, African slaves retained an outlook on their experience that continually reaffirmed their worth as individuals and as a people…The Jesus whom they encountered as they were exposed to the Bible was a caring and liberating friend who shared their sorrows and burdens" (12). Yet, in black theology, Jesus does not bring grace through suffering that can perfect one's nature and lead one's soul to Heaven (as classical theology insists); in black theology, Jesus is the…

Quiet American in Book And Film
Although Fowlair, the narrator of Graham Greene's The Quiet American, refers to Phuong as "invisible like peace," (29) Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce's 2002 film of the same name begins by displaying Phuong's face in the midst of a flame -- or more to the point -- a passionate, raging fire that explodes out of a home, tearing down its walls and roof. Ironically, Greene's Fowlair quips, "One always spoke of her…in the third person as though she were not there" (29). But for Noyce's Fowlair, it would seem she is very much there. American Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1958 film, however, begins and ends without Phuong. She is spoken of in the beginning, and in the end rejects the British correspondent. Both films alter the text to form their own narrations. The novel, however, conveys a complexity and depth not found in either film. This…

ith the link to the Bible, the story "…resonates with the richness of distant antecedents" and it no longer is "locked in the middle of the twentieth century"; hence, it never grows old, Foster concludes (56).
C.S. Lewis on the Importance of Reading Good Literature

C.S. Lewis, noted novelist, literary critic, lay theologian and essayist, advocates reading literature in his book an Experiment in Criticism. He is disappointed in fact when individuals only read important novels once. Reading a novel the second time for many on his list of incomplete readers is "…like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday's paper" (Lewis, 2012, p. 2). Those bright alert people who read great works will read the same book "…ten, twenty or thirty times" during their lifetime and discover more with each reading, Lewis writes. The person who is a "devotee of culture" is worth "much more than the…

Courtly love is usually defined solely in terms of the image of a noble knight pining for a woman he cannot have, because she is married or betrothed to another. Later writers such as Dante, Cervantes, and Milton often viewed this construct of courtly love as absurd or funny. Dante in particular saw courtly love as an inferior reflection of the love a man was supposed to feel for God. In the Italian poet's own affection for Beatrice, a woman he fell in love from afar, he felt that his love for this woman acts was a kind of conduit to higher spiritual truth and feelings for the divine. Likewise, courtly love's use of an earthly woman was the parallel for an mediating holy figure such as Mary who acted as an intermediary between God and humanity -- for Cervantes, it did not matter what the woman was 'really' like…

Employment Discrimination at Wal-Mart
Foundation of the Study

This study examines the legislative and judicial climate that enables corporations like Wal-Mart to engage in practices that violate workers' rights. The popular consensus is that Wal-Mart, the largest retail store in the United States, displays an inordinate disregard for the human dignity and morale of its employees and, despite continual litigation, continues to blatantly violate the legal rights of its employees. Wal-Mart faces charges of violating The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (2011) by asking management to adjust time sheets so that overtime will not need to be paid, and so that all employees will work under the hourly limit required by the union in order to obtain membership. Employees were insured, without their knowledge, against their death by Wal-Mart. The company was named beneficiary; following death of an employee, the entire benefit amount was retained by the corporation. Not a…

Miguel de Cervantes' is famous, in both his epic work 'Don Quixote" and also in his other works of literature, for making comic capital of the sentimental conventions of courtly literature. "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" similarly makes use of this parodying technique. This paper will specifically analyze the four narratives known as the 'Mediterranean' narratives in Book I of "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" and demonstrate their narrative commonalties in and analyze their relationship to the larger project of Cervantes' narrative technique.
The beginning of "Los Trabajors de Persiles Y Sigismunda" demonstrates to the reader that a highly personable and involved narrator will tell the tales that shall unfold. The tales unfold through a specifically constructed narrative framework that is clearly told, clearly narrated by a wry, observing humorous "I" (or Yo) who has a distinct perspective upon the tales he will tell.

Yo, Jeronimo Nunez de…

Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" focuses on the meaning of truth from the perspective of the majority ruled by its democratically elected leadership versus the individual's rights. Dr. Thomas Stockman plays the role of the individual who intends to use his democratic right of freely expressing his opinion, especially when this opinion is based on scientific facts and concerns the health of his fellow humans. ovstad, the editor at the newspaper "The People's erald," "freethinker" inside and a radical at heart, who has the instruments to support the free expression of such opinions, political vocation and enough shrewdness to be able to manipulate and adapt to people and situations like a chameleon.
ovstad is as representative for the discussion involving democracy and its flaws now as it was a century ago. Ibsen may have played with philosophical principals and ideas when he wrote the play, but the dilemmas he…

Introduction
For centuries during the Middle Ages, Europe had been at war with Moslems of the Middle East. There had been Crusades (beginning in the 11th century), wars for Holy Lands, and wars of great consequence (such as the Battle of Lepanto in 1571). Charles V had struggled to combat both the invading Moslems and the Protestant rebellion in his own kingdom in the first half of the 16th century, showing just how dramatic that conflict between the West and the Middle East was for many. Yet the tension that had existed dissipated to a great extent when the Ottoman Empire began to decline. Russia grew in power in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the West was rapidly modernizing. The Ottoman Empire itself was changing, and the new dynamic of life in the modern world played a significant role in the way that some Europeans saw and created images…

Introduction
Trade and imperialism brought all the societies of the Near East into contact with one another during the Axial Age so that networks were established and goods and services flowed from society to the other. These networks also facilitated the dispersal of ideas, both religious and philosophical. By the end of the Axial Age, the foundations of Western thought had been laid by the classical philosophers in Greece: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle—and their ideas rooted in the observance of Transcendentals, or ideals, that individuals pursued through the cultivation of good or virtuous habits in their daily lives, spread to the next dominant empire in the West—the Roman Empire. This paper will discuss the transmission of technology, ideas (religious and philosophical), consumer goods, and germs from the end of the Axial Age to 1500 CE. It will also examine the treatment of indigenous people by expanding empires and conquerors as…

Do you disagree with any of Pope's opinions or pronouncements in the Heroic Couplets or "An Essay on Man"?

Pope is critical of individuals who "cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust," suggesting that the unhappiest people are people who blame God, rather than themselves for all of their troubles, or who curse God because their lives are imperfect. The need to accept life's imperfections while still working to enact positive changes within the limitations of humanity is a positive message still relevant for people today.

Based on what you have read of "The Rape of the Lock," what do you think the poem's theme or central message is? What or who are the objects of his satire? Does the epic, "The Rape of the Lock" apply in any way to society today? Identify two passages that could serve as satiric commentaries on people's behavior today. Your answer should discuss both…

Your answer should be at least five sentences long.
The Legend of Arthur

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 9 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7A: Honor and Loyalty

1. Consider how Arthur's actions and personality agree with or challenge your definition of honor. Write a few sentences comparing your definition (from Journal 1.6A) with Arthur's actions and personality.

2. Write a brief paragraph explaining the importance or unimportance of loyalty in being honorable.

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 10 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7B: Combining Sentences

Complete the Practice Activity on page 202 of your text. After completing this activity, read over your Essay Assessment or another journal activity you've completed.

* Identify three passages that could be improved by combining two or more sentences with coordinating or subordinating conjunctions. Below the practice activity in your journal, write the original passages and the revised sentences you've created.

* Be sure to…

On November 8, 2001, the U.S. Senate passed several new conditions before direct 'military-to-military relations can be restored with Indonesia including the punishment of the individuals who murdered three humanitarian aid workers in West Timor, establishing a civilian audit of armed forces expenditures, and granting humanitarian workers access to Aceh, West Timor, West Papua, and the Moluccas."
Following are two very recent bills and rulings by the U.S. Congress concerning the Indonesian presence, changes, and sanctions.

In the House resolution, number 666, urton (R-IN), Wexler (D-FL), and lumenauer (D-OR) congratulate the Indonesian people and government for a successful election process, supported Indonesia in political and economic transformations, expresses gratitude to Indonesian leadership for arresting 109 terrorists, supports the emerging legal framework, commends Indonesia for "discovering new ways of working with regional law enforcement and intelligence communities in a sincere effort to root out domestic radicalism, and urged Indonesia to conduct…

He does not care because he is greedy. Victor is the same way. He wants the knowledge of how nature works. He is curious and this eventually gets the best of him. He says, "I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man's life or death was but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought" (Shelley 13). Victor realizes the folly of his ways but it is too late to salvage anything that he has lost. Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler agrees with this assumption, noting that the irony of the story is that, "at the culmination of his research, the moment of his triumph, all Victor's pleasure in life ends" (Hoobler 159). Both men are consumed and actually believe that they possess some of the characteristics of God.
Both men suffer from their selfish…

When the readings are complete you will be able to visualize the world many years ago and the things that happened at that time. The changes in mankind and attitude are also evidenced by reading the literature of the old world.
Cultural differences are also clearly laid out through this course. They are detailed in several of the assigned works and show you how different people lived and how they thought at the time. Whether you want to learn about foods, dance, mindsets, religious faiths or other aspects of other cultures it can all be done through the assigned readings in this course.

The final reason you should take this course is the way it can be applied to today's life. Learning about the Native American understanding of botanical life can provide insight to the use of herbs today. Taking information from the readings and applying them to current life…

arrior Hero: A Stranger in a Strange Land
The figure of the hero is set apart from the common herd of ordinary men by virtue of his special qualities and abilities; in some works, this separateness is literal - he is in a strange land apart from his own kin. To see how this alienation enhances the tale of the hero's conflict, The Odyssey, Beowulf and The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice will be considered.

Odysseus, Beowulf and Othello are all warrior heroes. Odysseus, in The Odyssey, has been instrumental in the victory at Troy, and now fights to return to Ithaca and bring his men safely home; more struggles await him there. Beowulf, a great fighter who has proven his mettle in many conflicts, hears about the depredations of Grendel on Heorot Hall and journeys there to rescue Hrothgar's people. His role in the conflicts against the…