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Freedom
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What is Freedom?

Freedom is one of the most foundational concepts in political and governmental thought, making it a natural subject for courses in political science, civics, history, and social theory. Its academic interest lies in the tension between individual liberty and collective authority — between what a person claims as a right and what a society or government chooses to regulate or restrict. Works like Martin Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian and narratives like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl show that freedom carries distinct meanings across religious, legal, and personal contexts, and those layered meanings give the topic lasting intellectual depth.

Student papers on this topic approach freedom from strikingly varied angles. Some engage in literary and textual analysis, examining how freedom is pursued or denied in specific narratives, including those tied to slavery and immigrant experience. Others take a policy or argumentative stance, debating issues like school uniform requirements as questions of individual rights versus institutional control. Historical case studies, such as the My Lai massacre, frame freedom in terms of governmental power and accountability, while more personal or creative pieces explore freedom as an abstract value tied to identity, adolescence, and social belonging.

A strong essay on freedom requires a precise, focused thesis rather than a broad claim that "freedom is important." The most persuasive papers define which form of freedom they are analyzing — civil, personal, political, or spiritual — and anchor arguments in specific evidence such as legal frameworks, primary texts, or documented historical events. The most common pitfall is treating freedom as self-evidently positive without examining the competing rights or societal structures that complicate it.

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Paper Doctorate

World literature themes and critical analysis

One moment can change one's entire perspective on life. Being able to travel to a location I had always wanted to, allowed me to grow as a person and adapt favorable characteristics. Technology advances at a rate that may complicate ethics. Just as Mary Shelley addressed in "Frankenstein," all ethical boundaries must be thoroughly examined.

Paper Doctorate

Reproductive technologies: contemporary applications and developments

There are many couples that are unable to have their own children the good old fashioned way. This should not preclude this couples from having children of their own if they so choose.

Paper Undergraduate

Teachings on Human Dignity Written

¶ … teachings on human dignity written in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World is surprisingly resonant with core American values and political policies. For example, in section 17 of the Pastoral…

Paper Undergraduate

Exposing More Disheartening American Patterns

The image of the United States brings to mind unity and equality for all. Yet, in thorough examination of the nation's history, it is clear that the real underlying pattern goes directly against this very concept.

Paper High School

Atonement vs. Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet has always been one of William Shakespeare's most popular and successful plays, even though critics have sometimes dismissed it as an immature or sentimental work. In that respect, Atonement is not sentimental at all but rather grimly realistic, although the love of Ronnie and Cecelia also ends tragically. Both the play and novel have a great deal of seemingly irrational and senseless violence that destroys the lives of the main characters. In Atonement, the violence takes the form of a system that convicts Robbie unjustly of a crime he did not commit, and then gives him a choice of either serving in a war as cannon fodder or staying in jail. Cecilia and Briony also experience the violence of wartime London with regular bombing and endless numbers of badly mangled bodies that flood into the hospitals where they work. In Romeo and Juliet, the violence is the endless feud between the Monatgue's and Capulet's, in which Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation for the death of his friend Mercutio. Great Britain in 1935 was not nearly as repressive and patriarchal as the Italy of the 17th Century which is the setting for Romeo and Juliet. Women had won the right to vote by that time, and were beginning to attend universities or work outside the home, as Cecelia and Briony Tallis did. Unlike Juliet, they were not being forced into arranged marriages contracted by their father, who actually seems indifferent to them.

Paper Doctorate

Mandatory an Attitude of \'Firm Persuasion\' Means

This paper uses Tuesdays with Morrie as a springboard to discuss what is a meaningful life. It is written from the perspective of a college student who is still trying to assess his or her place in the world and find his or her life's vocation. The value of taking time off to understand one's self in solitude versus immersing one's self in the busy nature of modern life is discussed.

Essay Doctorate

Human Freedom the Idea of Human Freedom

This essay is a three page document that deals with the sociological context of human freedom. The essay attempts to link the varying concepts that compose the idea of human freedom to the study of sociology. Historical examples are used to highlight and contextualize the argument. Human freedom is eventually defined as a fluid and changing ideal that is usually needed to reform.

Essay Doctorate

John Locke\'s Understanding of Freedom and Equality

Essay assignment: John Locke's understanding of freedom and equality is the essential basis of any happy and prosperous society." How would the following individuals react to this quote: Rousseau, King Louis the Fourteenth, and Napoleon. With Rousseau, for instance, hiw views oiwuld ahve been the following: Rousseau is most famous for saying that "Man was/is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." (Social Contract, Vol. IV, p. 131 in Ashcraft, 22). We are born good but are essentially not free since we are forced to live in a pretentious society with conventions and masquerade. The most liberated and content people, according to Rousseau, were primitive people since they had no manmade convictions and social niceties to bind them.

Paper Undergraduate

Portrait of a Lady and the objectification of character

This story begins with the main character in the book, Isabel arriving at Gardencourt from America. Ralph, another main character in this book realizes that Isabel is destitute and talks his father into leaving Isabel some of his fortune in the amount of 70,000 pounds. This however, only begins the troubles for Isabel. Madame Merle, a wealthy woman herself sees that she can benefit from Isabel's money and introduces Isabel to Osmond. In the end, Isabel has herself lost much of her own self-identification and self-worth and has ultimately grown to recognize herself as having value only according to the value assigned to her by others Isabel understands that she is viewed as an object and ultimately defines herself as an object, although one of great value and worth.

Essay Doctorate

Leaderships and Two Different Kinds of Practices

The paper talks about three different kinds of leaderships and two different kinds of practices that leaders may practice with followers. The three different kinds of leadership are the following: 1. Deliberative – where the leader deliberately guides and leads his followers 2. Participative – where leader and followers participate in making decisions 3. Charismatic – where the leader wins his followers over by virtue of his personality and radical decision-making style The two different kinds of behavior and attitude that the leader may actuate to followers and that are discussed in this essay are: 1. Consequences – reward and punishment that result in desired behavior 2. Boundary setting – where the leader imposes perimeters for followers in order to achieve certain results. Using material appended from other settings the essay concludes by telling us how we may become more effective leaders.

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