Grapes Of Wrath Essays (Examples)

Grapes of rath

The Epic in the Grapes of rath

This paper discusses how the idea of the epic can be found in The Grapes of rath by John Steinbeck. The novel itself is an enormous work of approximately 500 pages. And in the words of Howard Levant, it is "an attempted prose epic, a summation of national experience of genre" (Levant 91). Because Steinbeck is depicting more than just a "slice of life" but rather an entire range of life at a given time in America, the book may justly be called "epic" in terms of art and scope. Indeed, The Grapes of rath contains epic ideas and themes (the struggle to be good and/or to survive evil times), epic similes (examples of the struggle that go on at length), epic characters (larger than life types who seem bigger than ordinary men), and an epic journey (the travel from…

Grapes of Wrath

There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do," Jim Casy tells Tom in Chapter Four of The Grapes of Wrath. This quote from Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel illustrates the author's ability to celebrate humanity and embrace human faults with compassion. A former preacher who learns through experience that judging human beings according to strict moral doctrine is no way to cultivate compassion, Casy poignantly embodies Steinbeck's vision of "Man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit." Through Casy's character as well as through protagonist Tom Joad, Steinbeck exposes human faults while simultaneously celebrating the loftiest ideals of the human heart and spirit.

Jim Casy struggled with the conflict between natural sexual desires and the priestly calling until he realized that "It's all part of the same thing." This theme of balance runs through The Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad is…

But the value and meaning of life and love described by Casy is manifested by the outsiders, the Okies, the rejects, the wanderers, the strangers, and the oppressed. They are the socially marginal characters of a self-satisfying culture. They are the ones Steinbeck admires in his novel for they are the ones who "wander through the wilderness of hardships, seeking their own Promised Land" (Shockley 87). They await the coming of the Lord, as Howe implies, and as Steinbeck reiterates in their mutual echo of Apocalypse.

In conclusion, the philosophy of the Grapes of rath is Casy's, which is itself extrapolated from the philosophies of the naturalists and humanists. It is unable to account for God, but it does acknowledge man's need to give and receive love. Steinbeck appears to suggest that the Okies, like all oppressed people, will be delivered from the evils of the oppression only by banding…

Grapes of Wrath

Social Welfare

The Great Depression affected everyone throughout the United States, but there is no denying the fact that those in the general Midwest were almost destroyed as a result. The complete social and economic consequences to a few years of drought, financial distress, and the growing applications of technology -- which led towards a social change in job placements -- all affected the farmer's plight. Based on John Steinback's novel, the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940) focuses on this particular plight by showing the journey of one family affected by the changes of American society. Like many of the other farming families of the Midwest, the Joads struggled to survive the changes occurring around them.

Director John Ford focuses the movie on Tom Joad (Henry Fonda), a newly released prisoner traveling back to his family's farm, only to realize that everyone had disappeared. When he…

..Pa'd crap a litter of lizards if we buy beers." That's pretty gross, but in the context of the times, it doesn't seem so severe. On page 178, a man blows his nose into his hand and wipes the discharge on his pants. A man says he hates his boss and "...Some day, by God - some day I'm gonna have a pipe wrench in my pocket...An' I'm gonna, I'm gonna jus' take his head right down off his neck with that wrench, a little piece at a time...right down off'n his neck." Grim language to be sure, but given the desperation of the times and the angst of the people who are out of work and on the move like homeless people, it isn't too surprising or shocking.

On page 255, blatant violence is discussed almost in passing; "Better not fool with him. He killed a fella." "Did? hat…

Grapes of rath

John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of rath, starkly and vividly describes the mass westward immigration of tens of thousands of displaced American Midwestern migrant workers, and the symbolically representative Joad family in particular. Steinbeck's editor Pascal Covici states: "John Ernst Steinbeck was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas California" (p. xxxvii). After graduating from Salinas High School, he attended Stanford University, but did not obtain a degree there. Determined by then to become a writer, Steinbeck moved to New York City, where he worked in construction to support himself while he honed his craft, and then as a reporter for the American. In 1926, he returned to California, where he worked at various odd jobs to support his writing. His first book, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929, and his second, The Pastures of Heaven, in 1932. Steinbeck's better-known works Tortilla Flat and In Dubious…

Grapes of rath

Human society, by and large, was historically organized on patriarchal lines till the feminist movement picked up real momentum in the twentieth century. In America, for instance, women were given the right to vote only in the 1920s, post the suffrage movement (Johnston, p. 142). Further, it was not until the post orld ar II period that women really began to expand on their traditional roles as daughter, wife, mother, and homemaker (Johnston, p. 244). Interestingly, it was the Great Depression that played a key role in the latter day transformation of the American woman from homemaker to an individual who asserted the right to make her own choices and play a larger role in the affairs of society (Johnston, p. 145). In fact, the catalyst role played by the Great Depression in the transformation of the American woman is clearly evident in the manner in which…

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck [...] some of the ways in which oosevelt's speech in "American Primer" responded to the needs of the people in 1933 and throughout the rest of the thirties. Steinbeck's powerful novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," is a deep look into the poverty of the Dust Bowl, and the migrations to California by workers desperate for jobs. The country was in dire trouble. The people recognized it, and the administration recognized it. The people needed to know that the government understood and cared about their plight, and oosevelt's speech told them he cared, and that he would do everything in his power to rectify the situation.

The Grapes of Wrath" is the touching and dark story of the Joad family, who travels to California from Oklahoma after their crops fail and they lose their farm. The chapters of the novel are generally divided into chapters…

Grapes of Wrath

When John Steinbeck's he Grapes of Wrath was published on March 14, 1939, it created a national sensation by focusing on the devastating effects of the Great Depression. Beyond the setting, though, which is important in and of itself, he Grapes of Wrath is compelling in its focus on society, human nature, and the hierarchical vision of "class," in a supposedly classless society. he Grapes of Wrath focuses on the 1930s, where a combination of weather (Dust Bowl) and economic downturn (the 1929 Stock Market Crash and reverberations) caused millions of Americans to lose work, become displaced, and flee middle America towards the "promised land" of California. he central characters, the Joad family, are Steinbeck's camera into the lives of the poor and downtrodden, their hopes, dreams, aspirations, and failures -- and through the Joad experience, the reader is able to juxtapose the very nature of mankind…

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and the film "The Grapes of Wrath," directed by John Huston. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the differences between the movie and the book and speculate as to why the directors/screenwriters would have altered the original work in the way that they did, and explore the concept of family in the film.

The Grapes of Wrath" is an American classic, both in film and in literature. emarkably, the film follows the book quite closely; the biggest difference in the film is Huston's ending, which is far more upbeat and positive than Steinbeck's, which ends with osasharn's baby dying, a flooding rain, and finally osasharn nursing a starving man in the boxcar where they have taken shelter from the storm. In addition, the final speech in the film actually appeared in Chapter 20 of the novel, and Ma did not say it to Pa,…

John Steinbeck's Grapes of rath -- the Movie and the Novel

There are quite dramatic differences between the ending of the film version of "The Grapes of rath" and the final chapter in the book (chapter 30) -- John Steinbeck's brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In fact the last chapter of the novel is so totally dissimilar from the John Ford-directed film one wonders why Hollywood would cut out such engrossing drama as Steinbeck has presented through the printed word. But Hollywood loves happy endings, after all. This paper points out some of those differences and contrasts between novel and film.

In the book (Chapter 30)

The rain is hammering down relentlessly, causing the creek to rise dangerously high. In the boxcar Rose of Sharon is getting ready to deliver her baby (a child that turns out to be stillborn). So outside a potential natural calamity is threatening to occur and…

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms take place during tumultuous social and political climates. The Grapes of Wrath features the Great Depression and therefore has the added dimension of economic depression and poverty. Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is set during wartime Europe, on the Italian front during the Second World War. Along these similar but distinct backdrops, the protagonists demonstrate their respective strengths and weaknesses. Tom Joad of The Grapes of Wrath and Frederic Henry of A Farewell to Arms are both products, if not total victims, of their circumstances. They are both tragic heroes, but not in the classical sense because hubris is not their fundamental weakness. Instead, these male protagonists suffer from a sort of impotence that prevents them from reaching their full potential.

Both Tom and Henry are tragic in part because they never know what makes them happy…

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of rath, various references to the structures on which capitalism works are scattered, and usually not lovingly, throughout the story. ritten about the Great Depression a good few years into it by a skillful writer with a fine grasp of human suffering, the depictions and descriptions of capitalism's organisms -- industries, farm organizations, and even retailing -- make the point that capitalism run amok is soul-deadening at best. At its worst, it kills people, and inhumanely at that. There can be little doubt, in the era of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, that Steinbeck would have been a champion of efforts to take the edge off capitalism with more regulation, and perhaps even institute a few -- or more -- socialist reforms.

It is in this setting that the Joad family was forced to leave Oklahoma's Dust Bowl to find work in California. Along the way,…

Performance Theme

The Grapes of rath, John Steinbeck's epic and often brutal novel about the plight of rural farmland America in the time of the Great Depression provided an excellent example to investigate the relationship between the separate artistic mediums of novel and film. The purpose of this essay is to highlight how the relationship between a book and film may actually produce a mutually beneficial legacy upon each other. I will demonstrate how this magnificent film's success, coupled with the book's success, has given both American film and literature a collective boost.

John Steinbeck's is considered by many to be the greatest American author of the 20th century. His known intent of whether or not his story would be adapted for performance is not quite clear, but we should assume that under these circumstances, Steinbeck knew of a possibility that this story could be transcribed into a film, play…

For two years prior to the publication of the Grapes of rath, Steinbeck spent his time with a group of migrant workers making their way towards California. Travelling and working with the laborers, Steinbeck found the heartfelt material in which to base his book." (Cordyack, 1) This shows in his gritty but sympathetic portrayal of the American working class.

This is an idea which illuminates perhaps the most important of parallels between the national experience during the Great Depression and the experience that the film portrays through the Joads upon their arrival to California. Namely, the capitalist system which has brought much pride and affluence to America's industrialists, and which somewhat questionably proclaims the opportunity for all to rise through an effective manipulation of the system, is the clear and declared enemy of the Grapes of rath. The inhumanity which is demonstrated by the banks and the bulldozers which reinforced…

" Steinbeck's novel was written in a much different style, much more modern, and so it is easier for modern readers to relate to it. Each of the novels places the characters in poor situations, so they all compare to each other in this regard. The reader becomes sympathetic to them because of their plight, and they want them to win. Unfortunately, because of society at the time, for most of the characters, that is not possible. Steinbeck's account of the Joads leaves them in a terrible situation by the end of the book, yet they somehow remain hopeful. Steinbeck is looking at the American people as a whole, and how, when the times are the worst, they still hang on to hope.

As for social impetus, the books did spark change. "The Jungle" actually helped form the first department in Washington to deal with food safety, the Federal Department…

The mere fact that these people interact as much as they do is a sign of the blurring of class signs. Also, the image of Gatsby as essentially nouveau riche, is itself a statement indicating interclass mobility. Unlike Steinbeck's story, Fitzgerald's is much more concerned with individual prejudices and stereotypes. In Gatsby, the prejudgments are of the working class against the leisured class. The work also speaks to the utter aimlessness of someone like Gatsby - a man who lives it seems, just for the sake of inoffensive pleasure, but who, at the same time, contributes nothing to the overall society. The unbelievable disconnect between Gatsby's set, and the rest of humanity is captured in an offhand remark of one of his guests, who just happened to find himself in the library, "I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit…

Environmental Themes in Grapes of rath

This essay reviews environmental themes from the following five books: Dust Bowl by Donald orster, The Grapes of rath by John Steinbeck, Everglades: River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Killing Mr. atson by Peter Matthiessen, and River of Lakes by Bill Belleville. This paper discusses the role that culture has played in environmental issues during the past century. Five sources used. MLA format.

Environmental Themes

Humans from the very beginning of their existence have had an impact, for better or worse, on the environment. Man has for the most part tried to control the environment to suit his needs or tastes of the era. Over-grazing, over hunting, ignoring the importance crop rotations, dam building, and toxic dumping, are but a few of the ways man tries to control. Few societies have ever considered any of the above when it comes to the environment.…

Philosophical and Literary epresentation of Capitalism

Progress & Technology in Capitalism

John Steinbeck wrote the social The Grapes of Wrath during the interwar years, just after the Great Depression harrowingly illustrated the power of unchecked capitalism. His novel takes the position that revolutionary change is needed, is inevitable, and that a just and non-exploitive society can only come about when capitalism is eliminated. Steinbeck is reported to have made clear his intentions as he prepared to write The Grapes of Wrath. In his words, "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this" [the Great Depression and its widely destructive effects]." Steinbeck's collectivist-leaning voice at the time of his writing The Grapes of Wrath would become so altered over the course of three decades that it hardly seemed to belong to this writer who created on the very edge of moral fervor.…

Never cold. an'fruit ever'place, an' people just bein' in the nicest places, little white houses in among the orange trees [...] an' the little fellas go out an' pick oranges right off the tree. They ain't gonna be able to stand it, they'll get to yellin' so."(Steinbeck, 95) Their conviction is enhanced by the stories they hear and by false advertisements they are sent. These false advertisements may very well stand for the archetype of contemporary commerce which is dependent on advertisement. California may moreover be a symbol for America itself, which was once seen as a heavenly continent, an unspotted, holy land. Steinbeck thus drafts at once a story of migration and tries to settle and capture the archetypes of the modern world. The story thus focuses on the fall of human life from wholeness into fragmentation: "Carbon is not a man, nor salt nor water nor calcium. He…

The effect of all of this is to drive away those who actually worked the land because they loved it, replacing them with hired hands running machinery, neither of which is likely to be kind to the land.

Monopoly

Perhaps the most familiar form of business except for perfect competition, monopoly situations result when there are many potential buyers for a product or service, but only one seller.

In the Grapes of rath, a monopoly situation is created as the banks decide to remove tenant farmers, preferring to sell the land to a single large conglomerate of landowners or even a single corporation.

Steinbeck could hardly have painted a harsher picture of this monopoly-in-progress, with scenes of huge bulldozers razing all evidence of the tenant farmers from the land. However, he also notes that the 'monopolization' of the Great Plains was seemingly an event bigger even than those landowners who…

She is the engine which drives the family.

Her attitude influences the one of the others. eing aware of this she succeeds to control the manifestation of her emotions. Another proof of her wisdom is the fact that she does not want to impose herself in all the circumstances. She lets Pa manifest himself, although she makes it clear for everybody that she has a strong authority as well. She is aware of her own condition.

Another woman whom Steinbeck uses in order to communicate the new dynamics of the men-women relationships is Rose of Sharon. One of the most famous scenes in the book is the one in which she feeds the man, helping him to survive. Her role is fundamental. She is the strong one, the provider. The man on the other hand is weak and dependent. The symbolism is very strong. "The fact that Rose gave birth…

However, it was changes in technology that originally made the cultivation of the land possible, and marked a shift from earlier methods of production, as practiced by Native Americans. hile small Okie farmers might have hated the larger agricultural conglomerates, they too had benefited from technology in past and paid the price when technology destroyed the land. And it was, in the end, technology that also saved such subsistence farmers, in the form of new cultivation methods -- introduced by the federal government.

orks Cited

Cooper, Michael. Dust to Eat. Clarion, 2004.

Davidson, J.R. "Interview." itness. The Dustbowl. PBS. May 1, 2010.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/dustbowl-witness-jr-davison/

"Dust bowl." The Great Depression and orld ar II. May 1, 2010.

http://memory.loc.gov/learn//features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html

"The Dust Bowl." U.S. History. May 1, 2010.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1583.html

Egan, Timothy. The orst Hard Time. Mariner, 2006.

"Hugh Hammond Bennett." The Dustbowl. PBS. May 1, 2010.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/dustbowl-bennett/

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of rath. Penguin,…

narration in four novels, "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, "Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, "All the King's Men" by obert Penn Warren, and "Absalom, Absalom!" By William Faulkner. Specifically, it compares are contrast the four different methods of narration in each of these novels.

Each of these classic novels uses a different form of narration to set the stage for the characters and move the plot along. Each form of narration adds to the impact of the novel, and altering the narration would certainly alter the way the novels affect the reader. These novels are excellent examples of the differing forms of narration, and how important they are to the overall art of fiction.

Absalom, Absalom!" uses a stream of consciousness type of narration that includes the shifts in points-of-view and setting that can be unsettling to the reader. This is the author's intention, for…

It was necessary for the returning men to feel that they were coming home to resume their pre-war social roles. Roles that were governed by the rules of a patriarchal society that had changed by way of the roles women assumed in American society while men were away at war. omen became the decision makers, the bread winners, and the family mangers in a way that is portrayed as the exact opposite by June Cleaver's role in her family's life. The need of men prevailed over the reality of women lives, and women were depicted as weak, needy, clingy, and unable to make sound decisions. Instead, John ayne, the handsome and larger than life film figure of a man was there as a rock, the man who actually dictated the role of the women as one of being needy, clingy, and unable to survive without the stronger male counterpart.

Some…

Man ho Shot Liberty Valance and the Brilliance of John Ford

John Ford's The Man ho Shot Liberty Valance (1962), a classic western with a few film noir elements included, is elegiac in the sense that its narrative strategy is that of eulogistic remembrance by now-Senator Ransom Stoddard, of horse rancher Tom Doniphan, who once saved Stoddard's life and changed it much for the better, and who was the real man who shot Liberty Valance. According to Robert Horton, "This may be the saddest estern ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose" ("Editorial Reviews"). Upon Tom Doniphan's death in the small fictional town of Shinbone (state unknown) Ransom and Hallie Stoddard arrive back in town to pay their final respects to Doniphan who sacrificed so much of himself, and so much of his own future happiness,…

Reasons for the isolation of employer and employee focus on class conflict, on the need for the employer to maintain at least the illusion of social superiority. The isolation of the employee can, however, serve the needs of the worker because only through unions can laborers unite together in their common cause of obtaining just wages and working conditions.

The government camps play into the social stratification and systematic isolation of migrant workers, even if they were designed to help people. The Joads are only one example of a family being isolated from the community and from the outside work, forced to work for meager earnings and in poor conditions. Steinbeck depicts the camps as being prison-like, the camps' residents as being bereft of any political or economic power. Their disenfranchisement causes characters like Tom Joad to come into unfortunate and fatal conflict with authorities. The result is a cycle…

musical style epitomized the 1920s? Jazz

What did John Steinbeck describe in he Grapes of Wrath? he dust bowl and its impact on agricultural families during the great depression.

National Industrial Recovery Act? An act created by President Roosevelt to stimulate the economy by allowing the government to regulate particular industries.

What did the Civilian Conservation Corps do? Created jobs on state and national lands to stimulate the economy.

What did Eleanor Roosevelt see as her primary role as First Lady? o be an advocate for civil rights

Which of the following was not true concerning the election of 1936? Incomplete Question

Which of the following pieces of legislation was an attempt at campaign reform in the late 1930s? Incomplete Question

he National Resources Planning Board facilitated? he National Resources Planning Board facilitated creating and implementing employment for young men during the great depression.

What feature of the Agricultural Adjustment…

1939, John Steinbeck published his novel The Grapes of rath, and that same year the film version of the story was released. The film was directed by John Ford and was very popular, and the book and the film together reached millions of people. In writing this novel, Steinbeck reflected many of the social, economic, and political currents of the time. The story is set in the Great Depression era, and the Depression was still have its effect in 1939. hat would bring about the end of the Great Depression was already starting in Europe, meaning orld ar II, which does not impinge directly on the story of the Joad family but which we can see from our standpoint today was about to bring about massive changes in American society. The very nature of the story of the Joads, however, links that story to the Depression and its effect on…

seemingly paranoid neuroses is it's obsession with machines and their replacement of humanity. Beginning in the Victorian era, shortly after the onset of the Industrial evolution, Western civilization began to visualize the coming competition between man and machine. Machines, instead of becoming man's saving grace, were, because of their ability to replace human labor, seen as a threat to man's existence. This view of machines and technology has only become more acute with the advent of computers and the virtually complete integration and dependence modern society has on these machines. One need only look at some of the most popular movies in the last few years to see a number of man vs. machine themes; with man not always the victor. If the modern world enjoys action-packed fantasies about a bleak future under the tyranny of the machines, this has not always been the case. American literature is also replete…

Tortilla Flat

CHAACTES IN TOTILLA FLAT

Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck was first published in 1935. It is set in the Monterey coast of California. This book features the adventures of a group of men of Mexican-American descent called the paisanos. As California writer and critic Gerald Haslam has noted, "Steinbeck must be recognized for seeing the diversity of the state's population, for writing about the paisanos of Monterey, for example, at a time when the majority of Californians did not acknowledge the importance or even the existence of mixed-blood Mexicans." (Shillinglaw, Susan. "Steinbeck and Ethnicity, 1995)

Thought they are troublesome people they are good at heart and like to help less fortunate people than them. The members of the gang are Danny, Pablo, Jesus Maria, Pilon and Big Joe Portagee.

They are soon joined by another paisano, the Pirate. All these men like to do is to enjoy a…

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the best example of Realism in literature because of how Twain presents it to us. Morality becomes something that Huck must be consider and think out as opposed to something forced down his throat. He knows the moral thing to do would be to report Jim, noting, " "People would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum -- but that don't make no difference. I ain't agoing to tell" (Twain 269). Furthermore, he cannot send Miss atson his letter he because his friendship with Jim trumps the morality he knows. Similarly, Jim wrestles with issues of good vs. bad. This is evident because of they way he decides to escape. He even begins to understand what Huck is going through when Huck does not turn him in. His revelation forces him to realize that Huck is "de bes'…

" The narrator of the film asks: "hat's this war in the heart of nature? hy does nature vie with itself, the land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature?" Because it is a war film set during the Battle of Guadalcanal, the film explores the meaning of death and acts as a meditation on death much in the same way Christian eschatology contemplates the Four Last Things. In this sense, Malick's Thin Red Line explores themes similar to those explored by hitman and recognizes the need for spiritual transcendence in a world obsessed with death.

Likewise, just as Emily Dickinson represents the force and power of eternity in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," so too does Malick in the Tree of Life. Dickinson writes in her poem of her understanding of immortality: "Since then -- 'tis Centuries -- and yet / Feels shorter…

Topics


The theme of unrequited love in The Great Gatsby
Discuss the fallibility of youth in The Great Gatsby
Discuss the primacy of socioeconomic status as it manifests in The Great Gatsby: which characters confront it with the most grace? Which with the least?
If Daisy and Jay had been members of the same socioeconomic class would they have ended up together? Why or why not? Provide textual evidence.
Nick Carraway goes to great lengths to show and tell the reader that he is a reliable narrator: discuss three concretes way he does this and how successful they are.
How does the period and place of the novel add to the sense of youth, love, promise or despair?
How does the death of Myrtle Wilson highlight a sense of something rotten underscoring the 1920s? Discuss using the novel and the historical period.
What role does Jordan Baker serve in the…

S. History, 2011).

Only after aggressive government intervention did the Dust Bowl conditions improve. The government, even before the drought was broken in 1939, was able to reduce soil erosion by 65% through the actions of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which planted 200 million trees to "break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil itself in place" ("Disasters: The 1930s," U.S. History, 2011). Farmers received instruction by the government on "soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing and other beneficial farming practices" ("Disasters: The 1930s," U.S. History, 2011). For the first time, the government took an interest not simply in preserving some of its land from development in the form of national parks, but gave counsel to farmers how to use the land.

The gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots,' already wide even before the Great Depression, grew into…

One of Wright's major works was Black Boy and one of the most poignant sections of that book was Chapter 12 in which Wright described the experiences of two southern black boys exploited by the "five dollar fight." Working for an optician in Memphis, Tennessee, the protagonist (Richard) hopes that his experiences with white people in Memphis will be better than in the small town of Jackson, Mississippi "The people of Memphis had an air of relative urbanity that took some of the sharpness off the attitude of whites toward Negroes & #8230;"

However, Richard finds that white people are just as exploitative and abusive of blacks in the big city as in small towns. Some of the white men where Richard works pay another black boy a quarter at a time to let them kick him in his rear end and even when white men seem to be nice…

.. [of] her father, a gunsmith, she writes...'All he ever cared about were guns. All I ever cared about was art'" (Martin 2000). Vowell's anti-gun politics and assassination fascination thus may have a personal dimension -- in the act of remembering violent American history, Vowell comes to terms with her past although retains her liberal politics.

Vowell does tie the issues raised by violence and assignations in the past to present-day attitudes Regarding one unwitting casualty in the attempt on Ronald Reagan's life, Reagan's press secretary James Brady who must spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair due to his injury, Vowell is proud that she is part of their campaign and writes how moved she is: "that he and his wife, Sarah, turned this rotten luck into the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is downright heroic. And not the soft-focus treacle that 'heroic' often implies. I'm…

Chaplin's role in the movie is a cog on the assembly line where he fixes nuts to moving machinery parts. Indeed, one of the funniest moments is the sheer panic when his work is out of sequence and he attempts to hide the nuts that he has to assemble but cannot keep up with the speed of the factory process.

Chaplin is also making another important, perhaps a prescient point. This is reminiscent of George Orwell's caution against the ever-increasing role of "Big Brother" that was the primary theme of several of his novels. In Modern Times, the factory boss uses two video cameras to monitor his workers and even something as natural as a smoke break is met by a severe reprimand.

In conclusion therefore, Modern Times is a comedy classic; but it also carries some very…

American?

Throughout our history incidents and occurrences remind us what it means to be an American. During this time of war, after the deadly terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, our American ideals and identity have come into re-examination. But where to begin: hold up a mirror to this country and see a mosaic of people, culture, and opinions. Nearly four hundred years ago, the Europeans began colonizing this land to begin new lives and expand the riches of empires in the Old World. And in less than four hundred years, the descendants of those original colonists have created a superpower that defends the liberties of all free people through the creation of a democratic republic that is founded of inalienable rights bestowed by a Creator, and guaranteed by a Constitution of laws; a unique, non-oppressive empire has been created that has…

The more you write, the more feedback you get about your writing. This feedback is essential for spotting out the weaknesses in one's writing. It often turns out to be less smooth and clear than it seemed while the writer was writing it. A writer's ability to spot these weaknesses is enabled, of course, by reading a lot of bad writing. The more bad writing a writer reads, the better she gets at editing. However, the novice writer cannot spend too much time trying to avoid these mistakes on the first draft.

The writers who are able to strike the balance between pure creative expression and critical evaluation are what we call good writers. When a writer has written enough good sentences and has organized enough ideas, the principles of style and organization are instilled in their DNA. Every word the writer composes thereafter is shaped by these habits and…

Ink Spots

"An all-Negro show, headed by the rejuvenated Ink Spots, has everything it takes to be a top entertainment piece. The Spots, making their periodic visit here, were never better. Ella Fitzgerald takes second billing to the Ink Spots, but more than holds up her end with I've got hythm, Do Nothing' Till You Hear From Me ....Ink Spots come on with Shoo-Shoo Baby ["Cow-Cow Boogie"?] followed by Lovely Way to Spend An Evening and Don't Sweetheart Me ... Encore with My Heart Tells Me and beg off to thunderous hand with the inevitable If I Didn't Care" (Billboard Magazine, 2/6/44, courtesy More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots and Their Music, Goldberg, 1998).

Were the Ink Spots really the "heavyweight champions of quartet singing"? If you believe soul singer Jerry Butler -- founding member of the Impressions who was quoted in the ock & oll Hall of…

Change, however, rather than pure survival propels newly female created and depicted Italian women -- in Barolini, women are not forces of the home front and reaction and religion, as they are in male urban narratives. Rather, beginning even in Barolini's Italian Calabria, women propel a family destiny of fundamental change. After the first years of struggle, the woman and her husband relocate the family to upstate New York where it is Umbertina's determination and innate intelligence that propels her family to unexpected and unanticipated middle class success and security. Thus, because of the determination of a successive generation of women the family can live out the destiny of the American dream that their forbearers set in motion so many years ago in Italy and resolving the tensions between the Italian-American women's conflicts between their socially constructed dual identities and their yearnings for both success and security, family life and…

movie industry in America has been controlled by some of the monolithic companies which not only provided a place for making the movies, but also made the movies themselves and then distributed it throughout the entire country. These are movie companies and their entire image revolved around the number of participants of their films. People who wanted to see the movies being made had to go to the studios in order to see them. They made movies in a profitable manner for the sake of the studios, but placed the entire industry under their control and dominated over it. The discussion here is about some of those famous studios inclusive of that of names like Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Culver, RKO, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Universal Studios, Raleigh Studio, Hollywood Center Studio, Sunset Gower Studio, Ren-Mar Studios, Charlie Chaplin Studios and now, Manhattan Beach Studio.…

Feet of Jesus, a Work of ealism

Helena Viramontes' book, From Under the Feet of Jesus, is a novel that explores the difficulties of life that Chicanos faced in the United States from the 1930's through the 1970's. Her work is an exercise in realism as it does not trivialize the trials of Chicano life with grand political statements or symbolism. Instead, it is a very clean portrait of a family and their friends who are all attempting, at times desperately, to live their lives in a land that, more often than not, does not want them there. A realist work find the truth paramount. Viramontes faithfully reconstructs life in a series of pictures, that puts a perspective of reality, of truth, and of hopefulness for a people long suffering in this nation. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate the elements of realism in Viramontes' book and…

Cinema 1950s

1950s was a decade of change for the U.S. - cinema was no exception, as it modeled itself to accommodate the social changes U.S. society was going through. Films not only provide entertainment to masses but are also believed to express the general outlook of society by the way it sets and adopts trends. 50s was marked by postwar prosperity, rising consumerism, loosening up of stereotype families, baby boom and growing middle-class. It was the time of reaction to the aging cinema, especially by the freedom loving youth who were keyed up with fast food (Mc Donald's franchised in '54), credit card (first in 1950) and drive-in theaters (Filmsite.org). Young people were fed-up with the conventional illustration of men and women. With growing interest in ock-n-oll and break-free attitude prevailing, a social revolution was very much in the offering, and that was to transfer the cinema as well…

Photographic Analysis of Dorothea Lange's Political And Artistic Vision:

Candidate for Congress (General alter Faulkner) and a Tennessee farmer. Crossville, Tennessee

"Although many do not know her name, her photographs live in the subconscious of virtually anyone in the United States who has any concept of that economic disaster" (Gordon 698). Yet, as noted by professor of history Linda Gordon, Lange was not someone who idly wandered in amongst the farm workers whose images she captured on film. She had a highly specific political agenda and had been hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to capture her images. There has been a dual, contrasting interpretation of Lange through the ages, one perspective which views her work as essentially political, like Gordon, while others like James Curtis who see her work as more personal than political: "Lange sought to create a transcendent image that would communicate her sense of the…

American Literature-Marge Piercy's poem "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?"

How figurative language is used in the poem to evoke vivid images.

In the poem "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" Piercy analyzes her mundane routine duties as an exhausted housewife; how women sometimes feel unworthy due to the behavior of men. Though in this poem, speaker does not introduce herself as a homemaker, but tells the reader about one specific woman as an example on behalf of the feelings of all women. In the beginning of "What's That Smell in the Kitchen?" author points out that dinners are being burnt all over America. This not only gives a reader the central idea of the poem but also creates curiosity to read further to know the reason. in the next four lines the author explains foods that are usually cooked in the particular cities of United States. This paints a…

Oklahomans
Oklahoma has only been a state in the U.S. since 1907, yet Oklahomans were around well before then. Oklahoma is known as the “sooner” state because settlers had arrived in the territory before it had even been declared part of the United States. In the first half of the 19th century, the region was part of Arkansas Territory. The Native Americans were forced on the Trail of Tears and made to settle in Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma. In the latter half of the 19th century, cattle ranchers from Texas drove their cattle through Indian Territory to states up north and out west, paving cattle trails along the way. More and more whites began to settle in the area as a result of these cattle trails and the expansion of the railroad. Then when oil was found, Oklahoma became a major focus for the oil industry and Tulsa became…

Book CensorshipIntroductionThe censorship of information is one of the most pressing issues in libraries today (Steele, p.1). Censorship basically refers to efforts undertaken by governing authorities or their representatives to change/limit access to material depending on the content of work. Some of the changes or limitations made on work include removal, restriction, or exclusion. Censorship is a practice that has existed in society since ancient times and has been characterized by debates on the extent to which it affects the freedom of speech and intellectual freedom. As a form of censorship, book censorship occurs when government officials, private individuals, or organizations limit or remove books from school reading lists, libraries, or bookstore shelves. Over the past few decades, book censorship has grown to become one of the most common forms of censorship. Proponents of book censorship contend that it is critical to control the kind of literature given to children.…

The term conversion would be etymologically closer (Blenkinsopp 84)

By the charge of acting without principle (verses 25 and 29), the Israelites accused God of punishing the innocent along with the guilty. Implicit in his rejection of the charge is Ezekiel's belief that all deserved the punishment that had come upon the nation. The opportunity for each generation to live or die according to its own behavior is now extended to each individual within his life time. The possibility of the righteous dying because they turn to sin may seem harsh; but the opportunity for the wicked to leave past guilt behind is all the more significant for Ezekiel's sweeping condemnation of Israel elsewhere. The oracle of verses 30-32 is the climax of the chapter, commanding response to the possibility of attaining life that had just been declared.

In contract to the earlier promise of the people's spontaneous renewal by…

Authentic Prayer in Habakkuk

The world today offers many challenges, especially for the person who is determined to maintain a sense of faithful love for God. In addition to the many scientific and non-faithful persons attempting to dethrone God from the faithful heart, personal struggles and challenges could also lead to significant despair. Even the strongest of faiths can be tested, challenged, and even a little shaken. It is my belief that this is one of the reasons why the Bible is filled with examples of everyday human beings who, despite the faith required for their positions as prophets or preachers, nevertheless experienced challenges that were every bit as hard on their faith as the challenges we experience today (Hays, p. 16). Hence, a prophet like Habakkuk and the nature of his prayers provide for the reader an honest rendition of what it truly means to have faith, and indeed,…

Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life

"He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the priest establishes a mandate for Christian Living. Historically, at the Last Supper, Christ used bread and wine as a supreme metaphor for the rest of our lives. Jesus was in turmoil. He was aware of what was about to befall him -- namely, suffering and death. This was the last major lesson he would teach before his arrest following Judas' betrayal. Eschatologically speaking, the above set the stage for the Christian ministry of the apostles, evangelists and priests. Indeed, every Christian is called to give of him or herself for the Glory of God and the Glory of Mankind. The message at the Last Supper was powerful. People have put themselves through…

Fowler is the one who is truly upset about the bomb in the square and the innocent peoples who are killed. He says, "A two-hundred pound bomb does not discriminate. How many dead colonels justify a child's or a trishaw driver's death when you are building a national democratic front" (Greene 163). Fowler may not believe in God but he seems more moral than Pyle who is idealistic and seems like he believes anything any one will tell him. Maybe that is why he is the one who believes in God and religion in the book. He believes what he reads, and he reads a lot so he has probably read the Bible and believes everything in it. Fowler is a reporter, and he has seen a lot of life so he questions things more closely. He does not just believe every thing he reads because he is a writer…

What would have been effective in this situation was a third party business mediator. That individual would balance the expectations and demands of the Japanese firm with the expectations and demands of the American workers.

In the softball game, the workers take out their aggression on the Japanese management team. In Japan such behavior is unconscionable. However, because American workers had never been exposed to Japanese customs they are unaware that such things will have serious negative consequences for their position within the company. In this instance as with it can be said all others a cultural interpreter as well as a greater degree of honestly and disclosure from Hunt would have been ideal.

Ultimately this film demonstrates the dangers and pitfalls of cross cultural relations when neither is particularly educated or interested in the customs of the other culture. The Japanese approached the situation of the American factory workers…

It is thus that he helps to establish the truly tragic abstractions that characterize the family's individual experiences. here a broad, unilateral overview of the story might direct the reader's focus to the burial plot, an objective set of narratives articulated by the character's themselves suggests that Faulkner intends the story more as a lamentation for the living.

In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner delivers a treatise on the American condition too often unconsidered in either the literary or the public forums. The Bundrens can be considered less a family comprised of actual individuals as a unit of caricatures. The characters are altogether conflicted by selfishness and emotional ambivalence, divided by an unrefined sense of loyalty and an incapacity to truly experience mourning and relentlessly driven to their goal even as they are guided by cloudy ambitions. In this regard, it is difficult to even determine that Faulkner finds redemption…

Spade walking down to examine a murder makes use of shadows as well as high black-white contrast in order to convey drama and suspense. This is commonly referred to as the film noir lighting technique because it conveys a sense of mystery and danger. The lighting highlights the most extreme contours of the character's faces, but none of the moderating details such as texture or color. This makes the facial expressions look much more dramatic than they would under normal lighting.

The costumes are also very typical of the film noir genre. Spade is wearing a black wool overcoat and a fedora and his counterpart from the police station is wearing the same outfit. This is a style of dress associated with detectives, who sometimes had to conceal their identity and not stand out. The overcoat conceals much of the person's figure and could conceal weapons or other objects.

The…

limiting free speech ID: 53711

The arguments most often used for limiting freedom of speech include national security, protecting the public from disrupting influences at home, and protecting the public against such things as pornography.

Of the three most often given reasons for limiting freedom of speech, national security may well be the most used. President after president, regardless of party has used national security as a reason to not answer questions that might be embarrassing personally or would show their administration as behaving in ways that would upset the populace. Although there are many examples of government apply the "national security" label to various situations, perhaps some of the stories that are associated with the Iran-Contra issue best display what government uses limitations on free speech for. In horrific tangle of lies double and triple dealing that resulted in the deaths of many Nicaraguans, the egan administration sought to…

Franklin's autobiography demonstrates a truly American kind of businessman, because he so neatly embodies all of the assumptions and logical fallacies that American capitalism depends on in order to justify its dominance in an ostensibly equitable and representative society.

Where Franklin's autobiography demonstrates the peculiar appeal to divine right that is used to justify the inequity of American capitalism, Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener demonstrates the almost willful obtuseness necessary for any apologists of capitalism who must interact with the exploited lower classes on a regular basis. The narrator of Bartleby the Scrivener is entirely unaware of anything outside the extremely limited range of his own preconceived ideas, which is both why Bartleby's passive resistance stuns him so much and he is ultimately unable to come to terms with Bartleby's death. He practically admits as much when he says "the easiest way of life is the best," because the easiest…

United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled correctly in awarding partial summary judgment in this case. The summary judgment was granted in accordance with Rule 56(c) (3), Ala. R. Civ. P. Under Rule 56(c)(3), "summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."

"If the moving party makes a prima facie showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists, then the burden shifts to the nonmovant." Bass v. Southtrust Bank, 538 So. 2d 794,798 (Ala. 1989). This burden requires the nonmovant to show "substantial evidence" in support of his position. id at 798.

Porter fails to show substantial proof of exposure to HIV on which his claim of emotional distress is based. Lacking proof of actual HIV exposure the plaintiff cannot move ahead with a claim based…

Male ithout Female

In the classic films of the 1940s and 1950s, filmmakers tended to use very strict representations of gender in their characters. omen could be either virgins or tramps and men could be either heroes or villains. There was very little transgression of the stereotypical boundaries of character. Society as a whole during this period was heavily masculine. Men made up the executives and the politicians and of course the majority of the powerful filmmakers. Consequentially, the perspective of most films and literature of the era was decidedly masculine. Female characters were heavily marginalized and forced into one of the two categories listed above. In two works from the period, The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon, the women characters are portrayed as useless or as venomous and evil. Some scholars have speculated that the reason behind such portrayals is the basic male fantasy which is a world…