Trapped in the Web
In the novel, All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren, the characters live out the consequences of decisions made in their pasts. Each character deals with the past in a different way. It costs some relationships. It costs some their careers. It even costs some their lives. I believe that Cass Mastern says it best when he says “…the world is like an enormous spider web and if you and if you touch it, however lightly, at any point the vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the tingle and is drowsy no more but springs out to fling the gossamer coils about you who have touched the web and then injects the black, numbing poison under your hide';(188-189). I feel that this quote does an excellent job of capturing the theme of this novel.
Jack Burden and Judge Montague Irwin defiantly feel the effects of the spider. Jack Burden, at the request of Governor Willie Stark, dug up dirt on Judge Irwin. Jack gets in over his head when he finds more than he wanted to know about Judge Irwin. That’s when everything does upside-down, and the spider gets them. The Judge kills himself, which affected many people. One of the people that it affected was Jack. Jack found out that the Judge was his biological father and never had the chance to have his first true “father son'; talk. Even though Jacks goals from the beginning were to discover trut...
Bitter about the evolution of the corruption of society, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell plays the official hero clinging to old traditions and reminiscing about the old days in No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Delusions of a peaceful utopia during the time his grandpa Jack was a sheriff has left Bell looking at the world through hopeless eyes; a world on its knees with only one explanation for its demise: Satan. Not necessarily a religious man, Sheriff Bell, when asked if he believes in Satan, remarks: “He explains a lot of things that otherwise don’t have no explanation. Or not to me they don’t” (218). Throughout No County for Old Men, Sheriff Bell is determined to save Llewellyn Moss in order to prove that justice can be served in a world now drenched in decay. Throughout the book and the film adaptation, the audience can see Sheriff Bell, a tormented old man, sink deeper into his bitterness and his hope sizzle away in the Texas heat.
Gods and Generals, 2003, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain (JEFF DANIELS), Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee (ROBERT DUVALL), Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (STEPHEN LANG), Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker (MAC BUTLER), and Capt. Alexander ‘Sandie’ Pendleton (JEREMY LONDON).
Throughout life, individuals are faced with decisions and obstacles that must be overcome. These decisions and actions are easily influenced by outside forces and motivations and the outcomes of our actions can have a drastic effect on one's destiny. The act of deciding a course of action is not always simple, but it is made even more difficult when we are faced with a time period and a negative outcome if we chose not to continue on our journey. In the short story “Winter’s Bone,” written by Daniel Woodrell, we are taught that throughout life people make choices between what they want to do and what they need to do. Sometimes those choices lead to unfavourable outcomes,
In America today, when the name of honor is often adulterated by glaring headlines proclaiming the guilt of an immoral politician or the fall of a disgraced executive, it is easy to forget that the country was founded for the pursuit of truth, for only in truth can people find real happiness. Thomas Jefferson famously included the pursuit happiness as an unalienable right in the Declaration of Independence, but in an intimate letter to William Roscoe, a British historian, Jefferson wrote, “This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.” In his flagship novel, All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren embraces the Founding Father’s principles with his characterization of both Willie Stark and Jack Burden. Warren’s novel is an American classic because it traces the lives of two lost men as each man follows his personalized compass pointing towards complete understanding. After elevating him to unprecedented heights, Willie’s interpretation of truth returns to drag him down to the Underworld. Only when Jack learns that not even Willie can be omnipotent does he stop trying to understand everything. Willie Stark and Jack Burden embody the essence of Thomas Jefferson’s words because, in a sense, they both attain freedom through their pursuit of truth.
Willie asks Jack to search for secrets on a father figure from his child hood. Judge Irwin was a father figure in Jack’s life as a child. In this situation, Jack’s motivation and responsibility to himself is questioned. Jack discovers that Judge Irwin accepted a bribe and Governor Stanton covers the bribe up. The blackmail influences the suicide of Judge Irwin, makes Adam Stanton accept the position as head of the hospital that Willie is building, and Anne Stanton begins an affair with Willlie. Adam murders Willie when he finds out about Willie and Anne. This horrific event lead to Jack’s retiring from politics forever.
Although most people know what homelessness is and it occurs in most societies, it is important to define because the forces of displacement vary greatly, along with the arrangement and meaning of the resulting transient state. The Stewart B McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 defined a homeless person as “an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence or a person who resides in a shelter, welfare hotel, transitional program or place not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, such as streets, cars, movie theaters, abandoned buildings, etc.” Resent surveys conducted in the U.S. have confirmed that the homeless population in America is extremely diverse and includes representatives from all segments of society, including: the old and young, men and women, single people and families, city dwellers and rural residents, whites and people of color, employed and unemployed, able workers and people with serious health problems. The diversity among people that are homeless reflects how difficult it is to generalize the causes of homelessness and the needs of homeless people. Robert Rosenheck M.D., the author of Special Populations of Homeless Americans, explains the importance of studying homelessness based on subgroups, “each subgroup [of homeless people] has unique service needs and identifying these needs is critical for program planning and design.” Despite these diversities, homelessness is a devastating situation for all that experience it. Not only have homeless people lost their dwelling, but they have also lost their safety, privacy, control, and domestic comfort.
In America, society views the homeless as a crutch on the economy. Upper classes alienate the homeless population in order to excel the economy and lessen the burden on society. People who appear to be homeless are ultimately pushed aside and are treated differently. Often avoided, the general populous turns away from the problem that is effecting major cities throughout America. Ignoring a problem that is persistent, is being ignorant towa...
In everyday society, there are movie stars, celebrities, athletes and powerful figureheads that are looked up to. In every generation people experience downfalls due to individual choices, personal conflict, and family problems, . These people develop a tragic flaw that usually leads to their ruin. In William Shakespeare's, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Macbeth, the main character develops a tragic flaw, and ends up experiencing a downfall. In this play, there are people who can be blamed for his eventual demise, but in the long run, people are truly responsible for their own choices and actions. Macbeth is responsible for his own downfall. Macbeth is responsible because he abandoned his morals, he was easily persuaded, and he became too hungry for power.
In Nuremberg or National Amnesia, A quote that caught my attention was, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat the past” (Tutu 457). I feel the quote means that by forgetting the past you also forget the lessons you learned with that experience, which will cause you to repeat it without the knowledge you learned
Countless throughout the streets of Jackson, MS there are homeless people asking for food, money, etc. and some people aid them and others walk away. However, does anyone ever see the other side of the equation? Driving down Gallatin St. one night I saw firsthand the “other side”. Because of this, the issue that my research will cover is homelessness. Homelessness is defined as a state in which individuals lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence. Poverty, lack of affordable housing, declining wages, lost jobs, the economy, foreclosure, decreased assistance programs, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness, single parenthood, etc. are some of the causes of homelessness in America. Some of the proposed solutions are: affordable housing and homeless prevention programs. However, there needs to be less energy focused on providing temporary housing for those who are homeless, and more focus on providing permanent, affordable housing. Homelessness is an issue that should concern all of us. With a decrease in this situation it would clear up the amount of people walking around on the streets and everyone would feel more comfortable traveling at night. If someone is homeless, it is a common belief that they are more inclined to criminal activity; therefore less homelessness could equal less crime. Homelessness is not discriminatory and can happen to anyone at any time.
From 1095 to 1291 C.E., the Crusades spread across Europe in the name of Christianity. The high tension between the Muslims and the Christians was caused by the want of the city of Jerusalem. The Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims believed Jerusalem was theirs, and went to violent efforts to achieve it. In the movie, Kingdom of Heaven by Oliver Stone, the main character, Balian is thrown into the fight between the Christians and the Muslims. Kingdom of Heaven is a portrayal of one of the Crusades, and although the movie was based from real people, the film makers decided to change aspects about the characters and situations to relate to current events and audiences.
Proponents of physical education often contend their case with these and other similar arguments, but upon closer examination of the physical education system, its true use and effectiveness are highly questionable. Those who argue that physical education is integral to the nation’s health must reexamine the nation in which we live, a nation in which more than one-third of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvanian legislation has mandated physical education since 1999, but since 1999, the adult obesity rate has risen by 11%. Regardless of the proponents’ claims, physical education is not having its intended effect on public health. (Note: I am not trying to suggest that physical education is deleterious to public health. I am just showing that physical education has done a negligible job promoting health). Furthermore, physical education consumes an entire class period of a student’s day, a class period which could be spent learning one of many highly important, pertinent 21st century subjects that the Common Core has inexplicably ignored: micro and macro economics, U.S.
Although climate change isn’t visible from one day to the next, year to year there are many visible signs of climate change, are there is strong evidence of this due to observations and measurements all over the world. Some of the most prominent visible signs are higher temperatures, more droughts, increased extreme weather events, changing rain and snow patterns, less snowpack, melting glaciers, shrinking sea ice, thawing permafrost, increased ocean acidity, warmer oceans and rising sea levels.
The world as we know it is, it is changing in all aspects like rapid advancement in technology and science factors which make the world climate to change. Climate change thus means the variation of global weather conditions. Climate change is the seasonal changes for a long period of time in the world. These climate patterns play an important role in shaping natural ecosystems, and the human economies and cultures that depend on them. For example, the changes in climate can affect how people, plants and animal live, such as food production and health risks. As the earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle, but most recently the scientists have recorded that the earth climatic changes are rapid, unpredictable and not following the natural cycle of global climatic changes of
Climate change is triggering major changes in our planet. A simple rise or fall in general temperature can have a large effect on precipitation patterns and the frequency of storms. The rise in the sea level, which has been accounted for and is constantly rising has been the result of melting of ice and glaciers.