Duddy Kravitz - Following A Dream
Reach for the stars, is a common phrase many children hear in their
life, whether by parents or role models in their lives. If a person
puts their mind to a task at hand they can accomplish it most of the
time, but when the goal is achieved and the path is taken to achieve
the goal is crowded with hate and lies, the question arises; was it all
worth it? In Mordecai Richler^s novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy
Kravitz, Duddy Kravitz, his uncle Benjy and Jerry Dingleman (The Boy
Wonder), are all able to achieve their life long dreams, but we must
examine if their sacrifices were worthy of the prize. Benjy strived
his entire life to create a profitable business, raise a family, and
make his father, Simcha, proud to be his father. Now, Benjy was able to
make his business grow and become beneficial to all that were close to
him. He was able to provide his nephew, Lennie, with a University
education to help him on his way to becoming a doctor, and also gave
Duddy a job working at his factory. These sound like descent things to
do for your own family, however when Duddy worked for Benjy he never
treated him with respect. This treatment towards Duddy did not help
Benjy^s reputation with Duddy, who already thought Benjy favoured
Lennie. As well, sending Lennie to University was a very thoughtful and
expensive thing to do for him, but according to Duddy, ^Lennie never
wanted to be a doctor^ You forced him!^(241).
This idea of Lennie never wanting to be a doctor was evident when he
ran away from school. Lennie could not take the pressure put on him by
Benjy, but he wanted to make Benjy proud and by doing so almost got
kicked out of school and ruined his life. The reason that Benjy was
doing all this for his nephews was because he could not have any
children, with his wife due to complications. Benjy started out doing
something nice but ended up trying to live his life through his
brothers. In the end Benjy attains cancer and is sinking towards death
with no one to inherit his life long achievement, his factory. No one
will take over his business in the family because Lennie is too busy,
Max-his brother- is too uninformed about it and Duddy has a certain
disliking for him. Duddy had lost his respect for Benjy due to the fact
that Benjy always ridiculed him. Benjy made his father Simcha believe
Gothic Literature was a natural progression from romanticism, which had existed in the 18th Century. Initially, such a ‘unique’ style of literature was met with a somewhat mixed response; although it was greeted with enthusiasm from members of the public, literary critics were much more dubious and sceptical.
In Embattled Dreams, author Kevin Starr explains the decade that begins with World War II and ends with the growth of states that were part of the war, concentrating on the United States specifically California. The book speaks about the changes that the war brought into California and how it was a catalyst for major changes in the state’s economy and society. It focuses on the development of California. Many books show the major events that changed a country, but there were smaller stories within the country that demonstrated to the development as well. The author wants to show readers that California contributed much to the war cause, building machinery and such, but this book emphasizes the effects these jobs had on society. Kevin Starr
There is an ongoing debate over whether or not Welfare recipients should be drug tested to receive the benefits. The lines of reasoning from both sides of this argument have unambiguous points. Those who oppose the idea of drug testing say that it is unconstitutional, and violates the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, they claim that this law stereotypes and discriminates against the poor
In Diamant’s powerful novel The Red Tent the ever-silent Dinah from the 34th chapter of Gensis is finally given her own voice, and the story she tells is a much different one than expected. With the guiding hands of her four “mothers”, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, all the wives of Jacob, we grow with Dinah from her childhood in Mesoptamia through puberty, where she is then entered into the “red tent”, and well off into her adulthood from Cannan to Egypt. Throughout her journey we learn how the red tent is constantly looked upon for encouragement, solace, and comfort. It is where women go once a month during menstration, where they have their babies, were they dwell in illness and most importantly, where they tell their stories, passing on wisdom and spinning collective memories. “Their stories were like the offerings of hope and strength poured out before the Queen of Heavens, only these gifts were not for any god or goddess—but for me” (3). It essentially becomes a symbol of womanly strength, love and learning and serves as the basis for relationships between mothers, sisters, and daughters.
Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this “line” is considered being poverty. How do they decide this line? They take the cost of a very basic diet, and they multiply it by three, for a family of three. That being said, One-half of the jobs in America pay below $38,000 a year, so no wonder we are losing the war on poverty.
In this paper we will be look at the book called “Lying on the Couch”. I will be going over what I saw as the biggest ethical issues that I read about in this book, I will also go over my thoughts on this book and the ethical problems that I saw for Dr. Lash, Carol and Marshal Streider. I will explain my personal opinion regarding self-care and my reasoning as to why it is so important to maintaining clear boundaries.
Throughout the years, Gothic literature has developed to be a mirror representation of what the beliefs and thoughts of the time were. The Gothic has a tendency to express beliefs towards the socioeconomic, political and religious situations and grievances of the time. Many texts express this, some including Edgar Allen Poe’s The House of Usher and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to then allow for the general public – at least those who were literate – to, subconsciously, understand the environment around them without being too direct. This gave the writers of the time a new channel, through this ge...
In the short story “Being There”, by Jerzy Kosinski, there are multiple examples of satire that are displayed throughout both the book and the movie. A few of them are: media, death, politics, and racism. The satire of the media was very similar in the book and the movie. Media played a big role in society and still does to this day.
Robert H. Frank’s book Falling Behind is a short, lucid, and compelling account of what is going on with the middle class”(Alexander Kemestrios Ben). That is what one reviewer on Amazon.com commented about Frank’s book Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class. In order to engage readers and support their ideas, most argumentative nonfiction books use statistics, logical reasoning, personal anecdotes, and real-life examples. While all of these strategies such as should make an interesting and compelling argument, the question is not of how interesting the book is, but rather is it or is it not a quality argumentative nonfiction book? Before answering that question, we must first consider what makes a quality argumentative nonfiction book. A quality argumentative nonfiction book should engage readers with entertaining and unique ideas and also have well-explained and simplified ideas that are easy for the audience to understand. By these standards, Falling Behind is partially a quality argumentative nonfiction book because, although it fully meets the criterion of having entertaining and unique ideas, it only partially meets the criterion of having well-explained and simplified ideas.
This skill will enable oneself to identify the situations thoroughly and act accordingly when things are
The achiever strength describes people who have great stamina and apply themselves to work hard (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012). People with the achiever theme are happiest when being productive, busy, and useful (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012). Achievers excel in launching projects and assignments and motivating others to begin tasks. (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012). They have a take-charge attitude and take the initiative to begin tasks on their own rather than wait idly for permission (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012). They have very high expectations for themselves and others and set specific goals to achieve (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012). Achievers do not just automatically accept information but examine it for proof and validity. These people are scholarly and can apply themselves for extended periods of time to their academic pursuits (Gallup StrengthsFinder, 2012).
with egregious murder. Historically, death at the hands of a lynch mob would be reported in the presses as occurring “at the hands of persons unknown.” To Coates this repeated ignorance is intentional, as it is necessary to preserve “The Dream.” The Dream is a repeated theme in Coates writing. He argues that white Americans live a Dream where their successful lives are the natural result of grit, honor, and good works. He argues that in reality, the lives of white Americans are built on the back of African Americans.
The term ‘Gothic’ is highly amorphous and open to diverse interpretations; it is suggestive of an uncanny atmosphere of wilderness gloom and horror based on the supernatural. The weird and eerie atmosphere of the Gothic fiction was derived from the Gothic architecture: castles, cathedrals, forts and monasteries with labyrinths of dark corridors, cellars and tunnels which evoked the feelings of horror, wildness, suspense and gloom.
Concluding from the experience /theorists/ – they like to get the overall picture and to feel intellectually stretched, and they are logical and rational thinkers.
The Nightmare begins with Saidi pitting his protagonist, Ben Chadiza, against his antagonist, the witchdoctor. A group of seven witchdoctors, is described as they encircle Chadiza: “It was a macabre scene, which in other circumstances the sophisticated Mr. Benjamin Chadiza would have carelessly attributed to his rather flamboyant imagination” (Saidi 421). The definitions of the specific words in this quote speak volumes as to its underlying meaning. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary macabre means: “comprising or including a personalized representation of death”. Mr. Chadiza is described as sophisticated: “having a refined knowledge of the ways of the world cultivated especially through wide experience.” In using these words Saidi gives Chadiza the identity of personified worldly knowledge and foreshadows the character’s courtship with death that continues through the story in the person of the witchdoctor. Saidi further identifies Chadiza and his wife as the “children” in this allegory by saying that Chadiza had “Cried like a small child” during his nightmare and upon awakening, was comforted by his wife in a way that resembles a mother comforting her child: “His wife put her arms around him and soothed him with her warmth, pressing her breasts to his chest and whispering comfort close to his ear” (422). The witchdoctor also refers to Chadiza as “my son” in paragraph 39 (425). Toward the end of the story it is revealed that Chadiza’s wife, Maria, is the biological granddaughter of the witchdoctor and that her mother had forsaken the witchdoctor “because of his sorcery” (427). Mr. Chadiza and his wife are therefore identified as the children of this sorcerer in figurative and literal ways. But they are more than that. The...