How many times have you assumed something and not listened to the other side? Perhaps it was the presidential election or a simple argument with your little brother. In today’s world, many stubborn people believe they do not need to know the other side of the argument and therefore disregard it. In Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly, her definition of wooden-headedness plays a major role in society today, because individuals will assess situations with their background knowledge rather than hearing an opposing opinion. Wooden-headedness can be found throughout history and was even recorded in many famous literary works. Famous novelist Mark Twain made note of the pertinacious white people in his book Huckleberry Finn, written in the late 1800s. This can be seen through the character Pap. Pap is the abusive father who wasn’t there for his child, Pap the man who would not accept the idea of the white man being equal to the African American man. Pap the patriarch, who held on to the extreme beliefs of racism. Ultimately, Twain displayed how racism clashed with the rest of the population that was moving towards reconstructing America, morally and literally. …show more content…
In the modern world today, any type of shooting involving black lives immediately leads the public to assume that there were ulterior motives. [Either the public think that the black was guilty or that the police force is racist] Instead of looking at all parts of the predicament, the public acts with wooden-headedness by [focusing on either of the two extremes] only focusing on the parts that make a good news story. Moments like these impact our civilization since it’s a chain of wooden-headedness that keeps evolving through
Consequently, “In recent years, tragedies involving mass killings in the US, such as The Aurora, CO movie theatre shooting in July 2012, and the Newton, CT has intensified social focus on trying to understand the dynamics and contributing factors that underlie such events”(Towers 2). Both of these shooting left the public shocked and concerned. As an article says one of the main concerns was “concern with the publics understanding of the shooting specifically who or what did the public blame” (Joslyn, and Do...
Rebellious….Naive....disrespectful...Huckleberry Finn. Here on the atoll of kwajalein, the people come together, as one big family or separate groups of families. There is a place for everyone to go to, not just average cliques in high school, but more of a family that you can always trust to be there for you and trust you to be there for them. In the novel “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn has a quality similar to this when he is apart of Tom Sawyer's gang, yet it’s not really the same more close to opposite, people here in those groups don’t judge, we see that huck and tom sawyer’s group of robbers judge not only each other but, the outside world as well followed up by what was said “ every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it wouldn’t be fair and square for the others.” (pg.8) . Huck is rebellious to his father and Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, because they tried to “civilize” him and he couldn’t stand it and thought his way of life was just fine. Huck is naive to his own thoughts on how he was raised to believe every african american was just a tool. Huckleberry Finn is disrespectful to most people even Judge Thatcher after he put the money in a trust for the kids. And because
The ultimate aspect of self deception can be portrayed through wooden headedness; Wooden headedness is an individual does not accept facts to be the truth. Wooden headedness possesses the tendency to defeat the embraced idea of open mindedness. Historian Barbara Tuchman asserts the belief that wooden headedness is a widely occurring phenomenon in organizations and human behaviors. Throughout human affairs, the behavior of wooden headedness is quite common and surfaces more frequently than expected.
Furthermore, the authors aim to unfold the scientific logic of their analysis of the effects of hidden biases so people will be “better able to achieve the alignment,” between their behavior and intentions (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) preface
Throughout literature and novels we can find authors who will reference history, other authors works and most often the Bible. One may ask themselves the reasoning behind allusions and how it can affect our perspective and the authors meaning when reading the novel. In the late sixties, Julia Kristeve, who studied the elements of literature and other communication systems, introduced the word “Intertextuality”. In Kristave’s essay “Word, Dialogue, and Novel” she went into deep analysis of an authors work and its text, “A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the strucutures of language itself. Any text," she argues, "is constructed of a mosaic of quotations; any text
We then see this play out in discriminatory hiring practices, biased treatment in courtrooms, and the kinds of brutal treatment by police that took the lives of unarmed Black people like Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Akai Gurley. The result is that our communities are being put in double jeopardy, first by over zealous police and then by news stations serving as PR firms by
Huck Finn, the main character of Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, travels down the Mississippi River in search of personal truth and freedom, which ironically he achieves by living a lie. Huck's journey causes him to wear a variety of disguises and masks to survive. Unfortunately however, the people he meets along the way wear disguises which they use to deceive and cheat the same society that Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, are trying to escape from. Jim must use his own cleverness, Huck's protection and disguises in order to avoid getting caught by society. Together, all these characters use disguises, which are lies in physical forms, to their advantage. Huck's motive is to escape the rules of a restricting society. The King and the Duke are con men who want only to cheat society and take what isn't theirs. Jim uses disguises for survival, to escape from social prejudice and unfair punishment.
In my eyes, this theory is very visible through the recent “Black Lives Matter” campaign. The media has a high amount of control for how the African American and criminal justice population are viewed within society. For example, when a police officer shoots an African American, every news channel takes a different approach at rationalizing the situation or placing blame on one of the parties involved. One news channel may focus on the events leading up to the shooting while another news channel may choose to cut that out of the clip they broadcast. These actions lead to changes in society’s expectation for both police officers and African Americans. The sequence of the labeling process can be seen throughout our
In “The Epistemic Significance of Disagreement”, Thomas Kelly gives two responses to the question “How should awareness of disagreement, with those that you take to be your epistemic equal, effect the rational confidence you have in your beliefs?”. Kelly discusses two possible responses to the question. The first is Richard Foley's first person perspective argument. Adam Elga calls the second the right reasons view (Elga, 2007 pg. 485). Kelly pursues the latter, and does not go further than agreeing with Foley that we should only view these disputes with a first person perspective.
In the story of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses many different types of symbols to get Twains numerous messages across. Twain signifies the Mississippi river as a symbol to get away from society for Huck and Jim. Twain also criticizes the way society runs and the things it teaches everyone to be. The river vs. land setting in Huckleberry Finn symbolizes Huck's struggle with himself versus society; Twain suggests that a person shouldn't have to conform to society and should think for themselves.Throughout the novel, Mark Twain shows the society that surrounds Huck as just a little more than a set of degraded rules and authority figures. When the new judge in town allows Pap to keep custody of Huck, adopters are things he doesn't need and doesn't care for. Twain gives Huck the power to think for himself, and come to adult conclusions, which show Twains message; think for yourself.Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn is for the reader to interpret for him or herself. But any reader could pick up on Huck's struggle with the freedom the Mississippi River gives him, and the society that holds him back. Huck realizes that he shouldn't have to conform, and he refuses to at the end of the book. Huck's trials and tribulations show the reader that he or she to think for themselves and not conform to societies standards from Huck's time period, or now.
Huck Finn, a narcissistic and unreliable young boy, slowly morphs into a courteous figure of respect and selflessness. After Pap abducts the young and civilized Huck, Huck descends into his old habits of lies and half-truths. However, upon helping a runaway slave escape, Huck regains morality and a sense of purpose. Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck lies to characters, casting the authenticity of the story into doubt but illustrating Huck’s gradual rejection of lying for himself and a shift towards lying for others.
Huck Finn does not fully understand religion. The widow tells him he can ask God for whatever he wants so he thinks of religion as asking God for specific items. Religion is actually a more spiritual concept, and Huck is not mature enough to realize this. This is apparent when he mentions “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.” This tells us that Huck is very confused about religion and takes things very literally. Huck was not brought up in church, so he knows little about God and religion. Another time when Huck took something too literally was when he went to Tom Sawyer's group to "rob and murder" people. Huck fully expected there to be real elephants and “A-rabs” at their destination. Tom Sawyer just wanted to pretend this was the case, when Huck actually was preparing himself to see elephants.
Mark Twain’s masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through much criticism and denunciation has become a well-respected novel. Through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old boy, Huckleberry Finn, Twain illustrates the controversy of racism and slavery during the aftermath of the Civil War. Since Huck is an adolescent, he is vulnerable and greatly influenced by the adults he meets during his coming of age. His expedition down the Mississippi steers him into the lives of a diverse group of inhabitants who have conflicting morals. Though he lacks valid morals, Huck demonstrates the potential of humanity as a pensive, sensitive individual rather than conforming to a repressive society. In these modes, the novel places Jim and Huck on pedestals where their views on morality, learning, and society are compared.
Racism is a problem that the American people have grappled with since colonial times. The 1960's saw the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X, who not only influenced the civil rights movement but attempted to solve the problem of racism in this country. On February 16, 1965, Malcolm X gave a speech called Not Just An American Problem, but a World Problem. In his speech he provides a theory on the relationship between media and racism called image making which still has validity today. On first reading, Malcolm's tone is angry and his theory on image making sounds absurd. He states: They (racists) use the press to get public opinion on their side. . . this is a science called image making. they hold you in check through this science of imagery. They even make you look down upon yourself, by giving you a bad image of yourself. Some of our own Black people who have eaten this image themselves and digested it -- until they themselves don't want to live in the Black community. Yet, current television programming seems to favor this idea. Local news programs continue to show colored communities as dangerous and gang-infested. They continually rely on the reports of these areas for the bulk of their news and overlook the positive images that residents of these areas try to create. For example, KNTV news continually reports on the thefts and shootings in East San Jose but does not make an effort to show how residents are dealing with these situations.
Hart discusses the article he read from the 1980s. These articles were designed to elicit fear in white Americans. The articles stated fallacies like black men became homicidal and were not affected by bullets. These types of stories are still heard today. The most recent example would be the reporting on the Michael Brown case, the media played on the fact that he was on THC and that he was invincible to the bullets, further feeding into the stereotype that black men are violent on drugs and bulletproof.