Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How has literature changed
Literature And Society
Literature And Society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How has literature changed
In early American History Ben Franklin was known for being a different kind of person. He never followed the rules like everyone else and always “marched to the beat of his own drum”. This difference from everyone else made Franklin a prominent figure in early American society. Franklin also used this to help get his beliefs across subtly. One way he does this is in “The Trail of Miss Polly Baker”. On the surface, this story is just about a women pleading to a jury about the punishments she has been given. People in this society saw this as a little hearted story that was created for entertainment purposes. But if you dive deeper into the text you can see that Ben Franklin is actually using satire to take jabs at how society and the judicial system treats women. In this story he uses satire with a sarcastic tone to help get his point …show more content…
“What Numbers of procur’d Abortions! and how many distress’d Mothers have been driven, by the Terror of Punishment and public Shame, to imbrue, contrary to Nature, their own trembling Hands in the Blood of their helpless Offspring! Nature would have induc’d them to nurse it up with a Parent’s Fondness. ’Tis the Law therefore, ’tis the Law itself that is guilty of all these Barbarities and Murders.” Franklin writes this to show that mothers of illegitimate child fear the ridicule and punishments that are handed down from the Government of the colonies and jury. In fact, the mothers are willing to have an abortion to terminate the child in order to skip out on the chastisement. He turns the tables on the jury to make them uncomfortable with bringing down punishments on Miss Baker and other mothers who have children out of wedlock. This type of comment is amazing to me because if something like this were to be said in this day in age, it would be shut down immediately due to the fact that it is not politically
...his seemingly routine case of fornication and premarital pregnancy proved to be significant for early American legal history. The unfolding of this story and the legal changes that it brought about makes evident that by the end of the seventeenth century, The Eastern Shore had shaped a distinct legal culture. The characters involved in each case also revealed the extent the powerful players were able to shape the law to their own self-interests. The goal of the powers to be was to protect property interests, protect personal reputation and liberty, and to maintain social order.
While writing a letter to his son, he begins to explain his reasoning for writing in a somewhat formal fashion, stating what he felt was the purpose of his life. His light hearted nature would show through when he lightly mocked previous statements he had written. He shows a lot of pride in all of the accomplishments he had made in his life. He refers to his past mistakes as ‘errata’ which is a term used for correcting printing mistakes. This suggests that he simply viewed his errors in life as easily replaced with the greater things he has gone on to do. He stressed the importance of hard work and that it would certainly lead to greatness and wealth. In part two, a seemingly older Franklin focuses his tone away from entertaining himself and his son. He goes on to explain a series of models and virtues that would lead to a happy and fulfilling life. Lastly in part three, a slightly older Franklin encourages people so stop thinking in self-interest and to join together to encourage social
Franklin addresses her audience personally. She speaks to them about something not necessarily of her interest but of the audience’s interest. Her audience is perhaps mature but may have some people that English may not be a language the understand, therefore by emphasizing very drastically on the important words in her essay by saying them frequently. It is a psychological tact that the more times you repeat a word the better the chance there is of the audience remembering it.
He writes about the relationship between society and government and how he views each of those separately. He believes that the British system does not work for the American colonies, as the monarchy is granted too much power. He lists many reasons on why he feels the system is also full of contradictions to the American people. How Franklin structures his argument is he is trying to persuade his readers. He is really making sure the audience understands his ideas and is open to them. What I feel his most persuasive point in the argument is his viewpoint on the relationship between America and Britain. “We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest not attachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account; but from her enemies on her own account.” (Paine, 1776 p.326). That quotes shows how he feels the British interest in the relationship, is only at the hands of their benefit and not truly at the
All is well that ends well. This statement best describes Franklin’s endeavor into morality. Even though he was not able to accomplish what he set out to do, he still managed to come out a better man because of it, and he learned a few things along the way. Sometimes reaching the end of something is not important, but the journey you took to get there is what really matters. I’ll finish with a quote from Franklin’s autobiography. “It is …. Necessary for every person who desires to be a wise man, to take particular notice of his own actions, and of his own thoughts and intentions which are the original of his actions; with great care and circumspection; otherwise he can never arrive to that degree of perfection which constitutes the amiable character he aspires after.” [BF, p227(Source P, 8: 128)].
This essay traces the development of abortion law in English and American society up to the time of Roe v. Wade in 1973. Beginning with Biblical citations, the essay researches the Early Church Fathers on the issue; the American colonies; developments of the 1800's which caused change, and so on.
The subject of abortion is a tough one. Many people have many different views on it. I do my best to always respect other’s views on sensitive subjects, but when it comes to abortion I become easily agitated. Wendell Berry’s essay, Caught in the Middle, did not irritate me. It includes a very well thought out examination of his views on abortion, and why those are his views. I cannot say I completely agree with every aspect of his arguments but I do agree with the conclusion he came too.
...ther’s sovereignty over her body outweigh the right of an unborn child to live. The answers to these questions are very diverse as a result of the diversity of the American society. With the issue of abortion, one’s attitude toward it is going to be based on many things such as religious background and personal morals. There is no black and white answer to the abortion issue. Luckily we live in a country where we are able to decide for ourselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Thus, ultimately, the choice is ours. As with the many other ethical issues which we are faced with in our society, it is hard to come to a concrete answer until we are personally faced with that issue. All we can do is make an effort to know all of the aspects which are involved so that we may be able to make a sound decision if we were faced with this problem in our own lives.
Thompson uses analogies to provide evidence that a fetus does not have a right to a women’s body. Just as one would not require a women to let a famous violinist use her body to live, one should expect the same treatment for a fetus. Having a baby is a huge sacrifice for a women and it should not be a moral requirement to have to take on such a responsibility.
...ple, Benjamin Franklin developed his own style of writing which was adopted by many liberal writers who shaped Franklin’s political views a great deal. It is also worth noting that Benjamin drew a lot from his father Josiah who he viewed as all round. He was particularly impressed by his ability to make sound judgment a skill also seen by other locals.
Right to Life: Little argues that every person has “a fundamental right to life,” as well as a “fundamental right to privacy” (p. 297). She strongly supports the “pro choice” stand point when it comes to the discussion revolving around abortion — as opposed to the pro-life position. This debate “requires [humans] to weigh the competing rights held by fetuses and women” (p. 297). Gestation is a commitment, more specifically, a nine-month-long commitment to create a living and breathing being. It’s interesting to note that the fetus’s right to life, seems to constantly outweigh their own mother’s right to choice. In some instances “pro-life treatments fail to [even] mention that pregnancy involves women at all,” because all of their focus, for the most part, is solely on the fetus (p. 298)....
Benjamin Franklin has been without a doubt one of the most relevant individuals in US history. His autobiography gives us a brief but detailed summary of what his life was like and how society worked in the eighteen century. This autobiography gives us many details of how the colonies where and offers and an overall image of the development of British North America which later turned into the United States. Due to the fact that this book was originally written for Franklin's son, the book concentrates in personal information and has very little information about other topics. However, there are some topics that can be extracted from his writings; one of them is gender. Even though, Franklin never talks openly about gender, we can observe how in his writing these roles are clearly assigned. In this paper, we will analyze how Benjamin's Franklin autobiography showcases the importance of gender in the early eighteenth century. Gender can be analyzed in Franklins book by looking at different topics. This given to men and women by society can be seen in the workspace, in the education of each individual, and in the family and family structure.
Dorothy Parker was born in 1893 and died in 1967. She is known for using a mixture of humor, satire, and sarcasm in her poems. Satire is a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule of scorn. Three poems in which she uses humor, satire, and sarcasm are "Résumé", "Comment", and "One Perfect Rose".
This cartoon was drawn by Benjamin Franklin and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. The cartoon shows a snake cut into eight pieces, each labeled with the name of one of the colonies. The position of each colony in the snake corresponds to the geographic position of the colonies along the American coast, with the snake's tail pointing south and the head pointing north. The colonies, from tail to head (south to north), are: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England (New England referred to the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire). The cartoon became a symbol of Colonial unity and resistance to British oppression. When Franklin first
“The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts--a child--as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the dependent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners.” – Mother Theresa.