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Recommended: Life in the 1800s
To call the plantation house of the Chestnut family, which looked down upon the town center from a lowly hill, a mansion is to be overtly generous, yet there it stood in humble splendour, the Great House of Westlake. Westlake, a small town situated in the flattest part of Franklin County on the shore of the Lake. From it’s founding, the masters of the estate had been the Mayor or Sheriff of the village, with a grand portion of it belonging to them anyway; and as a whole voted according to their wishes. Cut off from the rest of the world, they were respected and held an authority, which they would have found wanting elsewhere. Although only three hour drive from Washington, few of them have ever gone to the metropolis. Westlake is thirty miles from even the humblest of cities, but being a people of simple desires they, save the teenagers, are scarcely aware of their isolation. No one with any claim to any importance to the outside world lived in this quiet country hamlet, except maybe Kellie Chestnut; she was Westlake’s angel, the nobleness of her disposition, and her constant affect...
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
The story takes place in Annadel, a rural town seated in Justice County of southwestern West Virginia, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author does a fantastic job bringing the reader to the setting through the story being depicted by four different characters’ self narrated stories, which effectively puts the reader in the character’s shoes. In addition, a unique trait is added, with the dialogue being written in a presumably region and period specific style southern dialect. This feature not only makes the reader feel as though they are there at that time and place, but also provides for a more interesting read. While the unique style added to the dia...
Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ...
In this paper I will explain and discuss the historical events that took place in a small rural town in early Massachusetts. The setting for which is Irene Quenzler Brown's and Richard D. Brown's, The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler. I will explain the actions and motives of Hannah and Betsy Wheeler in seeking legal retribution of husband and father Ephraim Wheeler. I will also discuss the large scope of patriarchal power allowed by the law and that given to husbands and masters of households. Of course, this will also lead to discussions of what was considered abuse of these powers by society and the motivation for upholding the Supreme Court's decision to hang Ephraim Wheeler.
The story is center around a small cast. In it Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy, who had her name changed to Hulga, live on a farm with their tenants Mrs. Freeman’s and her two daughters- Glynese and Carramae. Interestingly, Mrs. Hopewell calls the Freeman Girls, Glycerin and Caramel while refusing to call her own daughter anything but Joy. “Good County People”, is told through the interactions of this dysfunctional gaggle of ladies, and their chance encounter with the Bible selling con-artist Manley Pointer. It is a story of a few not so, “Good Country People.”
O’connor, Flannery. "Good Country People" The Bedford Introduction To Literature, 5th ed. Ed, Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,1999. 393-406
Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe.
During the 1750's, the most wealthy people in the town held the most property, meaning they obtained the most power and money. As time moved on, though, voting requiremen...
Salem in the 1600s was a textbook example of an extremist society with sexist norms and no separation of church and state. Because it had no laws, only people considered authorities on law, it was always a society based on norms laid down by the first settlers and severity on the verge of madness. The power was imbalanced, focused subjectively in the people who had means to control others. Some people attempted to right the wrongs of the powerful, as people are wont to do eventually. Because of them, change indeed came to Salem, slowly and after excessive ruin and death. Before the rebels’ impact took hold, Salem’s Puritan society was a religious dystopian disaster, a fact illustrated excellently by Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. This religious dystopian disaster carried many flaws and conflicts that can be seen in other societies, both historical and modern.
Martin, Jay. Nathanael West, a collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Print.
Tompkins, Jane. West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette. "Maid in L.A." California Dreams and Realities: Readings for Critical Thinkers and Writers. Ed. Sonia Maasik, and J F. Solomon. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2001. 116-129. Print.
Tierney, John. "The Gentry, Misjudged as Neighbors." New York Times 26 Mar. 2002, sec. B: 1.
...mansions; persons "of Quality" traveled in coaches or sedan chairs, had their portraits painted, wore periwigs, and filled themselves with rich food and Madeira..."In Newport, Rhode Island, Bridenbaugh found, as in Boston, that "the town meetings, while ostensibly democratic, were in reality controlled year after year by the same group of merchant aristocrats, who secured most of the important offices..."(Zinn 48). White Americans would describe this time period in a positive approach, due to the evidence that they have significance in the government. The victors have definite rights, wealth, and all the work drops on the backs of their slaves. In this time period, a person's social class and race determines what they experience throughout their lifetime. These actions arrange an altogether different story and outlook than those who endured a different lifestyle.