Morality Among the Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the twenty third of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere from the preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous. Mr. Oakhurst's calm handsome face betrayed small concern of these indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause was another question. I reckon they are after somebody,' he reflected; likely it's me.' He returned to his pocket the handkerchief he had been whipping away the red duct of Poker Flat from his neat boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture. In point of fact, Poker Flat was after somebody.' It had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to rid the town of all improper persons. This was done permanently in regard of two men who were then hanging from boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex, however, to state that their impropriety was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment. Mr. Oakhurst was right in supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible example, and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. It's again justice,' said Jim Wheeler, to let this yer young man from Roaring Camp an entire stranger carry away our money.' But a crude sentiment of equity residing in the breasts of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst, overruled this narrow local prejudice. Mr. Oakhurst received his sentence with philosophic calmness, nonetheless coolly, that he was aware of the hesitation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept Fate.
The book Black Hearts begins by painting an awful picture of a crime scene that was reported to 1st platoon Bravo Company of the 1-502nd 101st Airborne Division. The soldiers that are sent to investigate find that an entire family has been murdered, the daughter had been raped, and someone attempted to set the house ablaze, the family had all been killed in a seemingly brutal execution, while investigating one of the NCOs found a shotgun shell which he thought was strange because most Iraqis do not use shotguns. He compiled the evidence to be sent up to higher and they chalked it up as another Iraqi on Iraqi sectarian execution. Then the book takes us to before any of that happened, the book focuses on a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division, leading the battalion was Ltc. Kunk, he ruled with an Iron fist and was very hard on his subordinates. Within the battalion the book focuses primarily on Bravo Company, who was headed by Cpt. Goodwin. Goodwin was a competent leader but Ltc. Kunk had a reputation for being very hard on his company commanders and having very little faith in their abilities. Pre-deployment while at JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center) he would explode on his commanders, and tell them that they were doing everything wrong, criticizing and degrading them. This wore down on his commanders and especially Goodwin, Goodwin would begin to second guess his decisions, making him less effective as a leader and making him make more mistakes than before, this would make Kunk even more upset and he would berate him even more than he would in the first place. The battalion would be deploying into the “Triangle of Death” a patch of ground south of Baghdad. It ran along one of the major highways that led into Bag...
It is often said that products made in sweatshops are cheap and that is why people buy those products, but why is it behind the clothes or shoes that we wear that make sweatshops bad? In the article Sweat, Fire and Ethics by Bob Jeffcott is trying to persuade the people and tell them how sweatshops are bad.
In the novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee some characters suffer in the hands of justice and fairness more than others. Many characters in the novel are discriminated against such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, Helen Robinson, Burris Ewell and more. However I will be focusing on the discrimination against Tom Robinson for his race, Walter Cunningham for his low socioeconomic status and Boo Radley for the rumors and supposed mental instability he holds. I chose those three because they are the most prominent and I will discuss how the discrimination against the characters therefore leads to their injustice or unfairness.
Chris McCandless does not wish to follow defined life structure that society enforces to simply be alive, instead, he chooses to take a seek a path to live a life with purpose. Such an eagerness to seek detachment from what is expected by society, is enforced by not only McCandless but also Thoreau. A primary factor resembling this, is McCandless’ view that many people “live within unhappy circumstances...yet will not change…they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism...damaging to the adventurous spirit(40).” The detesting tone risen through the confliction of “unhappy circumstances” and “damage,” to “safety, conformity and conservation,” emphasis his will to separate from a lifestyle lacking change. This is done
...hat he was completely undeserving of the inequitable allegations that the populace made toward his character. In the first sentence of the essay, Staples discusses his first “victim.” His use of this word at first provokes the reader to think that the author was a criminal, which illustrates the same mistake many other people had made in the real world. Staples realizes that, ultimately, there is nothing he can do about discrimination despite his innocence.
...concept. During the trial women were locked out of the courthouse while the sexual relationship between the boys was discussed. Today, the sexuality of a person normally does not affect the public’s perception on a case.
Morality is, in essence, subjugated by he who defines it. This being the case, morality (defined as right or wrong, good or evil) is malleable as long as it does not impede upon any “ipso facto virtue';(Didion). In the essay “On Morality';, by Joan Didion, this aspect ‘on morality’ is composed. This will be utilized to verify that William Saroyan’s (author of “Five Ripe Pears) guilt of an immoral action is conflicting given specified conditions.
All women were persecuted for immoral and heinous crimes during two different periods of American History. Some, like Borden, escaped her trial with all charges dropped, while others like Rebecca Nurse were sentenced to death. This story investigates in depth each trial strategy, period in American history, and woman. The bulk of Schultz’s argument revolves around gender stereotypes and society’s treatment of women. Although not each trial is relevant to the Borden mystery, they all are examples of how gender roles and stereotypes influenced Judicial rulings. Therefore, adding a greater level of validity to the argument that Borden was treated differently because she was a
Richard Connell, the author of ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ used both detail and characterization to reveal the eerie mood. The story is about a guy named Rainsford and General Zaroff, and Zaroff keeps good care of Rainsford for a day but the next day, he gets sent into the forest and General Zaroff goes out to hunt for Rainsford, but at last, the good wins, Rainsford. Rainsford is a gentleman who was on a yacht with the surrounding of,” The dank tropical night that was palpable as it’s thick warm blackness in upon the yacht.”(17) It was really dark and he cannot see anything but after a few moments he heard a gunshot from the dark cloudy place. He leaned over the rail in hope to get a clue of where the noise may have come from, but instead unfortunately
“to many local observers it was one thing to defend rapists – that after all, is part of the American justice system – but it was another, unforgiveable thing to come to Alabama and attack their social order and way of
The setting of Poker Flat, described as “a settlement unused to Sabbath influences”, contained many gamblers, thieves, and women of little virtue
The City of Dreadful Delight starts with some cultural analysis of the historical background that helped to produce the social landscape of Victorian London. In discussing the transformation of London, Walkowitz argues for seeing more than merely a shift from one type of city to another but rather a conflicted layering of elite male spectatorship, the “scientific” social reform, and W. T. Stead's New Journalism. Here Walkowitz investigates the “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.” The “Maiden Tribute” consisted of a series of articles, authored by Stead and presented in the penny press, which exposed the sale of girls into prostitution. According to Walkowitz, these stories relied on the new scientific methods of social investigation, but the...
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
In the article “What makes us moral” by Jeffrey Kluger, he describes how morality is defined and how the people follow rules. Kluger discusses about scientific research that has been done to point out the important reasons of morality. Kluger explains that a person’s decision to do something good or bad is based on empathy, that humans tend not to do bad to those they sympathize with. Kluger also compares humans with animals and thinks that morality is the only thing that separates us from animals. I do agree with Kluger that people are born with a sense of right and wrong, but we should be taught how to use it. We learned to be nicer to those around us because we already know the type of person they are, and the morality we learned as children
This paper aims to investigate some aspects of postcolonialism, feminism, as well as symbolism, allegories and metaphors. For this purpose I have chosen the novel Disgrace (1999) by J.M Coetzee. The story takes place in Cape Town, in post-apartheid South Africa. David Lurie is a white man and works as a professor of English at a technical university. He is a ‘communication’ lecturer and he teaches ‘romantic literature’ too. Lurie is divorced two times already and one gets the impression that he is not really satisfied with his job. His "disgrace" comes when he makes attempts to seduce Melanie Isaacs, one of his students, against her will. This affair is then remitted to the school authorities and a special committee is convoked to judge his actions.