Urban Dictionary Essays

  • Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    several ironic situations and certain symbols to criticize the behavior of Mrs. Mallard during the time of her “loving” husband’s assumed death. In the “Story of an Hour” we observe many instances in which irony takes place. According to the Urban Dictionary irony is “a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what is expected.” Therefore one of the main ironic situations that happen is upon the central character, Mrs. Mallard, not much is

  • What Is Redneck?

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    down upon and praised at the same time. The term redneck should be socially acceptable in everyday language, because those who it describes take pride using it to describe themselves. The etymology of the term redneck, found in Oxford English Dictionary is describes as “a poorly

  • Sonny’s Blues and Ray Charles

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone has their own definition of the word dream. The meaning of dream to me is being indubitable or passionate about what it is that I would like to do. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, two of the definitions of dream is, “a strong desired goal or purpose,” and “something that fully satisfies a wish.” “Sonny’s Blues” is a story about two brothers who has took their own direction in life, but also trying to find the meaning of their lives. The short story “Sonny’s Blues” and the musician

  • Sociolinguistics of Australian English

    3863 Words  | 8 Pages

    individ... ... middle of paper ... ... English. Sydney: Reed Education, 1972. 67. [13] Seal, Graham. The Lingo: Listening to Australian English. Sydney: Univeristy of New South Wales Press, 1999. 23. [14] Horne, Donald. Forward. Macquarie Dictionary. 2nd ed. Arthur Delbridge et al, eds. McMahons Point, New South Wales: Macquarie Library, 1991. [15] Mitchell and Delbridge 44. [16] Keesing, Nancy. Lily on the Dustbin: Slang of Australian Women and Families. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin

  • The English Bildungsroman

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    novels of the nineteenth century were part of the genre called the Bildungsroman. In the simplest sense of the word, a Bildungsroman is a novel of the development of a young man (or in some cases a young woman). In fact, the Webster's College Dictionary definition of Bildungsroman is "a novel dealing with the education and development of its protagonist". The Bildungsroman as a genre has its roots in Germany. Jerome Buckley notes that the word itself is German, with Bildung having a variety of

  • Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wuthering heights According to the dictionary 'narrative' means 'A narrated account; telling a story'. A 'narrative' is used in Emily Bronte's critically acclaimed novel 'Wuthering Heights'. From the outset we learn of our narrator, Lockwood. Lockwood is an urban, middle class gentleman, the stereotypical male of the time. We receive narrative from him alone for the first three chapters of the novel. This essay will investigate into the effectiveness of the narrative technique employed by Emily

  • The Great Levittown Impact

    2357 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Great Levittown Impact The third listing for the definition of sprawl in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is as follows: “to spread or develop irregularly”. Unfortunately, this is the pattern, or lack thereof, with which America’s development is following. Every single day the world population rises, and these new babies have to live somewhere. Due to the fact that the birth rate is larger than that of the death rate in America (http://www.bartleby.com/151/a24.html), new homes and communities

  • Critique of Kohlberg’s Claim of Cultural Moral Universality

    3483 Words  | 7 Pages

    Critique of Kohlberg’s Claim of Cultural Moral Universality Introduction As the American Heritage Dictionary plainly states, morality is "a system of ideas of right and wrong conduct" (American Heritage Dictionary 2000). People have been researching the development of this sense of morality for centuries. There is great debate over how a person’s morality is formed and then how to categorize one person’s level of morality compared to others. Most researchers believe that people reach different

  • Criminalization of Poverty in Capitalist America

    3042 Words  | 7 Pages

    controlled by one-half of one percent of the people. Eighty percent of the wealth is controlled by ten percent of the people. I think that is a crime. In the dictionary, the word "crime" means "an act which is against the law." Crime applies particularly to an act that breaks a law that has been made for public good. Crime in one country, the dictionary continued, "may be entirely overlooked by the law in another country or may not apply at all in a different historical period." That was interesting

  • The Expatriates of the 1920's

    2126 Words  | 5 Pages

    1ex•pa•tri•ate- 1: to withdraw (oneself) from residence in or allegiance to one's native country 2: intransitive senses: to leave one's native country to live elsewhere; also: to renounce allegiance to one's native country Merriam-Webster Dictionary Nothing before, or since has equaled the mass expatriation of the 1920's. It was as if a great draft of wind picked up these very peculiar people and dropped them off in a European life style. Europe and the rest of the world were beginning to

  • Defining Grace

    3600 Words  | 8 Pages

    Defining Grace The Dictionary of the Accademia della Crusca, dating from 16th century Italy, defines grace as "belleza... che rapisce altrui ad amore." Grace is beauty which seduces one unto love. Grace is the prayer before nourishment, it is the passing of power through blood, it is a classical muse, it is a verb, it is liberation, it is a head-ransom, it is a gazelle, it is simplicity, it is complexity, it is sanctifying, it is controversial, it is desired, it is metrical, it is ubiquitous

  • What Leadership Means to Me

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    What comes to mind when you hear the word leader? Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy? According to Webster's Dictionary, a leader is "one who leads." After participating in the Leadership Program, I have learned that a leader is hard to summarize. I entered the Leadership Program with a narrow mind. I thought that I knew the expectations of leadership along with everything that leadership entails. After all, how difficult could it be to persuade others to see your personal opinion and

  • Irony in Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    Catch-22 by Joseph Heller According to The Merriam - Webster Dictionary "Irony is 1.) the use of words to express the opposite of what one really means 2.) incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected result" (380) In Catch-22 the type of irony that Heller uses is the second definition "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the expected results" (Merriam - Webster Dictionary 380). For example in Catch-22 Heller writes "Actually, there

  • Madness and Insanity in Shakespeare's Hamlet - Insanity and Hamlet

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    thinking and deciding for yourself if Hamlet is "insane" or not. What does insainity? The Webster's New World Dictionary--Third College Edition defines it as "mentally ill or deranged; demented; mad; senseless." My defintion is not as cruel as the dictionary's definition. My opinion of someone that is insane is they don't necessarily have all of their marbles. The definition in the dictionary kind of explains my definition which is someone that is not paying close attention to those around them. The

  • Influence of Culture on Human Technology

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    Influence of Culture on Human Technology The influence that culture has had on human technology is undeniable. One could even go as far as to say that sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish between the two. The term “culture” is extremely difficult to define because of the vast array of meanings that people attach to it. For this very reason, it is imperative to examine the most basic notion of culture, namely: “the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions

  • Students Need a Multicultural Classroom

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    Not only because it should be a standard operating procedure, but because I feel students will be able to learn more effectively in an environment where they feel that their heritage is included. The definition of multiculturalism in Webster's Dictionary is "the existence, recognition or preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society." Therefore with this definition in mind a multicultural classroom is one that is the sum of all these things. A multicultural classroom

  • Were Romans Obsessed with Violence?

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    group of people enjoyed. While it is known that in Rome there were gladiatorial fights, public beatings and the keeping of slaves was legal (and common), it is also important to understand just exactly how advanced the Romans were. The Longman Dictionary of the English Language defines civilised as "of or being peoples of nations in a state of civilisation." And then defines civilisation as "a relatively high level of cultural development; specifically the stage of cultural development at which

  • IQ and the Controversy Concerning Human Intelligence

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    have made numerous attempts to come up with an explanation for the development of human intelligence. For many years, there has been much controversy over what intelligence is and whether it is hereditary or nurtured by the environment. Webster's dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge; which includes a sensing an environment and reaching conclusions about the state of that environment [7]. In this paper I am going to examine the factors, which make up ones intelligence

  • Meaning, Interpretation, and Tension in Literature

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    "There is no topic in philosophy that has received more attention than meaning, in its multifarious manifestations." (Dennett, p. 401) Meaning is one of our most intimate bedfellows – it is always in our minds. In Webster's Third New International Dictionary, meaning is defined as follows; 1meaning 1a: The thing one intends to convey by an act or esp. by language b: the thing that is conveyed or signified esp. by language: the sense in which something (as a statement) is understood 2: The thing that

  • The Allure of Vampires and Immortality

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    point is 'What is immortality?' Unfortunately this isn't as easily answered as asked. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says immortality is 'the quality or state of being immortal; esp : unending existence' while The World Book Encyclopedia states it as 'the continued and eternal life of a human being after the death of the body.' A more humorous definition can be found in The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: 'A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, Dispute, contend and