Students Still Read Bradburys Fahrenheit 451

Students Still Read Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 HBO’s enticing trailer for its upcoming film Fahrenheit 451, adapted from Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic novel, appears to adhere closely to the book. There is the fireman Montag, the book’s hero, at the beginning of the tale, as he completes fireman’s duties of setting fires to the homes of anyone who harbors books, claiming in a daze, “I love to burn.” And then there is Montag, the viewer feeling his terror and fear as he hurtles through the city’s rain-slicked streets trying to escape certain doom after he confronts his authoritarian society. These scenes from the trailer are an enticing tease: the brooding music and stylish noir science fiction settings of Fahrenheit 451 are dominated by hanging television screens with a calm male voice repeatedly saying, “Yes, a little knowledge is a harmful thing.” This is Fahrenheit 451: one of the seminal books of the twentieth century that presents a chilling cautionary tale regarding a society that foregoes reading and knowledge in favor of non-stop television entertainment that lulls a person into a contented complacency. Published in 1953, Bradbury’s eerie prescience on the rampant abuse of television remains remarkable. The book is often placed alongside George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as foretellers of a totalitarian future that we are in danger of bringing to fruition. In these days of the current president of the United States calling for a book to be banned simply because it makes him uncomfortable and these days of that same president being proud of his illiteracy, the need for Fahrenheit 451 is needed now more than ever. But are young people reading? Is Fahrenheit 451 doomed to be burnt at some future time because the next generations have rejected learningâ€"simply because such learning might make them uncomfortable and discontent? Two years ago, when the Los Angeles Public Library chose Fahrenheit 451 as their City-wide Book Club choice, I participated with the highest glee shared by the most enthusiastic Book Rioters.When I received my complimentary copy of Fahrenheit 451, courtesy of the L.A. Public Library, the Palms-Rancho Park Branch, which was also my childhood library refuge and also the branch library of Ray Bradbury himself, I realized the synchronicity. I would be in a Fahrenheit 451 book discussion held in the Ray Bradbury Conference Room at Ray Bradbury’s neighborhood library that he frequented for nearly sixty of his ninety-one years. I was certain that the Palms-Rancho Park librarian, Maggie L. Johnson, would also have good stories about Bradbury since he was a fixture at the L.A. Public libraries. I always wanted to know more about Bradbury and also to ask another burning question of the English middle-school teacher, Jennifer Hunter, who would also serve a discussion facilitator. Ms. Hunter’s white jacket, uniquely painted in reds and golds and yellows, ornately sequined and picturing Montag and the Salamander and books burning and falling, was an unmistakable homage to Bradbury’s novel. That stellar jacket answered most of my questions about students reading Fahrenheit 451 and showing any enthusiasm for reading itself. The jacket was one student’s art project for the novel. Ms. Hunter also described various mixed media projects her students had done with great enthusiasm after reading the book. For her studentsâ€"at a public urban middle school where nearly half of the students live near the poverty lineâ€"Fahrenheit 451 has remained one of the all-time favorite books, as it has for secondary students nationwide. Fahrenheit 451 is a perennial favorite to  read and teach. Students become readers when the material they are given reflect parts of their everyday lives. Bradbury’s prescience on the possibilities of technology is one lure for the student reader. Montag’s wife Mildred will only reluctantly remove her prized seashell headphones to disconnect from the television, and on the few occasions when she does, Mildred makes sure to say a heartfelt goodbye to her family, aka characters on the television. The urban public school student is more likely to relate to Montag’s book burning futuristic society, replete with mechanical dogs and the teenagers’ deadly car games, than the alienated interior monologues of prep school student Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. The tremendous television sets that dominate Fahrenheit 451 reflect our own apathy and indifferenceâ€"which allows governments to wage endless wars without any public input. Our technology has begun to consume usâ€"just as it had in Mildred’s cloistered world. What happens when our world is threatened? For Montag, it meant inevitable escape from his world after Mildred’s unhappiness had her picking up the phone to report the cause of her distress: her husband read a poem to her from an actual book. For teachers, themes of technological encroachment and our relationships within that society lend itself to myriad essay  and mixed media projects: Have Smartphones replaced boredom? Is that good? Is Social Media making you less social? If you knew your neighbor (and good friend) was hiding books, would you report him to the authorities? Students at this critical age, on the verge of becoming lifelong readers and learners, begin with Fahrenheit 451.  Bradbury’s masterpiece gives a perpetual light for the here and now and for the future to connect books and people. Just one more facet of the teaching strengths of Fahrenheit 451: for many of the public school students, reading Fahrenheit 451 is the first time they are introduced to Aristotle, Dickens, and Tolstoy. Fahrenheit 451 is about us: the citizens who would much rather relinquish their rights to an open society for the realization of constant gratification and conformity. George Orwell’s  1984  utilized television screens to dominate and indoctrinate their citizens; in these same outsized television screens are an opiate: the citizenry would much rather be soothed. Television keeps one from thinking at all. For sixty of his nearly ninety-one years, Bradbury would leave his modest pastel-yellow house and visit Palms Rancho-Park Branch. Bradbury was nearly blind and wheelchair-bound in his last few years, but as soon as he was in front of his library audience, Bradbury became electric and fully alive; a perpetual force of brilliance as he told his tales. One place to ensure a reading future is to value librariesâ€"fund them and use them. The public libraries are where Bradbury received his education after graduating in 1938 from Los Angeles High School. He devoured the classics and contemporary writers. Bradbury’s distress over the book burning at the ancient Alexandria library made a tremendous impact on his work. For Bradbury, who perceived the public library as the homes of thousands of authors: behind each book on all those shelves was a human being. To burn the book was to burn a human being. To burn a human being is to deny our own humanity. So, after that trip to the library and a few hours spent reading, be sure to watch the HBO film adaptation. The colors and sound will astound you, but it is with words that we begin to change ourselves and the world. Sign up to Swords Spaceships to  receive news and recommendations from the world of science fiction and fantasy.

Desert Pavement Theories

When you decide to visit the desert, you usually have to go off the pavement, onto a dirt road. Sooner or later you arrive in the brightness and space that you came for. And if you turn your eyes from the distant landmarks around you, you may see another kind of pavement at your feet, called desert pavement. A Street of Varnished Stones Its not at all like the drifting sand that people often picture when they think of the desert. Desert pavement is a stony surface without sand or vegetation that covers large parts of the worlds drylands. Its not photogenic, like the twisted shapes of hoodoos or the eerie forms of dunes, but seeing its presence on a wide desert vista, dark with age, gives a hint of the delicate balance of slow, gentle forces that create desert pavement. It is a sign that the land has been undisturbed, perhaps for thousands—hundreds of thousands of years. What makes desert pavement dark is rock varnish, a peculiar coating built up over many decades by windblown clay particles and the tough bacteria that live on them. Varnish has been found on fuel cans left in the Sahara during World War II, so we know that it can form fairly fast, geologically speaking. What Creates Desert Pavement What makes desert pavement stony is not always so clear. There are three traditional explanations for bringing stones to the surface, plus a much newer one claiming that the stones started out at the surface. The first theory is that the pavement is a lag deposit, made of rocks left behind after the wind blew away all the fine-grained material. (Wind-blown erosion is called deflation.) This is clearly so in many places, but in many other places, a thin crust created by minerals or soil organisms binds the surface together. That would prevent deflation. The second explanation relies on moving water, during the occasional rains, to winnow out the fine material. Once the finest material is splashed loose by raindrops, a thin layer of rainwater, or sheet flow, sweeps it away efficiently. Both wind and water could work on the same surface at different times. The third theory is that processes in the soil move stones to the top. Repeated cycles of wetting and drying have been shown to do that. Two other soil processes involve the formation of ice crystals in the soil (frost heave) and salt crystals (salt heave) in places with the right temperature or chemistry. In most deserts, these three mechanisms—deflation, sheet flow, and heave—can work together in various combinations to explain desert pavements. But where there are exceptions, we have a new, fourth mechanism. The Born at the Surface Theory The newest theory of pavement formation comes from careful studies of places like Cima Dome, in the Mojave Desert of California, by Stephen Wells and his coworkers. Cima Dome is a place where lava flows of recent age, geologically speaking, are partly covered by younger soil layers that have desert pavement on top of them, made of rubble from the same lava. The soil has been built up, not blown away, and yet it still has stones on top. In fact, there are no stones in the soil, not even gravel. There are ways to tell how many years stone has been exposed on the ground. Wells used a method based on cosmogenic helium-3, which forms by cosmic ray bombardment at the ground surface. Helium-3 is retained inside grains of olivine and pyroxene in the lava flows, building up with exposure time. The helium-3 dates show that the lava stones in the desert pavement at Cima Dome have all been at the surface the same amount of time as the solid lava flows right next to them. Its inescapable that in some places, as he put it in a July 1995 article in Geology, stone pavements are born at the surface. While the stones remain on the surface due to heave, deposition of windblown dust must build up the soil beneath that pavement. For the geologist, this discovery means that some desert pavements preserve a long history of dust deposition beneath them. The dust is a record of ancient climate, just as it is on the deep sea floor and in the worlds ice caps. To those well-read volumes of Earth history, we may be able to add a new geologic book whose pages are desert dust.

Odysseus By Homer s The Odyssey - 891 Words

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus endures an arduous voyage filled with countless dangers. Although he is praised by comrades and countrymen as a wise, heroic king, Odysseus does not actually live up to his name as he begins this trip back to Ithaka. Through his journey though, Odysseus corrects his reckless, undisciplined, and arrogant actions, learning responsibility, restraint, and humility in the process. Although Odysseus is the captain of a fleet, he initially takes no responsibility for the welfare of his crew. When exploring unknown lands, he often â€Å"sent out two picked men and a runner to learn what race of men that land sustained.† *(147) The king delegates the task solely to fulfill his own curiosity, without consideration of any dangers his men might face, such as intoxication in the land of the Lotus Eaters and cannibalism in the land of the Laistrygonians. Due to his indiscretion, Odysseus puts his men in unnecessary peril. Not only does Odysseusâ€℠¢ decisions lead to the death of crewmates, his choices also brutalize innocent people. He lacks the control to restrain himself and his crew from pointless violence. At the first stop on the journey, the land of the Kikones, the king and his crew â€Å"stormed that place and killed the men who fought.† (146) Extending their barbarism, they plundered and â€Å"enslaved the women, to make division, equal share to all†. (146) Odysseus has no control of reason, causing irrational bloodshed and atrocities upon mere strangers.Show MoreRelatedSimilarities Between Katniss And Odysseus And Homer s The Odyssey1867 Words   |  8 Pagesend, are similar. Katniss and Odysseus both experienced the epic hero cycle and display similar characteristics. In the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen was a girl whose purpose was to find a way to support her mother and younger sister. That is until she took the place of her sister as a tribute in the Hunger Games, an annual game held by the ruli ng Capitol as punishment for previous rebellions. The only way out of the games was to kill. In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus was a war hero who was tryingRead MoreAnalysis Of Homer s Odyssey : Odysseus And His Son Telemachus1434 Words   |  6 Pagesspiritual growth brought about that freedom. Homer, as little as we know about him, seemed to want to tell a great story of adventure, spiritual growth and triumph. It is said that â€Å"the Greek view offers humankind the greatest hope for change, growth, and freedom, because it claims that there are no restrictions upon our growth. Humans choose their particular fate and are therefore free to see their limitations and transcend them† (Apatow 81). Homer s story explains just that, in order to experienceRead MoreCharacter Traits of Odysseus in Homer ´s Odyssey Essay508 Words   |  3 Pages Odysseus, king of Ithaca, was probably on of the greatest warriors in the history of Ancient Greece. It is said that the poet, Homer, wrote the story of the Odyssey. In this story, Odysseus and his crew are trying to make their voyage back home to Ithaca after they have fought with the Trojans. During the long journey, Odysseus will show some of his character traits which include his bravery, cleverness, and wisdom that will assist him with the situations he encounters on his journey home. Read MoreOdysseus And His Throne : A Hero Of Homer s Odyssey995 Words   |  4 PagesOdysseus and His Throne Known as a hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, Odysseus was king of Ithaca and a legend amongst men. He was also an important figure in Homer’s Iliad. In Latin, he was known as Ulysses or Ulixes in Roman mythology hence there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality.[1] Son of Laertes and Anticleia, Odysseus was renowned for being cunning and cleverRead MoreAnalysis Of Homer s Odyssey, The Story Of Odysseus And His Son1341 Words   |  6 PagesIn The Odyssey, the stories of Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, are explained to the reader in ways that create contrasts between the two characters. These contrasts provide an opportunity to observe how the young Telemachus developed a stronger sense of self confidence and traits that form the foundation for heroism, which is likely part of the reason why he was included in the story in the first place. The following discussion compares and contrasts Telemachus with his father, the hero OdysseusRead MoreOdyssey Death and Rebirth in the Odyssey1402 Words   |  6 PagesThe Odyssey, by Homer, is a classical piece of Greek literature. Throughout The Odyssey, the Blind Bard makes use of many literary techniques in order to lend meaning to the poem beyond its existence as a work of historic fiction and aid his readers in the comprehension of the tale. One of these techniques is the use of motifs. A motif is a recurring theme that is used throughout the work. In The Odyssey, Homer makes use of many motifs including eating/drinking, Odysseus sRead MoreHistory, Symbolism, and Characters in Homer’s The Odyssey 1118 Words   |  5 Pages In The Odyssey, it takes Odysseus twenty years to make it home from the Trojan War. On his journey home, he runs into many obstacles and creatures that he must overcome. He encounters the sirens, the Cyclops, and others. Each event in this epic poem has a symbolic meaning behind it. Homer writes about the history, symbolism, and the characters in The Odyssey. The Odyssey is about the Greek gods and heroes and their adventures (Makman). Odysseus is the main character, and he is going on a questRead MoreEssay on Archetypes in the Odessey718 Words   |  3 PagesArchetypes in The Odyssey In Homers epic poem â€Å"The Odyssey† there are many archetypes, many of which were the origin of the archetype. An archetype is a character type, place, or symbol, every culture shares. In â€Å"The Odyssey† Homer uses archetypes to evoke meaning to the story. Some examples of archetypes in â€Å"The Odyssey† are the temptress, and the father-son conflict. In the story â€Å"The Odyssey† there are a couple temptress’. Two examples are Calypso and the sirens. In â€Å"The Odyssey† Calypso keepsRead MoreWomen in the Odyssey1646 Words   |  7 Pagesimportant positions and purposes within it`s routine were filled by males. This societal organization is often times reflected in many pieces of literature of various time periods, however there are texts in which contrary to the patriarchal society models, women are given substantial importance within the plot. Homer`s The Odyssey, Heart of Darnkness by Joseph Conrad and Aeschylus`s Oresteia each demonstrate or conceal female importance in a given society. The Odyssey was written in a time when men playedRead MoreThe Odyssey By Homer s Odyssey1267 Words   |  6 PagesLife in The Odyssey In The Odyssey, Odysseus is constantly being challenged. He is being challenged, so Homer can show us the standards for life in The Odyssey. There is no doubt that Odysseus is a great man, Homer even says so in the beginning lines of the text. Although Odysseus is a great man, he also makes mistakes but not any that he doesn t pay for. We learn the representation of life in The Odyssey through Odysseus challenges. Throughout the book, Odysseus specifically struggles with arrogance

Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery Free Essays

â€Å"Rachel Weeping for Her Children†: Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery by Margaret Washington Photograph of Sojourner Truth, 1864. (Gilder Lehrman Collection) During the period leading up to the Civil War, black women all over the North comprised a stalwart but now largely forgotten abolitionist army. In myriad ways, these race-conscious women worked to bring immediate emancipation to the South. We will write a custom essay sample on Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery or any similar topic only for you Order Now Anti-slavery Northern black women felt the sting of oppression personally. Like the slaves, they too were victims of color prejudice; some had been born in Northern bondage; others had family members still enslaved; and many interacted daily with self-emancipated people who constantly feared being returned south. Anti-slavery women such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman were only the most famous of the abolitionists. Before either of these heroines came on the scene and before anti-slavery was an organized movement, black women in local Northern communities had quietly turned to activism through their church work, literary societies, and benevolent organizations. These women found time for political activism in between managing households, raising children, and working. In the late 1820s, Zion’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City, Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and the African Meetinghouse in Boston were centers of female anti-slavery activity. Black women proclaimed that their cause was â€Å"let the oppressed go free. † They organized bazaars to promote the purchase of goods made from free labor, met in sewing circles to make clothing for those fleeing bondage, and raised money for Freedom’s Journal, the nation’s first black newspaper. In 1830, when Boston editor William Lloyd Garrison proposed his idea of publishing a newspaper devoted solely to immediate emancipation, a committee of black women began raising funds for it. The first copy of the Liberator appeared on January 1, 1831, with strong financial backing from black women. At their literary-society meetings, black women switched from reading European classics to discussing the Liberator and anti-slavery pamphlets, and inviting male speakers to expound on the evils of slavery. Throughout the 1830s, black women engaged heavily in activism. They vowed to â€Å"heed the enslaved mothers’ cry for children torn away† and designated their dwellings as â€Å"free homes† for those fleeing bondage. For example, Hester Lane of New York City, a successful black entrepreneur, used her home as an Underground Railroad station. Lane also traveled south to purchase enslaved children whom she freed and educated. Mary Marshall’s Colored Sailors’ Boarding Home was another busy sanctuary. Marshall kept a vigilant eye out for refugees from bondage, and was determined that â€Å"No one who had the courage to start should fail to reach the goal. † Other black women organized petition drives, wrote anti-slavery poetry, hosted traveling abolitionists, and organized fairs. By 1832, black women had formed the first female anti-slavery society in Salem, Massachusetts. They also held executive offices in biracial female anti-slavery societies in Philadelphia, Boston, and elsewhere. Anti-slavery black men insisted that black women work only behind the scenes, but women sometimes refused to do so. In New York City, a group of black women confronted white authorities in a courtroom where several self-emancipated women were about to be returned to bondage. Black men accused the female protesters of bringing â€Å"everlasting shame and remorse† upon the black community and upon themselves. In 1831, black women in Boston organized the African American Female Intelligence Society. This organization became a forum for Maria Stewart, the first woman to speak publicly against slavery. Stewart proclaimed that she was called by God to address the issues of black emancipation and the rights of black women. â€Å"We claim our rights,† she asserted, â€Å"as women and men,† and â€Å"we are not afraid of them that kill the body. † Stewart also published a pamphlet in the Liberator on behalf of black women and the enslaved, but Boston’s black male community censored Stewart for her public expressions and forced her into silence. She soon left the city. Although she never again spoke publicly, she remained active through women’s organizations and conventions. She joined other black women who held office, served as delegates, and otherwise participated in the biracial women’s anti-slavery conventions in 1837, 1838, and 1839. The anti-slavery movement took a more progressive turn in the 1840s, when the American Anti-Slavery Society (Garrisonians) welcomed women as officeholders and speakers. Most black women continued their quiet anti-slavery work, but some were outspoken. The first black woman to take the public stage for the American Anti-Slavery Society was Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery in 1797 among the Hudson Valley Dutch and emancipated in adulthood, Truth was already known as a preacher when she joined the Garrisonians in 1844. She made anti-slavery speeches throughout New England, and in 1845, gave her first address at the American Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention. Sojourner Truth became known from Maine to Michigan as a popular and featured anti-slavery speaker. Truth published a Narrative of her life and used the proceeds to purchase a home and finance her abolitionist work. Another surge of radicalism occurred in 1850 with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. It decreed that any citizen could be enlisted in the service of a slaveholder to capture an enslaved person, and it nullified the individual civil rights that a state guaranteed its citizens, including those formerly enslaved. That same year, Harriet Tubman, a thirty-year-old self-emancipated Marylander, began defying the Fugitive Slave Law by leading enslaved men, women, and children out of the South. With slave catchers lurking everywhere and a price on her head, Tubman safely conducted her charges through the Northern states and on to Canada. Mary Ann Shadd (Cary) was a twenty-five-year-old freeborn schoolteacher when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. Inspired by her father, whom she described as a â€Å"chief breakman† on the Delaware Underground Railroad, Shadd soon moved to Canada and established herself as a militant abolitionist, influential emigrationist, and the first black woman newspaper editor (of the Provincial Freeman). In 1854, twenty-eight-year-old Frances Ellen Watkins (Harper) joined Sojourner Truth on the Garrisonian lecture circuit. Born into a well-connected Baltimore family, Watkins was a poet and teacher. She was drawn into the abolitionist struggle by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which rescinded the restrictions on slavery in the remaining territories acquired under the Louisiana Purchase. Watkins traveled throughout the Midwest, sometimes with Sojourner Truth. Watkins spoke eloquently of the wrongs inflicted upon her people; she sold her books of poetry at anti-slavery lectures and used the proceeds to support the Underground Railroad. In 1858, Watkins joined black male leaders in Detroit and led a large group of angry citizens in storming the jailhouse. The group attempted to remove from protective custody a black â€Å"traitor† to their cause, who had intended to expose the operations of the Underground Railroad. Despite the Fugitive Slave Law, the Underground Railroad remained the â€Å"heart’s blood† of black resistance. Black woman abolitionists played a vital role in this work. They were often the ones who intercepted refugees; who provided them with food, clothing, shelter, health care, and spiritual and psychological comfort; and who directed them to the next station. Women sometimes confronted slave catchers and kidnappers, who were often right on the heels of the â€Å"fugitives. Caroline Loguen, the wife of Syracuse, New York, abolitionist the Reverend Jermain Loguen, answered many a midnight knock during her husband’s frequent absences. Once she and her sister successfully fought off slave catchers attempting to enter her home in pursuit of â€Å"fugitives. † In 1858, Anna Murray Dougla ss, wife of black leader Frederick Douglass, hosted John Brown, the famous white abolitionist, for a month. Brown was in hiding after having been charged with murdering pro-slavery farmers in Missouri. In the Douglass home, Brown perfected his plans for the raid on Harpers Ferry. In an 1859 meeting with Brown in Maryland just before the assault on Harpers Ferry, Douglass gave him ten dollars from the wife of a Brooklyn couple, the J. N. Gloucesters, who like Douglass himself were close to Brown. Along with the money, Mrs. Gloucester â€Å"sent her best wishes. † When Brown was captured, tried, and sentenced to death, black woman abolitionists sent money to his wife, Mary, and wrote letters expressing their deep regard for her husband. Frances Ellen Watkins also sent gifts as well as one of her poems, â€Å"Bury Me in a Free Land,† to Brown’s condemned men. During the antebellum era, black woman abolitionists moved, in keeping with the urgency of the times, from quiet activism to militancy. By 1858, even Sojourner Truth, the archpacifist, recognized that war with the South was inevitable if black people were to obtain their freedom. Black women furthered the goal of emancipation during the Civil War by continuing their abolition work. Harriet Tubman offered her services to the Union Army. Sojourner Truth lectured throughout the Midwest, where she confronted threatening pro-slavery (so-called â€Å"Copperhead†) mobs. Black women organized petition campaigns to Congress and the president; they sent food and clothing to the Union front lines for destitute blacks; and they went into Union-occupied areas to provide education for black refugees. After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, black women immediately began working on the next phase of their mission—the task of uplifting their race as a free people. Margaret Washington is a professor of history at Cornell University. Her publications include Sojourner Truth’s America (2009) and A Peculiar People: Slave Religion and Community-Culture among the Gullahs (1998) How to cite Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery, Essay examples

The American Civil War Essays (750 words) - , Term Papers

The American Civil War In 1860, arguably the world's greatest nation was locked in Civil War. The war divided the country between the North (Union) and South (Confederate). The war lasted five years and by 1865 the Confederate forces were truly beaten. Out of this horrendous war though, where some 600,000 men died grew a greater sense of nationalism than is today, unrivalled around the world. The American Civil War is interpreted differently by many historians but most see the catalyst as slavery, the motivation as economic, the outcome was a unified national identity. Slavery was a major issue that triggered the American Civil War. Slavery started out, as a few individual slaves coming from England that were generally white. This changed however, and soon the Southern slave traders began 'stealing' blacks to take back to the South. The slaves were forced to work 16-hour days, slave women were only seen as breeders and there were no laws against the rape of a female slave. In 1860 slaves accounted for one third of the South's population and even still they had no rights (see appendix one). The Unionist North many people believed it was immoral to own another human being. These people were called Abolitionists. The South relied strongly on the slave trade and when the North spoke of abolishing it, the South spoke of forming there own country, The Confederate states of America. The South began to see that the North was going to take action against the South's inhumane slave policy. In early 1860, South Carolina formed under a new flag, Confederate States of America flag, so that they could continue to operate their slave trade. What followed was an ordinance of succession which saw the other slave populated states also swear an oath to the Confederate States of America, also so that they could continue their slave trade. This situation was found to be unworkable and it divided the country in two. So in the words of Abraham Lincoln, 'A house divide against itself can not stand. I believe this country can not endure permanently half-slave, half-free.' Slavery formed two opposing societies and could not have been abolished with out the Civil War. The North was very industrialised and had a stable economy in comparison to slave-dependant South. During the mid-1800s immigration to the North skyrocketed. Jones says, 'the immigration (many escaping the Irish potato famine) were willing to work for almost anything and withstand inhumane factory conditions.' Although this exploitation was extremely cruel and much like the treatment of the slaves in the South, the Northern economy profited immensely (Brinkley,1991:264). Come 1860, the Union had an overwhelming advantage over the South. The North played host to 109,974 industrial firms whereas the South had only 18, 026. The Northern States also produced 96%of the locomotives in the entire country, and as for firearms, more of them were made in Connecticut than in all the Southern factories combined ("Civil War", Encyclopedia Americana:1988). The Southerner's believed cotton to be their biggest industry and economic boosted during the Civil War but they had no factories capable of processing the cotton. The cotton was sent to Northern factories to be processed for a fraction of the price the Union sold it back to them for. This cycle alone made a huge idiosyncrasy in the economies. So with all the industrial and many economical advantages over the South was it any wonder that the North were victorious in the Civil War? The cost of the Civil was tremendous not only in money but in lives taken. By 1865, the South surrendered, slavery was abolished and President Lincoln was assassinated the total cost of the War for all American's was around 15 billion dollars but priceless for the 600,000 lives lost. What came out of this war however suprised everyone, in the next centaury America was seen as the strongest nation in the world. The cause of the war was finally resolved when slavery was abolished and because of this many inhumane slave owners went bankrupt with out the slaves running the farms. What followed the American can only be described as the birth of a Unified National Identity. In this period of 5 years in which many people died many of America's major problem have been solved. Since the Civil war towns have been rebuilt, mew industries flourish, and new schools have been erected. Now in America both the North and South live prosperously and peacefully together. Schenck describes America at the close of the war as, 'A developing industrial nation emerged from the Civil War and

Use of Pastiche in English Prose

Use of Pastiche in English Prose A text that borrows or imitates the style, words, or ideas of other writers. Unlike a parody, which aims for a comic or satiric effect, a pastiche is often intended as a compliment (or an homage) to the original writer(s)though it may just be a hodgepodge of borrowed words and ideas. Examples and Observations: The pastiche prose form openly mimes the content and mannerisms of another written work. Its a respectful, if often jocular, an homage to the work that inspired it. (Its literary cousin is the parody, but that imitation subtly or savagely satirizes its source material.) The pastiche implicitly says, I appreciate this author, the characters, and the fictive world . . . and my imitation is sincere flattery.The affection for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his immortal Sherlock Holmes is evident in August Derleths stories about brilliant, deerstalker-wearing Solar Pons of 7B Praed St.(Mort Castle, Write Like Poe. The Complete Handbook Of Novel Writing, 2nd ed. Writers Digest Books, 2010)The secret mechanism of a pastiche is the fact that a style is not just a unique set of linguistic operations: a style is not just a prose style. A style is also a quality of vision. It is also its subject matter. A pastiche transfers the prose style to a new content (while parody transfers the prose style to an inadmissible and scandalous content): it is, therefore, a way of testing out the limits of a style.(Adam Thirlwell, The Delighted States. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) Parody and Pastiche in The SimpsonsParody attacks a particular text or genre, making fun of how that text or genre operates. Pastiche merely imitates or repeats for mildly ironic amusement, whereas parody is actively critical. For instance, when an episode of The Simpsons loosely follows the plot of Citizen Kane (rendering Mr. Burns as Kane), no real critique is offered of Orson Welless masterpiece, making this pastiche. Yet on a weekly basis, The Simpsons plays with generic conventions of the traditional family sitcom. It also mocks forms of advertising and . . . it occasionally lambastes the form and format of news, all with critical intent, thereby making such instances bona fide parody.(Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson, The State of Satire, the Satire of the State. Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era. New York University Press, 2009)Pastiche in Green Days American Idiot (Musical)The sheer volume of the stage band’s music and the frenet ic rush of action provide constant energy. But tunes recalling the 1950s pastiche of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or, during We’re Coming Home Again, the Phil Spectoresque Springsteen of Born to Run, have few punk credentials. The indulgent-youths versus dutiful-wives combat of Too Much Too Soon also shows how much [Bilie Joe] Armstrong’s characters are [Jack] Kerouac boys and girls at base, American idiots and ennui unchanged.(Nick Hasted, Green Day’s American Idiot, Hammersmith Apollo, London. The Independent, December 5, 2012) Pastiche in Peter PanThe apparent contradiction whereby war converts into a game is weirdly captured in Baden-Powells favorite play, J.M. Barries Peter Pan (1904), which he saw many times in the years he was gestating Scouting for Boys. In the Neverland of the play, Peters boys, the pirates, and the Indians relentlessly track after one another in a literal vicious circle that, though it is on one level all burlesque, an excessive late Imperial pastiche of the commonplaces of childrens fiction, is also deadly seriousas the final carnage on Captain Hooks ship vividly dramatizes.(Elleke Boehmer, introduction to Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship by Robert Baden-Powell, 1908; Rpt. 2004)Samuel Becketts Use of Pastiche[Samuel] Becketts cutting and pasting his reading onto his own stock of prose produced a discourse that Giles Deleuze might call rhizomatic or a technique Frederic Jameson might call pastiche. That is, these early works are finally assemblages, intertextual layerings, palimpsests, the effect of which is to produce (if not reproduce) a multiplicity of meanings in a manner that will come to be thought Postmodern in the second half of the twentieth century. . . .Postmodern pastiche would suggest that the only style possible in contemporary culture is travesty or mimicry of past stylesquite the opposite of what Beckett was developing. Intertext or assemblage or pastiche allowed Beckett to assault the idea of style and so (or thereby) develop his own . . ..(S.E. Gontarski, Style and the Man: Samuel Beckett and the Art of Pastiche. Samuel Beckett Today: Pastiches, Parodies Other Imitations, ed. by Marius Buning, Matthijs Engelberts, and Sjef Houppermans. Rodopi, 2002) Fredric Jameson on PasticheHence, once again, pastiche: in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum. But this means that contemporary or postmodernist art is going to be about art itself in a new kind of way; even more, it means that one of its essential messages will involve the necessary failure of art and the aesthetic, the failure of the new, the imprisonment in the past.(Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism and Consumer Society. The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. Verso, 1998)

Foreign Language Requirements for College Admissions

Foreign Language Requirements for College Admissions Foreign language requirements vary from school to school, and the exact requirement is often not clear for any individual school. For example, is the minimum requirement really adequate? Do language classes in middle school count? If a college requires 4 years of a language, does a high score on the AP fulfill the requirement? Requirements and Recommendations In general, competitive colleges require at least two years of foreign language classes in high school. As youll see below, Stanford University would like to see three or more years, and Harvard University urges applicants to take four years. These classes should be in the same language- colleges would much prefer to see proficiency in one language than a superficial smattering of several languages. When a college recommends two or more years of a language, they are clearly signaling that language study beyond two years would strengthen your application. Indeed, no matter where you apply for college, a demonstrated proficiency in a second language will improve your chances of being admitted. Life in college and after college is becoming increasingly globalized, so strength in a second language carries a lot of weight with admissions counselors. That said, students who have just the minimum can win admission if their applications demonstrate strengths in other areas. Some less competitive schools dont even have a high school language requirement and assume some students will simply study a language once they get to college. If you score a 4 or 5 on an AP language exam, most colleges will consider that evidence of adequate high school foreign language preparation (and youre likely to get course credit in college). Check with the schools to which you apply to find out exactly what their Advanced Placement policies are. Which Foreign Language Is Best In general, colleges want to see foreign language proficiency, and they dont really care which language you study. Most students, in fact, have few choices. Many schools offer just a couple of languages such as French and Spanish. That said, it can be a plus if your study of a foreign language aligns with your career goals. German and Chinese are both valuable languages for students interested in business, and strong French skills would be ideal for someone who wants to teach English or work in public health in Francophone Africa. In 2018, when Harvard Universitys Dean of Admissions testified in court about the schools admissions policies, he revealed that students who studied Greek and Latin and showed an interest in the ancient classics had a slight edge over many other applicants. On the whole, however, study the language that you are most interested in learning. Let your passions guide you. Where would you be most interested in traveling? What language is most likely to intersect with your future plans? If you might study abroad, where would you go? Examples of Foreign Language Requirements The table below shows the foreign language requirement at several competitive colleges. School Language Requirement Carleton College 2 or more years Georgia Tech 2 years Harvard University 4 years recommended MIT 2 years Stanford University 3 or more years UCLA 2 years required; 3 recommended University of Illinois 2 years University of Michigan 2 years required; 4 recommended Williams College 4 years recommeneded Keep in mind that 2 years truly is a minimum, and you will be a stronger applicant at places like MIT and the University of Illinois if you take three or four years. Also, its important to understand what a year means in the context of college admissions. If you began a language in 7th grade, typically 7th and 8th grade will count as a single year, and they should show up on your high school transcript as a unit of a foreign language. If you take a true college class at a college, a single semester of a language will typically be the equivalent of a year of high school language (and those credits are likely to transfer to your college). If you take a dual enrollment class through a collaboration between your high school and a college, those classes are often a single-semester college class spread out over the course of a full year of high school. Strategies if Your High School Doesnt Offer Adequate Language Classes If youre a high achiever and want to graduate from high school with three or four years of language classes but your high school offers only introductory-level classes, you still have options. First of all, when colleges evaluate your high school academic record, they want to see that you have taken the most challenging classes available to you. They recognize the significant disparity between schools. If upper-level and AP language classes simply arent an option at your school, colleges shouldnt penalize you for not taking classes that dont exist. That said, colleges want to enroll students who are well prepared for college, for these students are much more likely to persist and succeed if admitted. The reality is that some high schools do a much better job at college preparation than others. If youre at a school that struggles to deliver anything beyond remedial education, your best bet may be to take matters into your own hands. Talk to your guidance counselor to see what opportunities exist in your region. Typical options include Taking language classes at a local community college. You are likely to find evening or weekend courses that work with your high school schedule, or you may be able to take an early morning or late afternoon college class during a high school class period.Taking online language classes. If there is no college in your area, you can find many options for online college language classes. You may even be able to get high school credit for an online college course. Ideally, youll want a course that includes audio or video conferencing so that you can develop the listening and conversational skills that are so important to language learning. Be forewarned that many colleges will not transfer language credits earned online.Self-studying to take an AP language exam. There are lots of programs out there such as Rosetta Stone, Rocket Languages, and Babbel that can help you learn speaking, reading, and writing skills. An AP study guide can help guide your self-study so that you are targeting ma terial that is likely to be on the exam. Travel that immerses you in a foreign language can also be extremely beneficial. Ideally, youd want to take the AP exam your junior year so that youll have the score in hand when you apply to colleges. Earning a 4 or 5 on the exam (and perhaps a 3) is a convincing way to demonstrate your language knowledge. Note that this option is only good for self-motivated students. Languages and International Students If English is not your first language, you most likely wont need to worry about foreign language courses as part of your college education. When a student from China takes the AP Chinese exam or a student from Argentina takes AP Spanish, the exam results arent going to impress anyone in a significant way.   For non-native English speakers, the much bigger issue will be demonstrating strong English language skills. A high score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the Pearson Test of English (PTE), or a similar exam will be an important part of a successful application to colleges in the U.S. A Final Word About Foreign Language Requirements As you consider whether or not to take a foreign language in your junior and senior years of high school, keep in mind that your academic record is almost always the most important part of your college application. Colleges will want to see that you have taken the most challenging courses available to you. If you choose a study hall or an elective course over a language, the admissions folks at highly selective colleges wont view that decision positively.