Racism has a history of tarnishing cities, towns, nations, and whole races. In a small town in Vermont, racism tears apart the people and the community. In the book Witness written about a little town in Vermont in 1924. That little town in Vermont represents some of the many towns undergoing the issue of Klan (K.K.K) domination. Two people that experience the Klan violence are Reynard Alexander and Leanora Sutter; both characters go through experiences that similar, but also experience forms of violence that are different.…
It was the late 1600’s and people of strong religion in Salem, Massachusetts were becoming oddly stricken by recent events regarding the practice of witchcraft. Through this period of time twenty people were executed due to mere assumption to have been involved in witchcraft or Devil worship. Living through these events and making accounts of them were two men by the names, Cotton Mather and John Hale. Both Cotton Mather and John Hale, influential Puritan Ministers, were supporters of the Salem Witch Trials which took place for two years between 1692 and 1693 and, had both written two very influential pieces detailing them, Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World" and, Hale's "A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft". Through similar and contrasting rhetorical style and device the two proved their separate messages of the trials, Mather's being that the…
The author uses Dick Brown to illustrate a painful memory. He was only feet away from President Kennedy when the bullet struck the President in the neck. Dick still awakes in the night remembering that day in Dallas, with a pain in his neck. “Painful memories wound us not only physically but also psychologically.” (p. 23)…
In Howard’s book, In Passionate Declarations: essay on war and justice, the chapter “The Use and Abuse of History” Howard clarifies that history gravitates towards partial explanations of encounters. Howard explains that it is crucial to analyze both known and hidden facts about historical accounts because it only demonstrates a microscopic fragment of an event. Because of the bias of an author, details are often omitted. Howard recounts an experience during his college years; he heard a song called “The Ludlow Massacre”. Ludlow massacre reveals the massacre of woman and children who were burned to death for striking against a Rockefeller owned coal mines in Colorado, 1914. Howard never encountered the Ludlow Massacre in any of his American…
When reading A Murder in Virginia many questions arise about why this book is important and even why the story about Lucy Pollard death mattered in 1895 let alone why it matters to us now in 2015. Suzanne Lebsock doesn't come right out and tell you the answers to these questions, rather she leaves subtle hints throughout the book and tells you why she thinks it is important to learn about in the last chapter of the book. I think she does it this way so you can formulate your own ideas and your own reasons on why the Lucy Pollard case is an influential piece of history.…
The documentary Bowling For Columbine is based around the terrible occurrences that took place on the 20th of April, 1999. In which two boys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, walked into Columbine State High School and murdered thirteen people including one teacher and injured a further twenty one in the process. Michael Moore uses this event to his advantage by investigating America’s fear culture and why it has developed into something so large. During the documentary, Moore uses a wide selection of film techniques to invite the audience to accept his version of the truth. He does this by carefully choosing and disregarding certain information. This technique is known as selection and omission. Moore also takes use of editing and sequencing shots, which helps to produce his adaptation of the truth. Michael Moore deliberately developed Bowling For Columbine to privilege and marginalise certain groups and to position the viewers to believe the ‘truth’. Moore aims to expose the fact that Americans have an unusually large culture…
Through her use of anaphora, she stresses that things could’ve been done to help the kids so that nothing bad would’ve happened. She reiterated that all of the crimes could’ve been avoided if the healthcare system was tweaked to better care for the mentally ill. “If only there had been long-term intervention and medication, Kip Kinkel might be out of jail, off the taxpayers’ tab and perhaps leading a productive life. If only Sam Manzie had been treated aggressively earlier, new psychotropic drugs might have slowed or stilled his downward slide. And if only those things had happened, Faith Kinkel, William Kinkel, Mikael Nickolauson, Ben Walker, and Eddie Werner might all be alive today” (9). Quindlen emphasizes that there were other options at the time that could’ve prevented such horrific events from occurring. She connects with the reader through her appeals of emotion, wishing those who suffered from shootings were still alive today. Quindlen’s use of anaphora deepens her relativity to the reader and also establishes her optimistic side for a better future where the medically ill are treated better and there is no such thing as violence in schools.…
Train whistles, the fanfare of an approaching Santa Fe express, penetrated the courtroom. Tate’s bass voice interlaced with the locomotive’s cries as he read: “‘Count One. We the jury find the defendant, Richard Eugene Hickock, guilty of murder in the first degree, and the punishment is death.’”…
He brings historical context into the essay, and attacks the argument for schools by introducing the reader to the man who engineered the American public school system. Gatto introduces James Bryant Conant with his various titles, which include “WWI poison-gas specialist, WWII executive on the bomb project, high commissioner of the American zone after Germany.” By including these details, Gatto shows that our school system was fabricated by someone heavily involved in war, and was also responsible for some of the most atrocious acts of violence in human history. Because of the effect that Conant’s earlier products had on people, this truncated resume suggests that students are just another subject of Conant’s evils. The theme of alluding towards systematic oppression is furthered through diction by asserting that students are “warehoused,” creating the effect of making students seem like some kind of merchandise instead of people. In the same paragraph, Columbine High School is mentioned, to further provoke images of unrest that had been introduced by Conant. The language presented in the latter half of the essay allude to some kind of dystopian society, where people mindlessly follow everything the government tells them. For…
Good morning/afternoon Teachers and peers, today I will be talking about Michael Moore’s need to persuade us into believing that America is a gun driven country. In this documentary, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore has used many persuasive techniques to get us to believe that every person in America feels safe to have a gun somewhere in their house for protection and that there are many terrible things that happen in America. To prove that Americans feel safer with a gun in their house and how America has many tragedies I will deconstruct 2 scenes from the documentary Bowling for Columbine. First I will be talking about selection and omission of James Nickles. Second I will be talking about the juxtaposition, and gaps and silences in this documentary.…
The lives of many were to change on the day of April 20th, 1999, at Columbine High School. With the death of twelve students and one teacher, it was to be the deadliest mass murder committed on an American high school campus. The massacre, committed by senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, sparked debate over gun control laws; whether the availability of guns across the United States, especially to young people such as these, was socially acceptable. This event is what sparked Moore to create his documentary, ‘Bowling for Columbine’.…
In I Died for Beauty, Dickinson explores the values of ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’ as a barrier in one’s quest for a sense of belonging. The inter-textual reference to Romantic Poet John Keats "Ode on a Grecian Urn", in which ‘ beauty is truth, truth beauty’ symbolically connects the two values as one. Through this metaphorical patriotic linkage of the morals as “brethren” and “kinsmen”, Dickinson encapsulates her sense of connection these morals bring. However, the accumulation of gothic association to death in “died for beauty... tomb... who died for truth…” accentuates the extent to which these values segregate Dickinson from her society and even her own identity. As she “died for” beauty and truth her sacrifice and desperate yearning for companionship is clear, and is metaphorically achieved only in death, yet even in bereavement is still being separated by “adjoining room(s)”. Through gothic imagery in the line “moss had reached our lips” and covered her “name” Dickinson symbolizes the complete loss of her sense of belonging by attaining to these morals. By suggesting that in order to belong, one must…
Lost, terrified, and not in control of their own thoughts, Mary Warren and Shawn Hornbeck strive for the life they once lived. In 1692, The Crucible character, Mary Warren comes under the control of foil character, Abigail Williams. In a similar, more recent story, Shawn Hornbeck’s normal life of video games, hanging out with friends, and dirt biking, is ripped away from him with Michael Devlin forcefully kidnaps him with the intent of murder. Everyday coerced by their fear, constantly reminded death reigns imminent. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, character Mary Warren, threatened by Abigail Williams not to release they are pretending, lives a lie; just as missing child, Shawn Hornbeck, manipulated by Michael Devlin, cannot release his true identity.…
Cultural societies from around the world have been looked at and studied throughout our history by many different Anthropologists. Anthropology is the study of mankind, their societies, and the customs they have. Two Anthropologist that I will compare and contrast are Ruth Benedict and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban.…
Albert Goldbarth does a great job of effectively using each of the five elements of craft in his poem, “Columbine High School/Littleton, CO.” The poem is only 23 lines long, but after comprehensively analyzing the piece, the analyzer can see that Goldbarth intricately and effectively weaves together the elements of craft and delivers a story with several different layers of a deeper underlying meaning that what appears at first glance.…