Tell Tale Heart and the Lotter Essay Example for Free

Tell Tale Heart and the Lotter Essay American writer Henry James believed characters are only as interesting as their responses to particular situations. The statement he made can be supported by many pieces of literature that we have encountered. The way a character reacts to the situation they are placed in can tell a lot about their true character. Two characters were placed in different situations in â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† written Edgar Allan Poe and The Lottery written by Shirley Jackson reactions will be discussed in this essay. In â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† the tenant thought he would get away with the murder he had, but committed cracked under the pressure. Initially when the police offers entered the home he was he was able to keep his composure, but he slowly started to break. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:—it continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness—until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears. (Poe 390) At this point the man started to hear things in his mind. He was imagining the beating of the old man’s heart. Prior to his delusion the reader probably believed he would get away with the murder. Finally the man can no longer take the sound of the old man’s heart beating beneath the floor boards. â€Å"Villains!† I shrieked, â€Å"dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!† (Poe 391) I believe he told the officers about the old man’s body because his conscience got to him. If he was like most cold, blooded killers his conscience would not have told him he had done something wrong. In â€Å"The Lottery† when the Hutchinson family initially draws the piece of paper from the old black box, Tessie continually pleads to do the redo the drawing of the names. She says, You didnt give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasnt fair!(Jackson 267). Even though the drawing of her family’s name was done completely fair she tries to come up with some excuse. Even though her whole family, including her children, initially had the potential to be stoned she was the only one who wanted a redrawing done. When Tessie’s realized she had the paper she did not even try to say goodbye to her family. Most people, even criminals today, would rather spend their last moments saying goodbye to their loved ones. Tessie on the other hand continually said, It isnt fair, it isnt right(Jackson 269). With her continually saying this isn’t fair or right this shows she does not believe in the system her town used. When she first got to the lottery she made a joke about leaving the dishes, as if she was okay with what was about to take place. When her family’s name was drawn her true feeling were shown. She obviously did not agree with having a human sacrifice in order to better her town’s chances of having a good harvest. Both the man from and Tessie were placed in some an extremely tense situation, and both reacted in a similar manner. The man cracked under the pressure of killing the old man and Tessie Hutchinson lost her composure when she found out she was the one who would be stoned. Henry James quote of â€Å"characters are only as interesting as their responses to particular situations† was confirmed from the above reading because both of the characters show a different, more interesting, side of themselves when they faced with a predicament.

Hamlet :: essays research papers

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was the son of John and Mary Shakespeare. William attended his town's local grammar school at age six and graduated ten years later. When he was eighteen, he married a woman named Anne Hathaway who gave birth to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet drowned a few years later. It is said that William named his famous play Hamlet after his son and included a drowning scene in his honor. After the loss of his son, William left his family behind and headed for London to write plays. He was a poet and playwright. He wrote many famous plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. His stories were very popular with the English people because some of them were about English kings, like Henry IV. One of the characters from Henry IV was Falstaff, a drunk and crude knight. People liked him so much that William wrote another play using Falstaff, entitled The Merry Wives of Windsor. Shakespeare lived during the Ren aissance period, and was one of the most influential playwrights of his time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hamlet is set in medieval times and relates the story of Hamlet, who is the son of the dead King of Denmark, which appears as a ghost. The ghost appears at midnight and hints to Hamlet and his two friends Horatio and Marcellus about his murder. Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, quickly marries Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius barely before the King’s body is even cold. Hamlet finds out that Claudius poisoned his father while he was sleeping to gain control of the throne. Hamlet confronts his mother about knowing about the murder of his father, and her affair with Claudius. Claudius attempts to kill Hamlet on a â€Å"vacation† voyage to England, by getting Rosncrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s boyhood friends to carry a letter to the King of England to chop off Hamlet’s head. Hamlet intercepts the letter, and sends a letter to the King of England, telling him to immediately cut off the heads of the messengers. Hamlet then plots to kill Cla udius because â€Å"He†¦ killed my king and whored my mother.† Laertes is allowed a duel against Hamlet to revenge his father, Polonius’, murder. Halfway into the duel, Claudius toasts the duelers, and drops a poison-coated pearl into the wine as an inducement for Hamlet to finish the drink. However, Gertrude decides to drink it herself.

Best War Ever Essay

The Causes of World War II History 1302 In the book The Best War Ever: America and World War II by Michael C.C. Adams, Adams discusses the misconceptions about world war two that America had and still has today. Through the title, one can assume that Americans came out of the five year war with a positive view. This was due to the way theatre and television portrayed it to the public, and like naà ¯ve children America ate it up. Television and other media didn’t want America to see the true horror that actually took place overseas, but what they didn’t know was how mislead America was going to become. This essay will discuss the argument Adams creates in chapter 6 about how sugar coating the war for America, was in a sense best for them, but for small businesses, immigrants and teens it was a different story. Before World War II became the center of attention in America, people lived their everyday lives. Most were small business owners that were just trying to make a living. As the war went on overseas, Pearl Harbor was attacked, which led to the U.S. joining the war. Do to this sudden need to protect our country, America became â€Å"obsessed† and young men volunteered to fight for the country they loved. Everyone including women and children had this attitude of supporting the troops and doing everything they could to help out, by women working jobs in factories that were originally created for men. As these factories like Ford, Coca-Cola, and Wrigley’s grew, â€Å"World War II undermined the world of the small producer in business and agriculture, completing the triumph of large corporations†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Best War Ever: America and World War II, 1994)1. Small businesses closing down wasn’t the only cause of America joining the war but also, families losing their homes, farms, towns, and well basically their lives. These people had to move to bigger cities where factories that were being recognized, due to the war, were the o nly jobs available. While factories grew, violence towards immigrants grew as well. Due to Pearl Harbor being attacked by the Japanese, Japanese-Americans were seen as a threat and removed from their homes and put into detention centers. â€Å"More  than two-thirds of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States.† (Japanese Relocation Centers: During World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were under lock and key, 2007)2. President Roosevelt felt that they were a threat to America and that anyone of them could be a spy. African-Americans were facing hard times as well, though racism was still going strong, many African-Americans were being attacked and miss treated because of mixed work environments as Adams states in his book (1994) â€Å"A white man in a wildcat strike at a Packard plant said ‘I’d rather see Hitler and Hirohito win the war than work beside a nigger on the assembly line.’†3 Wives of African-American men in the army were also treated as lower class while the American women would get preferred treatment. Another race that was targeted were American-born Hispanics. Teen Hispanics began to form gangs and â€Å"challeng[e] the traditional restraints of their behavior†. They did this by wearing zoot Suits. Because of this new fashion trend amongst Hispanics, military men began to harass and ended up creating a riot known as the â€Å"Zoot Suit Riot† . In this riot military and Hispanic men attacked each other but only the Hispanic teens got arrested for the violence. As immigrants were mistreated, young American teens were feeling a sense of freedom, this was due to the lack of parental control. â€Å"More girls got pregnant. And the venereal disease rate rose : between 194 and 1944, New York City’s VD rate among girls aged fifteen to eighteen years old increased 204 percent.† (The Best War Ever: America and World War II, 1994)4. Teens were getting into trouble cutting school and joining gangs. It was hard for schools to maintain a strong education among the youth and so a decline in intellectual quality began in young Americans. Media also had a small part to play in this lack of education. Mass entertainment was trying to win over the youth through T.V. and movies and because of this the armed services saw that students in this generation weren’t as prepared as generations before them, they lacked skills learned in high school. But one reason that as a main factor were the number of jobs that were available. Teens were able to get a job as young as thirteen years old, even though the job wasn’t helping out the war, money made the youth feel free like they could do anything they wanted, which they did. In conclusion, World War II in a sense was the best war ever but for small businesses, immigrants and teens, it was a war that ended up changing tradition into trends and  violence. Americans w ere blinded and lied to and through this it brought grave consequences . â€Å"†¦ it is the danger of arrogance and hubris – that is, the danger of going to war because a nation’s leaders are convinced of their own righteousness, or have persuaded themselves and the public that a foreign country should be attacked because its government or society is not merely alien, hostile or threatening, but â€Å"evil.†(The ‘Good War’ Myth of World War Two, 2008)5. Bibliography Michael C. C. Adams, The Best War Ever: America and world War II (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994) Japanese Relocation Centers: During World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were under lock and key, 2007 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html The ‘Good War’ Myth of World War Two, May 24, 2008 http://www.ihr.org/news/weber_ww2_may08.html

Essay on “Dialogue with Socrates”

Essay on â€Å"Dialogue with Socrates† Socrates: What did you just do young lady? Me: This man stole my painting ideas, which he used to paint the famous painting in the Courts in Athens. I have proof the shows that the original version of the painting was mine, here, look! Socrates: So what did you just do? Me: I taught the man a lesson he will never forget, I chopped off his fingers so he will never have to draw again. That is what he deserves! Socrates: Are you satisfied that what you did is good and justified? Me: Yes, I served justice, justice that was denied to me by the courts, justice that no one else could see but me, justice that no one else deserved but me, justice that no one else could serve but me. Socrates: What is justice young man? Me: Justice is doing to the bad people wrong and the good people right. Justice is harming the bad people and rewarding the good people. Socrates: And who are the good people and the bad people? Me: Good people are people who do good deeds, while bad people are people who do wrong. Socrates: You seem to be overwhelmed by anger that you forget your senses. We cannot use our own subjective judgment to identify which people are good and which are bad. Using this infallible judgment will make us do bad to good persons, and good to the bad persons, therefore, failing to uphold the concept of justice. There are many good people out there, highly virtuous, but with who we are not friends. At the same time, there are many bad people out there, quite lacking in virtue, but with whom we are friends. It, therefore, is not justified that we harm people as a way of seeking justice. Do you see my point? Me: But sir, we can easily identify bad people by their deeds as they always do bad things. Socrates: Good is an inherent virtue amongst everyone subconsciously. Knowledge is good, and knowledge leads to good. Good brings happiness to the soul, fulfilling everyone’s nature. There is a bit of good in every one of us, it is the desire and unconscious pursuit within our souls. Justice is good, and good is justice. Me: You know sir, I do not even understand what you are talking about. You want to know what I think is justice? Justice is in the advantage and benefit of the strong. The stronger you are, the more justly you will be served, and if I overpowered this man and chopped off his fingers, then to me, that is justice for myself. Your so-called justice is nothing but a restraint to the human desire to have more and become better, and adhering to this will not benefit man at all. Socrates: Your view, as i see, promotes and seeks to legitimize and glorify injustice. As I said earlier, if justice is good, then injustice is bad and bad can never be good. Justice is wise and injustice is contrary to wisdom. A wise man skilled in an art does not seek to compete or out do others skilled in the same art. He seeks to share with them, to learn from them, and to help them become even better. If you believed that the painting this man painted was originally yours; you should have painted your painting and presented it as well, and if his was accepted in the courts, yours would have been accepted in the temples. You should