The protagonists of both Erik Larson’s the Devil in the White City and Denis Johnson’s novella Train Dreams share similar experiences despite being located in different parts of the country. “That he'd taken on an acre and a home in the first place he owed to Gladys. He'd felt able to tackle the responsibilities that came with a team and wagon because Gladys had stayed in his heart and in his thoughts.” (Johnson, 82). At a time where women are beginning to venture out and become increasingly present in society, Grainier acknowledges the strength and support he received from his late-wife Gladys.
TKM Theme Essay Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression in the small town of Maycomb in Alabama. Scout and Jem live in what they think is a good community. From what they know, everyone fits into the community except Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor. They think this until the trial of Tom Robinson, an African American that is accused a raping a white women, takes place. The kids see something they have never noticed about their community before.
The conflict of the era was big business, and its need to keep inflicting actions to keep a strong division of the wealthy, and the lower class workers, while maximizing profits and personal gain. As well as spotlighting the inequality of gender, race, and social status. This is paired with the stories of activists and everyday men who called for change in this pivotal time. The book is effective in using vivid imagery to explore scenarios of divide and disparity of the era.
“He who controls the media controls the minds of the public” - Noam Chomsky. In the novel, A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls LaNier the town of Little Rock took the chance at integrating an all-white high school by creating the Blossom Plan. The author writes about her journey attending an all-white school as an African-American. This novel focuses on the troubles Carlotta faces each and every day and adds some horrific details about her comrades as they went through the same process as her. Little Rock Girl 1957 by Shelley Tougas, centers its attention on different events that occurred in Little Rock during the 1950s.
This book was written in the time period of the late 1850’s early 1860’s. During this time period there was a lot of racism in the world. Everywhere you went, it was segregated. Even in the schools. But that never stopped a girl named Liz.
The hopes formed by the Kansas Exodus of living a normal, free life were shattered as many couldn’t afford to take up farming and resumed their role on the lowest rung of society. The North also sparked false hope, as industry expanded at an intangible rate, it also created countless jobs, but factory owners “refused to offer jobs to blacks in the expanding industrial economy, preferring to hire white immigrants” (Foner 523). Consequently, African Americans fought to obtain any job they could. Moody’s stepfather, Raymond, was tired of looking for menial work in the South and decided to head west in search of a job that could provide for his family. He had been hard set on making it as a Mississippi farmer, but continued failure left him no choice than to go see his family in Los Angeles for work.
In the book, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California, James N. Gregory attempts to change readers perspective of stereotypes created by artist during the Great Depression, such as those created by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Dorthea Lange’s photograph of the “Migrant Mother”. In his book, Gregory “takes us back to the dust bowl migration” to reveal that there is more to Oklahoman, Arkansan, Texan, and Missourian immigrants than economic hardship. He focuses on regionalism, and an “Okie” subculture that was created due to the high rate of migration to California. Gregory sets out to prove that they also had a mass effect on Californian culture and social patterns. Using extremely efficient primary
The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.
This piece of literature was written by Charles Mackay, who was a British traveler visiting the states during the late 1850’s. This travel novel reflects on the incorrect assumption of how the North was not prejudice, and the inequality African Americans dealt with on the daily even though they were considered free. Mckay reflects on the feeling of the north by
In which we had to think carefully and cohesively about the characters and their backgrounds. Although Harper Lee proves the point that social prejudice was a highly regarded prejudice. Harper Lees’ novel helps us to become more aware of prejudicial situations that occurred in the
Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.
This novel talks about the life in America during those times back in 1937 how many people struggled to live. Many people during those days lost their jobs. There was no welfare state or unemployment benefit. Disabled or old people had to depend on their families or charity and keep working for as long as they could. Everyone was so competitive in order to get a job.
Utilitarianism: Singer’s Double Edged Sword Abortion poses no ethical risk to humanity. Hence why there are strong supporters of abortion, such as Peter Singer. In his work, “Taking Life: The Embryo and the Fetus,” he favors of the ethics of abortion through his utilitarian views. That is, if the argument is seen through the lens of Prior Existence Utilitarianism. Undoubtedly, this is due to its counterpart: Total Utilitarianism.
In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.
In this novel the reader can see the inner turmoil within literature and its characters. There is a major shift present from supernatural and religious happiness, into individual driven happiness. Due to this newly valued individual independence, social boundaries in race and gender started to appear, thus causing the transition into the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that celebrated African American culture through artwork, literature, and music. Throughout this era elements of new identity, political challenging, and gender and racial improvements were all addressed and examined in the associated literature. The poem Legal Alien is a good example of the ideals encompassed in the era.
