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Essays about the progressive era
The progressive era in america
Essays about the progressive era
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays about the progressive era
The progressive era in america
Essays about the progressive era
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Introduction The book that I selected is called “Getting Life” by Michael Morton, who is a man that was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife in Texas in 1986. This book takes us from a happy young couple to the day of the murder, through the investigation into his wife’s murder, Michael’s trial and conviction, 25 years in prison, appeals, release from prison, and reintegration into society. One unique fact about this case is that is the first case where the prosecutor in a wrongful conviction case was subsequently convicted of prosecutorial misconduct, stripped of their law license and sentenced to serve time in jail.
In the poem, “Becoming and Going: An Oldsmobile Story” by Gerald Hill the speaker is traveling down a road in the Fort Qu’appelle Valley. He notices his father and his son are also driving down this road. The speaker then begins to list the two men’s characteristics. As he lists them we see that the father and the son have both similarities and differences in their personalities.
Riis wrote many other books such as The Battle with the Slums and Children of the Tenements. Both these books mainly focused on life in tenements, but also on work condition and living in this time as a child. Jacob Riis is classified as a Progressive because he sought to change what he though was wrong. In Riis’s case he thought having more than one family in tenements was wrong. Or the fact that working in extremely unsafe working conditions was wrong.
Half A life: a thought provoking journey How do humans deal with death? Why does tragic loss seem to take control of one’s life? The memoir: Half A Life by Darin Strauss attempts to answer questions such as these, as well as take the reader through a deeply spiritual journey. Strauss was thrown into this confusing and emotional time after he hit Celine Zilke, a girl from his high school, with his car when he was just eighteen.
Gerda Weissmann Klein’s perspective of the Holocaust, which she describes in her memoir, All But My Life, detailed the experience of a young Jewish woman surviving the Holocaust, of which she says “Survival is both an exalted privilege and a painful burden” (247). Weissmann Klein’s account of her experience began on September 3, 1939 at her home in the town of Bielitz, Poland, just as Germans enforcing the new Nazi policies began to arrive. Prior to that night, which was only the beginning for Weissmann Klein, Jews within Nazi Germany had already been feeling the effects of Adolf Hitler’s ideals for almost five years. From 1933 until 1939, when Weissmann Klein’s recount began, German Jews were subject to the passing of many racist and genocidal laws prohibiting them from everything from finding work, to
In the article “The New Normal” by David Brooks, he argues that the countries future will depend greatly on how the government makes budget cuts. He points out three principles that should be considered when making budget cuts. The first principle is to make everyone hurt, or to make cuts widely and fairly, not just in couple areas. In addition, Brooks claims that the government should cut more from the old to invest in the younger generation. He says that the government should invest more money into education and early-childhood programs.
The film “Half of Anything” directed by Jonathan Tomhave was centered around a series of interviews with four different people of different backgrounds, who all identified as Native American. He asked these four interviewees the question “What is a real Indian?” This was a challenge for each person to answer in the fact that a “real Indian” meant different things to each one. For instance, the first interviewee, Christina, believed that there has to be a true definition of an Indian and that it meant more than just having a card and being enrolled in something, it takes moral responsibility. Another interviewee, Sherman Alexie, discussed that, while he saw being Indian as part of a person’s personal identity, the world seemed to identify Indians
In Atticus' closing speech and “life isn't fair- deal with it” by Mike Myatt both share the idea of fairness and what is right. Atticus describes this as the first form of rhetoric ethos, as does MIke Myatt in his argument about what is fair and what is not. Atticus' speech was a form of ethos meaning it appeals to an audience or a reader's ethics, this is shown in speech stating “I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore the defendant to his family.” This quote near the end of the speech describes how Atticus reviews the evidence in the trial and points out that all men should be treated equally but are not.
The descriptive passage above taken from, How the other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis, demonstrates the isolation of the Chinese community from the rest of New York. Riis uses figurative language such as hyperbole, metaphor, and quotation, as well as other literary devices, to depict the Chinaman as an embodiment of Chinatown itself, where the cultural aspects are portrayed through the man and his doings. The descriptive passage I wrote as an imitation demonstrates how the eyes take in factual information which is then distorted by perception and outside influential factors. I used the same types of figurative language to depict vision as an embodiment of truth as well as trickery. The concept is displayed through the eyes and what they see.
Library of Congress. Library of Congress. “Jacob Riis: Revealing “How the Other Half Lives”. 21 Nov. 2017. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/riis-and-reform.html John Simkin, “Jacob Riis”.
In her book "All But My Life," Gerda Weissmann Klein writes about her terrifying experience of making it through the Holocaust. She talks about the big difficulties she encountered at that time. We can see connections between her story and a serious problem facing today's world: human trafficking. People being pushed into actions against their choice, including forced labor or cruel treatment, is an issue in the modern world. Gerda and other survivors of the Holocaust suffered harsh working conditions and long hours of labor.
Though both authors wrote based on their own personal experiences. Upton Sinclair went undercover as a worker in these factories and wrote of what he saw, while Jacob Riis went to tenements, wrote or took pictures of what he saw. These two authors were trying to create change. They knew that the workers and the poor living in these tenements couldn’t go anything. So who else to help besides the public?
The theme of the compound is what it would take to survive in this situation and standing up to people who put others down. Eli shows this when he punches his dad and they start fighting (Bodeen, 2008, p. 171). He stood up to his dad because his dad was trying to make an excuse for why they really ended up in the compound. The family shows what it takes to survive by only having a limited amount of food. Surviving with limited resources van be very tough.
In today’s world, there are many people creating new chemical substances that has negative effect to our world. Rachel Carson, in her article "The Obligation to Endure" argues that the pesticides and other chemicals we use are harmful to more than just the environment. I agree with Carson in her article, in that we should reduce most of the harmful chemical use and instead use technological inventions. Carson is a person who seems very passionate about the environment and is very concerned of its inhabitants. It is hard to believe that intelligent human beings would use bad chemicals substances that would affect the environment and themselves negatively.
In the poem “Half-Caste” John Agard confronts the audience directly regarding their personal opinions and/or beliefs concerning the term “half-caste” or people of mixed heritage. He uses various scenarios using the term “half-caste” that may seem absurd and incongruous. This helps put his point across and makes people reconsider their use of the word and its implications. However, “Island Man” is the story of a man who spent time on an island, but moved back to London afterwards. This text identifies his emotions as he wakes up for the first time in England.