The book, “The Great Mortality” by John Kelly, explores how the Black Death spread across Europe and Asia from 1347 to 1351 and left a trail of terrors in its path. Kelly describes the history of the plague from witnesses of the disaster. It describes how the black rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis spread the infection throughout this region, killing over half of the population. Kelly describes the measures taken by the town, the church and health organizations to prevent the Plague from spreading. Although there are many important issues brought to light by Kelly, some offer more discussion and though than others.
Death. To most people is a very mournful experience to go through, but according to Shirley Jackson, that is not the case in The Haunting of Hill House. Furthermore, the freedom that comes until death is revealed with the character Eleanor. For whom death is a wake up call to freedom.
Do we control the direction of our lives, or do forces outside of our control determine our destiny? Ernest J. Gaines shows this with Grant, Jefferson. A good example of this would be Grant Wiggins. He shows that even though you may be an educated person, you can’t really choose on what you want to do. If you only have little options to begin with and if that is what society would want to give to you.
In the book, “A lesson before dying”, by Ernest J. Gaines tells a story that is set during late 1940’s. The story is focused on the interaction between Jefferson, a young and barley literate African American man, who is sentenced to death for an unjust crime, and Grant Wiggins, a teacher that wants to help Jefferson, but doesn’t know how. The story is told through the eyes of Wiggins. The main focus in this book was Grant and Jefferson’s relationship to transform each man throughout the story and teach each a lesson about human dignity. The most important character is Jefferson’s defense attorney, he was the reason that let Jefferson lose his dignity and self respect.
Summary and Reaction Dr. Ira Byock: Saying the Four Things that Matter Most for Living and Dying Well-2013 Dr. Byock 's speech in Australia in 2013 is impactful, eye-opening, and applicable to everyone. We all hope to die well and although this can have different meanings for different people, Dr. Byock offers four things to say while living along with several lessons. These four things are “please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “thank you,” and “I love you.” He goes on to say that as humans we are all imperfect and offers his suggestion to “get over it.”
A Lesson Before Dying Essay In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines recounts the life and struggles of the colored people. He uses memories from his life to give personalities to the characters as well as give an accurate setting. Gaines revisited the south after he moved to California as an attempt to develop a story that related to his people.
Throughout A Lesson before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines writes of Grant Wiggins’s two intertwined struggles to escape different powers in his life. Once Grant Wiggins accepts the power of his responsibilities, a larger power looms over him; racism. The book opens with Grant Wiggins recalling a trial, where a young black man, Jefferson, was wrongfully accused of murder. In an attempt to free his client, Jefferson’s lawyer refers to Jefferson as a mindless hog, who could not have known what he was doing. The case was lost, and Jefferson was sentenced to death by the judge.
Throughout history, there have been several discriminatory actions and abuse targeted to a particular race that destroyed their progression towards equality. Renowned author Ernest J. Gaines depicts this unfair harassment through his work of literature “A Lesson Before Dying,” to which he exposed the racial injustices to his audience. The audience was introduced to a man by the name of Grant Wiggins, who was given the task of turning Jefferson into a man after he was said to be a hog. Jefferson, whom at the time was on death row, waited for his punishment for a crime he did not commit. Throughout the story, Grant was rather stubborn in teaching Jefferson this overarching concept.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American transcendentalist thinker once said “The purpose of life is... to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Ernest J. Gaines, author of historical novel A Lesson Before Dying, focuses largely on the idea of the importance an individual can have in someone else's life, and how it can ultimately lead to a life that is truly worth living. Grant Wiggins, the educated, yet stubborn protagonist in A Lesson Before Dying, is forced by his aunt to return to his small town Louisiana community in which he has grown to hate because of the racial inequality and unequal learning opportunities. Grants aunt, Tante Lou, coerces him to work with her friend's
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands at a moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” -MLK. A Lesson Before Dying is based in a modest community in the south. Written in 1993 but set right after WW2, A Lesson Before Dying promptly displays the prejudice and discrimination that many people faced during the 1940s. Through his writing, Ernest J. Gaines demonstrates the challenges and struggles of being successful, back in a time where many black men were brought down to the level of an animal.
Faulkner creates the sense of autonomy in As I Lay Dying by using multiple symbols that revolve around the Bundrens. One of the most common symbols in As I Lay Dying is Addie’s coffin. According to critic Homer Pettey, her coffin is said to be the main reason and “the focus of the Bundrens' efforts, frustrations, and fixations”(3). Pettey repeats that Addie’s coffin is an object that causes the rest of the Bundren family exasperation and aggravation from its ability to throw the world into “absolute chaos”(8). Many times throughout the novel Addie’s coffin causes situations that cause the family to have great misfortunes.
Then he realizes that he was not going to stay with his money when he die. At the end, he helped his employee with a monetary situation. Further, he went to his nephew’s Christmas dinner. Significantly, this novel helps people retrain the meaning of being humble and kind with others. Something that is very important about this novel is that it teaches a lesson of helping others, because you are not going to stay with your money when you die.
Many people consider simple acts a small act of kindness or simply putting people before they put themselves but there is more to it as this action is called selflessness. These acts can make a positive impact in someone elses lives. Being set in the 1940s slavery was still a prominent concept during that time period. Ernest Gaines, the author of A Lesson Before Dying creates a character in his novel named Grant who provides guidance, to a troubled character Jefferson through a rough period of time in his lifetime. Throughout his novel, multiple times Gaines portrays the theme that we should incorporate this simple deed in our daily lives.
Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities Assisted living facilities are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Unfortunately, assisted living facilities have a history of being problematic. Specific cases from the movie Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities indicates that assisted living facilities are often under staffed, poorly trained, and often admit elderly patients who are not qualified candidates for their facilities (Byker and Thompson, 2013). When taking this in to account, it is important to consider why families may admit their loved ones in to assisted living facilities.
In “The Field of Life and Death”, Xiao Hong uses the characters’ suffering and symbolism to demonstrate the breaking of traditional male and female roles. As Howard Goldblatt mentions in the translator’s introduction, “the villages’ fatalistic attitudes and repeated mention of the four distresses (birth, old age, sickness, and death) are unquestionable” (xiii), Xiao Hong represents these distresses with the main female characters without reservation in the process of childbirth, aging, disease, and death. Through childbirth, men shrink from responsibility 1. Childbirth and responsibly 2. Old Age and 3.
