Analysis Of Michael Bruce's 'Gentlemen, Your Verdict'

In the short story ‘Gentlemen, Your Verdict’, by Michael Bruce, Lieutenant-Commander Oram was forced to make the complicated decision of saving five members of his crew, or allowing everyone to die due to a mine accident that damaged their submarine. Commander Oram made the right decision to a great extent due to there not being a way out of his situation that did not result in the death of his crew, he did not inform the 14 crew members that were to die, that they were being killed, and he spared all but one of his married crew members.

The theme of isolation is a heavy premise throughout all three books that help to shape not only certain characters but also provide insight on fundamental qualities of their identities. The object of this essay is to prove who seems to be the most solitary character between the books Light in August by William Faulkner, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In these stories, the idea of isolation is the loneliness that has been experienced in a characters life. Some characters have experienced their loneliness since early childhood while others have been kept isolated involuntarily. Although these three characters have taken different approaches in their lives, they all ended up isolated from society. As Alfred Kazin believes that Joe Christmas is the most solitary character in American fiction, I would like to discuss how both the villain in A Good Man is Hard to Find and the heroine of The Yellow Wallpaper would not rival Kazin’s opinion. Joe Christmas in Light in August proves to be the most solitary character I have read about, as he is never able to become a full member of society.

Throughout this entire semester, I have learned many different aspects of society that I had a basic understanding of originally. I never would have imagined the amount of knowledge and real life stories I would gain in this class. I want to start of by saying that I am grateful to have taken this class and appreciate each and every story that was shared. These stories opened my eyes to a world I wouldn’t have normally seen. For that fact alone, I believe sociology was one of the most insightful classes in my college career so far.

In 'Ballad of Birmingham,' Dudley Randall illustrates a conflict between a child who wishes to march for civil rights and a mother who wishes only to protect her child. Much of this poem is read as dialogue between a mother and a child, a style which gives it an intimate tone and provides insight to the feelings of the characters. Throughout the poem the child is eager to go into Birmingham and march for freedom with the people there. The mother, on the other hand, is very adamant that the child should not go because it is dangerous. It is obvious that the child is concerned about the events surrounding the march and wants to be part of the movement. The child expresses these feelings in a way

The movie, My Man Godfrey, directed by Gregory La Cava easily situates itself into the era of the Greatest Generation. My Man Godfrey was releases during the middle of the Great Depression. Not only was the film released during the Great Depression, but it was set during the same era as well. While there are many instances that clearly tie My Man Godfrey to the Great Depression, the issues surrounding the economics and social classes are key players in this connection.

Author and sociologist, Dalton Conley, is a Caucasian boy who grows up in a predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhood in the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the 1970’s and 80’s. In his book, Honky, he tells us a unique view through a young boy’s eyes uncovering the way in which individuals are perceived in social reality, and how some groups of people are classified. He also speaks about how some groups get better opportunities and privileges then others. This book is a very powerful autobiography, according to his book, written by, “not your typical middle class white male.” (prologue, p. xiii) He goes on to say that he is middle class, even though his parents didn’t have any money and that he is a white boy, even though he grew up in an inner city housing project where mostly everyone was Black or Hispanic. Dalton speaks about his experience as a white boy exploring his definition of race and class and saying that, “race and class are nothing more than a set of stories we tell ourselves to get through the world, to organize our reality.” (prologue, p. xiv) He describes his childhood as a “social science experiment, Find out what being middle class really means by raising a kid from a so-called good family in a so-called bad neighborhood.” (prologue, p. xiii)

Ahab was destroyed by his siren, which was an elusive whale named Moby Dick. Blanchot points out, "Ahab and the whale are engaged in a drama, what we can call a metaphysical drama, using the word loosely, and the Sirens and Ulysses are engaged in the same struggle...The result is a sort of victory for him, a dark disaster for Ahab" (Blanchot 44). Ahab obviously could not resist his siren, and it spelled the end for him. Odysseus realized the danger and took measures to protect his crew from the irresistible urge that would pull them to their doom.

make many decisions and if they choose wrong, it may cost them their lives or someone else’s in

After viewing Peter Mansbridge's interviews with the three party leaders, it's clear that all of them are looking forward to strengthening Canada's financial aspect but the fact of the matter is that there is only so much realism you can see from only three men in a span of thirty minutes. However, if one is called upon to identify the most convincing one, I would go with Stephen Harper. My opinion is based solely on his willingness and desire to fulfill his promises directly from the national budget; and his ideology where admitting large quantities of refugees into the country is not a solution but rather a never-ending process; and finally, he wants to keep taxation rates below what it is now. This is not to say that the others don't offer

Conformity was once a common concept accepted by many Americans. Citizens were expected to participate in similar behavior, activities, and lifestyles. Advertisers used the desire to conform to societal ideologies in order to endorse and sell their products. However, during the 1950’s cultural revolution, Beats movement, individuals began dismissing the need to conform and began expressing their own individual endeavors. As the result of the rejection of collective conformity advertisers converted their strategies and began using freedom of expression as a ploy to get people to buy their products by promising them rebellion with said product. In the article “Commodify Your Dissent”, Thomas Frank examines the strategic ways advertisers

     The Ballad of Birmingham resembles a traditional ballad in that it tells a story in a song-like manner. The didactic tone seeks to teach us something; in this case it’s the theme of needless destruction. There are many devices the author uses to create such a tone and to tell such a story.

Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” is a look into the effects of racism on a personal level. The poem is set in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The tone of the title alludes to the city of Birmingham as a whole. The poem gives the reader, instead, a personal look into a tragic incident in the lives of a mother and her daughter. The denotation of the poem seems to simply tell of the sadness of a mother losing her child. The poem’s theme is one of guilt, irony, and the grief of losing a child. The mother feels responsible for the death of her child. The dramatic irony of the mother’s view of church as being a “safe haven” for her child is presented to the reader through the mother’s insistence that the young girl

However according to the rule based view of deontology, the taking of a life is wrong and two wrongs don’t make a right. To kill as of to save others’ lives is not an option as the act of killing is being promoted. It can be perceived that the captain, in his own wisdom, is of the opinion that his killing of the twenty Indians is justified.

Within this scenario Hardin appeals to the readers with the presentation of a circumstance in which only two outcomes seem probable. Either the passengers help ten more individuals and drown, or they neglect to help any, and float securely away with the "safety factor" still intact. Hardin disregards the idea of helping some people, even if selected in a fairly arbitrary way: "Suppose we decide to preserve our small safety factor and admit no more to the lifeboat. Our survival is then possible although we will have to be constantly on guard against boarding parties" (2). He insinuates that once the decision is made to help some, the lifeboat passengers must attempt to save all of those drowning, which is clearly not feasible given the carrying capacity of the lifeboat. Although the boat's capacity should not exceed the admission of more than ten people, why not admit three, four, or even those ten? It seems rather unreasonable to deny help to every individual, when, although not all can be rescued, the boat clearly holds the space for more. The same ideology may be applied in other philosophical debates, including the death penalty, as we discussed in lecture. Ernest Van Den Haag, a defender of the death penalty, explains in his article that the importance of punishment is not whether every individuals gets what they deserve, but rather that some, rather than none, of

Do you choose to pursuit the greater good and save the lives of many at the cost of one? Or do you favor the one due to other factors, such as age? Or do you do nothing and reap the benefits from the inevitable disaster? If the Colonel decided not to launch a strike or could not get approval, then the resulting suicide bombing would work in the military’s favor politically. The civilians and especially survivors would be more willing to support the military in their fight against the militants. But allowing those deaths to occur, when they could have been saved certainly is not the moral decision. And if those deaths did occur, could the blame be placed on the pilots as well? Second Lieutenant Watt refused an order when he failed to launch the strike. His decision to save that child, could have led to the deaths of many others, including the field agent, Farah, who had tried to get the child to move out of the kill