Atmosphere and Tension in The Speckled Band by Air Arthur Conan Doyle and Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

Child abuse, in any form, is cause for outrage. This makes the question of whether neglect, benign or otherwise, is better than violence hard to consider. According to Canada’s Public Health Agency, parental neglect, at 34% of cases, is the most commonly reported form of child maltreatment (31). In Roald Dahl’s Matilda and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, parental neglect is contrasted against violence as both are shown to be psychologically detrimental to a child, while the impact of these imperfect parents is able to help a child redefine their sense of self.

African Americans have been discriminated and were not treated fairly from the beginning of the American colonies up to the 1960s. Their history included about 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of discrimination. However, many people state that throughout the 1800s, the whaling industry helped African Americans thrive as a race. In addition, they were treated as equals and could gain glory and wealth from it. In most cases, this is not true because negroes for three main reasons. Almost all African people did not receive high positions on their crew ships. Also, they experienced segregation on ships and were treated not equally. Finally, they were taken for their cheap and hard labor in a dangerous, unrewarding industry. Using internet sources and the novel, In The Heart of The Sea, by Nathaniel Philbrick, African Americans in the whaling industry had low status within crews and faced harsh working conditions as well as discrimination and racism.

Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan

Can a person kill someone they really love. Roald Dahl’s mysterious story, ”Lamb to the Slaughter,” takes place in the 1950’s. Dahl introduces Mary Maloney, the protagonist, as a conformable, obedient women, who is six-months pregnant and is obsessed with her husband, Patrick Maloney-a detective. The story begins with Mrs. Maloney eagerly waiting for her husband. When he arrives, Dahl makes it obvious that there is something wrong with the dialogues of his mood, which were very harsh towards Mary. The revelation of Patrick Maloney leaving her completely transformed the once gratified, loving Mrs. Maloney into a brutal, cold-hearted murderer. One lesson the story alludes to is that when people withstand heartbreaking incidents, it is easy for

Every man has opinions, some which are stronger than others, but do these thoughts define the man? In Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s play Inherit The Wind opinions do not define the people who advocate them. Each character in this play has viewpoints that influence their actions. The bravery, honesty and determination required to express an opinion defines a person more than the opinion, allowing one to respect a man who advocates unpopular opinions.

In the words of one critic, superior works of literature should invoke a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘pleasure’ as “joyful amusement”, while 'disquietude’ is defined as “anxiety”. Although these words seem to oppose each other, they both occur in frequently and simultaneously in every person’s life. Emotions caused by people and circumstances in one’s life allow these feelings of pleasure and disquietude to overlap. Similarly, an inclusion of both elements in a literary work result in this feeling of “healthy confusion” for the reader. A lot of novels entertain the reader with

Imagine being told that you have to get rid of all your belongings, go and work with very little food without knowing when your last day would come, while your faith is being tested the entire time. In the memoir “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie faces many of these obstacles and more. For example, Elie loses his faith in his fellow man, God, and even in himself which then causes people to react in many differing ways. There are many reasons as to why people react differently to tough situations; one is perspective, you can either see the outcome as destructive or inspiring. If you had to overcome these obstacles, how would you react?

Sometimes when I’m home alone with my younger siblings, I yell at them and threaten to hurt them if they annoy and distract me. Usually, I do this because I’m in charge and I know I won’t get in trouble for it and because I have work to do and I don’t want to get in trouble for not doing it. Similarly, some police (mostly white) abuse their position by shooting people when they think they are in danger. Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of the Holocaust and Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding. Both texts show that humans can hurt others to save themselves and power corrupts us as human beings.

The Nose by Nikolai Gogol was incredibly strange to me. That is not to say that I did not enjoy it. Really, I am just unsure of how I feel about it because it was so strange that I do not know how to wrap my mind around it. I did enjoy how whimsical and silly it was, though. I was not sure what to expect from this story, but it certainly was not what I experienced.

The human is the most complex living being on the face of this earth, yet human roots are sometimes forgotten. Through Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, it is clear that animals are the brothers and sisters of the human race. In turn, human habits resemble those of all the living beings which creates unity between all walks of life, determining the same fate for all. A similar concept relates the three works: Living Like Weasels, Shooting an Elephant, and The Death of a Moth by Annie Dillard, George Orwell, and Virginia Woolf respectively. The authors explore the nature of such creatures in order to achieve a better understanding of their motives, all the while gaining insight on the cycle of life.

The book Into Thin Air written by Jon Krakauer, is about a man climbing the highest mountain, Everest. This is the first person view of the deadly Everest disaster. This non-fiction book shows the condition of how bad the conditions are in Everest and how hard it is to climb and survive. Jon Krakauer shows the amazing and dark side of Everest and how it swallows human life. He shows how hard it is to climb Everest and shows that it’s no walk in the park.

Ray Bradbury proves his brilliancy in writing in his famous short-story, The Fog Horn. He uses profound imagery and details in his description leaving every reader breathless in suspense. Additionally, Bradbury includes his own worldview of the nature of man in this story. Through Bradbury’s The Fog Horn, readers understand the brokenness of man.

Kurt Vonnegut regularly uses “winners” versus “losers” to get his themes and main ideas across. Vonnegut writes about the horrors of war, of which has a winner and loser, and of the truths of the world, always including someone who comes out ahead and someone who gets left behind in his essays. Neuroscientist, Michael Gazzaniga, said “When you get up in the morning, you do not think about triangles and squares and these similes that psychologists have been using for the past 100 years. You think about status. You think about where you are in relation to your peers,” (Waytz). Money, power, and social standing are among the most common traits utilized in Vonnegut’s work to portray someone’s “status”. Through essays in Armageddon in

The short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” is based on disguises of wealth and appearance and how these disguises change the point of view that people have in the social classes and what they think about each other during the Victorian Era. Disguises can be used to create an identity for one’s own personal gain or to protect an individual 's identity. Neville St. Claire uses disguise to validate his place as a gentleman. His status as a beggar allows him to become the successful gentleman that he should be, by concealing his true self to the social class system. Sherlock Holmes uses his persona as a protection to keep the people of London safe and out of harms way. Between the two personalities of St. Claire and Holmes is the outcome of what others may think of them; St. Claire knows the identity that he has created is not accepted by the social class while Sherlock Holmes identity is seen as a hero and is accepted by the social class. One uses his disguise purely for monetary gain and the other uses the identity in order to solve mysteries and protect his city. As shown in the “The Man with the Twisted Lip”, disguise is only allowed when the social class accepts the identity.

Far in the distance, the faint chewing sound of people taking their first bites into their carne asada tacos, the loud, sharp clinks of tequila glasses, and the hoarse bangs of a piñata being beaten all come hand in hand, representing a Mexican celebration in La-La Land or also known as the city of Los Angeles. The city has been nicknamed “La-La Land” due to its recognition of being a place full of fun and out of touch with reality. For the past several decades, the city of Los Angeles has increasingly become a Latino city as they hosted countless festivals to celebrate the Mexican cultural holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, El Dia de Los Muertos and etc. In the book, The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz discusses the generalization of Mexicans and emphasizes the idea of them preferring to be placed in solitude due to their fear of intimacy. The book even discusses the roles of a Mexican fiesta and cultural aspects of the Latino culture. By having Mexican holidays celebrated in Los Angeles, the city has become more invested into the Latino culture with the adoption of its cultural belief of death and celebrations techniques, which include excessively drinking, usage of guitars, letting off fireworks and celebratory gunshots.