Character In The Dark, By Dwight Lyman Moody

A previous leader of mine once told me that a good man learns from his mistakes, but a great man learns from the mistakes of others. I would like to add to that by saying I do believe you should learn from others, but I also think what makes a great man is teaching others about the mistakes you have made. God knows I have made plenty of mistakes in my career and life, but I have learned from each one of those mistakes, and that is what has made me the man I have become today.

and we can do so only by taking the risk of being uniquely our own selves.” This quote fits

The main theme in the book, The Dark is Rising, is obviously the conflict between the dark and light. It is one of the many suspenseful fantasy books about the battle between good and evil, Susan Cooper wrote about the dark, light, and the mystical powers.

The quote "Character is what you are in the dark" - Dwight Lyman Moody has a few meanings. Mostly it means that you're different when you're alone. When you're around people they are influences of some sort. If you get into a situation when you're with people you might react differently than if you were alone, resulting in a different outcome. A lot of the time people aren't their true self around friends, or family, or whoever it may be for many reasons. A big reason is they don't want to be judged. Maybe they wanna look "cool" or get popular for something. Maybe they think they'll be looked at differently for being who they truly are. So basically fear of what others think keeps us from being who we really are. Fear can make us act different,

Richard Wright’s short story entitled, “The Man Who Killed A Shadow” showed the reality and truth of a black man’s life and how quickly it can be jeopardized when race and sex are mixed together. When I began reading the story I felt heartbroken for the main character because he just seemed like a good human being. Saul basically grew up with no role models to guide him in his life and his parents and grandmother died when he was a young boy. Saul quickly had to adapt to these changes and began working to support himself. When Saul began working at a young age he did not understand why “the shadows” or white people saw him as inferior. This was something that he noticed that black people just seemed to accept and he began to accept it as well even though he had no idea why. Saul had to continue to work for the white shadows became increasingly unhappy with the way his life was going. The narrator states, “At the age of fifteen Saul knew that the life he was living was to be his lot, that there no way to rid himself of his plaguing sense of unreality, no way to relax and forget” (187). It was extremely depressing to me that Saul knew at the age of fifteen that this was the reality of the rest of his life. He knew he would never be happy and that he would have to work for the white shadows in order to feed himself.

Darkness at Noon, written by British novelist Arthur Koestler in 1940, is a criticism of Stalinism and the methods used by the Communist Party in the USSR. The novel was set in 1938 during the Stalinist Great Purge and Moscow show trials. Even though the story depicts actual occurrences, it does not specifically name either Russia or the USSR, but the characters do have Russian names while other generic terms are used to depict individuals and associations. For instance, the Soviet government is alluded to as "the Party" and Nazi Germany is alluded to as "the Dictatorship." Joseph Stalin, a terrorizing dictator, is represented by "Number One." The novel is a strong and moving picture of a Communist revolutionary caught up in the terror

I found this quote to be a sad truth. It is disappointing to know that in this small town wherein everyone was on a friendly basis with one another, they would all turn their backs on neighbors they’ve known forever, due to the dangers of their own imagination. Once someone has my trust, I

Howard Thurman removes the window dressing in the African American experience of segregation in America. Thurman in his book, “The Luminous Darkness” paints an obscure portrait that delved deep into the consciousness of Black men, women and children freshly freed from chattel slavery. Two hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of darkness seeping into each soul perpetuated by an evil explained only through the Word of God. Although this book was published in the 60’s, the stigma segregation continues resonate in the souls of those who remember and perhaps even in the souls of those who do not.

Social change comes from a societies understanding and acceptance of controversial topics, laws that enforce social norms and the politics that play a role in such change. The author Gerald Rosenberg of “The Hollow Hope” believes that the Supreme Court is able to bring about social change. Rosenburg main argument seemed to be questioning if a courts ruling that had once been accepted and had standing for several years were to be over turned, would the environment outside of the courtroom suddenly change and be accepting of their division.

Most curriculums being taught to students withhold a mass amount of history. Some may do this because they feel some events do not have the same importance as other topics being taught. Such topics for example would be the rape and sexual exploitation of thousands of African American females during the time periods where racism and segregation was the norm. It is important for people to be educated about the horrific events that these women went through without justice. It is also essential because it shows the amazing activism Rosa Parks took part in. Most people are often just taught about Parks’ actions on the bus. At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire shows how Rosa Parks and many other dedicated their lives to receive equality not only for themselves, but for all African Americans in the south. Danielle L. McGuire’s work is an amazing way for people to not only learn more of Rosa Parks story, but to get a better understanding of what all African American woman had to deal with during this time period. The realism of sexual violence and its dominant impact on the African American women was one of the many events that helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement. McGuire wrote At the Dark End of the Street in order to resolve the negligence of this reality.

By the end of Wallace Thurman’s novel, “The Blacker the Berry,” the main character Emma Lou has a revelation about herself. Her whole life she thought her dark skin color prevented her from good opportunities. She was hyper-sensitive towards her color and tried to make up for it by fitting in with the right type of people. She has economic freedom and have fit in with the right type of people. Emma was desperate to fit in with type of people that treated her inferiorly, but once she came to terms with the strength of her African American background, she is able to identify with who she is, a black woman.

This is true because our character traits change as we grow as people. You are never going to be a solid person. You may have the same silhouette, but it is impossible to stay consistently one way your whole life. You will never be the same person you were yesterday and that may appease some people or it may disappoint them, but that's just the way life is. One small decision could change your life and the world forever.

In a postmodern world it is worth contemplating in what we can put our faith. Does culture, religion, or God merit our trust? Or is this a world of mechanical and biological evolutionary processes void of any meaning and purpose? The Sunset Limited, “a novel in dramatic form,” by Cormac McCarthy, is a dialogue between two persons who approach each other from opposite worlds to answer these questions. Black, a born-again believer and ex-con, and White, a nihilistic college professor, attempt to determine whether belief in God is viable in this world and if life is worth living. Despite Black’s efforts to convince him otherwise, White remains a Depressed Self who denies God’s existence, affirms his view of the world as deranged, and leaves to complete his suicide.

The quote I chose is from the first chapter in the Rampolla book. “The ability to recognize the meaning of events from a perspective other than our own is of inestimable value in our increasingly complex and multicultural society”. I chose this quote because I appreciate the meaning behind it. People are often quick to jump to conclusions about why something began without looking into what was happening around them before event began. In the past I have been bad about just jumping to conclusions without looking all of the different perspectives. I have gotten a lot better about taking a step back before making my decisions, and this quote only makes me want to continue to improve upon that. This quote comes toward the end of the paragraph that

Ronald Reagan once said, “We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” I read the book, Dancing in the dark by Morris Dickstein. This book was about the great depression, and the impacts it had on American life. The traditional thought of poverty, people dying of hunger and people lying in the roads, has been erased. America has abolished poverty by the traditional standards but the thought of poverty and what it is has changed. In America we consider poverty to be spending all your money on bills, so you have no money left for food to feed your family. We consider poverty to be just being poor. One-Third of our population makes less than $38,000. This is not enough to be able to be above the poverty line. Anything below this