City of Thieves by David Bienoff

Argument: Dubus includes references to Kenneth having an inner conflict between being the man of the house, or letting his transgender feelings show.

In the short book of “No Heroes, No Villains” by Steven Phillips On June 28, 1972, a Transit Authority patrolman, John Skagen, was on his way home from testifying at court for an arrest he made a couple of weeks prior. Skagen was taking the train home to the Bronx when he saw and stopped James Richardson who was awaiting the subway train which would take him to work at Lincoln Hospital. Skagen ordered him to “put up your hands, and get against the wall”. Skagen’s actions seem unprovoked and unnecessary. After a short tussle the two men exchanged shots and Richardson fled the scene on foot. Two other officers that were on the main street above the subway station rushed to the scene.

This world is amazing because everyone is going to a hell-like war every day to make a living. That means we need to be fed, warm, and happy to live. Once we are forced to live in extreme circumstances with limited necessities, then the real colors that we unknowingly keep hidden inside of us are revealed in a blink of an eye, and it can be hazardous. For this essay, I am going to write a theme on survival from David Benioff’s novel, City of Thieves, because the story illustrates a ruthless image of drastic measures that must be taken to survive the brutality of the war. First of all, I am going to write a summary of City of Thieves to get a better understanding of what is happening in the novel. Second, I will write the

Michael Kingston’s “Creating a Criminal” Discuss a new law known as Section 598b of the California Penal Code. 598b states Every Person is guilty of a misdemeanor who possesses, import into the state, sells, buys, gives away, or accepts any carcass of any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet/companion with the sole intent of killing and using the animal for food. Kingston brings up a good point on what exactly is constituted as a pet? In America cats and dogs are traditionally regarded as pets. However people who traditionally eat dogs or cats as food are Vietnamese. He also explains that “ A Vietnamese-American family, canine-eating family is no more a threat to the pet-trading industry than a family of European

The documentary “Merchants of Doubt” directed by Robert Keener describes the unethical practices of manipulating scientific data to market unsafe products. It explains the use of public relations and media to divert the health risk involved in smoking in order to protect the industry. The documentary exposes how companies hire a third party, presented as credible scientific expert, to mislead people about the company’s unsafe products. Those people selling lies to cover for the company’s wrongdoing are called “merchants of doubt”. They create a sense of doubt in the veracity of the scientific data and results collected by the scientist. This strategy of creating doubt and confusion causes delay in government regulation. The documentary shows

Currently there is six million Natives living in between the United States and Canada, and only "25,000 Blackfoot Indians between the two countries"(Reddish). In the short story "Borders" by Thomas King, the treatment of natives is shown to light in a common practice. While trying to cross the United States-Canada border to visit her oldest daughter in Salt Lake City, Utah, a woman and her youngest son, of Blackfoot Indian decent, are stopped at the border. She is questioned about her nationality and calmly states "I am Blackfoot, neither American or Canadian"(King, 918). She is not allowed to enter the United States nor Canada and is stuck in a neutral zone. News channels and Newspapers cover this story as the bureaucratic dilemma ensued, many people were shocked with the treatment of Native Americans. They are eventually allowed to pass through to the United States, however this leaves many people wondering about the treatment of Natives Americans, which King displays through conflict.

In his essay “The Country Just over the Fence,” Paul Theroux describes his trip to Nogales, Mexico. He begins his essay by illustrating the physical appearance of the wall separating Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. He calls it “an unintentional masterpiece”. Theroux feels the wall is somewhat informal. He discovers that crossing the border into Mexico is not too difficult itself. He marvels over the appearance of the wall and also the underlying call to action it places on a person, “Do you go through, or stay home?” Theroux decided he needed to see for himself. After deciding to cross the border, he met many different people. They told him about the celebrations that used to be held between the two neighboring towns which are now divided by the wall. Theroux also met people who had attempted to cross the border illegally into America only to get sent back to Mexico. On his adventure, Theroux also learned about all the medical tourists who travel to the country for cheaper treatments, specifically dentistry. I am interested in discussing Theroux’s presentation of the his decision to cross the border, the people he met, and the medical tourism Nogales, Mexico draws in.

The United States currently has the highest number of prisoners in the world. According to Glaze and Herrmann (2013), approximately 6.9 million adults are under some form of correctional supervision in the United States. Crime in the United States is relatively equal to that of any other industrialized nation, so why does the United States house so many inmates irrespective of the fact that the nation cannot successfully manage a budget for the institution as well as manage the inmates? An inmate, Victor Hassine, provides insight as to what prisoners physically and mentally experience during incarceration as well as his ideas on the effects of prisons on inmates in his book, Life without Parole.

Imagine yourself being alone in the world, isolated from everyone else. You have no friends or family and are discriminated against by the rest of the world. Now, imagine the things you would do to escape this isolation. If you are anything like the characters in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, then you would take great risks, even if they can result in your death, to get away from this solitude. In the novel, isolation plays an important role in the character’s lives as it causes a great deal of pain, creates life changing moments, and affects the character’s actions in such a way that causes them to take dangerous risks in order to escape this isolation.

In A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman's characters display perspectives of diverse cultural backgrounds. In Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn we see a shared heritage, as well as their contrasting points of view which stem from choosing different values to live by. Quite a few characters in Hillerman's book, who are not of Navajo blood, connect themselves with Navajo culture through digs, collection, and personal gain. This essay will briefly touch on the view points of three characters; Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, and Richard DuMont. In these three, we are able to see a variety of cultural angles and values through their interactions with a single interface, death.

Words can influence the mind in many ways that thought may not be able to. They are carefully placed and shared in different ways by each and every individual. Words have powerful impacts and can majorly impact how one may think, feel, or even lead others to feel. Written by Markus Zusak, “The Book Thief” describes a story of an innocent foster girl, Liesel Meminger, who resides in Munich, Germany at one of the most troubling time periods in history, Nazi Germany. A tale narrated by the one and only Death himself, shows the perspective from his point of view, as well as others, describing how Liesel had been seized away from her birth mother at a young age, and put into a foster family. Her new family, the Hubermanns. As she matures and grows into a more critical thinker, understanding and analyzing everything that carefully happens around her. Her foster-father, Hans guides her and teaches her how to read, which little does she know sparks her journey, the art of stealing books. Liesel soon discovers that words aren 't simply lines on a page, they are strong emotions packed into a form that merely is held in her delicate hands. Not only did she hold the pages of emotion, she held a power, a dangerous weapon of words, a weapon of control, and every book that she had stolen was giving her unimaginable power that made her think in ways that she would’ve never thought she could have. As with Nazi propaganda, and a gift that enabled her to broaden her worldview. Liesel evolves

Molestation is when one or multiple people assault or abuse another or others in a sexually way. In the book perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbodk, he talks about Charlie, a fifteen-year-old who has just entered high school. In this book, Charlie has faced many challenges but one was very hard for him to overcome. The most shocking part of the book is when Charlie found out that his aunt molested him.

The book, To Catch A Killer, written by Sheryl Scarborough begins with teenage girl named Erin Blake. Her mother was murdered and the killer was never caught. Now her teacher was murdered the same way her mother was. There are clues that lead Erin to think that they were killed by the some person. Journey helps Erin try to solve the case.

The book “Among the Thugs” from 1992 written by William Buford, describes Buford’s own experiences with hooliganism. The text is about the British football culture and the hooligan-ism that follows. Throughout the text, we follow the American Journalist Bill Buford, who is located at a train station in Cardiff, where he for the first time became acquainted with hooli-ganism. Hundreds of Liverpool supporters robbed the station, terrorized the area and fought with everything and everyone. His reaction to their loud behavior and performances over-whelms him a lot. Later in the text, Bill meets a united ultra from Manchester United's firm, Mick. After hanging out with him, Bill is persuaded to join the firm on matchday. This was the beginning of a whole new day for Bill Buford as a thug and a member of the firm. This analytical essay will be based on comments from Bill Buford experiences, the structure, language, receiver and the purpose of the text.

In the city of thieves there are two protagonist of the story. Lev Beniov is the protagonist of the story, whom the story begins with. His personality is more dynamic because he deveps through the story. Kolya Vlasov is the second protagonist of the book, and is introduced very near to the beginning of the novel. He almost serves as Lev’s polar opposite, with his charming, bubbly personality, striking good looks, and popularity with the ladies. At first, Lev hates him for this reason, and does not trust him, but over time their relationship