Dark Year By David Baker Summary

We are called to appreciate the darkness; author Howard Thurman talks about this in his book called The Luminous Darkness. As humans, when we hear the word darkness, we try to run as fast as we can, avoiding it in any way possible. But for some people, running as fast as they can will never be fast enough. Thurman writes about segregation from his point of view as an African American, but with a twist of hope.

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.

B.F. Skinner and his theories on learning and

Regarding the treatment of concussions, Kathryn Hardin wrote “Coming Out of the Dark” to convince the reader that the way to treat a concussion is not to go on total brain rest. In this article, the author uses ethical appeals, restatement, and emotional appeals to build an argument. To begin, the author talks about how the team always said “Don’t push him too hard” but “were frustrated, however, at how little he progressed over months of care”. The team did not want to rush the patient, but because of how they were treating it, the healing progress was progressing slowly. She then goes on to talk about how head injuries were becoming such a big issue that “all the states in the U.S. have enacted some form of concussion law meant to protect young athletes from it’s dangers”.

There are many ways authors write their books that can vary from style, experience, setting, and language. One author that I would like to talk about is Walter Dean Myers and the book that I would want to analyze would be Somewhere In the Darkness. This novel speaks about a poor little boy who was adopted at the age of two after his mother died and had to move to Harlem leaving his family behind . He also had a speech impediment and couldn’t speak or write as well as others but that didn't stop him. The book “Somewhere In The Darkness” is about a boy named Jimmy who was adopted by a very kind-hearted lady after his mother had passed away and his father went into prison. In the book his father is finally released and gave a surprise to Jimmy and takes him to Arkansas to settle down but Jimmy does not trust him. Walter Dean Myers usually writes his books from his own experiences which makes them inspirational, thought out, down to earth, and somewhere relatable to the reader!

Most children are not very fond of reading books in school. I was one of those children until I read a novel called, “The Other Side of Dark” written by Joan Lowery Nixon in the 4th grade. My school had held a book fair during the week of open house. As a child, all children want the toys and games they had at the book fair, not bothering to even glance at the books. My mother told me to look for a book that was not only easy for me to read but something that I would enjoy. I walked around our petite library, which was where the book fair was being held, and scanned the various novels that were displayed until one caught my eye. I was only 10 years old looking for a book without the knowledge of what types of literature that interested me. As I turned the corner at the end of the library I caught a glimpse of a hardcover novel called “The Other Side of Dark”. On the back of novel I read the synopsis which was about a 13 year-old girl who was shot and put into coma until she was 17 years old waking up to discovering that her family was also murdered by the same person who shot her 4 years ago. I was quickly captivated by this summary on the back of the novel and persuaded to read further. Open house was coming to an end and my family and I headed back to our house in La Mirada, California. One of our homework assignments was to read at least 20 minutes a night to improve our reading skills. We quickly arrived at our home and I

Existentialism developed from a number of schools of psychology and psychiatry, as an attempt to assist clients’ attempts to resolve difficulties

In this article the meaning of Existentialism is explained as the author, Randall Niles, describes how existentialism is a 20th century philosophy that centers itself on the analysis of human existence. He explains the popular slogan “existence precedes essence” by the very first founders of Existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre. The notion of the slogan is described by explaining how humans come into existence when they are first born, and spend their lifetime changing their essence and nature so it satisfies them. The philosophy of Existentialism is further analysed by explaining how humans find themselves and the ultimate meaning of their life by acknowledging their responsibility and making decisions accordingly. Moreover, it also explains

“In a Dark time” by Theodore Roethke gives a retrospect into the inner turmoil’s of finding oneself through a haze of doubts in till reaching a moment of clarity. Each section of the poem describes a different emotion, or inner thought that spirals from fear of death, to emotions of desire. The use of imagery between nature and uncertainties of the narrator give a glimpse into Roethke’s own mind during the time he wrote this poem. Without hundreds of pages Roethke created a poem that connects readers to their own self-doubts and struggles of finding ones way again.

B.F. Skinner, the man who set the gold standard for shaping in behavioral anyalisis, known for his animal experiments using boxes built his way into becoming America’s leading neo-behaviorist. Skinner entered into the experimental world almost unintentionally, starting out life to become a novelist then completely switching gears on a whim of curiosity. Skinner didn’t start with a plan, he just had a question, he wanted to understand the behavior of living things. Thus, forming his infamous boxes, not knowing where it would lead him, but wanting to see it something was going to come from it.

Perhaps the most telling symptom of existentialist philosophers is their ever-divergent theories on the fundamental characteristics of human life and their steadfast refusal to assign an explicit meaning or reason to our existence at all. Contrary to criticism which therefore labels the movement cynically nihilistic, existentialism justifies life with reasoning similar to that of Zen Buddhism. Specifically, the notions of hopelessness and absurdity can be gleaned from Buddhism in a manner helpful to the understanding of existentialist viewpoints on the same.

Skinner’s theory observes individuals from the point of view of the behavior that they demonstrate. The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible phenomena. Critics sometimes accuse behaviorists of denying that ideas and thoughts exist (Jensen & Burgess, 1997). The major opposition that behaviorists face is that behavior of a person cannot be understood without including the mental activity of the individual. Critics have accused behaviorists of focusing only on behavior and ignoring the role of physiology, neuroscience, and genetics (Weiss & Rosales-Ruiz, 2014). Sometimes the reactions that people demonstrate have are not related their experience and therefore they have another

Three major events in the early twentieth century greatly influenced Skinner’s work: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, and Pavlov’s approach to conditioning. Darwin asserted that all life forms evolved from simple forms and that the selection of characteristics contribute to the survival of each individual. Skinner believed that Darwin’s ideas could be applied to behaviorism and coined the idea of “selection by consequences” to explain why people act how they act. Psychoanalysis began in the early 1900s and Freud focused on the idea that people are driven by their unconscious and that adult behaviors are formed in childhood. Skinner agreed with a few of Freud’s ideas; both psychologists believed that behavior has predictable effects and is not a result of free will. However, Skinner rejected Freud’s idea that the id, ego, and superego cause behavior. Pavlov’s

The existence and purpose of human live has always posed a question for society. To answer this question, philosophers ponder Existentialism. Existentialism is the philosophy that humans exist for no true purpose and that each individual changes essence in his or her lifetime by finding meaning in life through freewill, choice, and personal responsibility without certain knowledge of right and wrong. This theory gained popularity in the mid-1900s after WWII caused many people to lose hope in an ordered world and accept that no cosmic justice exists. According to this theory, no absolute rules govern humans’ lives. This theory appears throughout literature and offers a grim perspective on human existence. The Metamorphosis, written by

“The existential theory is concerned for the personal "commitment" of this interesting existing unique in the "human circumstances”.