East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Discuss how your investigation of the generic conventions of poetry has influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

“I have not lost faith in God [despite] moments of anger and protest; sometimes I have been closer to him for that reason.” Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explains the struggle of his changing beliefs in God during the Holocaust in his memoir Night. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a religious boy, is taken to several concentration camps along with other Jews, and separated from everyone in his family except for his father. He and his father live dangerous lives in the concentration camps, from being beaten, watching other prisoners die, and being close to death, until eventually Elie’s father dies and the camp is liberated. As Elie Wiesel’s time in the Holocaust lengthens, his devoutness in God begins to diminish.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a vivid account of life for the working class in the early 1900s. Jurgis Rudkus and his family travel to the United States in search of the American dream and an escape from the rigid social structure of Lithuania. Instead, they find a myriad of new difficulties. Sinclair attributes their problems to the downfalls of capitalism in the United States. While America’s system was idealistic for Jurgis and his family at first, the mood of the story quickly transforms to assert that capitalism is evil. This theme drives the author’s message and relay of major issues throughout the entirety of the novel. The idea of capitalism and social Darwinism is to

God challenges people in times of hardships, however, it depends on the person if they can take upon the challenge and keep faith in God. Eliezer Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author of the memoir Night, is one of these people who have to take this test. Elie demonstrates faith is tested in times of trouble through the use of character relation, change in setting and the conflicts that he witnesses.

A restructuring of religious doctrine, beliefs, and social practices during the 17th and 18th centuries in England, and in North America, infused with Calvinistic religious doctrine initiated the beginning of The Great Awakening. Following this further, according to Christine Leigh Heyrman, The First Great Awakening: Divining America,” a New Age of faith rose to counter the currents of the Age of Enlightenment. Ultimately reaffirming the view that being truly religious meant trusting the heart rather than the head, prizing feeling more than thinking, and relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason. After a while, several religious revivals sprung forth appeasing the colonists in America desire for a deep and significant personal relationship with God. Thus, this dogma spread to other denominations throughout the colonies in America (Heyrman).” As a result, The Great Awakening spread throughout the middle colonies in America by notable revivalist preachers instituting moderate Calvinistic doctrinal theology especially for the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, and opened the door to unprecedented world societal changes.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass both bring forth personal or fictional events that capture the interest of the the reader. The use of pathos in their writing along with true events questions the ethics, morality, and human rights of each individual at the time setting for the publication.

Critics often argue that Upton Sinclair, author of many classic American novels including The Jungle, was cynical and bitter even. However if one were to dig just a bit deeper they may realize that Sinclair was spot on in his idea that this “American dream” that our country sells is actually a work of fiction.

What societal and government reforms did “The Jungle” call for. Do you feel this novel was effective in bringing about any of these reforms.

A central question raised by John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is whether it is possible to triumph over evil, answered by the discussion of free will and inherited sin. The idea of “timshel” is canvassed through the struggles of Caleb “Cal” Trask. The concept of inherited sin is illustrated through the actions of Cyrus Trask, Charles Trask, and Cathy/Kate Trask.

Lee was a vital character in East of Eden as he prompted some of the most meaningful conversations and questions for other characters and readers, themselves. Many critics view Lee as the stereotypical, “inscrutable, wise Oriental man” because of the times when he was robustly Chinese. Although, in Part two of the story, Lee tried to convince himself that he was “American”, but acted Chinese as it was what people expected from him. Lee said to Samuel, “Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English from me they don’t listen to, and so they don’t understand it.” (Steinbeck, 163) Lee thought it was best for him to stick with his status quo, and he did with the way he spoke and the way he looked.

You are right, in my previous submission I neglected to discuss and compare the spatial size of the figures on the two artworks. It is a common feature of Romanesque art, both in manuscript illumination and sculptures, that figures are contorted and almost squeezed in to fit in and fill in the space that they occupy. As with the Expulsion of Adam and Eve on the Doors of Bishop Bernward, the figures are small in the composition, whereas the figures fill the space in the Creation of Adam and Eve, Fall of Man by Wiligelmo. The figures fill the space so much that they go almost completely from the top to bottom, and as I had mentioned before it looks like the sleeping Adam could almost roll off the sculpture. The figures in the Bernward Doors

Characters Elizabeth and Georgina support the theme that women’s only purpose is to care for others. Men are viewed as being the head of the household and supporting his family, while the women of the household are responsible to care for the children and do the household chores. Women are looked down upon by men because they are seen as not being efficient or useful to society supporting the theme that women are seen as being disposable. The the book Frankenstein, when Victor was___ years of age his family adopted a peasant girl named Elizabeth. Caroline, Victor’s mother presents Elizabeth to Victor saying “I have a

During the Great Depression, it was not uncommon to become morosely secluded while working. Men would go far away from their families in search of any jobs they could get, with only themselves to confide in; colleagues only filling in the void of friends and family partially. Naturally, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, written during this period, would reflect this fact as a major aspect of the story. Loneliness would become the sinew of Of Mice and Men, manifested in some of the story’s main characters: Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. These allusions to loneliness are found throughout the book, mimicking the rampant disease of isolation at the time.

One of the points that is consistently brought up in Toni Morrison’s Paradise is that of the all black town “Ruby”. Paradise uses the setting of Oklahoma to discuss how many black towns are shaped by past history and religion. While the town in this novel is fictional, there have been real all black towns in the United States, and it seems that these towns influenced many aspects of the town Ruby, which is why it is so easy to imagine that the story could actually be real. Many authors have written in general about the novel, and specifically about the town within it.

In contrast of Adam’s personality, Mark Twain presented Eve’s. Eve seems to be always curious. She wants to know everything, she is brilliant and she thinks more logically than Adam. Eve expects from Adam to be clever just like her, and she wants him to see and think at the same time. As it is her true nature, women always seem to know everything, she thinks that she is in an experiment, and Adam is the other half of the experiment. She is the thinker in this story, and she never asks about Adam’s opinion in anything. She is the one who decides whatever she wants, and she expects him to understand and agree with her. Twain successfully presented the character of God as a mad scientist doing an experiment, which was funny. Eve in the story spent