John Sedgwick's In My Blood

The non-fiction novel The Black Hand by Chris Blatchford is written very poorly. To put it bluntly, this book has the entertainment value equivalent to that of an episode of Two and a Half Men. The Black Hand is extraneous, redundant, and over-all plain boring. If you're interested in reading about something that will keep you on the edge of your seat, filled with the deception, drug use and murder, in the Mexican mob; read the Wikipedia article and spare yourself the pain of reading this book.

When Burr was running for president against Thomas Jefferson, it came down to Hamilton’s opinion for the Federalists. Hamilton chose to indorse Jefferson because he had beliefs about the government, while Burr kept quiet about his opinions so he could sneak his way into office without angering anybody. Thomas Jefferson won by a landslide, and Burr was so angry at Hamilton that he challenged him to a duel. Not only was the duel a horrible idea, it was also cruel. The location of the duel was in the same spot Hamilton’s son died, in the exact same way, a duel. When the duel commenced Hamilton aimed his gun for the sky, while Burr shot him. Burr was smart enough to know that Hamilton was not going to shoot him, when his son was in that position he told him to aim his gun toward the sky because “to take a man’s life is something you can’t

“Bloodchild” is a story that pushes the limits of humankind, creating blurry interpretations of good and evil that challenges everyday societal norms. Octavia Butler takes a traditional action-filled story and twists it into an unexpected and intensified tale. Through this heightened piece of work, the most compelling argument can be found from the structure of the narrative itself. From the first-person narrative, readers are able to receive first hand perspective in which no omniscience of any sort can be detected. Readers can acquire the character’s actions, thoughts, and interpretation of the things that happen to them. “Bloodchild” is a story of an alien planet where the Terrans are enslaved by an alien race called the Tlic. Gan, the protagonist, has been promised as a host for the alien embryos in which the story will later reveal a deeper meaning underlining the sacrifice.

There are an infinite amount of unique responses to the question “What is the meaning of life?”. However, the majority of people will agree that the true meaning of life is to find happiness and what is really important to one’s self. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris McCandless conveys this idealism through his life’s journey as he bravely defies all limitations. Chris McCandless isolates himself from society in his Alaskan Odyssey as a way to defy accepted expectations and to begin discovering the meanings of life without any corrupted influences.

A man challenging another to a duel was not an uncommon event in Colonial America from the 17th to the 19th century. Duels were only legal in certain areas and they had a strict set of rules outlined by the Code Duello of 1777. In a duel, the men would meet along with their representatives, or “seconds,” to decide on a weapon, which could include either a sword or a gun. Then, the group decided on the distance of where they began. The man who was challenged was allowed to fire his weapon at the other first, and then the man who initiated the duel was allowed to fire. Most often the intention of a duel was not to kill a man, but to restore dignity after an insult; therefore, the participants often purposely missed. One of the most famous of these duels was the one between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

Cullen wrote more conventionally which is important to the future generations who may comes across The New Negro. His topics focused on the black experience and his poetry was more traditional and soulful which he strongly believed to be the best way of writing. This what made him different from Hughes, Hurston, Toomer and others, who initially focused more on the folk tradition as their signature style. Furthermore, Cullen differed from his peers by defying the ideology of remaining within his race poetically. It was not in fact denying his "blackness" or African American Heritage but bringing to recognition his right to create ideas and works that does not necessarily have to deal with race. He acknowledged that he was Black, just like the

In the book, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, the unusual formatting it used intrigued me. The book goes around in different yet related points of view. As you go from point of view to point of view you find out more information about the situation going on. The book is about Earth in the midst of being taken over by aliens. It’s all very secretive and it’s brilliant how Yancy lets us in on the secret through dramatic irony. The points of view all revolve around the main character, Cassie, and you see the world through the eyes of the enemy and the people around her. This format also creates more suspense because it shows the reasoning for everything and helps sympathize with the antagonist. The separate points of view of everyone’s lives were

The book Black Hearts is written by Jim Frederick and tells the story of all the controversial accounts one infantry unit ran into while on deployment in Baghdad, Iraq. The book is a documentation, captured accounts and events written down to tell the crazy story these soldiers went through. The specific unit Frederick writes about and what Black Hearts is about is 2nd brigade of the 101st airborne infantry division. “Black Hearts” was the unofficial insignia of 2nd brigade. Frederick covers one platoon in particularly and their ethical dilemmas they encounter while on deployment. 1st platoon, Bravo Company, 1-502nd Regiment is the unit the book covers. Many things on deployment unfold poorly for this platoon such as having little

5. According to Ellis’s explanation, why did Hamilton and Burr duel in the first place?

In this essay I intend to explore the narrative conventions and values, which Oliver Smithfield presents in the short story Victim. The short story positions the reader to have negative and sympathetic opinion on the issues presented. Such as power, identity and bullying. For example Mickey the young boy is having issues facing his identity. It could be argued that finding your identity may have the individual stuck trying to fit in with upon two groups.

America’s answer for dealing with crime prevention is locking up adult offenders in correctional facilities with little rehabilitation for reentry into society. American response for crime prevention for juvenile’s offenders is the same strategy used against adult offenders taken juvenile offenders miles away from their environment and placed in adult like prisons.

In April of 1992, a young man of the age of twenty-four, later determined to be Chris McCandless ' body, was discovered in an old Fairbanks bus in the Alaskan bush. Four years after his death, Jon Krakauer wrote a novel titled Into The Wild, the book traced McCandless 's journey around much of the United States, across the West side of Canada, and even down to the boarder of Mexico. Over the many years since his death, speculations have arisen about how death was brought upon him. Most believe starvation was the only reason, but with extensive research Jon Krakauer discovered another theory, that a substance in the seeds that Chris McCandless was ingesting was a contributing factor to his death. Even with this conclusion many around the world despise Chris for his being naive and unprepared when walking into the wild. While others believe he was brave for following his dreams and never letting anyone talk him out of his plans. Chris McCandless was an adventurer who was brave enough to never back down, but in the end his luck turned for the worst and was misfortunate enough to have ate the wrong type of food. McCandless was an inspiration and a lesson to people of all ages, that dreams aren 't meant to be taken lightly and even with possible risks they should be followed. Jon Krakauer 's book tells a marvelous story of a young man who left behind the outside world to do what he loved the most.

The book assigned to me for this assignment was Killer Show by John Barylick. It 's an informative non-fictional book. It tells the real life tragedy of the fatal “Station” nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The story is told using flashbacks and analysis in each chapter of the book. Before I started reading this book I was intrigued because the main events in this story are in the 21st century. This is unlike the other books that could have been assigned to me. The date of this horrific tale was February 20, 2003. The book goes in detail about the history of the Station, what was the cause of the fire, how people escaped the fire and the aftermath of the fire. Barylick is a respected Providence, Rhode Island lawyer. After the fire, he was one of the lawyers that represented the many victims of the fire. Therefore, he knows how much this fire affected the West Warwick community. He has researched the public record of the fire 's investigation which allows him to point out those at fault. There were ownership issues, fire marshal issues and sustainability issues that caused such a disaster. The focus of this story that changed the built environment. Although this is a troubling story there is much to be learned from it.

The exhumation of the killers was to give the Walker family closure, but they also say, “…there’s a lot of historical interest as well (Hanna),” referring to the curiosity of those aware of the infamous murder of the Clutter family. The excitement of finding a first-edition copy of In Cold Blood, shows just how big an impact the book has had on literary world, "When I first saw it, I was just blown away (Professor donates).” Because of In Cold Blood, nearly 50 years later, the Clutter family is still commemorated for their murders through a scholarship, “The Herb Clutter Memorial Scholarship (honors Clutter).” Even one of the convicted killers, Perry Smith, is remembered. One of his drawings is being hung in a Kansas library as they say,

Shortly after the civil war the fourteenth amendment was passed which granted citizenship to all individuals born or naturalized in America; this group included slaves both former and current. However, individuals of African American appearance would be treated like aliens in their own country for years to come. In the eighteen eighties Jim Crow Laws were passed that segregated Black individuals and often subjected them to humiliating conditions. These conditions exasperate and trouble all of the characters in the novel Black No More. In this novel by George Schuyler Blacks are degraded and oppressed because of the color of their skin. This oppression is caused by ignorant prejudices that individuals in the novel hold. Schuyler uses satire, elevated language, and imagery to further support the idea that ignorance can be as great a power or greater than the greed caused for money.