Lean On Me By Norman Twain

A movie whose plots consisted of four young boys who go on an adventure together to achieve frame and fortune, but in the end achieved something much greater. This movie was known as “Stand By Me,” based on the novella “The Body” written by Gordie Lachance, whose main purpose was to reveal the one journey in his childhood as a rite of passage. The movie follows the main concept of the story where all the boys face obstacles and become more open towards one another. It even portrays the main cast with the narrator expressing the events just like the novella when the author expresses his feelings to the readers. The movie is different from the novella because the plot, atmosphere, and title each act as a medium that produce the

Essayist and novelist, Brent Staples, in his essay "Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space" describes the accusatory altering effects of racial profiling and stereotyping occurring within the cities of Chicago. Staples purpose is to express to the reader the shift of the atmosphere when a black man enters a room. He creates an accusatory tone to show that he's an innocent man incriminated of committing crimes due to his ethnicity. Staples states “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways” he builds credibility by allowing readers to speculate on racial profiling through his personal experiences and appealing his readers with both logic and emotion to support his viewpoint.

The movie, Lean on Me opens up to Eastside High School 20 years earlier in Paterson, New Jersey. At the time the inner city school flourished, and was successful in their education system till the funding towards the school was cut by the mayor who wanted to save his budget. Over the next 20 years the high school became overwhelmed with drug use, gang violence and poor scores on the minimum basic skills standardized test. The movie focuses on a man named Joe Clark, who used to be a teacher at Eastside High School 20 years before. In one of the opening scenes the Mayor Bottman and Dr. Frank Napier discuss that if the school cannot meet minimum basic skills test requirements then the school would essentially be placed in receivership. The

In 1955, Flannery O’ Connor published the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” which became her best-known short story. Although many appreciated her work it received much criticism for its peculiar character, The Misfit. His callous violent behavior made people uncomfortable with her work describing it as consistently distorted and manipulative. The Misfit’s unsentimental and cruel behavior characterizes true psychological disturbance similar to that of Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Is an accurate representation of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Through The Misfits recollection of his past, his trauma, and his lack of guilt he depicts a severe case of ASPD.

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

In her book, “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor shows first hand how one cannot judge a book by its cover… not even a Bible. Even though a façade is put on, one realizes how vulnerable Hulga Hopewell actually is. Her encounter with a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, shows how one cannot trust even “good country people” (2). Symbolism in this story transforms what one perceives the character of Hulga and Manley to be and allows the reader to make deeper connections about their physical and mental flaws.

In the play, As You Like It written by William Shakespeare, as well as the short story “Let Me Promise You” by Morley Callaghan, both playwright, and author are trying to convey the idea of a strong emotional bond between certain characters. In Shakespeare’s play, we see how Celia and Rosalind, two cousins, have been inseparable ever since a young age and will do anything for one another. In Callaghan’s short story, Alice has strong feelings towards George, waits restlessly by the window, and despite their differences, she still tries to please him. The theme that these two works show is unconditional love. The playwright and author are trying to illustrate what one will do for another even though the situation and conditions might be though.

Flannery O’Connor was a southern belle born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She was a Catholic girl living in the Bible belt of the country. She lived in “two different worlds” (Meyer, 421); the fictional world that she created for her stories and her personal life. In her stories, she used exciting characters so that she could live through them and live an “interesting” life. She uses her stories to portray totally unanticipated, but totally plausible things. “O’Connor’s stories present complex experiences that cannot be tidily summarized; it takes the entire story to suggest the meanings” (Meyer, 426). She uses her characters to show irony, private experiences, fears, and diverse parallels into her story “Good Country People”.

What makes a person good? Is it the way he or she looks, the way he or she thinks, his or her attitude, or his or her religion? For example, in “Good Country People”, People think that Manley is a good county wholesome young man because he is a bible salesman. In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” Joy surprisingly becomes Manley’s victim due to her thinking that he is a good country person, her thinking she is smarter than everyone else, and due to him being very misleading.

Sara Josephine Baker was the first woman to serve as a top administrator at the New York Board of Health. Though Baker’s memoir, Fighting for Life, people will be able to approach the process of how Baker became a pioneer of public health in New York city from an unknown inspector through historical descriptions of New

Jay MacLeod’s Ain’t No Makin It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood follows a group of boys from a low-income housing development called Clarendon Heights. MacLeod interviews the boys multiple times during their lifetime to understand if they remained in lower income areas with the same low aspirations. He follows two groups of boys called the Hallway Hangers due to always hanging around the school hallways and the Brothers. The predominantly white Hallway Hangers participate in a different subculture compared to the predominantly black Brothers. For the Hallway Hangers, their main purpose involves being bad. Their definition of bad involves drinking alcohol and consuming drugs on a regular basis. The Brothers remain active

You say do good, don't smoke, don't drink, don't sell weed. we stay on track get some educations teachers care or whatever; but next thing you know mama gets laid off your house is under foreclosure your sister need this or your little brother needs diapers and you think what can I do, I can’t sell drugs… they say don't sell drugs. I try to get a job but they don't hire black people. So what do I do? But you see a dope dealer with a nice car all his 5-6 kids and baby mamas eating good, got different kind of cars, they live in three different house, what is the lesson then?” (Seventhegeneral) It is clear that the youth of Detroit have no bond to society as they feel like victims of the larger society. For many in Detroit their deviant behavior brings them rewards such as food and shelter. When the youth try to follow the right path their met with oppression which leads them to divert back to deviant

1. Growing up I experience, and saw the struggle that my siblings and classmates faced in our community. In a community where resources were scarce and inadequate guidance was provided, pursuing higher education became a challenge. Four out of eight children in my family, including myself, were able to earn a high school diploma. The other four dropped out of high school due to a combination of language barrier and gang affiliation. My research papers sought to examine the reason why so many at risk youth end up dropping out of high school.

Lean on Me is a 1989 fact-based film that portrays the struggles prevalent in a school district in New Jersey and how one man uses multiple strategies to make the ultimate solution. East Side High was once a successful school. Like many other aspects of society, school district administrators watch as this school deteriorates from drug abuse, violence, and lack of motivation amongst students. The superintendent, Dr. Napier recruits Mr. Joe Clark, an independent minded teacher as the new principal with hope that he would clean up and save East Side High. Mr. Clark expels 300 students that he deemed as trouble makers, develops a personal relationship with his students, uses extreme and unlawful tactics to protect the students who seek to succeed in order to prove his determination in salvaging the educational environment and turning his mostly minority student body into literate and productive citizens. If one can understand why Mr. Clark took such drastic measures from a school administrator 's point of view, more people will coordinate with principals and teachers whom take nontraditional approaches to leading one’s schools into success. Once more people are acceptable of academic leaders’ behaviors, there will be less people working against the students because of an adult’s decisions and more time dedicated towards the educational advancement of students at-large. Focusing on student’s educational attainment will make one feel appreciated in society. In return, more

I picked this poem because I really like it and I find the imagery intriguing, but I knew I was not understanding all of what Donne was saying in the poem. I could tell that if I understood these particular lines, the meaning of the poem would be richer and more meaningful. I have achieved my goal, and think I have a better grasp on what Donne was getting at than I did before.