Michael Friedman's A Parting Of The Ways

The novel “End of Days” by Eric Walters starts off with a Soviet satellite’s travels. It first traveled to Jupiter and eventually left our solar system. The satellite reached a huge asteroid with the diameter of 500 kilometers roughly 1/6 the diameter of the moon. The satellite orbited the asteroid, just by accident the satellite’s messages were received on earth. Those messages revealed that the satellite was on its way home and the asteroid was coming with it. If it hit earth all of life on earth cease, if it missed then the earth would be pushed too close to the sun and life would never be able to survive on Earth again. An organization called the International Aerospace Research Institute planned to use the nuclear weapons of every nuclear-capable

Since birth, a little girl by the name of Melody was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. That is a disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and motor skills. It causes reflex movements that the person can’t control and it causes muscle tightness that can affect a part of the body if not the whole body. Ever since she was born, she was loved and cared for but she wasn’t able to say a single word. The book’s title is “Out of My Mind,” by Sharon M. Draper. It focuses on a disabled girl and her thoughts. Most fiction books have author’s purposes and this book’s author’s purpose is to entertain and inform.

In the short story “Both Sides of the fence”, written by Teresa Bateman, the author expresses the idea that there are two sides to every argument. In the story, Alberto attempts to prevent people in his pueblo from benefitting from his tree that was left for him by his family. As the story progresses, he suspects his neighbor from purloining his apples, but then realizes his wrongdoings and foolishness. This theme is revealed through the main character’s transformation, a significant passage, and the title of the story.

In our book groups we discussed two essays “The Connection Between Strangers” by Miles Goodwin and the essay “The People Who Love You When No One Else Would” by Cecile Gilmer. In my group we said that “no matter how big or small your act of kindness is, it could change someones life” was demonstrated in both essays. In the first essay, “The Connection Between Strangers”, shows this because this little girl walked up to this solider and congratulated him. Little did she know, that the small action had changed the soldier’s life, as he said in the essay, “That girl undoubtedly has no memory of what happened years ago… It doesn't matter why she gave me the magazine. The important thing is she did” (Goodwin 83).

Throughout the years of medical experiments and research, surgeons have discovered a way to transplant certain body parts onto or into someone who needs them. Hands, arms, lungs, skin, and various different limbs and organs are donated to patients on the organ donation list. Approximately twenty two people die everyday waiting for a transplant just one donation can save up to eight people and affect the lives of fifty others(Facts About Organ Donation, 2017).

In my book Torn by David Massey a girl nicknamed Buffy applied for the united states army as a medic. Buffy was sent to Afghanistan where she found herself going on daily missions where she was fighting and suppose to be saving people's lives. Instead Buffy was putting people's live on the line. she had tried to manipulate IEDs, negotiate with children that wanted to killer her, and stood up to many highly ranked military officers. Throughout this all she was seeing weird things that only kept on confusing her more and more as she sou and heard more about them.

The phrase “bankrupt General Motors,” which we expect to hear uttered on Monday, leaves Americans my age in economic shock. The words are as melodramatic as “Mom’s nude photos.” And, indeed, if we want to understand what doomed the American automobile, we should give up on economics and turn to melodrama.

Family reunions are meant to bring people closer, but at times can do the exact opposite and drive each other further away. Some us enjoy the company of others, the food, and the laughter shared with one another. As where others decide to stick to themselves and just wait till it’s all over. In the Short stories, “Powder” written by Tobias Wolff and “Reunion” by John Cheever Our main characters both learn something about their fathers and themselves.

The essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, discusses the actuality of intercity public school systems, and the isolation and segregation of inequality that students must be subjected to in order to receive an education. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods. Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the obvious growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner city schools. He creates logical support by providing frightening statistics to his claims stemming from his research and observations of different school environments. He also provides emotional support by sharing the stories and experiences of the teachers and students. His credibility is established by the author of Rereading America by providing us with his collegiate background. This is also created from his continual involvement with isolated and segregated educational school systems and keeps tone sincerity throughout his essay. Within the essay, Still Separate, Still Unequal, Jonathan Kozol’s argument is

The story begins with Daniel Quinn writing about a day in his life, until he comes upon an absurd advertisement in the personals section of the newspaper: TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person. Suspicious, Quinn investigates this advertisement with intentions of exposing fraud. Instead, he discovers Ishmael in Room 105 of a undistinguished office building. Sitting calmly, Ishmael gently nibbled on a slender branch. Appalled, Quinn stumbled towards the chair. Ishmael and Quinn gazed into each other’s eyes, and much to his disgruntlement, the glowing eyes spoke to him. Nodding his head to the unspoken question, Ishmael quietly said, “I am the teacher.” Ishmael explains that Quinn is part of a culture, that results in him being taught certain stories between the relationships of man, the world, and the Gods. These explanations will be made clearer to the pupil by being assisted in recognizing why the stories are misleading. Ishmael’s goal will show the narrator that human history comes from two groups, the Takers and the Leavers. These groups legislate two completely different stories about man, the world, and the Gods. Takers are the humans who developed agriculture and civilization, who still dominate on Earth today. The Leavers, in contradiction, are those who don’t adopt agricultural practices and disregard the benefits of civilization.

The Long Years, written by Ray Bradbury, while being a short story, asks some large questions about humanity. Set in the year 2026 on the planet Mars, 20 years after the planet was suddenly evacuated to fight a war on Earth, a single family is left. During the sudden evacuation, the Hathaway family was on an archaeological dig in the hills and was unable to make the last ship. The Hathaway family has survived 20 years on the Martian world without anyone else, until a ship finally comes to save them. Dr. Hathaway, the father, goes with his son to greet the ship crew jumping with glee at the prospect of being saved. When the ship lands, Dr. Hathaway is excited to find that leading the crew is his acquaintance Captain Wilder. Captain Wilder tells Dr. Hathaway that the Earth war is over and they are an expedition to determine the possibilities of recolonization of Mars after the rebuilding of Earth is completed. Unfortunately, while this exchange occurs, it becomes apparent that the health of Dr. Hathaway is bad, he has a problem with his heart. The doctor is quickly evaluated and recovered from the excitement and stress on his heart, he discusses at length how he and his family has occupied their time. Dr. Hathaway has been busy while being stuck on Mars with projects ranging from building fuel cells to refurbishing entire cities. Once the crew arrives at the house, where Dr. Hathaway’s family lives, the crew grows suspicious that something is not quite right with the family. Dr. Hathaway is described as an aging figure, but his wife and children have apparently not aged a day in 20 years. Some of the crew even states that when they were children, they were colleagues with the Hathaway children and they should be in their early forties at least, but they are still teenagers. It is determined that everyone is the Hathaway family has perished except for the father, Dr. Hathaway, and in an attempt to not be alone, he created android replicants of his family. Dr. Hathaway is informed that the crew must leave and he is able to come, but without his android family, they must stay. The stress of the day pushes Dr. Hathaway’s heart to the limit and he passes away. Captain Wilder informs the family and it

Social change comes from a societies understanding and acceptance of controversial topics, laws that enforce social norms and the politics that play a role in such change. The author Gerald Rosenberg of “The Hollow Hope” believes that the Supreme Court is able to bring about social change. Rosenburg main argument seemed to be questioning if a courts ruling that had once been accepted and had standing for several years were to be over turned, would the environment outside of the courtroom suddenly change and be accepting of their division.

For this essay, I will be examining the article “Absurd Self-Fulfillment,” written by Joel Feinberg. I will be pinpointing the central conclusion of this article, as well as the argument’s premises and the article’s central argument. I will also explain how the article relates to the film Being John Malkovich, and finally the school of philosophy, which we call “existentialism” and three of its central tenets.

In his article ‘the awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer’ for the Guardian newspaper, Peter Wilby seemingly argues that the current downward economic trend of the western world is almost an irreversible occurrence. He argues that for the past 30 years ‘traditional forms of state intervention such as subsidies and tariffs ’ have failed to protect the jobs of western people from being exported overseas. Wilby explains that instead of using traditional methods, governments now believe education is the solution to keeping the western world employed. However, this so called ‘Knowledge Work’ is also increasingly being outsourced to developing countries, Wilby gives various examples to this outsourcing such as ‘Analysing X-rays,

LGBTQ social movements have evolved over time from liberationist politics of the 1970s to an enormous contemporary focus on gay and lesbian marriage rights, a controversial and arguably assimilationist priority for mainstream LGBTQ advocacy groups. Different forms of activism have approached assimilationism versus societal reformation or preservation of unique constructions of queer identities with a myriad of arguments. In “The Trouble with Normal” by Michael Warner, the author focuses primarily on a criticism of gay marriage rights activism in which he posits that all marriage is “selective legitimacy.” He points to other LGBT movements and issues as more worthy of pursuing, particularly intersectional pursuits of equal rights for people regardless of coupled status. In “Marital Discord: Understanding the Contested Place of Marriage in the Lesbian and Gay Movement” authors Mary Bernstein and Verta Taylor give a snapshot history of LGBTQ activism since the 1970s and offer similar arguments as Warner about the heteronormative and neoliberal nature of placing the fight for legal marriage rights at the forefront of LGBTQ activism, although they do also introduce emerging improvements with the increasingly intersectional awareness of modern advocacy efforts.