Miss Cynthie and City of Refuge Comparison Essay

Immigrants constantly face racial prejudices unknown to the privileged. These immigrants are only trying to have a life for themselves and/or for their children. My Antonia by Willa Cather entails the trials and tribulations of those who seek success told through the perspective of Jim Burden. The novel consists of people out of the country wanting a better life for themselves; That's what they want most of all. The immigrants that Jim comes to know go through hardships that they overcome to finally become successful in the end.

Prior to and throughout the late middle ages, women have been portrayed in literature as vile and corrupt. During this time, Christine de Pizan became a well educated woman and counteracted the previous notions of men’s slander against women. With her literary works, Pizan illustrated to her readers and women that though education they can aspire to be something greater than what is written in history. Through the use of real historical examples, Christine de Pizan’s, The Book of the City of Ladies, acts as a defense against the commonly perceived notions of women as immoral.

Around the time when David is ten and unaware of the significance of hiding his gift, he experiences a frightening confrontation that tears him away from his family. He witnesses the shunning of his beloved Aunt Harriet, an event that leads to her demise. Instead of helping her out, his parents degrade her until her will to live is lost. She responds to their conniving comments in a heartbreaking manner: “I shall ask Him if it is indeed His will that a child should suffer and its soul be damned for a little blemish of the body…. And I shall pray Him, too, that the hearts of the self-righteous may be broken.” (73) Aunt Harriet’s compelling words signify that conformity has such tight reins on its followers, that it has led them to separate a mother from her child and a sister. Furthermore, the author indirectly mentions that David is afraid of his family as they will show no mercy if he is found out, and distances himself completely. Later on, Wyndham confirms that David’s suspicions of his family turning against him are accurate. While conversing with the Sealander, he is provided with incentive to cut his ties with his mother: "There is comfort in a mother's breast, but there has to be a weaning... The cord has been cut at the other end already; it will only be a futile entanglement if you do not cut it at your end, too." (183) The heartbreaking words reveal the reality of conformity; even the impenetrable bond of a mother and son can be broken due to a toxic belief. To conclude, even the strong ties of families can be severed because of an antagonizing

The Book of the City of Ladies During the renaissance many different views of leadership surfaced. Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies, Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, and William Shakespeare’s Richard III each present distinct views of what would make a good leader during the renaissance period. Shakespeare and Christine de Pizan’s views align most closely with Plato’s.

Dave also thrives on embodying the “underdog identity”. Being a twentysomething year old, one is still searching to discover who they are and what their identity is. Dave has had several identities pushed onto him because of his situation such as Toph’s parent, an orphan, and a steady provider all while still maintaining his role as an older brother, but one of the biggest identities is the underdog, the victim rising from the ashes. During his inner dialogue, Dave says: “you like that stance, that underdog stance, because it increases your leverage with other people” (Eggers 119). Him saying this directly acknowledges the fact that he is using his situation to gain moral authority over others, an authority which he believes he is entitled to because of his situation. Dave, no matter where he goes or what he does in life, will always be the victim of a sad event, his parent’s deaths will always be a part of him and his story, but he is using it to define his

Dave is depersonalized by his mother and treated as less than human. She would refuse to call him by his name but refers to him only as “The Boy.” It is this that enables her to ill-treat him and not be troubled by her conscience. She then goes even further when she uses the impersonal pronoun that give the book its title: “You are a nobody! An It! You are nonexistent! You are a bastard child! I hate you and I wish you were dead!” With this attempt to delegitimize Dave’s entire existence, she is through her eyes denying him the right to live. This is how Dave’s mother found it easy to inflict inhuman punishment on

The beginning of the book talks about what it was like before things went horrifyingly wrong. The family took vacations together, his mother was a loving mother and wife, and Dave's father was his hero. This eventually changed, as did everything in Dave's life. His father never turned out to be his hero, but a drunken firefighter who left him, and at times he wished his mother dead. When the torture and abuse began it was minimal, Dave describes it in the book as punishment instead of discipline but as the book progressed so does the intensity. As the story progresses Dave's feelings are expresses, he speaks of his mother, as either "The Bitch" or just "Mother" there is absolutely no love in the way he speaks of her at all. His anger is also expressed and shown in way he talks about his, once beloved hero, his father and his brothers.

All characters represents an actual person in American society during the 1930s. The linking between the book, characters and The Great

As Davis starts to tell about his life as a young boy in America, he lets us know about his mother dying far too young, and him being raised by his father and aunt. David's dad is stereotype of a man and their emotions. He and his son never have a close relationship. Even when David gets hurt in an accident, his father doesn't want him to cry. He wants him to be a man, a manly man and

Ewa Cybulska and her sister Magda come to America seeking a better life escaping the Great War in Poland in the movie “The Immigrant.” Many people view this movie as a modern visual for what the life of an Immigrant was like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. How accurate does this movie depict the life of an Immigrant from the gilded age? Can one watch this movie and fully understand how these immigrants live their lives in this time period. The movie “The Immigrant” does a good job in the aspect of showing the way a women immigrant that was desperate for money such as Ewa had to live but it focuses on this particular situation such as Ewa and Magda’s. To fully understand what immigrants that were flooding to America in this time

Dave in the story tries to present himself as this kid who is now a man, he wants to showcase to others that he is no longer some little kid that can be made fun of. Even though his actions don’t resemble those of a man, but instead of a kid who is trying to act like one, his thinking that a gun is what makes a man and certain actions that take place is what makes him a consistent character. From beginning to end his mindset of what makes a man doesn’t change, but instead is reinforced after he is humiliated. “Something hot seemed to turn over inside him each time he remembered how they had laughed” (Wright 188).

An unlikely candidate to dispute the unfair, misogynistic treatment of women by men and society, Christine de Pizan successfully challenged the accepted negative views that were being expressed about women by the all-male literary world of her era. Part of Christine’s uniqueness stems from the time in which she lived, the middle to late 1300’s. The lack of a positive female role model to pattern herself after made Christine a true visionary in the fight for the equal rights of women. Her original ideas and insight provided a new and more intelligent way to view females. Pizan’s work, The Book of the City of Ladies, provided women much needed guidance in how to survive without the support of a man.

What challenges did the “new immigrants” face (those arriving between 1877 and 1914) that previous waves of immigrants did not?  (Discuss at least 2 challenges.)

A Tale of Two Cities Jarvis Lorry, an employee of Tellson's Bank, was sent to find Dr. Manette, an unjustly imprisoned physician, in Paris and bring him back to England. Lucie, Manette's daughter who thought that he was dead, accompanied Mr. Lorry. Upon arriving at Defarge's wine shop in Paris, they found Mr. Manette in a dreadful state and took him back to London with them. Mr. Manette could not rember why he had been imprisoned, or when he was imprisoned. He was in a state of Post Tramatic Stress Dis-order.

     One might believe that because capital punishment plays such a large role in Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities, that Dickens himself is a supporter of it. This just simply is not true. Dickens uses capitol punishment as a tool to define the evil embodied in both the French ruling class, and the opposing lower class during the French Revolution; as well as comment on the sheep-like nature of humankind.