Stephen Jay Gould Analysis

During Tom Robinson’s trial, the strong prejudice of Maycomb County and the negative effects of its social stratification were clearly demonstrated. Whilst Tom Robinson is innocent of the crime of rape, he gave the Caucasians more reason to convict him on the basis of daring to feel sorry for a Caucasian - it is not expected that a negro (considered as being a part of the lowest class of society, event lower than the ‘white trash’) could feel sorry for a Caucasian and the Caucasians could not accept such a presumption.

This exemplum shows the author’s viewpoint well; not only is the school overpopulated with 1,500 students, but it is also mainly filled with minorities, as given by the principal’s statement “this would not happen to white children.” (page 244) It reinforces his purpose by giving the audience an example of how his perspective is true in order to allow the readers to consider the author’s argument.

The Critical Race Theory emerged in the mid to late 1970s when there was a significant amount of racial minorities and it focuses of theorizing race and the law. CRT scholars view racism and racial discrimination as systematic and institutional and consequentially not as individualized, standard and capable of remedy within the current constitutional and legislative framework. CRT emerged from Critical legal studies, covers a wide-ranging collection of work and it critiques scholars of CLS for not addressing the issue of race and law adequately. This essay aims to analyze six of the most important aspects outlining the theoretical framework of the Critical Race Theory adapted from various CRT scholars and its relation and application to the book, To Kill a Mocking Bird. Secondly, this essay will address some of the criticisms levied against CRT by Marxists. The purpose of essay is to determine, in light of CRT application, whether it was

Someone once said “No matter your social status or how powerful you think you are, we are all equal.” The quote has much to do with the racism and segregation that people went through while living in America, especially in the South. It still is a relevant quote today, seeing as how racism and segregation has not ended, but increased over the decades. In Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, the small town of Maycomb, Alabama consists of plenty of racism and segregation. When Atticus is obligated to defend the man accused of rape, the whole town is hoping for him to prove his client is guilty. They’re quick to make a judgement about him, solely because he’s a black man. In this novel, several craft moves/techniques are used which then

In the case of post-civil rights movement America, Derrick Bell’s satirical piece “The Space Traders” illuminates the lingering barriers of racism that continued to dictate the United States even after a period of social justice. When presented with a choice between benefitting whites or blacks the prevailing tradition of racism and other biases made clear that despite promises of reform, “black lives are expendable”(Bell). In Bell’s hypothetical situation, the unchanged nature of racial preference exposed the immorality that was allowed to interfere in the fate of an entire social group without their consent. The inability to dissolve the continual segregation of the American people by color proves the unshakeable nature of bias that maintained the deciding hierarchy of one life receiving precedent over another. In this instance, the priority was defined by skin color while in Jonathan Swift’s scenario it was defined by wealth and societal statue. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” seeks to expose the severe lack of reverence that the Irish held in regards to the value of human life. Distraught with overpopulation and a destructive lower class system that drowned itself in poverty and destitution, children were dehumanized into existing as only edible figures of flesh and bones. Society required all of its members to be “sound and useful” yet the irrevocable poverty of the lower class made these savages useless and deplorable (Swift). Devoid of any other redeeming quality, the penniless were to be exploited for their existence as a breeding pool in order to be served on royal tables and provide for the pleasures of the rich. This disgusting disregard for human life illustrated the moral ignorance of the elevated classes as they would rather stomach their problems, quite literally, instead of addressing them humanely in an effort to improve all members of society, not

One of the inequalities in Lee’s story is racism. Tom Robinson was a black man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white, nineteen year old girl. During his trial, his lawyer, Atticus Finch did his best showing the jury that he was an innocent man. The jury delibabrated for hours before they reached a verdict: “Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty” (Lee 282). Tom was an innocent man but because of the color of his skin, he walked into that courtroom already found guilty. Today, people of color are targeted in many different ways, especially in the legal system:“One out of every 13 African Americans have lost their right to vote due to felony disenfranchisement versus one in every 56 non-black voters” (Quigley). Another example is, federal prosecutors are almost twice as likely to file charges carrying mandatory minimum sentences for African Americans than whites accused of the same crimes, according to a study published by the University of Michigan Law School. Our Declaration of Independence

In Mrs. Browne’s life up to middle age, about the age she is in “Kiswana Browne,” she lived through the horrible inequality that had been lingering since the abolishment of slavery in 1865. “The Blacks in America” informs us of the literary tests used to discourage the black voter, if Mrs. Browne chose to vote she had to pass a literary test that involved reading and explaining a difficult passage of a federal or legal constitution as was commonly used to discourage African Americans from voting (63). Only in 1965 with the new Voting Rights Act could she vote without her intelligence being questioned because of her race. In public she would be subjected to the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine that was enacted at the end of the 19th century after the Supreme Court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson (Spangler 56). This law was supposed to create places for African Americans like schools, housing and transportation that were equal to those of White facilities but were very rarely equal. Because of the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine Mrs. Browne had to use sub-par facilities including segregated transportation,

Mark Christianson identifies three main ideas throughout Stephen Jay Gould’s “the Geometer of Race,” which are; scientists’ theories can never be completely objective, scientists must realize that their scientific theories have a powerful ideological impact on society, and that scientific theories form a “mental geometry” that remains in people’s minds.

Hemingway’s witty response, “Yes, they have more money.” Illustrated to Fitzgerald that there is no difference in the rich, or the poor, except their wallet size; they are still human. Michaels goes on from there to describe how we have come to warship diversity. In Bakke v. Board of Regents, the Supreme Court ruled that it was reasonable for colleges to consider race when accepting applicants, as long as was in the interest of diversity and not to exclude members of certain racial background. Along with racial diversity, diversity became something to describe more than just the color of our skin. It now is used for sexual orientation, medical coding, and religious preferences. Unfortunately, diversity became closely associated with the struggle with racism and ended up with a notion that we should be “a color-blind” society. As Michael states, “Why do we assume black people want to stop being black; why do we assume the deaf want to hear?” He finishes the intro of his book by illustrating how we have come to hate class. While we have become to love our identity, we have become increasingly uninterested in identifying ourselves based on the classification of income. He even accuses the left wing party (or liberals who have prided itself on working for social equality) in diverting focus of

Reading the first chapter of the Michaels book, right away I could tell that it would closely relate to our class discussions and focus on one of the complex subjects that many if not all of us face on a daily basis, race. Beginning in chapter one Michaels talks about the Plessy v. Ferguson case and how a man named Homer Plessy was thrown from a train for being one-eighth black. Plessy was quickly identified as being colored and told to leave the ‘whites only’ train compartment to which he refused. The story goes on to tell of the case going all the way to the U.S Supreme Court where he loses the case. During the hearing the judges proceed to explain that there is a discernible difference between whites and blacks so therefore the segregation of races is permissible. Next the book goes on to target another story, this one has a slightly different outcome. Susie Guillory Phipps who her whole life has identified as a white woman goes to the Bureau of Vital Records for a copy of her birth certificate in order to obtain a passport. To her surprise she learns that she is actually part black and just like Plessy her case goes on to court where it is to be decided

For him, like many other real-life Negroes in American history, the principles underpinning political, social and criminal justice failed. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus’ belief that, “in our courts all men are created equal,” ( p. 209) makes a complete mockery of the judicial system.

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

In the Peter Ostwald’s novel, “Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius,” the author tells a story of a very successful pianist named Glenn Gould. Glenn was born to mother, Florence Emma Gould, and father, Russel Herbert Gould, on September 25, 1932. Glenn’s mother wanted him to be successful in music and was determined to make him successful before Glenn was even born. Although Glenn did end up becoming very successful, he faced several challenges throughout his life. Just as one over comes their challenges, Glenn also overcame his challenges in his own ways. He used his own defense mechanisms to cope. Some of the challenges that Glenn faced were associated with anxiety. These challenges included Glenn being afraid of performing in

Jon B. Gould talks about many key points that many 17-19 year old first time college students would have. Choosing which college, why you should attend, is college really worth it, the difference between high school and college are some of the first things that Gould discusses, with some eye opening statistics about the pay differences between those that do and those that do not have college degrees. Gould then discusses what the Professor’s role in teaching the class is, as well as the teacher’s assistant(s) and how sometimes having a TA help you can be more beneficial than just having a professor explain something to you. Gould follows that up by having students challenge themselves, and have your thought process challenged, so when you

the whole novel: “the linguistic pattern of choices realizes a primitive pattern of cognition, which in turn is the key to the tragic vision of the novel.”(Leech & Short, 2001: 32) Halliday being the widely acknowledged precursor of functional stylistics, the eminent German linguist-critic Leo Spitzer (1887-1960), is likewise father of literary stylistics. In his insistence that the smallest detail of language can unlock the “soul” of a literary work, he maintains the task of stylistics is to provide a hard-and-fast technology of analysis: I would maintain that to formulate observation by means of words is not to cause the artistic beauty to evaporate in vain intellectualities; rather, it makes for a widening and deepening of the aesthetic taste. It is only a frivolous love that cannot survive intellectual definition; great love prospers with understanding. (Leech & Short, 2001: 2) A question which is often asked in this connection is “At which end do we start, the aesthetic or the linguistic?” The image used by Spitzer of the “philological circle”, the circle of understanding, however, seems to suggest there is no logical staring point. Spitzer argues that the task of Linguistic-literary explanation proceeded by the movement to and fro from linguistic details to the