The Mayor Of Casterbridge By Michael Henchard

In 1893, America was intimidated by France’s nationalism celebrated during their 1889 World 's Fair and decided to celebrate themselves. On May 1st, the Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago to celebrate everything that America has held sacred since the beginning of time. In the sinister non-fiction novel The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, the haunting tale of the events that happened behind the scenes at the 1893 World’s Fair are recounted and used to analyze how society was impacted. The good reviews of this book help highlight the cultural importance of the 1893 World’s Fair, architect Daniel H. Burnham, and serial killer H.H. Holmes have on society today.

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

Discuss how your investigation of the generic conventions of poetry has influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author who was best known for her novels that commented on social issues and class, and Northanger Abbey is no exception. Austen’s social commentary is apparent in this novel’s plot, as the reader follows a seventeen-year-old protagonist, Catherine Morland, as she matures and forms intimate relationships with fellow characters in an England town called Bath. Marriage between characters in the novel is heavily based on wealth, and because of England’s unstable economy at the time, marrying into wealth meant maintaining a high social class and economic stability for the characters. The importance of economic prosperity and social rank heavily influenced marriage in 19th century England, and this idea bourgeoisie classism and marrying for wealth is contradicted by Austen in her novel, Northanger Abbey.

Animals help humans in our lives for sharing their features. Every new experience can make a person change; sometimes the changes are positive, and other times it is negative. Either way, here is no avoiding change. Animals are kind, helpful, and playful.

Throughout the book, “The Western Place” , by Maxine Hong Kingston, there is a differential gap between the two sisters who come from two different sides of the world. A lot of differences between the two sisters and their personal lifestyles comes from one sister living in America as a Chinese-American and the other sister living in China. In the story Brave Orchid who is the sister that is brave, outspoken, and sometimes cruel sees life as a bundle of opportunities to take with no regret. However, it is different when her sister Moon Orchid comes into town from China because she is the complete opposite. Moon Orchid is rather humble, timid, and quiet while she observes the lifestyle of her sister and nieces and nephews.

The undying will of friendship can be seen as more powerful than love, but Finny and Gene base this powerful connection for their own benefit instead. A Separate Peace begins with Gene and Phineas attending a private school called Devon in 1942. Gene lacks self fulfillment and looks to Finny for help. John Knowles presents Gene as a symbol of struggle of emotions because he is affected by the war. Gene uses Finny as a way to subside his upsetting past, and thinks of everything as a competition. Because of this thriving passion to have Finny's instincts, their relations are based on a friendship at which only Gene will benefit from. This takes their friendship to a complex level, as there are not only one but two wars. World War 2 and Gene's war with himself show how the turmoil of war destroys relationships.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a non-fiction book about an architect who led the Chicago World Fair of 1893; a serial killer used the fair to lure people to him. Blocks from the fair, the killer built a hotel with equipment ready to use. This book known for incorporating some of America’s history also had very dramatic and entertaining story behind it. Erik Larson wrote in third person. He wrote this book to inform people on what happen in Chicago. Erik uses a great amount of imagery and diction to inform people of this event. ”The lake was grey, darkening to a band of black at the horizon “was just one of his many spots of imagery. His tone also comes across as objective and neutral limits from using any language that

Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides is a book about Calliope “Cal” Stephanides. In the beginning of the book, Cal, as he likes to be referred to as, tells us about his condition. Cal has a 5-Alpha-Reductase pseudohermaphrodite which is, simply put, a condition that affects the sexual development of males before the birth of the child and also during puberty. In Middlesex, incestuous marriages were secretly accepted among the villagers which resulted in Cal being conceived by cousins. Before Cal’s birth, the tradition of his family was gender prediction by his grandmother, Desdemona Stephanides. It seemed to be a traditional thing for the family from the Greek roots. When it was time to predict Tessie’s, Cal’s mother, baby, Desdemona declared that the child would be a boy. Milton, Cal’s father, disagreed because there was no way the baby could be a boy scientifically. This could also be based on the fact that Tessie and Milton wanted a baby girl. Until the age of sixteen, Cal was raised as a girl even though he had a male brain biologically.

Social class systems in the nineteenth century were comprised of the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The different social classes can be “distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture” (Cody). The poor, also known as peasants, were usually mistreated and segregated from the wealthy, or those of higher class. During his time, Charles Dickens “seen as a champion of “the poor” by some of the poor themselves” (“What was”). It is said that one of his greatest achievements “was to bring the problem of poverty to the attention of his readers through introducing varieties of poor persons into almost all of his novels, and showing the “deserving” majority of the poor, bravely struggling against the forces arrayed against them” (“What was”). This is clearly evident in A Tale of Two Cities. During the nineteenth century Victorian era, social class systems were a common excuse for the division and mistreatment of many individuals, as evidenced in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

At first, Austen reveals the tensions between the working class and the upper class and emphasizes the rigid social structure that existed in nineteenth century London. The rigidity of the social structure can be attributed to the fact that “no class exists for itself but is bound by reciprocated rights and duties to classes above and below” (Kilger 359). Although the classes are separate and very distinct from each other, they still all depend on one another to thrive and succeed. However, this was definitely not the case during the

My favorite nonfiction book is Devil in the White City  by Erik Larson. I enjoy Larson’s book because of my love for a book with mystery. The complex psyche of Holmes is something that intrigued me throughout the read and the abundance of history within the pages kept me turning them. Moreover, the multiple perspectives from which the “novel” is told kept my mind turning. The point of view may quickly change to Burnham to Holmes and the topic may shift from dissecting female victims to what color should the facade of a building be.  One takeaway I got from the book is the need to always change and evolve. To quote Winston Churchill “ To improve is to change, to perfect is to change often”, this ideology is found enrooted in the novel as architects

The book is far from a complete history and instead focuses on one specific sector of British history, the plight of the poor in early 20th century Manchester. Three main points seems to fight their way to the forefront, as they drive the direction and tone of the book. The first main point stressed is the elaborate and complex social stratification. Roberts says on the first page, "I grew up in what was perhaps an ideal

Crime is often found in every society. Why? Crime/deviance can be an indication that an area needs attention. Also, it can bring about solidarity or confinement in a community. The “Devil in the White City” shows, that where there is good, there is also evil. Daniel Burnham portrayed the good. He brought dignity and positivity to Chicago, by building the World’s Fair at a point in time when the United States was in an economic depression. Crime was not Burnham’s thing. He used his knowledge to make Chicago a better place, and also had tremendous respect for authority. The World’s Fair brought in thousands of tourists, and revenue into the country. Holmes on the other hand, was the total opposite to Burnham. He was the devil himself. Holmes used his intelligence to charm, manipulate, and kill people for fun. With the presence of the World’s Fair, Holmes used it as a way to lure people into his maze, the castle that he built to kill them. He believed that he was born a serial killer, and everything that he does was for his benefit and no one else around him. Holmes loved the idea of committing crimes and getting away with it. Rules nor regulation, didn’t apply to Holmes because of his mental state.

Complexity is defined as the state of being elaborate and complicated. In relationships, when the individuals do not possess alike ethics, they entangle themselves into a silent lack of interest and concern for one another. In this selection from Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, a complex relationship is shaped by two characters with distinctly diverse values, a father and his daughter, through the character’s evolution of a shared dislike of one another, refusal to tolerate lower-class propensities, and a lasting coldness throughout the passage.