The Nickel Mountain By John Gardner

The author of Green Gulch conveys that when in a group, one can be overwhelmed by pressure that brings them to savage extremes. After being lost, a young boy joins a group of kids he has never seen before. The group is nice and offers to bring the boy home. They stop at a sanctuary of a pond. There is a turtle in the pond that is violently murdered by the boys after one decides to throw a rock. Then, the group turns on the new boy. They beat him maliciously and leave him stranded on the road to get home. As, the boy look backs he can’t think of what went wrong, “They stood in a little group watching me, nervous now, ashamed a little at the ferocious pack impulse toward the outsider that had swept them.” Obvious from the boys’ reactions, it was the fault of the group impulse. After the murder of turtle, the adrenaline and riot of the group caused them to turn on the next vulnerable target. They were not acting as they should have, and the realize that afterwards. They were nervous. Even though there is not immediately an adult around, they are nervous because society has conditioned them to behave. They are also ashamed. The shame shows that they are nice boys. They feel bad. This shows that the vicious group mind set was so strong that it came over there good personalities and conscious. However, there is only this slight remorse after the fact. This does not make up for the brutal murder and beating that they had dealt. Being in a group turned them into

Coming of age is a recurring theme that is universally known throughout many different pieces of literature. Whether it’s influenced on true experiences, childhood memories, or even based on one’s current juvenile reality, many of theses works have a correlation between them that include many similar ordeals and struggles that the character goes through in order to metamorphosize into taking their first step out of childhood. One prominent theme that often appears is how one experiences and faces a time of tribulation and other walls that stand in one’s path. In effect, hardships mature and enlighten one, causing the loss of something such as childhood innocence. Lastly, these three combined points finally lead to one’s metamorphosis out of childhood. All in all, these three factors take one out of childhood, and slowly allows one step out into the reality of this world.

In this periodic sentence in Henry Longfellow’s “Snowflakes,” the sentence is left as an incomplete fragment until the last line. The snow falling is emphasized and the setting is left to be inferred with his long descriptions. This is effective because it allows the focus to be put on the setting initially, with suspense slowly building until the final statement.

Fist coming into Human Development class my understanding of a mid-life crisis, was when a middle aged person splurges and buys a new sports car, or such like outrageous items. Or when a husband and wife split-up for a year and they do not even really know why. Maybe even when someone seems not quite themselves or just crazy, and in the back of your mind you’re saying they need to see a doctor or take their medicine as prescribed. In our text and from other sources it explains mid-life crisis in several theories but the one that I mostly agree with is Levinson’s.

Barbara Ehrenreich began her research to explore how people attempting to move from welfare to work are managing—if at all. This exploration also extended to those who are apart of the working class and having not been on welfare. Attempting to place herself in the position of her subjects, Ehrenreich strived to see if she were able to survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level and low paying jobs. In was her foreknowledge of laws and the inclusion of these laws in Nickel and Dimed that brought about exposing historical and present-day 21st century contradictory practices, laws, and regulations that exploit the poor working class (if not through her experiment but by the subjects’ honest experience). In

In ‘Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, the main claim made by the author was that the low-working class are, in general, forced into an inescapable cycle of poverty. The low paying jobs they have to take are barely enough to pay rent, buy food, and other necessities. This doesn’t even include those in less favorable conditions than those Ehrenreich mimicked in her experiment. In general, Ehrenreich was trying to prove that the “living wage” offered by entry level jobs is not, in fact, “livable”. The significant supporting evidence provided in the book included Ehrenreich’s first hand experiences of mimicking (to her best abilities) what low-wage workers live everyday, as well as a plethora of supporting facts and statistics. All of Ehrenreich’s evidence was heavily supported with reliable resources. Based on the facts she presented, I agree with her claim that the majority of low-wage workers get stuck in poverty as a result of the entry-level workforce system as a whole. The evidence regarding statistics was very valid and well cited, and her first-hand experiences, while with possible flaws, only worked to further support what she was claiming. Ehrenreich’s methodology of obtaining evidence was very direct, and proved to show a plausible experience that most of the low-class would have in a best-case scenario. By that I mean in some of the best circumstances (no children, no serious medical needs, ect.), it is reasonable to assume that Ehrenreich’s experiences are

Wharton describes a still and serene snow scene to depict the entire mood of Starkville, the dull town where Ethan lives. Wharton shows that before Mattie arrives, Ethan continues a monotonous and bleak life at his vaccant farm with little human interaction. The white, dull, and cold snow represents the emotionless life that Ethan experiences. There is no color or hope, like sprigtime, in Ethan’s life. His future holds more of the same harsh and bitter lifestyle on his farm, while he cares for his lifelong companion, Zeena. Wharton uses the white snow as a way to further understand the rut Ethan

Many contemporary stories today contain characters that attempt to achieve their goal through love and compassion. This is a large contrast to the heroes seen in ancient epics who achieve their goals through violence or their own physical actions. It might be because what audiences today value most in role models is much different than what audiences who lived centuries ago valued. Nowadays, people strive to see characters focus on loving and taking care of others to get what they want. In fact, people can gain this satisfaction through people they can possibly meet in real life. Tracy Kidder, the author of the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, introduces his audiences to Dr. Paul Farmer, a man accountable for his tremendous work for his

Black Elk Speaks is a devised work some have debated to be a work of literature, a biography, an autobiography, and even an ethnography that has remained practiced in multiple academic disciplines. Black Elk Speaks was written by John Neihardt and published in 1932; Neihardt was not a literary or an anthropologist, but a poet and short story writer who wrote a multi-layered interpretation of a holy man’s life while failing to include portions of the story in order to advance the interest of his readers, ultimately making the meaning of the story his own. When the intended story was that of a holy man whose job was to hold the circle together through the power of a vision given to him and despite feeling as though he failed his people he

Someone who would be going through a “Mid-life crisis” is that of the age between 40 and 60("Development in midlife," 2004). It is the point during our lives where we go through periods of self-doubt, this is a natural and normal process ("Development in midlife," 2004). A mid-life crisis can be triggered by different experiences, for instance, children leaving the home, death of a parent or someone close, mid-life transition to

Male midlife crisis is defined by researchers as having a personal turmoil and coping challenges in people brought on by fears and anxieties about growing older. (Lang, S. 2001)This emotional transition will be experience by many men generally between the ages of 45 and 60, but men as young as 40 can also experience it. Men are susceptible to this condition especially if they have had a transition in their life or they have experienced something traumatic. Most men can deal with this process without making any major changes to their lifestyles

There is nothing more terribly beautiful than the snow stricken streets of New York City. Beneath a greying evening sky, and between tall buildings of steel, are big flakes of swirling snow that drift and lightly cover every street lamp, branch, shoulder and patch of pavement untouched by moving feet. Patrick Sole, a man without a home, is slumped, in wet, grey slush, against a brick wall. He does not twitch, he does not tremble. And if white begins to blanket his tattered coat, and if his frostnipped fingers begin to numb; well, he does not stir. For how long he has sat there, he does not know, for he looks and feels as white as a ghost.

The 1930s in the United States was an era in which racism and prejudice towards the African-American was a common thing because of the Jim Crow Laws which allowed a segregation between black and white communities. Having lived under the Jim Crow social structure in the South and later in the North, the controversial author Richard Wright experienced the dehumanizing influence of racist representations permeate though sensationalist media. In his novel Native Son, Wright introduces us to Bigger Thomas, a petty thief who was hired as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family who accidentally suffocates and decapitates the young heiress of the family the same night he was hired. Through the Bigger Thomas, Richard wright attempts to give a face to the misrepresentations and show how the racist institutions nurtured a culture in which African-Americans were repressed in every aspect of their lives in the 1930s.

As the story goes along he begins to feel a different attitude in the city. When they drive into town the main character’s “first impression was of riding down into a canyon” with a “shadowy and forbidding” (Medina 72) feeling surrounding the area. The more they drove into the city the more “It seemed odd that out of that ominous ceiling came the pure white snow” he “had just touched” (Medina 72). At this point in the story the main character portrays an unsure feeling about New York. His disappointment with the city is present when he expressed how “ the snow on the ground did not stay white very long. Nothing does in New York” (Medina 72). His expectations for their new home is slightly smothered as reality begins to set that not everything is as it

Throughout the story of Hemingway’s time at war, snow often symbolizes serenity and peace. In book one, Henry looks out of his window at the snow falling as in that moment Henry knows the war was over for that year (6). This reveals that the snow was a symbol of peace as it told everyone fighting in the war that the fighting would now come to an end and they’d suffer no more hardships. In book two Henry says, “I felt the rain on my face turn to snow,” (186). This quote allows the snow to symbolize a moment of peace, as Henry experiences a break from the corruption surrounding him. While Henry and Catherine are in the mountains of Switzerland Henry states, “When we came out to start back up the road our track was filled in by the snow,” (297). This foreshadows that the happiness and serenity that the snow brings will fill in the destruction the rain had left in Henry’s life. This symbolizing that Henry and Catherine finally having a normal