The Texas Rangers By Stephen F. Austin

In the short book of “No Heroes, No Villains” by Steven Phillips On June 28, 1972, a Transit Authority patrolman, John Skagen, was on his way home from testifying at court for an arrest he made a couple of weeks prior. Skagen was taking the train home to the Bronx when he saw and stopped James Richardson who was awaiting the subway train which would take him to work at Lincoln Hospital. Skagen ordered him to “put up your hands, and get against the wall”. Skagen’s actions seem unprovoked and unnecessary. After a short tussle the two men exchanged shots and Richardson fled the scene on foot. Two other officers that were on the main street above the subway station rushed to the scene.

Fences, written by August Wilson, is a play about a man, named Troy, struggling to support his family during the late 1950’s. In this play, we see that Troy hurts the people closest to him. He has been uncaring towards his wife, Rose, his brother Gabriel and his son, Cory. This is because Troy had nothing to go on but the harsh example set by his father. In Fences, Troy has felt like he has been fenced in all of his life, which causes him to fence others in.

There are an infinite amount of unique responses to the question “What is the meaning of life?”. However, the majority of people will agree that the true meaning of life is to find happiness and what is really important to one’s self. In Jon Krakauer’s, Into The Wild, Chris McCandless conveys this idealism through his life’s journey as he bravely defies all limitations. Chris McCandless isolates himself from society in his Alaskan Odyssey as a way to defy accepted expectations and to begin discovering the meanings of life without any corrupted influences.

Fences written by August Wilson is an award winning drama that depicts an African-America family who lives in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania during the 1950’s. During this time, the Mason’s reveal the struggles working as a garbage man, providing for his family and excepting life as is. The end of segregation began, more opportunities for African American people were accessible. Troy, who’s the father the Cory and husband of Rose has shoes fill as a working African America man. He is the family breadwinner and plays the dominant role in the play. Troy’s childhood was pretty rough growing up on a farm of 11 children. Overtime, he realizes the change of society. He builds a friendship fellow sanitation worker, Jim Bono while in the penitentiary. Troy planned to build a fence around his house to control the number of people on his property. The fence also plays a symbolic role throughout the drama. These motives and characteristics control is what makes Troy the friend, father, worker, and husband he is today.

In the Fences, by August Wilson shows that life of African Americans in the U.S. in the 1950s with the story of Troy and his family. Wilson uses the symbol of the fence to show the desires of each character like Rose’s desire is to keep her family together, Troy’s desire is to keep death out and to be not bound forever, and Bono’s desire is to follow Troy, his best friend, as an example of the right way to live and to be with Rose and Troy who are basically his family. Rose and the other seen characters represent people and show gender roles of the time, like Rose is a housewife, Troy is the provider. Also Cory is the new generation of emotion over responsibility, Gabriel represents the war heros that were permanently disabled from war

One such service was the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Holmes talks about how the police were too incompetent to catch him and though he was worried about the Pinkerton Detective agency, they seemed too busy stopping strikes to catch him. One of the strikes that the Pinkerton Detective agency was most famous for stopping was the Homestead Strike. These strikes wouldn’t be successful until the next time period when the government starting listening to both the workers and the employers. The Pinkerton Detective Agency is also important in the book because one of their detectives, Frank Geyer, arrests Holmes for fraud for faking the death of Benjamin Pietzel. It ends up being revealed that Holmes in fact did kill Pietzel as well as many others. He was eventually executed (by hanging). Another important service was the Colonel William Cody’s (aka Buffalo Bill) Wild West show. This was a very popular form of entertainment at the time for urban audiences. Buffalo Bill wanted his show to be part of the Columbian Exposition but the fair’s Committee on Ways and Means said no. He then got land close to the exposition and had his show there where it was very successful. The Committee would come to regret not having the Wild West show as part of their Exposition, especially with them struggling to get people to come to their fair in

Love, an intense feeling of deep affection. loving someone so much, willing to do anything to make that person or place. Perseverance, Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. The movie of American Sniper was based off of a true story of Chris Kyle. Chris Kyle Joined the Navy Seals leaving his wife and kids to protect his country. Throughout the movie it shows how being faithful and perseverance plays a big role in the world we are living in. Based on the complexity and actions of the characters, imagery, symbolism and the angles the camera took, the movie, “ American Sniper” illuminates and emcopasses a theme of Love and Perseverance.

To the United States, World War II is believed to be a good war, and why wouldn’t it be considered as such? During World War II, in addition to stopping mass genocide and stopping the spread of Nazism and Fascism, the United States beat Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the U.S. was no longer in the Depression and the United States became a world power. However, in “The Best War Ever,” Michael C.C. Adams argues that as a result of Hollywood’s glamorization of the war, government propaganda/censorship, and the widespread of economic prosperity, Americans were kept in the dark about the truth regarding World War II resulting in the popular belief and myth that World War II was a good war.

In the short stories “A Drug Called Tradition,” “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” and “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore” collected in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, author Sherman Alexie uses humor to reflect the life on the Spokane Reservation. In “A Drug Called Tradition,” the story starts with a joke by having Thomas sit down inside a refrigerator in response to Junior’s comment as to why the refrigerator is empty. The Indians are having a party hosted by Thomas, who gets a lot of money from a corporation for leasing some of his land. Alexie’s three second selves, Victor, Junior, and Thomas, later go to the Benjamin Lake and use the drug that Victor brings with him. In “The

American Sniper by Chris Kyle, is one of the most accurate depictions of the life in special

Throughout history, civilizations have built fences to keep enemies out and keep those they want to protect inside. In society today, people create metaphorical fences in order to fence in their feelings, while others create literal fences in order to keep the unwanted away. In the play Fences, the Maxon family lives in 1950’s America whose love for sports and one another are questioned at times when they need to be together the most. In the play Fences by August Wilson, two main characters Troy and Cory Maxon build a fence, literally and metaphorically, which as the book progresses, becomes a symbol that allows each character to truly understand each other.

Nighthawks, was painted in 1942 by Edward Hopper (1882-1967) an artist who was known as “a great master in the ranks of America realists.” (Levin, Gail) Hoppers paintings were first hung in “retrospective in 1933, Hopper played host just three years later to the first major show of surrealist art in New york.” (Levin, Gail) Hopper grew up in Washington Square, and lived there for most of his life. “ Hopper excelled in creating realistic pictures of clear-cut, sunlit streets and houses, often without figures.” (Levin, Gail) “He offers a brand of realism not bound to reality, and the places he depicts are familiar and foreign, comfortable and disquieting,” said the USA Times. The painting resides in the Art institute of Chicago. Nighthawks just like many of Hoppers paintings give a feeling of loneliness, and isolation as well as a feeling of darkness due to the dark hues. The picture leaves the viewer with thousands of words and interpretations with a third person view of an isolated man as he sits in a small parlor and ponders. The painting was created in 1942, which took place during the time of the great depression.

Queer Theory is the best approach by which to examine Angels in America because using Queer Theory allows us to see/ illuminates the difference between socially constructed gender and sexual acts based on sexual identity. Queer theory argues that gender is a cultural construct, that the social norms of men being masculine and women being feminine were manipulated as a culture to be seen as normal. In Angel in America, Roy Cohn is an attorney with power in his work place; he expresses a strong masculine character with “clout”, strong political power. He mentions that he is a powerful man and how with only a few phone calls he is able to get a hold of the president. These are expectations of how a masculine male is supposed to act, with power, confidence, and without fear. Being a man of politics, Roy lives up to the expectations of what society believes a strong man is supposed to be and how he is supposed to behave. When he goes to see his doctor and he is told that he has AIDS, Roy refuses to admit that he has AIDS and Homosexual. Roy tells his doctor, Henry, “You Think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with, but they don’t tell you that.” (Pg. 51) He argues that his identity is not homosexual because they do not have “clout”; that he is a man of clout and has a lot of it. Roy states, “Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout.”(Pg. 51) An example of Queer Theory, Roy tells his doctor that labels like Homosexual, Gay,

Decades earlier, industries such as manufacturing, transportation and mining turned to agencies like Pinkerton for not only asset protection, but also to combat labor violence and break strikes. There were numerous violent incidents involving strikes resulting in civilian injury, deaths and job losses. One incident in particular was the Homestead Strike of 1892 in Pennsylvania, which culminated in a gun battle between Pinkerton agents and the strikers (Lipson, 1988). Incidents such as this eventually led to private security being viewed as ‘Knights of Capitalism’ by the public. Security companies were banned from carrying weapons and crossing state lines to break strikes in some states (Joh, 2006).

American history teaches us that, going west has always been a regarded as progression. From the earliest settlers to the “new land” to the idea of Manifest Destiny, progressive movement and thinking has always traveled west. The west is always thought of as being more liberal more free. “True West” A compelling play written by Sam Shepard, developed characters that “struggle to define and assert their identities.” <1702> By using the idea of going west Shepard’s play’s “ present a picture of America torn between its idealistic values and the painful realties of frontier paved over for a parking lot, and cowboys enclosed in a move and television screen.”<1702> By comparing and contrasting the lead characters Austin and Lee, Shepard shows the reader that “going west” does not always mean a change in the right direction.