The Titan's Curse By Rick Riordan

The Hollow Hope by Gerald Rosenberg is based on one research question. That question is: Can the Court bring about significant social change? In examining this question Rosenberg presents two different views of the Court. The dynamic court view believes that the court is an excellent catalyst for social change while the constrained court view believe that there are constraints in place that prevent the court from making significant change. The constrained court believes that it is only when these constraints are lifted and certain conditions met that the Court can have an effect on social change.

For example, when Louie is captured by the Japanese and taken to a POW (Prisoner of War) camp where he among others if both physically and emotionally abused he keeps trying to survive. He knows from firsthand experience that if he perseveres it will get better. This is proven when Louie after experience in three different camps is ordered to hold a fifty pound beam of wood over his head for ten minutes (Hillenbrand 295). Even though Louis was sickly, weak and skinny he managed to do it without giving up. This once again portrays the theme to always persevere because without it Louie would be dead.

From the words of C.S. Lewis, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and lots of hope, one can succeed at anything.

In order to feel satisfied, humans naturally find an activity to do when they encounter themselves no longer entertained. In the case of “The Most Dangerous Game,” written by Richard Connell, General Zaroff creates exactly what the titles states, the most dangerous game, a game of hunting the only animal that can reason: humans. This is quite ironic because Zaroff has all the wealth and power to do anything, but creates this game only to escape his boredom. Connell wrote “The Most Dangerous Game” with Rainsford as the main character, a role most typically associated with the archetypal hero. However, with an understanding of the story, readers question whether Rainsford really is the hero, his values of humans and animals, and the possibility of him becoming the villain, provoking readers to realize that the cycle of violence and oppression goes on even if believed to already be conquered.

C.S. Lewis one said “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and the use of past experiences, one can succeed at anything.

The book I read for my Political Science class was In God's Underground, by Richard Wurmbrand.

In the book, Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals, all of the character present were true warriors at heart. Between the students that attended Central High School and the family members that had to go through the struggle of being hated in their own town, they did not give up. I believe that I am most like Melba because I never give up, I have had similar events happen to me in my own school, and I have a family that is just as supportive as hers.

Perseverance is the only thing that will truly keep the world alive. If humans had given up instead of persevering America would not exist, tyranny would reign and slavery would still exist. Several characters throughout literary history, such as Odysseus from Homers’ Odyssey, and Louis Zamperini in Unbroken are the prime examples of perseverance, and they did it through personal strength and determination to not be broken. After all, it is better to persevere and live a hellish life than to relinquish that life in order to live more comfortably in the hands of those who seek to degrade the soul.

The Great Awakening was a revival of religion in the early American colonies. Some will say that the awakening had negative effects on the colonies, maybe, but overall I believe the Great Awakening had a positive effect and opened the eyes of the colonist, showing them truths of living in the New World and of things that could come for its future. These effects that the Great Awakening had on the early colonies is greatly studied and looked at, because it was what set the ground work for the religious views we have today in our country. Three sources, given to me, telling of the effects that the revival of religion had on early America was quite interesting to me. I found them to be a great insight to the basis of how the revival effected

The book, “The Devil’s Highway,” by Luis Alberto Urrea tells of the story of a group of men who tried to get to the United States using this long and dangerous pathway. While this book was written in 2005, some of the problems mentioned in the book still go on today, as do their reasons for taking part in this dangerous journey. This book opens up people’s eyes to what people will do for even just a little glimpse of something better, something that they can be happy with. Urrea’s telling of these men’s story relates to many things and teaches us how things are in places a lot of people in America don’t pay attention to.

Howard Thurman removes the window dressing in the African American experience of segregation in America. Thurman in his book, “The Luminous Darkness” paints an obscure portrait that delved deep into the consciousness of Black men, women and children freshly freed from chattel slavery. Two hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of darkness seeping into each soul perpetuated by an evil explained only through the Word of God. Although this book was published in the 60’s, the stigma segregation continues resonate in the souls of those who remember and perhaps even in the souls of those who do not.

Social change comes from a societies understanding and acceptance of controversial topics, laws that enforce social norms and the politics that play a role in such change. The author Gerald Rosenberg of “The Hollow Hope” believes that the Supreme Court is able to bring about social change. Rosenburg main argument seemed to be questioning if a courts ruling that had once been accepted and had standing for several years were to be over turned, would the environment outside of the courtroom suddenly change and be accepting of their division.

In The White Scourge, Neil Foley gives detailed facts about the construction and reconstruction of whiteness and the connection of this whiteness to power, mainly on cotton culture in central Texas. Foley 's book analyzes “whiteness” through detailed analysis of race, class, and gender. What was most intriguing about this book is its comparison of whiteness on various racial groups and classes, for and how each struggled in comparison to the other in order to thrive and exist with one another. In this book, Foley shows a racial system that continues to produce both poverty material wise and poverty of where you stand racially. It is also very interesting that the system exploits not only Mexicans and Blacks, but also the poor whites who competed with them for work.

When I was a teenager during the 1970s, the younger sister of a friend of mine died from injuries she sustained when she was hit by a car. Shortly after the accident, the girl’s dad happened to drive past the area where the accident had occurred. As he drove by, he couldn’t see what was going on because there were emergency vehicles that were blocking his view. He said a prayer for anyone who might have been injured in the accident and drove home. He learned later that the person he had prayed for was his daughter.

“In a Dark time” by Theodore Roethke gives a retrospect into the inner turmoil’s of finding oneself through a haze of doubts in till reaching a moment of clarity. Each section of the poem describes a different emotion, or inner thought that spirals from fear of death, to emotions of desire. The use of imagery between nature and uncertainties of the narrator give a glimpse into Roethke’s own mind during the time he wrote this poem. Without hundreds of pages Roethke created a poem that connects readers to their own self-doubts and struggles of finding ones way again.