Wicked By Gregory Maguire

Accused witches were forced to admit to various practices believed to be witchcraft. Details from the French Court of Rieux and the insanity that ensued are jaw dropping by today’s standards. Suzanne Gaudry’s judgement confession was no different, being forced and tortured into confessions including having given herself to the devil, renouncement of God, lent and Baptism. Moreover, Gaudry was also forced to confess that she had cohabited with the devil as well received the devil’s mark on her shoulder and being at dances. Of note however, the judgement confession seems to acknowledge Gaudry having technically only confessed to having had killed by poison, Philip Coine’s horse. Nevertheless, Gaudry’s confession was made

Stephen King’s fore note to Danse Macabre, he suggested that zombies act as fast-moving terrorists. “By 2004, only three years downriver from 9/11, rampant consumerism was the last thing on our minds. What haunted our nightmares was the idea of suicide bombers driven by an unforgiving (and unthinking, most of us believed) ideology and religious fervor. You could beat ’em , burn ’em , but they’d just keep coming, the news reports assured us.” (King 40) Here Stephen King says that terrorists are relentless killers. What Stephen King is not mentioning, is that terrorists are not necessarily fast moving and neither are all zombies. Stephen King is generalizing zombies and terrorists which, makes his argument weaker than it appears. There are many myths about zombies in literature and movies that do not fit the characteristics in which King is discusses. Some other examples of zombies, such as the Resident Evil films, portray zombies in a different way. In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart he describes a man with a disfigurement that gives us insight to the true nature of the fear created by zombies.

Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal is a strangely riveting play so filled with unlikable characters that it makes one want to scream and throttle which ever one is closest to hand without prejudice as to which persona it might be as they are all equally detestable in their own way. Unfortunately, the infuriating characters are exactly what make the play so fascinating. Each of the characters in the play, originally intended to display that life is an inescapable machine, exhibits many disturbing psychological qualities, and the main character suffers a slew of near textbook psychological misfortune. Whether Sophie Treadwell created her play with this facet intentionally or not is unknown, but the examples are so perfect it is difficult to think

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

Discrimination in the novel is mostly obvious from Joseph Strorm, who is ironically the father of a deviant, David Strorm. He is the strictest devout of his religion in Waknuk and being the heir of Waknuk, he bears the responsibility to keep the society deviation-free. He does so by discriminating against deviants, like the society, and punishing them for being born ‘wrong’. His devotion to God and the ‘Definition of Man’ can be seen when he hit his son, David for wishing he had a third hand by mistake. He is sensitive to any form of deviation and punishes them harshly but he does admit that God is merciful, as seen from ‘God, in His mercy, may yet grant you (forgiveness)’. This is ironic as Joseph, being a devout, should be following God’s footsteps and be merciful in his actions too but he is willing to kill and punish people instead, contradicting his religion. His intolerance of deviations led him to discriminate against them, as can be seen from how he refused to help Aunt Harriet and humiliated her instead when she came begging for help to save her innocent deviant child. Joseph had also discriminated against the great horses unsuccessfully as the government had approved of them and there

In the novel Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler paints a picture of a dystopia in the United States in which the current societal problems are overly exaggerated into the worst-case scenario. Butler describes a world plagued with high unemployment rates, violence, homelessness, a flawed police system, and a crumbling education system. Butler focuses the story on the poor and the homeless by only giving characters with this background a voice in order to show the reader that society’s views and stereotypes of these groups are flawed. Butler shows the lack of attention they receive and over exaggerates the problem in order to show the extreme consequences if it is not properly addressed.

In The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, he asserts that the evolution of information and communication technology (ICTs) is having a detrimental impact on our brains despite the many benefits and advances we have made with it. His main focus is on the internet which he commonly refers to as the “universal medium” (92). Carr presents a very detailed but biased argument in which he views the internet and other technologies as the adversary of critical thinking and progress. To Carr, we are sacrificing our ability to think logically because we are choosing a simpler way to gain knowledge.

Through our society we are all raised up to be independent and unique individuals such as being ourselves and expressing who each of us are to the world. However, in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, everyone is raised to count on one another and everyone must look and act the same. Our society differs from Jonas’s in many ways, such as the family units, birthdays, and the way we each learn about our past.

Freedom. A goal. A liberty. A myth. So many descriptions for a single concept. Yet the main idea is the same: to be free of restrictions, free to be whatever you wish. It is a life necessity, one that was, unfortunately, and still is, restricted throughout history, resulting in many chasing after its acquisition. Humans currently live in a time, in several nations, where freedom is a right, a necessity of life freely given. However, throughout history, freedom has been kept to only a minority, resulting in individuals struggling to change society for freedom to be distributed to the majority of people, a battle that took years, centuries to accomplish. This fight for true autonomy took many forms, both violent and peaceful. Literary works, in particular, have been major agents to this cause, serving as both reminders of those struggles and remembrance to readers of the endeavors those authors sought to accomplish. Two particular works, The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, spearheaded movements for freedom by tackling the prejudice of gender roles, expressing through their novels’ characters and experiences the arguments for individual freedom and the challenges that must be conquered to achieve those goals for future generations.

In Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell has reveals traits of fear and anxiety by attempting to reach closure after his father died. For example, when Oskar failed to pick up the phone when his father called, “I pressed the Message Play button, which I hadn’t done since the worst day, and that was on the old phone” (Foer 288). One of his many character traits such as fear. He was so hesitant and frozen in fear that what seemed like a simple task of picking up the phone, he simply could not. In addition, Oskar is so guilty and anxious he cannot let go of not picking up the phone, “I couldn’t explain…that I miss him more, more than she or anyone else missed him, because I couldn’t tell her about what

Greed can destroy close connections with other individuals and it can also cause harm. There are many obstacles in one’s life that vary from complexity and may soon lead to destructive actions. When I was first introduced to this movie titled, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, around the age of seven, there was something about it that seemed to capture my full attention. The film’s dark setting and dismal theme kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. As a child, I was into video games and books. I always had my eyes on some new series or video game that was coming out. When this game, based under the same movie, had just came out, I was desperate to have it in my presence. As I opened the package, I was given a free pair of movie tickets to watch Lemony Snicket’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events. At a young age like this, I was beyond excited to watch the film. I have so many feelings towards this movie and it was nothing as I expected it to be. The tragedies that occur throughout the events and a successful ending that demonstrated a clear message on everything it takes to move on forward. I would say this movie presented a positive influence on my view of the real world because of the different types of logics that were presented throughout every event. To be able to overcome the impossible obstacles in life, you would need to continuously push yourself through the rain or the shine.

Injustice is a prevailing theme in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Tubman, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Spider Woman 's Web by Susan Hazen-Hammond and Great Speeches by Native Americans by Bob Blaisdell; the diligence of several characters have made it possible for them to preserve and overcome injustices. America has not always been a land of the free for colored people; white settlers destroyed the meaning of freedom when they robbed the land from the indigenous people. Freedom was also destroyed when slaves in America were not treated as full human beings. Despite of many obstacles the oppressed faced, their thirst for freedom and determination helped them in reaching their goals.

In the Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, the main character, Lauren Olamina, leaves behind Christianity, a religion that she identified with her whole life and creates a new religion known as Earthseed. Earthseed is a naturalistic way of faith, based on the idea that God is changeable, therefore life, too, could change. Lauren Olamina creates Earthseed because she believes that it is what her people need in order to not only alter their chaotic and misguided ways, but to live a pro-active and positive life.

The film “Gone Girl” depicts the story of a man named Nick Dunne and the disappearance and possible murder of his publicly adored wife, Amy Dunne. The beginning of the film depicts this young couple to be passionate, vivacious and full of unconditional love, but as the story unfolds the truth behind Amy and Nick’s relationship becomes questioned under intense public scrutiny and a forensic investigation. Early on, Nick becomes the main suspect in his wife’s disappearance and apparent murder based on what seems to be overwhelming evidence indicating his guilt. Amy Dunne appears to be a beautiful, kind and intelligent woman. She exudes confidence, gracefulness and charm to the public, and portrays a sense of being calm, cool and collected with her husband upon the early stages of their relationship and marriage. Her beauty, clever wit and poised presence, paints the façade of an overtly desirable woman. However, in discovery of her husband’s affair and throughout the rest of the film, Amy’s true self and manipulative and devious nature emerges.

How would you deal with living in a community in isolation, feeling lost with those around you, and having your whole life changed with one drop of blood? FOUR by Veronica Roth displays all this with a story of a young man named Tobias Eaton. This book demonstrates the drama and strategy which keeps readers involved. From being placed in one environment from birth and choosing something precisely different, readers can see what Tobias had to go through. The main elements of this book are conflict, style, and mood.