...Realism and Naturalism Old Grannis and Miss Baker - Necessary or Needless? June 17, 2013 In "Frank Norris' "Drama of a Broken Teacup": The Old Grannis - Miss Baker Plot in McTeague", Donna M. Campbell disagrees with the critics that have argued that the Old Grannis - Miss Baker storyline in McTeague, is out of place and unnecessary. Rather, Campbell claims that the storyline is not deserving of the abuse heaped on it, and argues the alternate, that it is essential to the plot of McTeague, helping us both with the storytelling itself, and also with advancing the naturalistic nature and style of the stories of the other two couples in McTeague, Trina and McTeague as well as Zerkow and Maria Macapa. Campbell's main argument is that based on the two types of stories in the text, naturalistic stories as well as commonplace, "local color fiction", embodied in the actions of all three couples in McTeague, Norris is able to fully examine and explore what naturalistic writing is meant to entail. Using Norris' own words in his letter to Isaac Marcosson, Norris claims that he is writing a novel of "straight naturalism with all the guts I can get into it" (P. 48). According to Campbell, "Thus each pair of lovers functions on several levels: as representatives of varying social levels and codes of manners; as unwitting victims of the world of forces; as "owners" in several senses - of money, of passions, of restraint; and finally as characters in plots suitable to the differing...
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...The standards of success and prosperity for the protagonists of Death of a Salesman and Wall Street are inflated by the media, celebrities, and their family lives. In the face of his brother’s triumph in Alaska, Willy struggles to achieve the same level of unrealistic, exaggerated success as a mere salesman in Death of a Salesman. Similarly, by working under the exaggeratedly cutthroat Gordon Gekko, Bud Fox seeks a hollow life of luxury, stolen through cheating. Both Willy and Bud try to succeed with exaggerated and unrealistic goals due to the pressure presented to them through external forces such as their mentors, society, their families, and the workplace. The pressure that Bud and Willy’s mentors place on them causes them to exaggerate their goals to unrealistic levels. As a result, Willy’s lucidity spirals into a deep depression that leaves him in a delusional mentality that refuses to let him face the reality of his present situation while Bud’s sanity becomes overcome by his hunger for power that is fed by his ego and arrogance. Ben Loman is the foil to Willy Loman’s character. He is wealthy, bold, and a ruthless business man. He is the epitome of a success story and living the American Dream. Ben is one of the fortunate few who found incredible success without much work, something which Willy recognizes and wants. Willy Loman believes that like his brother, he too can rise from humble beginnings to importance. His specific angle on this outlook is that a man succeeds...
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...Name Professor Course 3/1/2015 The rocking-horse winner D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner” is a short, tense story with a morbid ending. Throughout the piece, Lawrence often paints his characters as two-dimensional and unlikeable. Hester is portrayed in the story as hard, cold and lacking the ability to show love to her children. She speaks to the children with a certain bitterness that Lawrence never explains; we do not understand why Hester acts the way that she does, so we do not empathize with her. These characteristics make one to distaste Hester more. With an unlikeable mother and growing tension in the family’s house, it is easy for a reader to feel removed from the text. However, Lawrence skillfully uses contradictions within the personalities of the characters in the story and personifies inanimate objects in the text to keep readers engaged in the story. By subverting our first impressions of almost all the characters and the storylines, Lawrence captivates his audience by keeping us guessing and hoping for a resolution until the last sentence of the story. Although the main narrative of the story follows young Paul through his demise, Lawrence inserts the most contradictions in Hester’s character arc depicting her as a complex and dark woman. These contradictions add layers of complexity to their relationship and keep the reader questioning the direction of the story. Using a decidedly fairytale-like style, Lawrence introduces Hester, describing...
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...Walking under a ladder brings you bad luck, wishing on a wishing star as it tails off in the sky, and crossing fingers for good luck are examples of the many types of unreasoned rituals that are very common nowadays. This is what superstition is all about. It is about incoherent beliefs and customs carried out with increasing popularity, by people all around the world. It is an irrational belief that does not have any fact or reason to support it. Its essence therefore lies in blind beliefs and habits that are generally accepted in a particular society and are scientifically unexplainable. There are literally hundreds of different types of superstition beliefs around the world. Some people take these very seriously but others just laugh them off. Superstitions may have begun hundreds of years ago when people didn't have the knowledge that we have nowadays. For instance people used to think that their shadows or reflections were part of their souls, because they didn't understand the concept of the sun or moon making shadows. Moreover, it is likely that learned people used superstitions as a means to make the general population abide with certain basic principle of life in order to ensure safety precautions or prevent a situation of fear to arise. For instance walking under a ladder leaning against a wall is perceived to be dangerous, as knocking against it can, not only be dangerous to the person standing on the ladder but also to the person walking under it. Therefore to...
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...because we have had the opportunity to work with so many of you amazing interns. The prize for the winner is a $2000 scholarship that goes towards any school expense. The application process is quite simple; write a two (2) page essay telling us about your financial situation and what this scholarship can do for you professionally. In addition to a recommendation letter from someone you worked with whether it is at school or at a job, please no personal references. Applications are limited to one essay per contestant. The deadline date for all applicants is November 30th 2011 at 9 pm. Please send all essays to the email address provided below. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me and I will help best I can. Good luck to all, and I look forward to announcing the winner. Email address: kristinanesbit@gmail.com Sincerely, John Done Communications Executive 24 Harlow Drive, Scarborough, ON M1J5K9 December 2nd, 2011 John Done 29 Grapevine Circle, Toronto, ON M1X1X5 Dear Paul Lemieux, The Communications department of MTV would like to thank you for your submission to our intern scholarship competition. We regret to inform you that you were not chosen as the winner. Due to the vast amount of submissions of high quality essays, our decisions were exceedingly difficult to make. Unfortunately, you do not fit the criteria for the financial need for this scholarship. As you can imagine, it...
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...conform to societies standards. A good example of this is how he refuses to believe in any organized religion, and when he forced to by miss Watson he doesn’t feel like he gets anything out of it. He has tried praying but every time he asks of God for something he does not see any results. Huck has his own type of religion though; he finds God in natures beauty. He appreciates nature in all of its splendor and there are many examples of this throughout the book. Huckleberry Finn is also a very superstitious boy. Huck’s superstition tends to revolve only and around things that cause bad luck not good. This can be seen multiple times in the book. One morning Huck accidently spills the salt, he quickly realizes what he has done and hastily tries to throw some salt over his shoulder to counter his actions. Miss Watson quickly stops him from doing it and as a result he is on the lookout for bad luck for the rest of the day. Huck is also a liar. He loves to lie, and not just little lies here and there, but big and very complex lies. His greatest lie of all is when he fakes his own death to escape his abusive father. He goes about doing this by first using an axe to chop a considerable hole in the door. Then he kills a hog with the same axe to make it appear as if it is the murder weapon and spreads the blood around on the floor. Finally he drags a bag of rocks to the river to make is look like the “murderer”...
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...pursuit of desire, and how if you take it to a certain extent it can result in tragedy if the individual chooses not to conform. Paul wants to please his mother because his mother feels that there family has no luck, but Paul believes that he is lucky. Paul suddenly becomes consumed with this sudden spree of good luck and feels this is the only way he will be able to gain to the affection of his mother. D.H Lawrence reveals that Paul has a certain flaw that turns him to believe that the only way he will be able to gain his mothers love and affection is by winning money in the horse races. He leads this pursuit of desire to the standards he thought he wanted to, but not to the standards that would have achieved what he wanted, which leads to his down fall. When individuals desire love from another, they may choose to conform their beliefs and actions to that person. At first they may feel successful, however if they sacrifice everything, in pursuing this kind of goal, they may pay a heavy price instead of gaining there hearts desire. Paul desire his mother’s love more than anything. However he believes he needs to prove he is lucky. He struggles to prove that he is to make his mother happy. Paul wants his mother to love him more than anything. For Paul’s mother money equals luck, and this will gain her love. “There must be more money”(19). He hears these voices throughout the house. They hear these voices when they are receiving items of joy, especially around Christmas time. The...
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...CHARACTERS: Anastacia Agueda Agueda’s daughter Don Badoy Montiya Voltaire – the grandson THEME: * Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have when it is gone. * Love was blinded and it turned into hatred * Love cannot be based on passion alone. CONFLICT: External conflict, Man vs. Man. We can see that Agueda and Badoy after having a bad married life with each other, used to regret the past that they’ve been together and it is revealed with their hatred for each other and how Agueda used to describe the devil to her granddaughter as if it was Badoy and same way as Badoy describing the witch in the mirror to his grandson as if it was Agueda. LITERARY MOVEMENT: GOTHIC FICTION with REALISM The story happened in the year of 1847 and it has a little blend of horror and fiction because of the superstitious belief of fortune telling as well as the devil and witch that will come out in the mirror if everything in the ritual will go wrong. ANALYSIS: Agueda and Badoy’s bitter marriage all began on that May night. Agueda and Badoy are two, completely different people. Agueda is a girl ahead of her time. She is bold and liberated unlike most girls her age. She stands out from the broad range of followers of her era. The tragedy is when Badoy’s heart forgets how much he felt for Agueda. The tragedy is how both were not careful enough to mend their drifting marriage. Both Badoy and Agueda perceived their marriage to be a taste of hell. Instead...
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...striking story about a 1. little boy, Paul who secretly rides his rocking horse to pick the winning horse in the various horse races that took place. After the beginning of the story, there is a short conversation between Paul and his mother about luck, and it was the conversation that started the whole dramatic episode which lead to Paul's death. The conversation between Paul and his mother, the phrase that is constantly heard in the house and the rocking horse itself are the main ideas covered in the scope of this paper. The dialogue between Paul and his mother is mainly about luck and how a person can get money if such a person is lucky. From the story, the reader should be aware of Hester's crave for money and her expensive taste, therefore, it is not surprising when she talks her son into believing that luck brings money. We could also establish at this point that the family is at least living comfortably, meaning they were not very poor; "They lived in a pleasant house, with a garden, and they had discreet servants." Paul's mother tells him that his father is not lucky and because of this, she is no longer a lucky woman. The conversation ends with Paul believing that he is a lucky boy, and the action he takes in finding this luck is what brings his demise in the end. The phrase "there must be more money" was mentioned in the story over ten times. The phrase symbolizes the insatiable desire the family has for money. In the early parts of the story the phrase was being...
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...A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush: Having something that is certain is much better than taking a risk for more, because chances are you might lose everything. A Blessing In Disguise: Something good that isn't recognized at first. A Chip On Your Shoulder: Being upset for something that happened in the past. A Dime A Dozen: Anything that is common and easy to get. A Doubting Thomas: A skeptic who needs physical or personal evidence in order to believe something. A Drop in the Bucket: A very small part of something big or whole. A Fool And His Money Are Easily Parted: It's easy for a foolish person to lose his/her money. A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: Everyone involved must unify and function together or it will not work out. A Leopard Can't Change His Spots: You cannot change who you are. A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned: By not spending money, you are saving money (little by little). A Picture Paints a Thousand Words: A visual presentation is far more descriptive than words. A Piece of Cake: A task that can be accomplished very easily. A Slap on the Wrist: A very mild punishment. A Taste Of Your Own Medicine: When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others. A Toss-Up: A result that is still unclear and can go either way. Actions Speak Louder Than Words: It's better to actually do something than just talk about it. Add Fuel To The Fire: Whenever something is done...
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...Latoya Griffin ENG 125 Instructor Anna Morrison May 28, 2014 The Pool Players The poem “The pool players” outlines the actual reality in which different youth from any diverse tends to face after leaving school. The poems’ content is systematically in a order simply because it opens up with portraying the ultimate scene of seven boys who surrounded a pool hall which was named the Golden Shovel. This line exposes the actual scene which the play had represented certain small gang who were in need of luck in order to achieve certain goal in their lives. Also the content of the play seemingly interested as result of implication whereby it implies the youngness of the players (Brooks, 1959). The poem`s content also exposes the certain illegal activities which were practiced by the boys discussed. What interested me are narrator words when exposing the facts by use of secret word “Lurk late” which shows that, a certain activities were taking place in the dark. The identification shows that, too much exposure to darkness makes somebody to be what he or she ought to be. The narrator uses the word “strike straight” showing that, the boys where seemingly trying to do something menacing. Perhaps, they committed crimes, rapes and murder as well since they were all undergoing through a rite of passage in their development (Brooks, 1959). The form of the poem “the pool players” was identified to have been determined by Colloquial rhythm (Haikus type of poem) the narrator tried...
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...Hermalin Consulting “The Nerd in the Know” TM To: Mr. William Jaeger From: Benjamin E. Hermalin, ph.d. Re: Harvesting Decision I have analyzed your harvesting decision problem. Figure 1 represents your problem in terms of a decision tree. Botrytis [.4] 2 storm [.5] 4 wait 5 no storm 3 [.5] sell as bulk $12,000 + C $42,000 good luck [.4] okay luck [.4] bad luck [.2] $36,000 [.6] no Botrytis 1 bottle $24,000 - R $67,200 $30,000 $34,200 harvest now Figure 1: The harvesting decision represented as a decision tree. In Figure 1, R denotes the monetary value of the loss of reputation you would suffer from bottling an inferior wine, while C denotes the cost saving from not bottling your own wine, should you choose to sell in bulk. Assuming the information you gave me is correct (more on this later), R and C are irrelevant to the problem. Given the information you provided, it seems safe to assume that C < $15, 000.∗ Even assuming the worst, R ≥ $12, 000 and C = $0, the option of waiting has a greater expected value than the decision to harvest now: $35,640 versus $34,200.† If the worst is not true (i.e., R < $12, 000 or C > $0), the the option of waiting is even more valuable. Consequently, unless you strongly dislike risk, you should wait to harvest. Your expected gain from waiting is at least 4% (worst-case scenario). If the very best-case scenario in which the node (labeled as ①) is worth $28,200 (see Technical Appendix for underlying calculations), your expected gain...
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...reach eudaimonia. “Nonetheless, happiness evidently also needs external goods to be added, as we said, since we cannot, or cannot easily, do fine actions if we lack the resources …” Aristotle believes that external goods such as wealth, power, and friends are all used to reach eudaimonia. We need external goods such as these in order to succeed and prosper in our endgame of reaching happiness, as it will be extremely hard without these goods. Aristotle deems that happiness needs to have prosperity or wealth, opulence, luxury, and the good life in order to be achieved. As prosperity tends to be associated with success and affluence, some people identify happiness as good fortune. This good fortune has results from favorable outcomes, good luck, destiny, and fate. Other people associate happiness with virtue. Virtue is the way people act in showing high moral standards. This focuses on the individual and includes virtues of being moral, having integrity, dignity, rectitude, honor, and decency. Aristotle states that it will be much harder for us to reach eudaimonia if we don’t use our external goods, because resources help us achieve our endgame much faster with guarantee. In realizing how much those goods help us along the way, so many people believe happiness...
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...Softer Devil” starts with a very negative happening: “Toby shot the dog that always barked at him when he came home from school”. This act seems to be extremely cruel and evil because of its senselessness, arbitrariness and emotionless description that you could say this boy must be the devil, as a personification of the evil himself. But regarding the title and the words “softer devil” the reader might suggest that there is more about Toby, he might not be as evil as it initially seems and that the story might take a positive development. “Spilled Salt” begins contrary as Kenny enters his mother’s house with the words “I’m home, Ma”, which delivers a positive image like a child coming home. As spilled salt is a common understanding for bad luck or an evil omen, the reader could guess that the story might take a rather negative development. The titles of the stories also depict the two offenders through their symbolism. Toby’s behavior has often very evil sides for which the reader does not get a real explanation. His crime of shooting a dog without any evident reason, makes Toby seem very cruel right from the start. Also the narrator calls him “a total asshole” or “a total fuck-up” to describe his negative character. But as an omniscient narrator he also has access to his inner thoughts and feelings in which we can see a boy who tries to hide these but sometimes shows a softer side of himself....
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...Prelude 12/21 The bloodied background of the sky showed that the sun was giving into midnight's cold glamour. Another day had ended, another cold night began. But something had happened that day. Something odious, something vile. For on that day, there had been a murder. A murder that had left police baffled and the townsfolk frightened for their lives as they did not understand why something like this happened in their tiny town. The thing that scared them the most were the words. For the meaning of the words were unclear to the people and the only person who understood language like that was now dead. Dead on the night before the Winter Solstice. And death before the Winter Solstice meant bad luck for years to come. For all. Vision 1 : The Mortician's Daughter The snow cracked under his feet as he walked through the forest. It was eerily quit. No wind, No noise, nothing. Dead trees lay alongside the pathway as he slowly made his way up to the house. But something here was not right. No lights were on, no voices were to be heard, all signs of LIFE were missing. He looked around. The only thing he could see was a raven perched on a nearby branch. A raven?! Not possible, he thought. All the birds had already migrated south to escape the harsh hands of winter. His eyes were playing tricks on him. But the closer he looked, and the harder he focused, he began to realize that the raven was quite real. Shivering, he continued his way up to the house. He had a bad feeling about this...
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