...Northwest History especially in the Pacific fur trade. This book is a great resource for the students and history enthusiasts. In analyzing this book, the key criteria included the author perspectives, organization and sources. Starting with the journey of captains John Kendrick and Robert Gray on the first day of October 1787 along with the sailors and tradesmen, they set sail from Boston and soon to be the first Yankees that lays eyes on the abundant and resource-rich Northwest Coast of North America. Further in the book, the author also mentioned that Kendrick using the Columbia Rediviva while Gray on board on the Lady Washington was sailed around treacherous cape horn and sailed north up the western coasts to present day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Moreover, they also traded sea otter pelts with the Indians. The sea otter usually called by the Russian as ”Soft Gold”. Then, they finally would sail to the China ports of Macao and Canton, where they traded the skins for tea and fine china and...
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...SUMMARY OF ILIAD In the tenth year of the Trojan War, tensions are running high among the Achaeans. First, the priest Chryses comes to ask their leader, King Agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom Agamemnon was holding captive. When Agamemnon refuses, the priest prays to the god Apollo to send a plague against the Achaeans. After nine days of plague, the Achaeans assemble again and demand that Agamemnon give the girl back. Agamemnon eventually agrees, but only if he gets to take Briseis, the girlfriend of Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Achaeans. Even though Achilles gives her up, he becomes so enraged that he refuses to fight any more. That and he prays to his mother, Thetis, who happens to be a goddess, to pull some strings with the other gods so that the Achaeans will start getting defeated in battle and realize how much they depend on him. Achilles’ mom definitely spoils him. She gets Zeus, the king of the gods, to agree to Achilles’ request. Sure enough, the next day the Trojans makes a successful counterattack, led by Hector, their greatest warrior. Several days of violent fighting follow, at the end of which the Trojans have the Achaeans pinned against the beach, and are threatening to burn their ships. At this point, Achilles’ best friend Patroclus asks for permission to go into battle in Achilles’ place. Achilles grants Patroclus request, and even lets him wear his armor. Patroclus gambit is successful – when the Trojans see him, they think he must be Achilles...
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...The Role of Virgil Virgil, the Roman poet, is more than Dante’s guide on this journey through the underworld. His relationship with the character of Dante in the poem is wide-ranging in importance and symbolism. He is a figure of authority, reason, and even a metaphorical father. Having traversed the territory before, Virgil serves as a figure of knowledge and safety to Dante, who is at times uncertain and timid about traversing such a treacherous terrain. In Canto II, Dante hesitates at the Vestibule that marks the entrance to hell. It is only through the reassurance of Virgil’s words that he finds fortitude. Dante feels compassion for Virgil as his master and mentor and states, “Thy words have moved my heart to its first purpose. My guide! My Lord! My Master! Now lead on”. At numerous other points also, Virgil shows his authority by dealing with deterrences that occur during their journey as in Canto III, when the ferryman, Charon, refuses Dante passage since he is a living man. Virgil forces Charon to grant them passage: “Charon, bite back your spleen:/This has been willed where what is willed must be/and is not yours to ask what it may mean.” Virgil’s influence, however, is limited. His power is associated with the power of reason, and this power is limited in Dante’s hell. At the very beginning, Virgil warns Dante of this. He says that at the end of the journey through hell that a worthier spirit shall be sent to guide Dante. Virgil cannot accompany Dante on into...
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...In Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus, the main character, goes through years of trials and terrors along the seas to return home to Ithaka. Although he does make the treacherous journey to his kingdom, he still has to empty out his castle of cruel suitors. Therefore, he can’t yet be reunited with his wife and son. To prevent an assassination on arriving at the castle, the goddess Athena resolves to mask Odysseus as a poor, unfamiliar, and elderly beggar and commands him to visit the swine herder. Eumaios, a swine herder to a disguised Odysseus, who is perceived as a stranger, is amazingly hospitable by acting courteously to his guest and is willing to sacrifice the best of the little he has for the benefit and satisfaction of his company. First, Eumaios’s...
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...Author: Course Title: Instructor; Date: A Critical Analysis of the Tempest by Shakespeare A critical analysis of the Tempest reveals numerous unscrupulous schemes that are often employed by human beings in a bid to gain power and influence. These schemes reflect the nature of people as they attempt to acquire dominance over others in various aspects of life. In the Tempest, these schemes are discernible from the many scenes where characters engage in underhand deals even against fellow characters in a bid to win influence. However, it is notable that the impact of these schemes is resolved quite amicably, although there remains a lingering discomfort that illustrates that this acquired utopia is rather temporal. It can be noted that some of the characters actually pay for their engagement in these illicit deals, although a more critical analysis reveals that this punishment may be deterrent enough as some of the characters do not seem to learn their lessons. Indeed, the Tempest creates the allusion of an island where goodness always overshadows the evil and in the end there seems to be a re-birth that signifies a resumption of normal life. (Pierce 374). It must be noted that this sense of utopia initially begins through a state of chaos when a party organized by Alonso suffers greatly from a vicious storm while at sea. This is notable when the play begins with the sound of lightning and thunder that causes “a tempestuous noise” (Shakespeare I, I, 1). Perhaps this malevolent...
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...The Grapes of Wrath directed by John Ford is a 1940 film based on the Pulitzer winning novel by John Steinbeck. It tells the story of the Joads who during the Great Depression in the 1930s were run off their farm in Oklahoma. The film details their journey to California in search of work and a new beginning for their family. This paper will relate the main character Tom Joad to the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and his theory of the state of nature and government as an artificial creation, and Jim Casy to Jean Jacques Rousseau’s theory of government and society as inhibitors of our natural freedoms. The Grapes of Wrath Tom Joad, played by Henry Fonda in the 1940 drama film Grapes of Wrath, is the main character who opens the movie returning to his home in Oklahoma after serving four years in prison for manslaughter. On the way he runs into Jim Casy, the former preacher who warns Tom that most sharecroppers have been evicted due to the effects of the depression. Once finding his family’s farm deserted, he finds them at his uncle’s farm preparing to also leave the next day for California in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. As they begin their treacherous journey across Route 66, the Joads and Casy endure many hardships. Grandpa, who didn’t want to leave his land, dies and is buried alongside the road. Then they run into a man who informs them that there is no work in California, but with not feeling they had any other options, they carry on with hope that they...
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...Symbolizing the Journey Introduction Visualize if you can a small child. She is about five years old with bouncy blonde curls that lie upon her tiny shoulders. She is kneeling over a small creature on what seems to be a deserted road. As she begins to weep uncontrollably until her little body is shaking as if she were standing on a fault line during an earthquake. If you look over her tiny shoulder a small white dog lies upon a gravel road. The dog’s eyes seem to be squinting yet all of the dust from the dirt road is almost completely covering its tiny, furry, body. But what is wrong with the dog? Is it dead or only merely injured? How did it get there and can it be saved? These questions that are shaped in the readers mind is indicative of a short story that uses not only imagery but symbols to tell a story. The picture you have formed in your head of the small, sad little girl and her beloved dog is an example of symbolism of the journey. While literally the dog is dead this may also be a symbolism of a girl losing the only thing in her little life that she trusted in a world that has abandoned her like the empty road she finds herself on. The symbolism of the journey and how two authors used this theme is the topic of this paper. Thesis While both Jean Rhys “Used to Live Here Once” and Eudora Weltly, in “A Worn Path” use symbolism and exposition one story is also about death and the other is about helping her grandchild’s life, yet many of the words used in “A Worn...
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...Throughout his writing he expands on the definition of commitment being the measure of an individual’s desire to succeed. Throughout the extensive plotline of “Touching the Void”; two mountain climbers set their sights on the Peruvian Andes and aim to reach the summit. After concluding the journey to the peak of the mountain ranges, they make their careful decent linked to one another by rope. During their treacherous decent; a complication arises when Joe tumbles from a ledge and falls suspending in free space held up by the rope attached to Simon. Teamwork and commitment to one another’s survival is vividly displayed throughout the text. “Who said one man can’t rescue another…We had changed from climbing to rescue and the partnership had worked just as effectively” (Simpson, 2004). The quoted text accurately represents the goals, commitment and desire to succeed shared by the two men on their decent from the mountain. Even through disaster, the commitment of the two men prevails which allows them to continue on even when the probable outcome does not seem favorable. The Sony Pictures film...
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...Theme of Revenge in Homer's Odyssey Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus. Orestes’ revenge is the first important example of the gods’ revenge in the poem. In Book 1, Hermes told Aegisthus, “’Don’t murder the man,’ he said, ‘don’t court his wife. Beware, revenge will come from Orestes…” (Homer 260). King Nestor delivers the story of Orestes’ revenge to Odysseus’ son Telemachus, while Telemachus is visiting Nestor to discover answers about his fathers’... The Character Medea's Revenge in Euripides' Medea Medea is a tragedy of a woman who feels that her husband has betrayed her with another woman and the jealousy that consumes her. She is the protagonist who arouses sympathy and admiration because of how her desperate situation is. I thought I was going to feel sorry for Medea, but that quickly changed as soon...
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...Tablet I Summary The story begins with a prologue introducing us to the main character, Gilgamesh, the Priest-King of Uruk. Gilgamesh’s mother is Ninsun, sometimes referred to as the Lady Wildcow Ninsun. She was a goddess, endowing Gilgamesh with a semi-divine nature. Lugulbanda, a priest, was his father. Gilgamesh constructed the great city of Uruk along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, and surrounded it intricately decorated walls. He also built a temple for the goddess Ishtar, the goddess of love, and her fatherAnu, the father of the gods. Gilgamesh is credited with opening passages through the mountains. He traveled to the Nether World and beyond it, where he met Utnapishtim, the sole survivor of the great flood that almost ended the world, the one who had been given immortality. When he returned to Uruk, he wrote everything down on a tablet of lapis lazuli and locked it in a copper chest. As the story begins, Gilgamesh is a tyrannical leader who shows little regard for his people. He takes what he wants from them and works them to death constructing the walls of Uruk. He sleeps with brides on their wedding night, before their husbands. It is said that no one can resist his power. The old men of Uruk complain and appeal to the gods for help. The gods hear their cries and instruct Aruru, the goddess of creation, to make someone strong enough to act as a counterforce to Gilgamesh. Aruru takes some clay, moistens it with her spit, and forms another man, namedEnkidu. Enkidu...
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...Reflection Paper 1 Reflection Paper Reflection Paper 2 Overall Impression of Book: I feel that Anne Fadiman narrated the story of Lia Lee’s and her family’s life in intimate and tragic detail. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a poignant depiction of the struggle between loving parents, hard-working medical professionals, and a very precious child caught in the middle of a tug-of-war. Ms. Fadiman very distinctly illustrates how the collision of two cultures indirectly led to the demise of a little seven- year old girl. I did not expect the story to end with Lia Lee in a persistent vegetative state. I was very excited when I first started the book, but I soon became rather depressed with the lack of compassion of people towards the Hmong in general throughout the book. I am not certain whether I am now more culturally aware now, but I was very frustrated by the lack of respect given to the Hmong by the people in the city of Merced and the doctors and nurses comments about the Lees. Three Major Themes Evident in the Book: A: Cultural Understanding An important thread running throughout this book is cultural understanding. Americans, including the medical professionals in Merced and Valley Children’s Hospital are depicted as very insensitive to the ways of the Hmong people. Anne Fadiman, while acutely aware of the physicians’ frustrations in providing medical care for those individuals with very radically...
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...*Daryoosh Hayati Lecturer of English Language, Lamerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran Journal of Subcontinent Researches University of Sistan and Baluchestan Vol. 3, No.7, summer 2011 (p.p 31-52) East meets West: a Study of Dual Identity in Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist Abstract This essay will present a postcolonial study of how Eastern identity and Western identity clash in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, the Pakistani- American novelist, and make the character of the protagonist a glocal one, (A mixture of global and local), a term newly coined by Postcolonial scholars to show the ever clashing mixture of global and local dualities in immigrants’ personalities. The basis for this research paper is the postcolonial theories of Edward Said, Fanon and Homi K. Bhabha. The aim is to question simply and sardonically the human cost of empire building, moreover it is discussed how the people in a totally alien culture are faced with different cultural predicaments, dilemmas as well as contradictions threatening their identity. Identity is supposed to be stable, while as this novel indicates, it is more of glocal identity which is at risk due to the cultural conflicts, as a result of which identity and ethnicity are subjected to change for the benefit of the hegemony. In line with Edward Said’s: “the East writes back” it is shown how this novel is a reaction to the discourse of colonization from the Pakistani side (which stands for the East)...
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...THE GIVER Lois Lowry ← Plot Overview → The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Citizens can apply for and be assigned compatible spouses, and each couple is assigned exactly two children each. The children are born to Birthmothers, who never see them, and spend their first year in a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “newchildren,” born that year. When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they spend their last years being cared for in the House of the Old until they are finally “released” from the society. In the community, release is death, but it is never described that way; most people think that after release, flawed newchildren and joyful elderly people are welcomed into the vast expanse of Elsewhere that surrounds the communities. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt properly to the society’s codes of behavior are also released, though in their cases it is an occasion of great shame. Everything is planned and organized so that life is as convenient...
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...Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift I/ Introduction A. Writer: Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift is the greatest satirist in the history of English literature. He was the contemporary of Steele, Addison, Defoe and other English enlightens of the early period; however he stood apart from them. The greatest satirist in the history of English of the bourgeois life came to the negation of the bourgeois society. Swift's art had a great effect on the further development of English and European literature. The main features of his artistic method, such as hyperbole, grotesque, generalization, irony, were widely used by the English novelist, the dramatists, by the French writers, by the Russian writers and others. Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He studied theology at Trinity College at the age of fourteen and graduated in 1688. He became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician and member of the Whig party, at the age of 21. At Moor Park, Sir William’s estate, Swift made friend with Hester Johnson, the daughter of one of Temple’s servants. His letters to her, written in 1710 – 1713, were later published in the form of a book under the title of Journal to Stella, the name he poetically called Hester. In 1692, Swift took his Master of Arts Degree at Oxford University. In 1694, he had begun to write satires on the political and religious corruption surrounding him, working on A Tale of a Tub, which supports the position of the Anglican...
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...the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. The first is to create or to encourage in every student the desire to read the best books, and to know literature itself rather than what has been written about literature. The second is to interpret literature both personally and historically, that is, to show how a great book generally reflects not only the author's life and thought but also the spirit of the age and the ideals of the nation's history. The third aim is to show, by a study of each successive period, how our literature has steadily developed from its first simple songs and stories to its present complexity in prose and poetry. To carry out these aims we have introduced the following features: (1) A brief, accurate summary of historical events and social conditions in each period, and a consideration of the ideals which stirred the whole nation, as in the days of Elizabeth, before they found expression in literature. (2) A study of the various literary epochs in turn, showing what each gained from the epoch preceding, and how each aided in the development of a national literature. (3) A readable biography of every important writer, showing how he lived and worked, how he met success or failure, how he influenced his age, and how his age influenced him. (4) A study and analysis of every author's best works, and of many of the books required for college-entrance examinations. (5)...
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