Healing and the modern day servants
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
The miraculous power of faith has been deemed able to heal a countless number of ailments from the time when Jesus walked the Earth performing miracles all the way to present day medical miracles involving prayer and strong faith. But what do these miracles tell us and prove in both the teachings...
Views about the afterlife
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Nobody knows for sure what will happen in the afterlife, we can only estimate based on our religious beliefs and personal opinions. Five major western religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism and Ba Hai, also have very different outlooks on what will happen to us, individually and...
"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," book series; and why it has a deep connection with American teen girls
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
The "Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants," consists of four books. These books have solidified the series as a literary masterpiece that has been heralded as a great work for young people. It has been celebrated as a wonderful literary effort. The books evoke thoughts of serene and picturesque...
An essay concerning Bloom's reading of the Republic
Essay - 5 pages - Philosophy
Philosopher and literary critic Allan Bloom (1968) writes that “The Republic is the true Apology of Socrates, for only in the Republic does he give an adequate treatment of the theme which was forced on him by Athens' accusation against him. That theme is the relationship of the philosopher...
Fighting fire with fire
Tutorials/exercises - 4 pages - Linguistics & languages
The antebellum viewpoint on slavery remains controversial. Presaging the Civil War, a fierce political debate took place between the Southern defenders of slavery and the Northern abolitionists. The two sides argued over the political, economic, social, religious, biological, and racial...
The one sided battled between man and nature
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
As long as the existence of literature, writers have sought to provide insight on the battle between man and nature. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the unyielding power of nature and the dire consequences of man's desire to conquer nature, play out in this cautionary tale. Two examples that will...
Science in action: Review
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Latour suggests that the construction of facts and machines is a collective process. He argues that there is nothing inherent in a statement that makes it a fact; rather it is the future processes of others who accept it, support it, ignore it, challenge it, etc wherein the destiny of a statement...
Barack Obama's use of the indefinite article /a/
Thesis - 6 pages - Linguistics & languages
The purpose of my research project was to examine Barack Obama's use of and pronunciation of the indefinite article /a/ during his speeches for the 2008 presidential campaign. I examined this element because I wanted to find out if there was any correlation between Obama's use of the indefinite...
Catastrophe and image, international post-modern fiction
Thesis - 11 pages - Literature
I have found two common, linked problems under scrutiny in three short stories by non-American authors. The three stories are “And of Clay We Are Created” (Isabel Allende), “The Laugher” (Heinrich Böll), and “The Street-Sweeping Show” (Feng Jicai), and the problems...
Why has class conflict not occurred in the form expected by Marxist thinkers and why has history not developed in the way Marx predicted?
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Karl Marx (1818 - 83) was responsible for one of the first and most influential theories of class within the sociological discipline. For Marx, classes can be seen as basic social groups divided by their specific position within the division of labor, and distributed within society according to...
Divided We Fall:Gender, Androgyny, and the troubled union of Adam and Eve
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - Literature
The single most important question at the center of John Milton's Paradise Lost is the question of predestination. The poem hinges on the assertion that mankind has been created “sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall” (III.99); if we do not accept this assertion, and instead...
Kristevan themes in "Sula" and "The Bluest Eye"
Thesis - 6 pages - Linguistics & languages
When Morrison describes her attempt to express black feminine subjectivity in The Bluest Eye, she claims that, “the problem, of course, was language”(211). According to Morrison, “ ‘civilized' languages debase humans”(Afterward, 216). Pauline, Pecola's mother, finds...
Masquerade in seductive fictions
Book review - 9 pages - Literature
In her Masquerade and Civilization, Terry Castle hypothesizes that the concept of “masquerade” is central to 18th century consciousness, and provides an intriguing insight into how the self was conceived of in “the age of disguise”(Castle, 5). Implicit in the idea of...
Ethics and faith in "Fear and Trembling"
Thesis - 8 pages - Literature
Soren Kierkegaard once wrote about himself, saying “Once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author” (Kierkegaard's Papirer). Undoubtedly one of his most popular works, it is no surprise he could foresee the endless amount of philosophical...
Dorothy Day (Part III): Nonviolent resistance
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
The Catholic Worker Movement founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin whose aim is to “live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.” As the name indicates, the Catholic Worker Movement was heavily influenced by Catholicism, yet not restricted to simple preaching of...
Machiavellian strategies in Koestler's "Darkness at Noon"
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
What would it be acceptable for a society to sacrifice in order to achieve a utopia? Does this utopia exist, and if so, is it even possible to achieve it? Is it possible to build paradise from concrete? Arthur Koestler, in his novel Darkness at Noon , demonstrates the impracticality of using...
Dual critique: "The American Scholar" and "The Poet"
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Emerson begins “The American Scholar” by declaring, “I accept the topic which not only usage, but the nature of our association, seem to prescribe to this day - the AMERICAN SCHOLAR” (53). These opening lines are incredibly specific; the atmosphere in which he finds himself...
Shakespeare's Shylock: A sympathetic portrait of a Jew in an anti-semitic culture
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice plays host to one of the most complex and intriguing characters of the accomplished playwright's literary canon. In the character of Shylock, Shakespeare presents a view of the Jews that is, while still negative by the standards of modern culture,...
"Sisters and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali ": A review
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
Megan Jennaway's theoretical framework in the first half of Sisters and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali, fuses feminist anthropology, Marxist power asymmetry discourse, and postmodernist concerns of representation and reflexivity. She posits that sexuality and desire have not been explored in...
Michel Foucault and his discourse on discursive history
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Michel Foucault may be one of the most influential French philosophers of our time. He spent much of his professional life as a professor, and he is best known because of his critical analysis of various social institutions; medicine and the human sciences being specific ones. He published many...
Greek and Shakespearean influences on Olivier's Hamlet
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Staging and adaptation is around us everywhere today, but not too many people put much thought into where the origins of our modern television, movies, and theater come from. We as the 21st century have come a long way from the beginning of theater to where we are now but not all the elements...
Human relationships in the teachings of Teresa of Avila
Thesis - 9 pages - Philosophy
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was the founder of the cloistered Carmelite order during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. As the founder of a strict, cloistered order that emphasized poverty one might expect Teresa to have conservative views on issues like the value of human relationships. Her...
The development of Early Christianity
Thesis - 7 pages - Philosophy
Jesus lived in a time period called second temple Judaism. During the lifetime of Jesus, Judea, where Jerusalem was located, and Galilee, where Jesus lived and taught, were separate countries under Roman rule. Though dominated by Rome the Jews in those countries had a certain amount of autonomy...
Reflections of race and American culture in the 'Tom' show
Thesis - 10 pages - Literature
In Martin Scorsese's 2002 film Gangs of New York, the two main characters-Amsterdam Vallon (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (played by Daniel Day-Lewis)- attend a 'Tom' show (a stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin) in New York City. In this scene,...
The duality of Holocaust literature
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
Other than the odd revisionist, the vast majority of sentient humans will attest to the horror that was the Holocaust. Unfortunately, those who can give first hand testimonies are few in number and quickly disappearing. The story gets even more muddled when psychologists protest that memory is...
A critical analysis of William James's statement on attention
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
In this essay we will critically analyze the famous philosopher, William James' views on attention. James appears to be right when he describes anyone in this condition is not paying attention. When describing attention as the mind's taking possession of an object “in clear and vivid...
Ulysses and Androgyny: Bloom as modernity's new womanly man
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
"Is he a jew [sic] or a gentile or a holy Roman or a swaddler or what the hell is he?or who is he?" (Ulysses 438) asks Ned Lambert regarding the character of Leopold Bloom to the pub-dwellers at Barney Kiernan's. This appears to be a predominant question that runs through Ulysses and many...
The impact of poetry and literature on the father-son relationship in John Stuart Mill's 'Autobiography' and Edmund Gosse's 'Father and Son'
Book review - 9 pages - Literature
When comparing John Stuart Mill's Autobiography and Edmund Gosse's Father and Son, one cannot ignore the fact that the two are very similar with respect to the strong father-son relationship that both James Mill and Phillip Gosse had with their sons. Mill's and Gosse's primary influence in their...
The quotidian interrupted: The fantastic in the everyday and its familial consequences in Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis';
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
"In front of this monstrous creature I refuse to pronounce my brother's name, and therefore I merely say: we have to get rid of it [emphasis mine]?All you have to do is try to shake off the idea that that's Gregor" (47), cries Grete to her father as tempers and patience flare at the end...
Italian futurism and art: Poetry, theatre, and war
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
“Erect on the summit of the world, once again we hurl our defiance to the stars!” (MASD 253), cries Marinetti in “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism 1909”. A very passionate, yet aggressive statement which, when analyzed, serves as a very pertinent encompassment of...
