A Rose for Emily - Poem Interpretation Essay Example for Free

A Rose for Emily Poem Interpretation Essay The novel of William Faulkner ‘A Rose for Emily’ recounts a part of the past in the life of Miss Emily Grierson and the society in a town of Jefferson after the Civil War. We can watch the intriguing story of a young woman when she is changing from nice and likable young lady to a hermit-like individual, a burden and nuisance for the people and authority of the town. She lived in a gorgeous but rundown house without any major ‘troubles’, like paying taxes for example, which was settled (established?) in 1894 with the Mayor, when she couldn’t afford it. When the change in the office came the tax collectors started asking her to pay the debt to no avail. There was a ‘silent war’ going on for years between Emily and the town people until she fully retreated to her house after the death of her father. There is a short time of romance when Emily met a man and the fear of being abandoned made her crazy to a point where she tried to ‘keep’ him for herself ‘with the little help’ of arsenic. This was the last time he was seen alive. People suspected something bad happened but with no evidence there was nothing they could do about it. Only after her death they entered one of the rooms on the second floor and discovered what took place 40 years earlier. Her lover was ‘asleep’ in a bed, still in nightclothes. Next to him, on the pillow, Emily’s strand of hair. The author tries to go deeper into dark, psychological side of American Goth, going away from its basic ideas like haunted houses, castles, deaths, ailments (diseases), madness, curse, etc. The end of the novel is startling, giving a reader quite a criminal case sample, where the guilty got away with the crime. The question â€Å"Is it possible to commit a crime with no consequences?† lingers in the air. According to the author apparently yes. In his times. It is doubtful that an incident like that could happen in present times, however we still have shocking stories in the news that occur every day and still cannot believe how human mind can lead a person to do heinous crimes.

Apathy and the Living Dead :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Apathy and the Living Dead It’s nothing to die; it’s frightful not to live. - Victor Hugo The word â€Å"Apathy† has its origin in Greek and literally means "without feelings." Isn’t that a description of the dead? That was what Victor Hugo was referring to when he wrote, "It’s nothing to die; it’s frightful not to live." In other words, we should not be afraid of dying, but not living. The apathetic are alive, but without feelings, so they are not living. They are the living dead. Here’s what the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900-1980) had to say about the subject, "... In the 19th century the problem was that God is dead; in the 20th century the problem is that man is dead ..." He calls apathy a problem for a good reason. It is a double-edged sword that wounds both the apathetic and the society in which they live. For example, although nuclear weapons cannot destroy democracy, voter apathy can! Such is the horrific negative power of apathy. As the world’s leading democratic country, The U.S., prepares to go to the polls, voter turnout is expected to be about 36%. Wouldn’t you call that a wakeup call? What is the cause of apathy? It is often frustration and a sense of powerlessness that causes people to withdraw from life. However, the ultimate cause is their attitude, the way they react to the changing world. Let’s take a look at a specific example. Jan has recently learned that her company has been bought by another company. Within a month, she and her coworkers will learn who among them will be hired by the new company and who will lose their jobs. Overnight their sense of security has been shattered. They are experiencing apprehension and frustration. They feel that they have lost control over their lives. They complain and disengage from activity. "If the company doesn’t care about me, why should I care about it? What’s the point of working when I’m probably going to lose my job anyway?" This is an example of worker apathy. The staff has been reduced to a bunch of zombies. No one is doing their job. They are just putting in their time until that fateful day when they learn whether they have a job in the new company. There is one exception, however. And that is Jan. She is different. She has a different attitude and is living proof that apathy is not caused by events, but by our reaction to events.

My High School Years Essay

We all have nice memories of when we attended high school. Memories that will never be forgotten. For most of us it has been a while since high school and it is all a blur. We all remember a lot of things, especially things that the school did and we didn’t approve of. Something that would annoy us, but we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. The majority of us, I’m sure, don’t like the way the school handled the schedule, the food we had for lunch, or the teachers we had to listen to. One of the things that they need to change in high school is the way they handle the lunch periods. School is already hard on us because of all the homework we get and I don’t think is fair that they won’t allow us to pick our lunch period. We are all accustomed to eating at a certain time. The school would either give us lunch too early or too late. If they gave us lunch too early, we wouldn’t be hungry. In my case I would have breakfast during my study hall which was 3rd period, then I would have lunch which was 4rd period. I would have to force myself to eat or else I would be hungry the rest of the day. If we had lunch too late, we would not be able to concentrate in class because while we were working silently on our work we could hear our stomach growling, students that were sitting around us would just laugh. I remember that when that would happen to me I would start turning the pages of my book real fast so that the students around me couldn’t hear me. When I was in high school most of the students were mean and unfriendly. It was really hard to make friends, at least for me it was, and to be placed in a lunch period where you didn’t know anyone wasn’t easy. Our high school had a big cafeteria that could be divided into three smaller rooms, but they would never open up the walls. The reason for this was that there had been a huge fight once and they didn’t want any more confrontations. Each room had a name, they were named Commons A, Commons B, and Commons C. We weren’t able to pick the common in which we wanted to be in. The school, to make our life more miserable, would also give us assigned seats. One thing that I can’t complain about and that my classmates are probably going to look at me right now for saying this is the food. I went to Belvidere High School and I loved the food! I would look forward to lunchtime every day just because of the food. Till this day I have not found alfredo sauce that is as good as the one that they just to give us in high school. One thing that I would hate in high school was how they would run the schedules. They would give us too much time for one thing and not enough for another. We would go into a classroom for 15 minutes and do nothing. This class period was called home room. The teacher was supposed to inform us of changes that would be going on around the school, but they never would. We would sit there for 15 minutes of our life and basically do nothing. The teacher herself didn’t know what was going on. They also need to take away study hall, people didn’t do their homework during study hall. They would just sit there and talk, they wouldn’t even bring their books to study hall. Instead of getting study hall we should get more gym time. I mean, 45 minutes isn’t enough to actually exercise. By the time that we are done getting dressed we only have about 35 minutes left. Then the teachers instead of hurrying up the students, they’re over there having conversations with the other gym teachers . Then they take forever to take attendance. By then time they’re done explaining what were actually doing that day, we have like 25 minutes left of gym, not including the 5 minutes they give us at the end of the class period to get changed. 20 minutes is not enough time to run a gym class. We can’t exercise, sweat and take a shower in that little time and then the media complains that the students are obese. The method that some teachers have of teaching is absolutely awful. My Spanish teacher for native speakers was really nice and got along with everyone. All the students would talk so well about her, they would always say positive things about her. Probably because they never did anything while they were in her class. The only thing was that she was horrible at teaching. Well, it wasn’t that she was horrible at it, it was just that she wouldn’t teach anything. I remember she got sick and was out for three months. During that time we literally did not do anything. I remember that the substitute would just look at us and he would ask us what would we usually do, we would look at him, smile and answer â€Å"nothing†. Don’t ask why, but this was the second year that I had taken Spanish class with her, so when she came back she told us that most of us had been with her for two years so she would give us a grade based on what we had gotten the year before. I took that class to improve my writing in Spanish, to learn the proper grammar, but I did not achieve any of that. The English teachers weren’t as bad as the Spanish teacher, but we still didn’t accomplish much. The only time that I remember writing an essay in high school was junior year. Maybe it had to do with the school that I was in. My junior year of high school I went to Belvidere High School instead of Elgin High School. In Belvidere High the teachers were a little more strict, at least that’s what I thought. Until I found out that the only teacher that had ever assigned me to do an essay had been with one of the students. I was completely shocked because she had always been very professional about her job. Even though there’s a lot of negatives things with the high school that I went to, I still enjoyed every minute of it. I got to meet new people and experience new things. Sure my high school wasn’t the best, but I am still thankful that I received a basic education. The only thing that I do regret is not going to prom. I told myself that if no one asked me to prom that I wouldn’t go. Nobody ended up asking me so I didn’t go. I lost the chance to experience something that you only get to experience once in your life. So enjoy your high school while you can because once you are out, there is no turning back.

Entrenched Sectarianism Limits Optimism, Impacts Views Of...

Entrenched Sectarianism Limits Optimism, Impacts Views of Democracy Hope for a more inclusive government, however, is tenuous given the deep distrust built over a decade of sectarian tensions and violence. Many participants believe the new government is no more inclusive than the previous one and is driven primarily by sectarian preferences. This hits at a core paradox that casts a shadow over Iraq’s future and its ability to progress: while almost all participants are highly critical of sectarianism in Iraq, many—even in the same statement—demonstrate sectarian attitudes. Though they are all eager to end the sectarian divisions, many participants still use sectarian language that further enhances this division. For example, a Baghdad Shia man says, â€Å"Iraq is one of the most important Arab countries; it is unbelievable that we have a Kurdish president.† Many participants view sectarianism as the underlying barrier to improving lives, strengthening the economy, resolving the security situation, and fighting ISIS. Sectarian tensions affect atti-tudes toward Iraqi leaders and democracy in general. For example, many Sunni and Kurd par-ticipants worry that Abadi will only represent Shia interests and think that someone coming from Maliki’s party, Da’wa, will focus more attention on those within his sect and ignore the needs of others. An Erbil Kurdish woman says, â€Å"Al-Abadi is from the same political party as al-Maliki and they have the same ideas and politics. They are doing the