On June 11, 1993, the United State Supreme Court upheld Wisconsins penalty enhancement law, which imposes harsher sentences on criminals who intentionally select the person against whom the crime… is committed.. because of the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry of that person. Chief Justice Rehnquist deliverd the opinion of the … Read more

Memoirs of a Geisha by Aurthor Golden and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison are two thought provoking books with a unique style of writing. Memoirs of a Geisha has a beautiful poetic grammar which captures readers imagination and brings the story to life. Morrison on the other hand uses combined voices to give varied … Read more

In 1970 Margaret Atwood, known only in small, mostly Canadian circles for her poetry, published a book entitled The Journals of Susanna Moodie, a persona poem sequence written from the point of view of a legendary 19th-century Canadian pioneer who had encountered the notorious murderess Grace Marks on a visit to a lunatic asylum. Grace … Read more

American Indian Wars There is perhaps a tendency to view the record of the military in terms of conflict, that may be why the U. S. Armys operational experience in the quarter century following the Civil War became known as the Indian wars. Previous struggles with the Indian, dating back to colonial times, had been … Read more

Diabetes is a chronic, genetically determined, debilitating disease that affects every organ system. There are two major types of diabetes: Type I and Type II. Type I or insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing cells of the pancreas and is usually, but not always diagnosed in … Read more

Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale, “The Black Cat,” is a disturbing story that delves into the contrasts between reality and fantasy, insanity and logic, and life and death. To decipher one distinct meaning presented in this story undermines the brilliance of Poe’s writing. Multiple meanings can be derived from “The Black Cat,” which lends itself … Read more

The mistrust most Americans feel toward the government officials and political parities of today can be traced back to the Watergate scandal of 1972, which led to the resignation of an American president. The crimes of the Watergate scandal included political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping (phone tapping), conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax … Read more

The Advantages of Creatine for Enhancing Athletic Performance If, about 5 years ago, you were to tell an athlete there was a supplement (which was not an anabolic steroid or other bodybuilding drug) that would help bodybuilders and athletes pack on as much as 10 rock-hard pounds of muscular bodyweight (which could lead to better … Read more

According to the U. S. census, there are approximately 9 million people living in America who are of Asian descent. Twenty-three percent of that are Chinese ancestry; 20% are Filipino; 12% are Asian Indian; and Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese each share about 10%. It is expected, that by the year 2000 Filipinos will be the … Read more

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is rich in symbolism, which is portrayed on several different levels in a variety of ways. One of the most important qualities of symbolism within this novel, is the way in which it is so fully integrated into the plot and structure. Some of the symbols are used mostly … Read more

Charles Dickens being anti-Semitic when portraying the character Fagin as “the Jew”, in his classic story Oliver Twist, or was he merely painting an accurate portrait of the 19th Century Jew in England? Some critics seem to believe so. Though there are no indications of neither anti-Semitic nor racist slurs throughout the story, Dickens’ image … Read more

If Shakespeare was alive today it is certain that there would be a lot written about him. We would read reviews of his new plays in newspapers, articles about his poetry in the literary papers, and gossip about his love life and his taste in clothes splashed across the glossy magazines. His views about everything … Read more

It was during the Second World War that the United States became a world power, thanks in a large part to its monopoly on atomic weapons. The atomic bomb is a weapon with great explosive power that results form the sudden release of energy upon the splitting, or fission of the nuclei of such heavy … Read more

The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and … Read more

Longing for Love Charlotte Bronte created the novel “Jane Eyre,” with an overriding theme of love. The emotional agony that the main character experiences throughout the novel stem from the treatment received as a child, loss of loved ones, and economic hardships. To fill these voids, Jane longs for love. Ironically, Jane rejects affection at … Read more

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, William McKinley defeated Grover Cleveland for the presidency and there was a huge push for the United States of America to expand beyond its continental boarders. (Lorant, p. 281) With an enthusiasm for a new urge for international Manifest Destiny, the American people wanted to match Europes imperial … Read more

Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition … Read more

The intermingling of contradictory cultures is perhaps nowhere more identifiable to Americans than the encounter between Native North Americans and the European settlers. Within this encounter there exists a close first-hand glimpse of how these indigenous people lived. These accounts are filled with personal feelings and biases toward the native groups. However, within these biases … Read more

Mr. Gordan, an esteemed English teacher, once said “Literature is Life”. I had not been able to grasp the reality of those words until I read The Great Gatsby . After reading The Great Gatsby, I understand that literature is written through inspiration from our daily lives. In this novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the … Read more

We take bioinformatics to mean the emerging field of science growing from the application of mathematics, statistics, and information technology, including computers and the theory surrounding them, to the study and analysis of very large biological, and particularly genetic, data sets. The field has been fueled by the increase in DNA data generation leading to … Read more

Both Brutus and Mark Antony have two entirely different purposes and agendas in each of their speeches to the Roman citizens. Brutus’ aim is to convince the throng of restless Romans that Rome has been saved thanks to the gallant conspirators for slaying the avaricious, power-hungry, Caesar. However, Antony, a loyal friend of Caesar’s, wants … Read more

Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels unleashes the blemishes of mankind. Along with mankind comes an unavoidable imperfection which ultimately lowers ones perception of man. The satiric story occurs in two imaginative lands called Lilliput, where all of the inhabitants are much smaller than Gulliver, the exhausted ship doctor who managed to swim to shore after a … Read more

James Butler Hickok was born in Troy Grove, Illinois, on May 27, 1837. He is better known as Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill was most famous for his lethal gun skills, but he was also known for his professional gambling, being a town marshal and even trying his hand at show business. As a boy … Read more

Hamlet’s self-description in his apology to Laertes, delivered in the appropriately distanced and divided third-person, explicitly fingers the greatest antagonist of the playconsciousness. The obligatory cultural baggage that comes along with Hamlet heeds little attention to the incestuous Claudius while focusing entirely on the gloomy Dane’s legendary melancholia and his resulting revenge delays. As Laurence … Read more

The Odyssey is an epic poem, which shows the maturation of Odysseus throughout his long journey home from the war at Troy. Odysseus grows from an arrogant, self-centered warrior to a more humble man. This mental odyssey is seen as the young Odysseus matures, learns values of and respect for nature and higher power to … Read more

The series of events in Emily Brontes early life psychologically set the tone for her fictional novel Wuthering Heights. Early in her life while living in Haworth, near the moors, her mother died. At the time she was only three. At the age of nineteen, Emily moved to Halifax to attend Law Hill School. There … Read more

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930’s live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930’s. The Joad family had to abandon their home and … Read more

This sonnet is so famous that it almost makes commentary unessential. It will always be one of the best sonnets in the history of language. The lively and rapid passage of time, which brings every thing to an end, is described, not indeed in abundance, but with such noteworthy and overwhelming effect that humanity almost … Read more

In this play two characters have a bigger role than one might imagine. Salerio and Solanio are the storytellers in The Merchant of Venice. They fill in important information that the audience needs to full understand the play. First, the two names differ by only a few letters, they are so close that one might … Read more

The Style and Tone of A Farewell to Arms “After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain” (332). This last line of the novel gives an understanding of Ernest Hemingway’s style and tone. The overall tone of the book is much different than that … Read more

The “haunting” effects of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut can be identified as creating curiosity, fear and anxiety in the viewer. They can be understood as painting a mosaic of symbolism in the viewer’s eye, and as depositing fragments of concepts inside his mind. The film’s slow pace seems to open wide gaps between the … Read more

Nathaniel Hawthorne accurately portrayed the colonial Puritans of Boston in his book, The Scarlet Letter, and what their actions and reactions would have been to Hester Prynne committing adultery, and the events thereafter, which also conform to what we know about the Puritans and how they were fastidiously against sex in any form. Not hardly. … Read more

The population in the United States has increased steadily in the 20th century. In 1990 the number of Native Americans was almost two million, 8 percent of the total population. Slightly more than one third live on a reservation; about half live in urban areas. Indian reservations function as independent governments within the federal framework. … Read more

People normally associate firefighting with danger. When speaking to friends and family about entering into the fire service, everyone has said that firefighting is a dangerous profession. There has been several discussions about the hazards of battling fires inside burning structures. Concern has been expressed about the dangers of exposure to fire and the radiated … Read more

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. His father was the owner of a prosperous real estate business. His father, Dr. Hemingway, imparted to Ernest the importance of appearances, especially in public. Dr. Hemingway invented surgical forceps for which he would not accept money. He believed that one should … Read more

Images produced by the media will make people do almost anything to fit American standards of the perfect body. Plastic surgery offers a quick fix to help achieve this goal but no matter how much surgery nothing is perfect. Images produced by media, quick fixes and the outcome of the fixes are problems that woman … Read more

Picture this, a young innocent girl, between the age of eight and twelve, running around, playing, and having a good time. Then she is snatched away to a foul hut, whose floor is nothing but dirt. Once in the hut, the helpless girl is stripped of all her clothing and pinned to the dirt floor. … Read more

Charlotte Bronte makes use of nature imagery throughout “Jane Eyre,” and comments on both the human relationship with the outdoors and human nature. The Oxford Reference Dictionary defines “nature” as “1. the phenomena of the physical world as a whole . . . 2. a thing’s essential qualities; a person’s or animal’s innate character . … Read more

The act of being honorable has been written about and discussed for ages, beginning from The Laxdaela Saga to the more recent works by Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings. Throughout literary history authors have created and restored figures from all times that seem to represent what is honorable and chivalrous. The two literary legends … Read more

Fate, as described in the Oxford English Dictionary, is “The principle, power, or agency by which, according to certain philosophical and popular systems of belief, all events, or some events in particular, are unalterably predetermined from eternity. ” To the western world, fate is perceived as “a sentence or doom of the gods” (Oxford). They … Read more

One might say that the business world is moving at a fast pace, a pace that is almost impossible to keep up with. This could be the result of the almighty Internet and the world of technology. In todays society, technology has revolutionized how we as consumers make decisions and procedures regarding the process of … Read more

Canadians throughout their history have been concerned over the status of their national literature. One of the major problems facing early Canadian writers was that the language and poetic conventions that they had inherited from the Old World were inadequate for the new scenery and conditions in which they now found themselves. Writers such as … Read more

Being handed a Living Will leaflet, provided by the hospital, my mind drew blank. I stood there looking at my mother as she laid in ICU. A tube had been placed down her throat, providing her lungs with oxygen. Several IV drips were embedded in her arm, her veins being supplied with medicine to help … Read more

Female Genital Mutilation is believed to have started in Egypt 2,000 years ago and spread from there. Only a few years ago, FGM was considered a cultural tradition, but now the United Nations has labeled it as a violation of human rights. Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States has declared Female Genital Mutilation … Read more

“The term “Conservative” had been attached to the moderates by the Reformers because the moderates had branded them as radicals. This name hardly describes the movement aptly. Conservative Judaism, is the American version of the principles of positive historical Judaism. The conservatives accept the findings of modern scholarship that Judaism is the product of a … Read more

On the 26th of January I decided to visit for the first time the San Diego Museum of Arts. When I came upon the museum which from a view was an astonishing piece of architectural exquisiteness. This extravagant building was amazingly distinguishable from all the other ill-rooted, stucco wall structures surroundings. I arrived at the … Read more

Chow Yun-Fat is the coolest movie actor in the world today, and the only way I can explain this is to talk about his mouth. He does cool things with his mouth. Smoking cigarettes is no longer an emblem of cool in the USA, but Chow does wonders with cigarette smoke in Prison On Fire. … Read more

Imagine, just for a minute, living in a time and place where you are not free to practice your own religious or spiritual beliefs and you are forced to live in fear because of persecution by the church and everyone around you. Persecution back in 1692 in Salem Massachusetts was a very real, very serious … Read more

In 1912 Alfred Wegener, a meteorologist, revived a theory that the continents of the eastern and western hemispheres were once joined. Wegener, along with his followers showed how the east coast of the Americas align with the westside of the Old World, a coincidence that Leonardo da Vinci commented upon. But no one could come … Read more

Appalachia, as defined in the legislation from which the Appalachian Region Commission derives its authority, is a 200,000 square mile region that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from south New York to northern Mississippi. Appalachia includes all of West Virginia and parts of twelve other states, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, … Read more