Edith Wharton's 'The Age of Innocence'
The Age of Innocence is an enchanting Victorian era novel that eloquently illustrates the price of being among New York's high society the late nineteenth century. The novel's main characters are Newland Archer, a high society attorney, his fiance May Welland, and her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska.
Archer is captivated by May's girl-like innocence and her firm grasp on their society's traditions. Their families are among New York City's social elite, and their marriage is a profitable one from both sides. The arrival of May's bohemian cousin, Countess Olenska, shakes their society and threatens to spark their engagement with controversy.
Archer, on behalf of his in-laws, announces his engagement to May in order to draw attention away from Countess Olenska, in an attempt to prevent scandal. It is here that Archer sets himself up as Olenska's defender - a role he fulfills both reluctantly and dutifully throughout…...
mlaBibliography www.questia.com/PM.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=20943560
Dasenbrock, Reed Way, ed. Literary Theory after Davidson. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.
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Davis, Joy L. "The ritual of dining in Edith Wharton's 'The Age of Innocence.'." The Midwest Quarterly 34.4 (1993): 465+. Questia. 19 May 2003 http://www.questia.com/ .
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Conflict Themes in "Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton
This paper looks at the Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton and discuses certain aspects within the novel, such as the central conflict themes, and the development of certain characters, this paper also looks at in brief the irony and symbolic nature of the time....
mlaSadly this realistic novel is book set all to well within society that existed then and in many ways exists today, society is in ruin when it is run in such a way as the elite status of the past, this will never end in any society it will only be obscured by the negative aspects of the different society needs.
References
Wharton E (1996) The Age of Innocence; Penguin Books; London
When that rocket took flight, in that moment I knew that learning was something that would never end for me. I knew that learning would be a life long process that would take me through highs and lows. However, in this instance the lows would never be seen in a negative light, not by me anyway. These moments would be more opportunities to grow from mistakes and perfect my approach.
There are times when people may overlook how powerful a college education is and can be. This is not an opportunity that I will take for granted. I recognize that there are other students that want an education just like me. However, the only difference is my determination and drive, as well as the lengths I will go through to learn and gain the knowledge I need to make a difference. If given the opportunity to attend your higher institution…...
DNA Exonerations: John Kogut
The Path To Exoneration: John Kogut
The Path to Conviction
When 16-year-old Teresa Fusco left work at 9:45 PM on November 10, 1984 she became one among several young girls reported missing over the past several years [Centurion Ministries, 2013; Innocence Project, n.d.(a)]. In contrast to her predecessors, however, her body was discovered a month later in a wooded area several blocks from the roller rink where she worked. According to the autopsy, Teresa had been raped and murdered. Semen and sperm were collected from her body and the marks on her neck revealed that she had been strangled with a rope or cord. Also found at the scene were her jewelry and the murder weapon. The coroner's office, however, failed to conduct a blood type analysis on the semen.
The Nassau County police were under tremendous pressure to solve these disappearances, especially Teresa's rape and murder [Innocence Project, n.d.(a)].…...
mlaReferences
Centurion Ministries (2013). Dennis Halstead, John Kogut, & John Restivo, Long Island, NY. CenturionMinistries.org. Retrieved 6 Oct. 2013 from http://www.centurionministries.org/cases/dennis-halstead-john-kogut-and-john-restivo/.
Drumm, David. (2013, May 11). Why the FBI doesn't record interrogations. JonathanTurley.org [blog]. Retrieved 7 Oct. 2013 from http://jonathanturley.org/2013/05/11/why-the-fbi-doesnt-record-interrogations/ .
Editors. (2013, Jan. 1). America's retreat from the death penalty. New York Times, A18. Retrieved 7 Oct. 2013 from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/15/maryland-death-penalty/1989977/ .
Gootman, Elissa. (2003, Jun. 12). DNA evidence frees 3 men in 1984 murder of L.I. girl. New York Times, B1, B5. Retrieved 7 Oct. 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/nyregion/dna-evidence-frees-3-men-in-1984-murder-of-li-girl.html .
By taking part in his destiny, she somewhat disproves Zeus' claim that humans are wrong to suggest that the gods are to blame -- for without her interference, the many suitors would not have been slaughtered by Odysseus.
Athena's speech here, which will fuel the eventual release of Odysseus and his long ride home, continues at this point to describe the situation in which (at the story's beginning) he is imprisoned. She described how he is suffering torments "on a wave-washed island rising at the centre of the seas," where he is held captive by "a daughter of Atlas, wicked Titan." This daughter, Calypso, is herself an immortal, and contemporary of the oldest gods. The Titans were those deific forces which proceeded Zeus and the other Olympic Gods. Cronos, king of the Titans, had been the father of Zeus and over thrown by them. In this overthrow, the old titans…...
D., a senior child-protection specialist with the Christian Children's Fund. "You don't falter. You don't disobey. Any show of weakness and you're killed" (Amber, 2004).
Hamer (2010) writes "Child soldiers were portrayed as having no connections in society, without skills, incompetent and prone to violence, and it was strongly implied that they were trapped in a vicious circle and that they would always experience difficulties in returning to a non-violent routine because they had been actors and witnesses of too many atrocities during the war (p. 54).
Post Traumatic Stress
It is possible to identify with captors by other means as well. Due to their age and size children are basically powerless in the world. By identifying with their tormentors it is possible for children to gain a strong sense of power, denied to them by other means. By following orders they may come to believe they will receive additional rewards such as…...
mlaReferences
Amber, J. (2004). Abduction of Innocents. Essence (Time Inc.), 35(8), 172-218. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Convention on Rights of the Child. (n.d.). United Nations Office of the High Commission on Human Rights. Retrieved January 6, 2011. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/crc.pdf
Denov, M. & MacLure, R. (2006). Engaging the Voices of Girls in the Aftermath of Sierra Leone's Conflict: Experiences and Perspectives in a Culture of Violence. Anthropologica. Vol. 48, No. 1, War and Peace / La guerre et la paix (2006), pp. 73-85. Published by: Canadian Anthropology Society Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25605298
Dickson-Gomez, J. (2002, Dec.). Growing up in Guerrilla Camps: The Long-Term Impact of Being a Child Soldier in El Salvador's Civil War. Ethos. Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 327-356 .
Yet the reader can easily piece together this scenario: the harried working mother trying to find a spouse sends away her daughter so that (as an unattached woman) she can pursue romance and remarriage. That the daughter had been shuffled out of the way in favor of romance is made evident by the fact that once she returns she is severely marginalized by her mother's relationship with her stepfather. For example, they frequently leave this little five-year-old home alone when they go out together at night -- something that by modern standards is considered abusive. In fact, Emily is obviously traumatized by this, and becomes frightened and delusional. This overwhelming fear is made worse when her mother gives birth to a second child.
When her sister is born, Emily is entirely pushed aside in favor of the newcomer. One cannot easily justify her mother's selfishness in this case. When her…...
Pocahontas Through the Ages
Robert Tilton's book, Pocahontas: The Evolution of a Narrative, is ultimately a story about a story. Tilton's study does not largely concern itself with the real life individual whom we have come to know as Pocahontas, nor the primary texts from the early seventeenth-century that documented the facts of her life as they originally occurred. In addition, Tilton does not engage in pointed discussion about the principle players involved in the famous rescue of John Smith, such as, the Powhatan people or key members of the Virginia plantation. He also side-steps the question of the historical authenticity of the rescue story -- a story that largely came into doubt amongst nineteenth-century critics and writers from the northern states who struggled to weaken the power of the mythic narrative being exploited by southerners, around the time of the Civil ar. The story of Pocahontas, Tilton argues, has played…...
mlaWorks Cited
Tilton, Robert S. Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994.
Country combines a coming of age story with personal insights into the psychological effects of war. Haunted by her father's and uncle's experiences in Vietnam, seventeen-year-old Sam Hughes continually seeks to understand and to make real the facts surrounding her father's death. Set during the crucial summer after high school graduation, Bobbie Ann Mason's novel traces the development of its protagonist over a relatively short period of time, but offers great character insight. As her nickname suggests, Sam is a tomboyish, spunky teen who both acts and feels older than her chronological age. One of her closest friends and confidants is her veteran uncle, who she suspects suffers from Agent Orange. Sam's concerns about Emmett's health border on the obsessive, but her attempts to unearth the past equal a deeper investigation into her father. Because he died before she was born, and not much older than Sam herself, Dwayne…...
Shakespeare and Blake
A prevalent issue in English literature is how social status affects individuals. Two writers that are able to explore the negative aspects of social status are William Shakespeare and William Blake. In Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice, social status plays a major role in determining who does or does not get promoted within the military; this determination, in turn, leads to rebellion on the part of Iago who is both angry and jealous after being passed up for promotion. On the other hand, Blake's poems of the same title, "The Chimney Sweeper" from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, highlight what children of lower social classes must endure for the benefit of their families. Through their respective works of literature, Shakespeare and Blake demonstrate the lasting impact that social striation has on individuals.
Othello, the Moor of Venice is a dramatic play that focuses on Othello's…...
Tolerance
Global terrorism has changed the entire spectrum of tolerance in today's world. Highlighted by the events of 9/11 the facts that even the world's most powerful nation was not immune to the effects of terrorism brought home the fact that there was little defense to the acts of terrorists. The age of innocence in the United States had ended and the rest of the world waited to see how the United States would react (Schorow 2002).
Terrorism has been a part of the world framework for some time but in the United States it had been something that occurred somewhere else. It was not anything that those living within the borders of the United States had to be concerned with. Those types of problems existed elsewhere. In America everyone was safe: until 9/11. 9/11 forced Americans to look at terrorism in a different light and to examine the roots and goals…...
mlaReferences
Blake, Michael. "Religion and Statecraft: Tolerance and Theocracy: How Liberal States Should Think of Religious States." Journal of International Affairs, Fall/Winter 2007: 1-17.
Stetson, Brad and Joseph G. Conti, The Truth about Tolerance: Pluralism, Diversity, and the Culture Wars. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2005.
Hinkson, John. "In the name of freedom: is the legacy of September 11 a global anti-liberal ascendancy?" Arena Magazine, February 1, 2002.
Hoodbhoy, Pervez. "The United States and Islam:toward perpetual war?(Views from Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and China." Social Research, December 22, 2005.
here Are You Going, here Have Been?
Joyce Carol Oates's short story "here Are You Going, here Have You Been?" was first published in the literary journal Epoch in 1966. The story is about beginnings and the rites of passage. This work is an illustration of a coming of age story, also known as an initiation story. In such stories, the protagonist undergoes an important rite of passage, transformation, an experience of transition, usually from childhood to adulthood, or from innocence to experience. The story focuses on that turning point, that trial, or the passage from one state to the other.
The story is about a fifteen-year-old girl named Connie, a pretty girl who is in the middle of a rebellious adolescence. She alienates herself from her family, preferring to spend her time with her friends at the local restaurant looking for boys. She enjoys the popular music of the day and…...
mlaWorks Cited
Dylan, Bob. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Blown' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Like A Rolling Stone." Bob Dylan Lyrics. AZLyrics.com. (2011). 5 May 2011.
Marsden, Christina. "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?": Seduction, Space, and a Fictional Mode." Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 18, Issue 1 (Winter, 1981): p. 65-70. 5 May 2011. < http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6b438e44-0681-4cec-b6a8-42ed904fd4c0%40sessionmgr111&vid=4&hid=110>
Oates, Joyce Carol. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" The Wheel of Love. New York: The Vannguard Press, Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., 1970.
Again, this feminine passivity outshines masculine action in its ability to experience divine and even human love.
As Crashaw continues, the erotic imagery becomes more emboldened and perhaps slightly more ambiguous, not clouding or confounding interpretation but suggesting several alternatives that work towards the same end of demonstrating the purity of passivity in its relation to the divine. After setting up the concept of virginity, love, and an active passivity with the juxtaposition of love with blood, Crashaw either extends or shifts this image further with the lines, "Scarse has she Blood enough to make / a guilty sword blush for her sake" (25-6). There is the clear surface image that juxtaposes the child with the soldier; the child is so small that she would scarcely stain the sword of a soldier that slays her, and already the grotesque nature of this image emerges as a means of shocking the…...
mlaWorks Cited
Crashaw, Richard. "The Flaming Heart." Accessed 29 May 2012. http://www.bartleby.com/236/29.html
Crashaw, Richard. "A Hymn to the Name and Honor of the Admirable Sainte Teresa." Accessed 29 May 2012. http://www.bartleby.com/236/28.html
Davis, Walter. The Meditative Hymnody of Richard Crashaw. ELH, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring, 1983): 107-29.
Gallagher, Lowell. Crashaw and Religious Bias in the Literary Canon. In Early Modern English Poetry, Patrick Cheney et al., eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Knowledge comes as Mary Helen becomes aware of the fact that she is unwelcome in certain places, like the local movie theater, because of her race.
Questions about the reading
1. Catholicism plays an important role in the novel. Are people such as the women called "The Three Trinidads" who compete as to who can offer the most prayers to God and Father Muller who hates dancing but loves the beach hypocrites? Does their form of rationalization reflect badly upon the faith? (Compare these images with the author's mother at her young brother's funeral).
2. The story is told through the eyes of a child, but the author is much older. How does Ponce use irony to add humor and also pathos to her tale?
3. Food and cooking play an important role in the tale in its depiction of women What does it mean that the humble but loving Dona Luisa makes…...
Gender as Performance
Theodore Dreiser's 1900 novel Sister Carrie is in style and tone in many ways radically different from Edith harton's The House of Mirth, published just five years later. And yet there is in both works a similar core, what might be called a parallel moral, for both novels explore the ways in which gender is performative in the two societies that we learn about within the world of each novel. hile, of course, in many ways gender is what we are born with, it is also just as clearly for these two writers (as it would be for any anthropologist) part of the performance of self, the way in which each person in these books presents herself or himself both to the world at large as well as internally. Both novels allows the authors to tell a compelling story while simultaneously exploring the gender roles expected of both…...
mlaWorks Cited
Ammons, Elizabeth. Edith Wharton's Argument with America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.
Caserio, Robert L. "Edith Wharton and the Fiction of Public Commentary." Western Humanities Review 3 (40), Autumn 1986: 189-208.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. New York: Signet, 2000.
Elbert, Monika M. "Bourgeois Sexuality and the Gothic Plot in Wharton and Hawthorne" In Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition, John L. Idol & Melinda M. Ponder (eds.). Amherst: University of Massacusetts Press, 1999: 258-270.
Research-Based Essay Books
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
"In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick
"Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America" by Beth Macy
These books provide in-depth, well-researched accounts of historical events, scientific discoveries, and societal issues. They rely on extensive interviews, archival research, and scientific data to support their arguments and conclusions.
Persuasive Essay Books
"How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman
"The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg
These books aim to persuade readers....
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