James Lewis

Literature has the capacity to provide insight into cultures from around the world. In the books one reads and the stories one hears, glimpses of different worlds become apparent and one is able to see how the different aspects of a culture work together to create a national identity. The music, cuisine, language and art depict much of what a culture consists of but some of the most important cultural cues come in the types of relationships formed between people. Whether the stress is on friendships or in intimate relationships can say much about a cultural identity. In the novel “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, American and Afghanistan cultures are compared and contrasted through the types of relationships that are formed by the main character and protagonist, Amir.
The novel begins in Afghanistan, the childhood home of Amir. In this part of the novel, there is a complete absence of women and the stress of relationships lies on the ties that are formed between males. Amir nor Hassan have a mother and there is absolutely no mention of women or the part they play in daily life in Afghanistan. Instead, there is much focus on the ties that exist between father and son and in the friendships made between males. There is the relationship between Hassan and his father, between Amir father and his best friend as well as the central relationship between Amir and his father and the friendship between Amir and Hassan. The relationship between Amir and his father, Baba, is a very strained one. Amir is continually vying for his father’s attention and feels as though he constantly falls short. In contrast, the father and son relationship between Hassan and his father is full of love, understanding and comradeship.
The friendship between Amir and Hassan is a central relationship throughout the entirety of the novel and showcases the brother-like understanding between the two boys during their childhood. In their friendship one understands the strong bonds that can exist between two boys who grow up together. Their childhood together creates between them a bond that will last through the subsequent war and through another generation. Likewise, the friendship between Amir’s father, Baba and Rahim Khan shows the loyalty and trust that can form between two men in a culture that emphasizes the relationships and friendships among men. In Afghanistan there is a strong focus on male to male relationships. This reflects a cultural difference to the Western world in which the focus on relationships lies in male to female relationships, which one sees in the second half of the novel.

book/movie report

Although living in fictional settings, literary characters can be just as complex if not more so than real life people. They are creations of a writer and as such can experience the spectrum of human emotion, tribulation and joy within a few pages of a book. Some famous characters include Hamlet, Odysseus, Don Juan and of course, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote. These characters all experienced dramatic twists of events that forced them to reconsider their role in life, speculate on their worth as a character and contemplate the world around them. In doing so many of them seem to experience bouts of insanity and Don Quixote is one such character. Many critics suggest that Don Quixote’s delirium is a result of his struggles and inability to find balance in his life and others offer the idea that he is merely pretending to be insane to illustrate his internal confusion. In looking closely at Don Quixote’s episodes of madness, it becomes clear that it is nothing more than a conscious decision in an attempt to show others what he is feeling inside.
When the novel begins, it seems as though Don Quixote has gone insane from reading too many tales about chivalrous knights and is journeying out himself in order to explore the fabled world. Many believe this is the key to his insanity and proof that indeed his very motive for the whole journey is a delusion. But his motive is one of intelligence on both his part as a character and that of the author. By organizing the story in such a way, Cervantes is showing his audience that stories can be real, that they are not merely pages but experiences to be had. Don Quixote’s decision to embark on a journey based on books, and his journey subsequently being one of the greatest books of all is a call to the reader to take active part in reading and to enjoy life itself. It is a plea that everyone’s person journey is worthy of literature and not an insane idea at all.
Furthermore, Don Quixote displays many signs of his clear intelligence and critical thinking throughout the whole novel. He converses throughout the story on topics such as literature, government and politics and even how to be a knight. He may have had a silly motive for his journey, but he sees the world clearly throughout the novel and is able to perceive the truth from the lies and judge between good and evil. At the conclusion of the novel, Don Quixote declares his sanity, something which should be taken at face value and not overly analyzed. Cervantes’ makes a point in having the character make this announcement: that everyone is in his own way insane and clear-headed. That there is no judge to one’s perception of the world and how they chose to act.

dissertation results

Posterity has always played the final role in exposing the misdeeds of the past, it is in the light of this statement that this paper will be conducting an explorative review of written literature that has brought to the fore the gruesome atrocities committed by state actors against an established social institution all purported to be in the interest of the state. The paradox that will be revealed through the retrospective look at these intriguing works is the rationality behind humanity acting against humanity under the cover of championing the cause of humanity.
In a ground breaking work, Edwin Black has stepped beyond the invisible line of retracing the long historical relationship between the IBM Corporation and the role of complicity it played in aiding the Nazi orchestrated Holocaust. An incident that is widely condemned as the most barbaric and gruesome act in the annals of humanity, carried out in the name of achieving a supposed state of racial purity. The question that begs to be answered is why, one race have reasons to feel impure by the existence of another race. Also, the extent to which an entire nation can expose an unpardonable level of gullibility by adhering to brainwashing barbaric propaganda tactics is also very worrying. In the same way, should sheer corporate objectives be the ultimate factor in finalizing the process of making a corporate giant like IBM become bedfellows with the Nazi regime? In seeking to provide clues to these acts, Black’s book have engendered a series of debates that have drawn us more closer than ever in our quest to reconciling the puzzles of the Nazi purge in Europe.
According to some analyst, contrary to the widely held notion that Silicon Valley is at the helm of pioneering the current information technology revolution, the hidden truth is that IBM’s reputation as the pioneering monopolist of information technology cannot be questioned. Candidly, real computer technology was evidently born in Berlin, by IBM’s European subsidiaries. This stunning revelation according to Black explains the remarkable efficiency with which the Nazi regime carried out its genocidal activities with a considerable degree of precision. A device known as the “ Hollerith punch-card,” tabulating machine, a precursor to the modern computer, used by the Nazi regime to conduct the first ever racial census was first created by IBM. Black further writes that, “When Germany wanted to identify Jews by name, IBM showed them how. When Germany wanted to use that information to launch programs of social expulsion and expropriation, IBM provided the technology wherewhithal. When the trains needed to run on time, from city to city or between concentration camps, IBM offered that solution as well.”

research proposal

Jeаnnette Wаlls grew up with pаrents whose ideаls аnd obstinаte eccentricity were both their blight аnd their escаpe. Rex аnd Rose Mаry Wаlls hаd four children. In the beginning, they lived like migrаnts, moving аmong Southwest desert towns, cаmping in the mountаins. Rex wаs а mаgnetic, rаdiаnt mаn who, when аbstemious, cаptured his children’s thoughts, coаching them physics, geology, аnd аbove аll, how to hold in your аrms one’s life courаgeously. Rose Mаry, who pаinted аnd wrote аnd couldn’t stаnd the аccountаbility of а condition thаt for her fаmily, cаlled herself аn “exhilаrаtion fаnаtic.” Cooking something to eаt thаt would be frenzied in fifteen minutes hаd no demаnd when she could mаke а pаinting thаt might lаst eternаlly.
Wаlls, who spent yeаrs trying to hide her childhood experiences, аllows the story to spill out in this remаrkаble recollection of growing up. From her current perspective аs а contributor to MSN?C online, she remembers the poverty, hunger, jokes, аnd bullying she аnd her siblings endured, аnd she looks bаck аt her pаrents: her flighty, self-indulgent mother, а Pollyаnnа unwilling to аssume the responsibilities of pаrenting, аnd her fаther, troubled, brilliаnt Rex, whose аbility to turn his fаmily’s downwаrd spirаling circumstаnces into аdventures аllowed his children to excuse his imperfections until they grew old enough to understаnd whаt he hаd done to them—аnd to himself. His grаnd plаns to build а home for the fаmily never evolved: the hole for the foundаtion of the “The Glаss Cаstle,” аs the dreаm house wаs cаlled becаme the fаmily gаrbаge dump, аnd, of course, а metаphor for Rex Wаlls’ life. Shocking, sаd, аnd occаsionаlly bitter, this grаcefully written аccount speаks cаndidly, yet with surprising аffection, аbout pаrents аnd аbout the strength of fаmily ties—for both good аnd ill.
Jeаnnette Wаlls begins her memoirs with а poignаnt moment аs she rides in а tаxi to аn event in New York City, аnd spots her homeless mother digging through the trаsh bins. This memoir is one you will hаve trouble putting down. You will feel you аre right there with Wаlls аs you reаd through her growing yeаrs, аs she survived а set of pаrents who, despite their intelligence, were bаrely аble to cаre for themselves let аlone four children. Wаlls’ first memory is thаt of being on fire from trying to cook hotdogs, аt the аge of three.
Her fаther would rouse them in the middle of the night to “pull up stаkes” аnd they would pаck their meаger belongings аnd heаd out to wherever they might end up. They were doing the “skedаddle”, аs her dаd would sаy, to аvoid the people who were аfter them. They moved from plаce to plаce, sleeping outside, in their cаr, in shаcks in the desert towns of the southwest.

business essays

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world,
and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
-Karl Marx
During a period in which masses of people clung to religion and believed in its power of salvation and the existence of a heavenly afterlife, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was making waves with his theories that religion and Christianity are nothing more than the “opiate for the masses.” Nietzsche denounced Christianity on the basis of its contradiction to human nature and in many of his discourses, explained why religion was a backwards way of thinking and faulty in its concepts. His “transvaluation of values” was among these theories that Nietzsche elaborated upon in his book titled “The Antichrist”. In this philosophical work, he explains why religion and especially Christianity is a mistaken way of thinking that goes against human nature by comparing it against other religions and using basic understandings of philosophy, logic, and human evolution.
Firstly, Nietzsche lays the foundation for what he believes to be “good” and what must therefore be “bad.” In his personal morality system, he defines “good” as anything that “heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, and power itself,”(Nietzsche, 1895). He then proceeds to explain that bad is anything that promotes or encourages weakness. He explained that religion has bred a race that is fearful, weak and morally ill, encouraging followers to believe that traits of weakness and humility are favored. Nietzsche derides Christianity for numbing peoples’ human instincts and encouraging them to prefer ideas that go against it.
Nietzsche’s concepts are based on the foundation that religious ideas are an inverted perception of nature and the way things are fundamentally meant to be. When looking at evolutionary theories such as Darwinism, religion contradicts the basic idea of survival of the strong and fittest. It does so by proposing that traits such as humility, weakness and pity should be held above natural characteristics of survival such as strength, power and force. Indeed religions such as Christianity and Catholicism uphold those who are weak over those who are strong, and encourage weakness and meekness over virility and energy.
In Christianity’s embrace of the pity and their supporting of pity as a value, they have in turn led people who are easily depressed and low in vitality. Pity allows the weak to survive, a concept that contradicts the essence of human evolution wherein only the strong and vivacious survive. Nietzsche thought that “pity multiplies misery and conserves all that is miserable” (Nietzsche, 1895).

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