English Literature

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story written by Flannery OConnor in 1955 that focuses on the grandmothers perspective of events. The story primarily revolves on the humorous portrayal of a family embarking on a vacation. It is a confrontation of a family with violence and surprised death. It says that Flannery OConnor is one of the best and the most inspiring writer in the Southern authors that captures her own religious beliefs and conviction. The story begins when a typical Southern family is being challenged by the grandmother to take the vacation to Tennessee instead of Florida. She panicked that they might encounter the convicted killer who is being rumored to be heading on the South. The grandmother is unfortunately ignored by the family and firmly decided to take the vacation on Florida.

The short story though it confronts irony and violence reveals the characters human nature when faced with difficult circumstances. It also depicts how different people perceive and approach religion and God. The short story is bold in a way that it directly pinpoints the frailties and weaknesses of the character.

The grandmother in the story reflects superficialnes. This reflects when the next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car, ready to go despite her strong disagreement for Floridas trip the other day. The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print (O Connor, 1995). Her primary purpose is for people to recognize her that shes a lady in case she was found dead. Her actions and behavior can be interpreted as her readiness for death but the familys encounter with Misfit shows her horror and unreadiness.

The character of Misfit though is opposite to the grandmothers ignorance and tolerance. Though he was portrayed as the antagonist and villain, O Connor portrayed him as a deep person potential to be wise and profound. The Misfit has a much deeper understanding of a religion which he greatly manifested when he asks the grandmother if it seems right that Jesus was punished and he has escaped punishment. Misfit revealed mankind at their worst who treated him cruelly. In his conversation with the grandmother he asked a lot of questions about religion that the grandmother superstitiously and ignorantly answered. Misfit who cant answer his questions metaphysically and spiritually unconsciously relied on the violence of the physical world as a means of escape and survival.  The Misfit is portrayed as a keen observant of the world while the grandmother is portrayed as a devout Catholic who lacks compassion and humility.

The story also revealed how Christianity as a moral and spiritual guidance is no longer a priority. O Connor presented the children of Bailey as highly bold, too intuitive and unethical. It is alarming on how the nature of change and time with the liberation and uprising of modernity transform people. The story also stresses the importance of being a good Christian than looking like a good Christian, when the story shows the transformation in the grandmother as the story progresses. One of the most violent portrayals of the grandmother is when shes trying to protect herself for being murdered even if her family around her struggle to survive from death. It shows her human nature of selfishness who regards her life more than anything else.  

The story however has a distracting and violent ending that is vital to fully understand the story. The author purposely created the short story as a way of social awakening about the real essence and meaning of Christianity. Christianity as a religion should give importance to inward transformation than merely outward manifestations. The story also ironically presented how a simple misstep can lead to death and destruction. However, life is a continuous process that has lots of shifting but eventually will lead you to self discovery and self realization. What is sometimes ironic in life if after self realization, there is already no chance to mend oneself the way that happened to the grandmother.

To become a part of an institution that has a well-established background in liberal arts and is considered as one of the best colleges in the United States can be contemplated as a crucial step in further educating oneself. On a personal note, such perspective is a definitive means to fulfill my objective of obtaining high quality education which eventually would help me in securing a strong application in the future practice and would introduce me to various activities that are strongly related to the mathematical landscape. Pursuant to this aspiration, Wellesley College complements my desire in furthering my skills and know-how through the experiential education incorporated within its programs. I know that the education that I am about to attain in this college would provide me with the opportunities not only to advance my career life but also significantly contribute to my personal growth. I consider this institution as a prime choice for me to pursue my higher education because optimal results can be expected, as seen from the successful women from varying fields who were able to graduate in this college, such as Hillary Clinton, Anya Corke, and Diane Sawyer to name a few, all of whom have inspired me to continue my education in this institution.

As I am currently taking up a business degree, I wish to pursue an education in mathematics at Wellesley College because I fervently believe that the trainings as well as the academic activities offered by the program, along with the notable faculty members, would teach me to become more competitive and would endow me with skills that are imperative in succeeding every career path I am about to take. At the same time, the program would allow me to enjoy the whole experience of  education and work with people of diverse backgrounds. Being an individual who gives high regard for academic determination, trainings, and educational experiences, Wellesley College complements my set goals and would profoundly add value to my character as a future professional. By working my way to the top, the things that the college would endow me would be invaluable for my future practice. In return, I am ensuring the college that I am a good candidate by laying strong interest and self-actualization during the rest of my student tenure.

According to Dennis G. Jerz (2010) in his weblog
A thesis statement is the single, specific claim that your essay supports. A good thesis statement is not simply an observation, a question, or a promise. It includes a topic, a precise opinion, and reasoning. ( HYPERLINK httpjerz.setonhill.eduwritingacademicthesis.htm httpjerz.setonhill.eduwritingacademicthesis.htm)

The following are thesis statements of the four short stories The Tell-tale heart and The fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Alan Poe and  Rappacinis daughter and The birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Tell-tale heart
The short story is about a murderers narration of the murder committed. It was written in an intense and detailed emotion felt by the murderer to get rid of what he identifies as the Evil Eye.

The fall of the house of Usher
The short story is about fear of the subjects of the story to what may happen because their ends have been pre-destined. The narrator is unsure of the reason why he is to stay with his friend. Roderick Usher has an aversion to the illness of the sister. They want to be free from the binds of unwanted destiny. Their urge to control what may happen ended up with the same future as well.

Rappacinis daughter
The story is about Beatrice that developed a power to poison with just her mere breath. The abnormality if brought about his fathers experiment. With Giovannis earnest desire to cure Beatrice, Beatice end was found.

The birthmark
The short story of a young and brilliant scientist named Aylmer who is obsessed with perfection. Seeing his wifes birthmark that he considers as an imperfection, he would like to wear it off and created an elixir. As a wife to succumb to his husbands desires, though never considers the birthmark as an impaired ness, Georgina agreed on taking the drug.

Effective time management is the most important factor for succeeding in life. This is because it minimizes chances of loosing success opportunities in our day-to-day activities. This also saves time, allowing one to do more each day. Surprisingly enough however, effectively managing my time has been a major concern in my life. What with attending classes, doing and submitting assignments on time, being punctual in meetings, name them most times I am a victim of poor timing. Nevertheless, just as the common saying goes, habit is next to nature. Therefore, by repeatedly engaging in effective timing practices, I can sufficiently improve on my timing ability.

The first practice is ensuring prior planning of each day. By having a to-do list, I will be able to accomplish more in timing. This requires me to keep schedule of planned activities as a way of minimizing crash of plans during last minutes. Daily tasks should be categorized based on priority, both in urgency and importance, to avoid wastage of time and energy on less important tasks while neglecting the important ones. There is thus need to say no to nonessential activities.

Commitment to a task is equally important. To accomplish a quality job, I might need more time at first. However, such a time is better than the time it could take me to correct errors committed because of failure to allocate the necessary time for doing quality work. Divide and execute can help in quick completion of big and time consuming tasks. Lastly, there is great need for evaluating how I spend my daily time. With a dairy record, I will be able to identify and thus rectify any barrier to realizing effective timing.

There are concurrent themes running through each of these four stories  Hawthornes Rappaccinis Daughter and The Birthmark, and Edgar Allan Poes The Fall of the House of Usher and the Tell-Tale Heart. Some of the themes are the unhappiness of ones inner life, and the havoc one wreaks on ones outer life. This mirroring is present in all of these stories. In Poes Fall of the House of Usher, gloom and fungi grow on the walls of a house, and are reflected in the water of the lake. The heaviness of the gloom, and the heaviness of the water and the walls provide the perfect backdrop for the inner unhappiness of Roderick. The man on the brink believes his sister to be dead, yet when the narrator finds out she is still alive, we question the veracity of the outer gloom, and start to consider it is Rodericks madness which has thus transformed his surroundings.  In the Tell Tale Heart, the narrator is very unreliable, sinking into and out of madness. Sometimes he is lucid enough to tell his story, and other times we must take his word for what he observes, namely the evil eye. The evil eye is, again, a projection of madness, and a lens through which we distort the world when we are insane. The insistence of sanity by the obviously deranged man is akin to the insistence of the death of the sister by the insane brother. The evil eye is responsible for the narrators view of the world, of his paranoia and delusions, while the metaphorical evil eye of Rodericks insanity changes the very landscape of the narrators experience.

We come to Hawthornes The Birthmark, where a man is obsessed (a sure quality of madness) with making his wife aesthetically perfect. When she falls ill and dies as a result of the potion he has mixed to aid her in this endeavor, he sees the true horror of what he has done. By viewing her through a distorted lens of an obsessed lover who is concerned with what others think, he decides to play God and rid her of her human markings. Aylmers evil eye views his wife as imperfect, just as Rodericks evil eye conjures a pall over his surroundings, just as the Tell Tale Hearts paranoid narrator feels persecuted by an evil eye. In the final story, a man tries to make his daughter into a perfect rare flower, even though this entailed poisoning her. When Giovanni falls in love with her, the landscape of love is slowly ruined by the poison of deadly perfection. The evil eye of perfection ravages Beatrice, and when Giovanni produces an antidote and presents it to her as a way to live free of the poison, Beatrice dies. A life poisoned cannot be made whole, except through death. Madness distorts everything it touches, and it is no less mad to challenge Gods perfection as it is to murder and lie.

Charles Dickens novel Hard Times is sharp commentary on the values and practices of English society in the nineteenth century.  Dickens tackles a number of important issues in his novel, including education and the public good.  In the novel, the hypocrisies of the culture are exposed.  Using the characters of Gradgrind, Bounderby and Cecilia, Dickens exposes the potential harm of blind obedience to a particular set of values or philosophy.  While Gradgrind and Bounderby reflect the dangers of educational dogmatism and moralistic expediency, Cecilia Jupes character symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit and the power of the individual imagination and intelligence.

Hard Times takes a critical view of how the poor were treated in England at the time.  English society was highly regimented at the time, and the social classes were clearly defined.  There was, however, a great amount of change and innovation during this period as well.  Many towns, like the novels fictional setting of Coketown, were transformed by the industrial revolution and experienced an economic transformation.  The success of the mill allows a character like Bounderby to ascend the social ladder and influence his community.

The school where Gradgrind teaches is an important example of how Bounderbys influence is felt by the town.  In many respects, Gradgrinds teaching methods seem to be informed by mechanical processes at the towns mill rather than a genuine desire to impart knowledge.  In the opening sequence of the book, Gradgrind expounds on his philosophy in a voice that is described as being, inflexible, dry and dictatorial.  At the beginning of the novel, Gradgrind believes that there is only one objective in education, as well as life itself.  He tells his assembled students  In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir nothing but Facts (p. 8).  The students are described as a little vessels . . . ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim (p.8).  This description provides the reader with important insight into how the role and function of education is understood by Gradgrind and his supporters.  Learning, rather than being a lifelong process fueled by curiosity and personal growth, is a finite exercise that is complete once the vessel has been filled to the brim.  In Gradgrinds classroom, there is room only for facts.  The limitations of this approach are demonstrated by Cecilia Jupes failure to describe a horse.  After grilling Cecilia on her fathers occupation, Gradgrind demands that she provide a definition of a horse.  In the text, we learn that she is alarmed by this request.

Gradgrind, however, misinterprets this alarm as ignorance.  He states  Girl number twenty unable to define a horse . . . Girl number twenty possessed of no facts in reference to the commonest of animals (p. 11).  It is clear to the reader that Cecilia Jupe, by virtue of her upbringing, is not only well aware of what a horse is but also likely to possess greater insight and knowledge of the animal than most of her peers.  Yet she is labeled as a failure, because she cannot produce a factual description of the animal on demand.  It is clear that education as it is defined in towns school is somewhat limited.  The definition provided by her fellow student Bitzer may be factually accurate, but it is unlikely to be of any great use to anyone who wants to truly understand the animal and its nature.  

Josiah Bounderby is another character who privileges facts over so-called fancy.  Throughout the novel, he takes great pains to establish his reputation not only as a self-made man but a sensible plain-spoken one.  He thoroughly rejects the imagination.  Near the end of the novel, he tells Gradgrind
I know the bricks of this town, and I know the works of this town, and I know the chimneys of this town, and I know the smoke of this town, and I know the Hands of this town.  I know em all pretty well.  Theyre real.  When a man tells me anything about imaginative qualities, I always tell that man, whoever he is, that I know what he means.  He means turtle-soup and venison, with a gold spoon, and that he wants to be set up with a coach and six. (p. 316)

In comparing the bricks and mortar of the town over the more subjective forms of knowledge, Josiah privileges his viewpoint over all others.  Furthermore, Josiahs privileging of reality over the more tenuous elements of supposition and fancy becomes ironic, since much of his life is based on lie.  He fabricates a history for himself that is a fanciful as any childs invention.  Ultimately, Josiahs supposed preference for reality and fact ultimately turns out to be hypocritical.  He twists the facts to suit his own purposes.  At the conclusion of the above-noted speech, Josiah justifies his abandonment of Gradgrinds daughter by saying that she expects fripperies and luxuries like turtle-soup and gold spoons.  He abjures all responsibility and tells Gradgrind if this is what his daughter expects then Gradgrind, as her father, can provide it for her.  Ironically, it is the dissolution of this marriage that brings about in part Gradgrinds emotional and intellectual awakening.

Cecilia Jupe emerges as one of the novels most sympathetic characters.  Not only is she kind and good, but she also possesses a straightforward and sensible view of the world.  She is the only character who seems to possess any moral authority, as evidenced by her ability to shame James Harthouse into behaving like a decent human being.  In sharp contrast to her fellow classmates Thomas Junior and Louise Gradgrind who later falter in spite of having succeeded in the school environment, Cecilia Jupe leaves school yet still leads a meaningful life.  Thomas Junior thrives in school and takes the teachings and philosophy espoused by his father to heart.  Although he has all the outward signs of being a success, Thomas Junior remains a deeply selfish character.  In comparison, Cecilia Jupe, who appears by all external measures to be his social inferior, is the one person who makes the most significant contribution to the Gradgrind family.  She alone understands the destructive potential Harthouse holds not only for Louise but the family as well.  She is the one who sends him away, telling Harthouse  You may be sure, sir, you will never see her again as long as you live (302).  Unlike many of the other characters who use their detached intellectualism to justify and rationalize their behavior, Cecilia is able to distinguish right from wrong.

In many respects, Dickens novel is an indictment of the morality of his time.  He recognized the hypocrisy that surrounded him. The Bounderby character is a criticism of the countless individuals who profited during this period at the expense of others.  Dickens abjures Bounderby and other other like him for their lack of compassion and social responsibility.  In the novel, he skewers the lies and justifications this group of people develops in order to rationalize their own selfishness and harmful behavior.  Similarly, Dickens attacks another group of people using the character of Gradgrind.  In the novel, Dickens is highly critical of those who adhere dogmatically to philosophies of education and knowledge.  He satirizes these theorists by exposing the limitations of such behavior, using the example of Gradgrind.  Cecilia emerges as Dickens heroine however, this is not because of her wealth, her status or her philosophy.  Ultimately, it is both her imagination and her emotion that redeem Cecilias character.  Although she is disadvantaged both in her upbringing and education, Cecilia is the novels emotional center, because she acts without guile or motive.  Through this character, Dickens proves that our emotion and imagination are often what redeems us as human beings.  

Reaction Range (LIST)
According to the Reaction Range concept, the genetically determined behavior of an individual is influenced by the existing environment. In addition, the environment can influence an individuals behavior depending on a persons genetic predispositions (DEFINE).

If two people with different genetic makeup are put into the same environment, one will respond differently from the other, or otherwise, they may also respond similar when put into different environments. The concept of Reaction Range also means that two people with same genetic predispositions will respond differently when put into different environments (DESCRIBE).

For example, Samantha is born with a normal genetic level for music ability, while Victoria has a higher than normal genetic level. If they will be enrolled by their parents in the same music class, Victoria will most likely excel than Samantha. However, they will be put in different environments aside from the music class, their reactions might be similar. Victoria, for instance, is enrolled at an arts class, while Samantha took up swimming lessons, both of them may respond similar, since they have no genetic predispositions for environments in arts and swimming.

On the other hand, if both Samantha and Victoria are born with average genetic level for music ability, both of them will have different reactions in different environments. If Samantha grows up in a musically deprived environment, her musical abilities will become lower than average, and if Victoria grows up in a highly-enriched musical environment, chances are, she will develop above normal musical abilities (EXAMPLE).