Boldwoods Christmas party Essay Example for Free

Boldwoods Christmas party Essay Bathsheba Everdene is the main character in a Thomas Hardy novel called Far From the Madding Crowd. Which is set in Wessex. Bathshebas character is along with many other things decisive, brisk, vain, businesslike, and independent. However you see her evolve throughout the book, mainly as a result of her marriage to Frank Troy. At the beginning of the story Hardy seems to focus on her bad qualities, though you still see people wishing to be married to her. Some good qualities are shown as well like her thoughtful response to save Gabriels life. Her first fault is vanity. This trait is mentioned in chapter one, almost everything else follows on from this. Vanity affects the way she behaves in a powerful way. Her vanity makes her annoyed and angry at not attracting Boldwoods attention. When she meets Frank Troy he plays up to her vanity by paying her compliments and showing her flirtatious affection. By the end of the story she shows that she has grown out of or overcome her vanity. Instead of wanting to stand out and have everyone looking at her, at Boldwoods Christmas party, she dresses down and wants to merge into the background. You can also see she is not vain because when Boldwood praises her beauty the comments have no effect. Her life experiences have caused this change in her. The main life experience is her marriage to Frank Troy which affected her the most. She transforms from a confident character to a submissive and introverted figure she becomes less and less like her usual self. The first sign you see of independence is fairly near the beginning in chapter three, when we see her riding the horse. Instead of doing it the conventional ladylike way we see her lie flat on her back on top of the horses back. This could be showing her independence and unconventional behaviour, this would tie in with an independent spirit too wild. She likes to have independence so later on in the story when this is taken away from her we see her rely on Gabriel Oak. She always had her own independence, but when she got married she lost that independence and we see her seek advice and help from Gabriel Oak. At one point in the story she rejects Gabriels advice, but later on in chapter fifty four she asks for it. This shows a big change in her personality. She once would have done her own thing and maybe even sacked Gabriel for his advice whereas she now values both him and his opinion. Her independence continues to be shown throughout the rest if the story, even after her marriage to Frank Troy. Independence along with confidence is showed when she goes to the corn market and is the only woman there. Another characteristic shown is confidence with businesslike skills. An example of this would be when she takes it upon herself to sack her bailiff. I have formed a resolution to have no bailiff at all. Bathshebas confidence continues to be shown with her decision to pay the workers herself in chapter ten. Bathsheba has a lot of confidence in herself. In short I shall astonish you all. This is said shortly after her decision to have no bailiff when she is convincing the staff that she can manage. The speech shows her self-confidence shining and her belief in her own ability. Towards the end of the novel we see her find an even balance between the overconfidence which she showed through the beginning of the novel which made her appear full of herself, compared with when she had little or no confidence and relied on Frank Troy, to finally become a person who can cope on her own but realises she cannot do everything to the best of her ability without assistance. Before we see her lose her self confidence she shows she believes in herself by going to the Corn Market, making her the only woman present. One thing bothers Bathsheba; the fact that Boldwood is the only person who does not take notice of her. This lack of attention shows us how she craves to be the centre of attention; you could even go as far as calling her an attention seeker. She will do silly antics in an attempt to attract peoples attention. For example the Valentines Day card. Bathsheba tries to make herself popular with everyone especially men; this seems to be her biggest desire. In chapter thirteen she mischievously sends a Valentine card to Boldwood to attract his attention. This starts Bathshebas change. She wants people to notice her and does not sit around waiting she takes action for herself. The sending of the Valentines card shows her vain characteristic. A big characteristic she shows throughout is impulsiveness, she does things without thinking. The Valentines Day card is an example of this; another example of this earlier in the book is when she chases Gabriel Oak after he had been wrongly informed that many men wanted her hand in marriage; though she did not want to accept his proposal. She did not think that her actions would show this until after the conversation her and Gabriel had. Many of her actions are on impulse she doesnt think things through first. Later on however she takes time to think about Fannys grave and she decides to clean it up and replant the bulbs on it. This also shows she can be selfless. When Gabriel gives her advice early in the novel she decides she doesnt like what he has to say. She sacks him whilst she was angry and acting highly impulsively. This demonstrates how she doesnt want to face the truth even though she values his opinion; later in the novel after the drowning of Frank Troy she relents asking him for his thoughts.

Impure Puritans in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Impure Puritans in The Scarlet Letter In a world where society is disorganized, unhappy, and chaotic, it can be extremely difficult to provide an honest, and just law system. As a result, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, people use their religion (Puritan), as judge, jury, and executioner. For some people, it can be very troublesome to live a normal life when you are surrounded by biased and chauvinistic men and women. In this story, Hester Prynne is a victim of her religion, and her fellow townsfolk. Throughout the book, Hawthorne writes about the townspeople and how they act and behave towards each other, Hester, and life in general. The novel starts with Hester walking towards the town scaffold to be seen for public display, because she committed the crime of adultery. A lane was forthwith opened through the crowd of spectators. Preceded by the beadle, and attended by an irregular procession of stern- browed men and unkindly visaged women, Hester Pyrnne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face, and at the wink-ing baby in her arms, and at the ignominious letter on her breast. P. 52, 53 As this is happening, all the people see is the crime that Hester committed, not the person behind it. They do not take into consideration, that the crime itself, is not as evil as they make it out to be. Hawthorne describes it as enjoyable to the spectators, by showing the children watch her and laugh as she makes her way to the scaffold. It's as though the people of the Puritan religion are heartless, ruthless, cold blooded, and that what is going on, is considered fun. Aside from forcing Hester to stand on the scaffold, they make her knit an "A" onto her chest. The "A" symbolizes adultery. The plan was for people to look upon this symbol, pity her, and make Hester feel deprived of humanity. Instead of knitting a simple "A", Hester designs a very complex and elaborate one. The reaction from the people shows how evil some of

Utopia: Not Possible

If one were to ask 100 different people a subjective question, one is likely to elicit 100 different answers. This shows that everyone is different and has a wide range of views. Knowing this, one can assume that each one of their views on utopia must be equally as varied. Therefore, achieving a common utopia is near impossible. A utopia is a perfect place where everyone is happy both in society and in oneself. Motivation; an element of life that gives someone the drive to achieve a certain goal. Motivation is the adrenaline rush to life without which humans cannot progress as a civilization.It allows for the betterment of society, thus gaining some common ground between people which although does not constitute a utopia, will make a majority of people happy. Achieving utopia in society is impossible, but by using utopia as a goal or as a motivation, society will grow into a happier and more utopian like place, even though it can not reach actual utopia. A society similar to a utopia is possible through America’s motivation, and due to this, we have fruitful land, both agriculturally and socially.Ignorance, the opposite of motivation, leads to a dystopia, a place or environment in which people are miserable, unhappy or uncomfortable in, instead of a utopian-like society. This shows us that ignorance will not make society happy, thus deviating from the track to societal transcendence; the metamorphosis of society into a state of well-being. Due to each person having unique wants and necessities, the scope of a utopian society, is broadened and stretched until it can no longer be perceived. This adds to the number of reasons why utopia is not possible.Motivation is quintessential to attain near utopianism; a society that takes into account everybodys general view of utopia. Without motivation, society would suffer a dystopian lifestyle. Dreamers and visionaries alike possess the fire needed for success. This fire is known to us as motivation. An essential driving force in the creation of America, motivation at it’s finest can be seen in many instances. David Brooks, a New York Times writer, shows us that America is one of the hardest working countries on this planet.â€Å"The average American works 350 hours a year — nearly 10 weeks — more than the average Western European. † (Brooks 2004). One-upping the rest of the countries, America harvests some of the hardest workers. This hard work pays off in the long run because according to Christopher Matthews, â€Å"[America] leads the world in labor productivity. † (Matthews 1). This hard work translates into society’s progress through time. The American Dream is the dream of being able to make a successful living out of nothing.This dream prevailed in both the recent and earlier years. For example, the dispersal of America. Attracted to the city life, Americans saturated many of the popular cities in America, like Pittsburgh, for example. Althoug h this is true, over time we see a dispersal. â€Å"†¦ population of metropolitan Pittsburgh has declined by 8 percent since 1980†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Brooks 2004). This expansion resulted from the drive to explore and conquer. After quenching this thirst, Americans have seen that they are much happier in the suburbs and exurbs, shown in their productivity.These families are happy because of their success. This success is a direct result of motivated minds, minds that surpass odds which pose as threats, minds that feed off of the burning fire which incites progress, minds that envision utopia. Minds that simply do not care and are ignorant to societal problems achieve, rather, receive dystopia as opposed to utopia. Ignorance; that lack of knowledge or information. Those who are oblivious to problem solving and believe that ignoring all that is bad are considered ignorant.In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Lenina Crowne visited a Savage Reservation, which was a place for Nati ve Americans that were not â€Å"civilized. † They led normal lives, but Lenina was disgusted by it because she had no previous understanding of the world before their god like idol Henry Ford â€Å"civilized† the place. He implemented a factory line way of doing things such as conceiving babies, the term parent was alien to them. She begged for her soma which was a drug that releases stress from the consumer and makes the consumer forget about all their problems.This is ironic because the accused savages that stay on the savage reservation are not actually savage, it is in fact the â€Å"civilized† people of the World Sate (their home). They rely on drugs and ignorance to be happy. â€Å"A gramme is better than a damn. † (Huxley 89). She explicitly shows how she would much rather take drugs than face her problems. Hiding the problems instead of solving them creates a dystopia in which ignorance is key. Their soma driven society knows no problems, because stability was given in exchange for individualism.Instead of self-understanding, the humans of the World State are organized under a caste system ranging from the Alphas (highest) to the Epsilons (lowest). They rarely know solitude, but in those rare occurrences, soma quickly fills it with dreams and ignorance. Huxley satirizes utopia as a goal that is out of one’s reach by showing how ignorance and â€Å"fake† happiness is ephemeral and does not solve any real problems. George Orwell, a former student of Aldous Huxley and now famous writer, in the book 1984, mentions the Party slogan; â€Å"†¦War is peace[,] Freedom is slavery[,] Ignorance is strength. † (Huxley 26). The people of Oceania are brainwashed to believe that war is peace, freedom is slavery, and the most shocking, ignorance is strength. Ridiculing society’s problem of blind trust, Orwell shows the reader that ignorance leads to a more Orwellian society than societal strength. There is a dearth of sleep, food, creation of ideas, procreation, and yet society ignores this and continues to believe that there is in fact an abundance of sleep, food, et cetera.Due to the society being more dystopian, we can attribute ignorance to a major role in the creation of such a dark place. David Brooks quotes a philosopher named George Santayana; â€Å"†¦ Americans doesn’t solve problems; we just leave them behind. † (Brooks 2004). Mr. Santayana is saying that Americans are ignorant and cretinous in our knowledge of the world. Not having any worldly information can lead to a withdrawal from society, removing from society’s pool of ideas, knowledge, and people that push for near-utopianism.This leads to a lack of problem solving and degradation of a society at large. A society is composed of people, people each with their own taste and outlook on everything because according to science, no two are the same. Uniquity is prevalent which means that everyones needs and wants are widely dispersed. The common ground between people is limited. â€Å" Bathroom tile is their cocaine: instead of white powder, the blow their life savings on handcrafted Italian wall covering from Waterworks. † (Brooks 2004).Instead of wasting money on drugs like other people, some people prefer bettering  the finer things like, in this case, bathroom tiles or Italian wall covering. This backs up the statement, to each, their own. Due to everybody wanting different things, everybody’s utopia is different. So even if one were to set everybody in motion, society would just become even more choppy and divided. Where is the utopia now? Although self transcendence; the reconstruction of oneself into a higher being, is a huge part in creating utopia, this society has not progressed further than the selfish values it has already harvested within it’s people.To be able to implement this action into society would create a place where everyone is hap py. If near-utopia was set as a common goal in society, people would come together to achieve this, creating a happy place with a lot of common ground between people. This is true in many instances, for example; war and protest. In Greensboro, North Carolina around 1939, a sit-down strike took place. The blacks protested the segregation of color in buildings. Hundreds of other black Americans came to protest this together.The amalgamation of protesters there show that common goals lead to accumulation of support and eventual achievement. Making utopia a common goal between all will result in near success; achieving something along the lines of common utopia. Reaching utopia is not pragmatic because there is a wide range of interests between humans which expands and ambiguates the concept of utopia, making it harder to reach, and also because ignorance is prevalent throughout society, making it more difficult to solve societal problems and attain true happiness as opposed to proxies of happiness i. e. Soma from Brave New World.A characteristic that Americans possess which may assist on the journey to collective happiness is our niche for working hard. If instead we were to use the idea of having a place where everyone is at peace with their surroundings as a common goal throughout society, motivation would permeate and take control. It is only instinctual to act upon something one feels passionate about. If happiness is what is being offered, then I am certain that this will evoke many people to work side by side to achieve this goal. While working side by side with people passionate about the same goal as one is, one will be happy.Hungry for more happiness, the people would continue to work at the goal, even though it is impossible. This leads to an infinite cycle in which society is constantly bettering itself, creating some type of near-utopia, but no one realizes it. Lying amidst the motivated crowd is utopia, but the minute the crowd loses motivation, the utopia vanishes. So let the idea of utopia tailgate the crowd because after all, the crowd is working towards something greater; societal transcendence, the evolvement of society into a common happy place, not perfection. This is the true utopia.

Alexander Hamilton s Influence On The Founding As History

Did Alexander Hamilton play as important a role in our founding as history portrays? This short paper on Alexander Hamilton will outline his importance in the journey of the United States of America to become a free country and will also show the various ways he made this country successful by pioneering the formation of the American government. Alexander Hamilton was born in Charlestown, the capital of Nevis in the British West Indies. There are disputes regarding his actual birth date. In the probate court papers from St. Croix, when his mother died, Hamilton was only 13 years old. This indicates 1755 as the year of his birth. However, throughout his life, Hamilton identified 1757 as his birth year. His early education consisted of†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Alexander Hamilton resigned from the Congress in July 1783. Following this, he began a law practice in New York City. In 1784, he founded the Bank of New York (the oldest ongoing banking organization in the United States till date).† He drafted a resolution for a Constitutional convention in 1786 while attending the Annapolis Convention. The resolution was to have a more powerful, financially independent federal government. In 1787, Hamilton was the first New York delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention. He also served as assemblyman in the New York State Legislature, but his influence was quite limited. The Convention convened in the State House, which is now known as Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. On May 14th there were only delegations from two states, so the revision of the Articles of Confederation was adjourned from a day to day debate. On May 25th a quorum of seven states was obtained, debate continued and it was clear that by mid-June that the delegates present decided not to just amend the current Articles, they would draft an entirely new frame of government. During the late 1780’s there were 85 letters written to newspapers to try and sway at least 9 of the 13 states to ratify the new document they were writing during the Convention in 1787. The letters were written under the pseudo-nameShow MoreRelatedThe Revolutionary Generation, By Joseph J. Ellis1730 Words   |à ‚  7 PagesJoseph J. Ellis, the author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, is an American author and historian. Born July 18, 1943 in Washington, D.C., Ellis would grow up to be one of the best, well-known scholars of America. He began his college education at Yale University, then at the College of William Mary. Ellis works include Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, American Sphinx, and His Excellency: George Washington. 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