The movie Dead Poets Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The movie Dead Poets Society - Essay Example With his wit and wisdom, Keating inspires his students to pursue individual passions and make their lives matter. (Weir, whole film).This movie highlights four important aspect of social psychology, namely group influence, non-conformity, effects of culture on self-esteem and heroism from disobedience. With the careful and efficient incorporation of the said social psychology aspects, this movie has become one of the most highly rated educational movies. The theory behind group influence as a social construct is that a person's development- mood, behavior and outlook in life- is shaped by the norms and thinking of the groups in which he associates himself. A child who is immersed in a religious family generally tends to be a moralist while one who grew up with criminals tends to be one himself (Hewstone, 143) We can see this factor vividly at work in the film in two different conditions. The first is that of the influence of the school to the young minds of the children and the second is that of the influence of John Keating to the tendencies of his student. The school has always been regarded as a major setting for the personality development of a person. Not only do we learn the machinations of the world we live in, we are also instructed on the prim and proper ways of how to act, think and communicate. With regards to the first scenario, we see Welton Academy structuring its students as academic achievers and outstanding lawyers and doctors. To achieve this, they apply a curriculum devoid of any romantic (i.e. artistic) topics such as poetry and the arts. The school can therefore be seen as the group and its teachers as the influencing members. The students, immersed in such culture of high expectations and strict teaching, develop a preference for realistic ideas and shield one's self from romantic ones. It is apparent that the school leads them to the side of realism (i.e. fact based) rather than romanticism. This preferential system is exhibited by Richard Cameron's signing of the documents incriminating John Keating's who he perceives is going against what the school taught him. On the other hand, we see John Keating influencing the students by introducing them to poetry and the ar

Human Nature Essay Example for Free

Human Nature Essay Over time, there have been numerous portrayals of the war between good and evil that has forever existed in society. However, very few have come forth that have shed light upon the tussle between the tendency to indulge in either one of good and evil that exists inside the human mind and continues to do so throughout the course of one’s life. It is essential to understand that works such as these are not mere contribution to literature but are in fact in depth insights into the human mind and present a picture of the nature of the perceptions that exist within it. This is so because of the fact that no matter how much man chooses to evolve in his society and surrounds himself with monuments to sophistication, there will always be the desire to break free of moral boundaries and to indulge one’s self in the free and uncontrolled activities of evil. This paper shall consider Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a depiction of the fight between good and evil that ensues within the darkest of depths in the human mind, then one can see how there is a continuous battle that perseveres within these depths and that there are instances when the suggestion to be evil becomes so strong that there is no longer any degree of possible control that can be attained on the rampage that evil engages in (Colvin, Adcock and Stevenson). The novella was first published in 1886 and has served as one of the most clear and concise insights into the intricate workings of the human mind. If one was to consider the character of Dr, Jekyll, it is evident that Robert Louis Stevenson has chosen to portray that all people are not inherently either completely good or completely evil by nature, rather they hold a frame of mind that comprises partially of a tendency to good, and partially of a tendency to indulge in evil. However, if one was to refer to the bigger picture that is visible in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; it is evident that Robert Louis Stevenson has chosen to use his characters to reflect upon particular dimensions of human nature. For instance, one can see that in contrast to the elusive Dr. Jekyll there exists firstly, Mr. Hyde who is a severe contrast to the principles and morality that Dr. Jekyll stands for. Further on, Mr. Enfield appears to be the continuously probing element of curiosity that is ever present and active in the human mind. Lanyon appears to be a vessel that holds logic and a desire for life to be composed of a series of events that are in no way out of the ordinary or do not comply with the rudiments of logic. Also, the degree of loathing that develops amongst the common man towards this dark side of the human mind once it becomes exposed comes out to be nothing more than prevalence and broadening of the element of hatred and evil. An example of this fact can be seen in the very first few pages of The Strange Case of The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when Mr. Enfield states in a reply to the lawyer’s question about the appearance of the suspected criminal: â€Å"I never saw a man I so disliked†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment† (Stevenson 5). From this line, we can surmise that Mr. Enfield develops a loathing towards the creature that lurks in the darkness of the night and indulges in actions out of the pure loathing to all that is good, pure and honest. By giving personalities such as those mentioned above to each individual character and taking the traits that form these personalities to their natural extremes, Robert Louis Stevenson has taken a stance that shows how each individual holds his/her own set of good and evil traits, both of which come together to form the mind of the ordinary every day person. An aspect that should be highlighted at this point is that Dr. Jekyll is perhaps in no way different from the rest of the characters in the plot, and the only distinction that exists between Dr. Jekyll and the rest of the characters is that Dr. Jekyll crosses a threshold of sorts and enters a state of mind where his evil bent of thinking dominates over him. We can therefore surmise that Dr. Jekyll is not an individual person who manages to experiment with his own perceptions and allows his evil side to roam free, but is in fact an example of the form that any normal every day character from the plot would have taken, had it been allowed to roam free and unattended. However, if one was to raise a question concerning the value of friendship or the loyalty towards it that exists with regard to the revelation of different sides of the human mind, then one can see from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that there is hardly any element of loyalty or commitment to friendship that remains when a part of the concerned party enters into the absolution of evil. It is perhaps because of the very same illustration of the forces of good and evil that exists within each individual that The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been subjected to not only numerous forms of adaption over time, but has also been the center of numerous interpretations for the same reason. According to an interpretation by The Guardian, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be seen in more perspectives in modern times than it could have been possibly seen in the earlier days (Campbell). This is because of the reason that the tendency to submit to the desires of evil or the desire to adhere to the principals and morals that define all that is good can be replaced by numerous other tendencies that lurk within the depths of the human mind and it is for the same reason that Robert Louis Stevenson’s The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde holds more relevance now than it did at any other point in time. Works Cited Campbell, James. The beast within. 13 December 2008. 21 May 2009 http://www. guardian. co. uk/books/2008/dec/13/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde-stevenson. Colvin, Sidney, Arthur St. John Adcock and Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson: his work and his personality. Hodder and Stoughton, 1924. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Courier Dover Publications, 1991.

The Great Depression :: essays research papers

Introduction It should be noted that all of the cures have been tried and while we seem to be free of Depressions, it's not clear that business cycles have been eliminated. Causes The Stock Market Crash The Stock Market Crash in October of 1929 is often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression, but did it actually cause it? The answer is no. First, the stock price for a particular company merely reflects current information about the future income stream of that company. Thus, it is a change in available information that changes the stock price. When the Fed began to raise interest rates in early 1929, this began the tumble. However, a stock market crash could cause people to increase their liquidity preference which might lead them to hoard money. In the August 1990 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Christine D. Romer writes that "the negative effect of stock market variability is more than strong enough to account for the entire decline in real consumer spending on durables that occurred in late 1929 and 1930." Hoarding Money People hoard money because they have a liquidity preference. I.e., people want to have their assets in a readily convertible form, such as money. There are several misconceptions about hoarding money. First hoarding is not the same thing as saving. If I put my money into a savings account, that money is lent out to someone else who then spends it. Second, hoarding, by itself, cannot cause a recession or depression. As long as prices and wages drop instantly to reflect the lower amount of money in the economy, then hoarding causes no problems. Indeed, hoarding can even be seen as beneficial to those who don't hoard, since their money will be able to buy more goods as a result of the lower prices. If a country has a gold standard, then hoarding money can make the money supply drop dramatically since a gold standard makes the quantity of money difficult for the government to control. The Gold Standard At the time of the Great Depression,America had a 100% gold standard for its money. This meant that all cash was backed by a government promise to redeem it in a specific amount of gold (at the time, one ounce of gold was redeemable for twenty dollars). Because the amount of money circulating in the economy is wholly dependent on the amount of gold available, the money supply is very rigid.

Khaled Hosseini Essay

The story is about Amir and Hassan, a Hazara. They spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir for not being manly enough. Amir also fears his father blames him for his mother’s death during childbirth. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories. Assef, a mean and violent older boy, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara. According to Assef, the Hazaras were an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his steel knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, and threatens to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his friends back off, but Assef says he will take revenge. Hassan is a successful â€Å"kite runner† for Amir. He knows where the kite will land without even watching it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba’s praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut, it was a great trophy. Hassan then said â€Å"For you, a thousand times over. † Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir’s kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef’s voice. He witnesses the rape but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. Amir reacts differently because he feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan’s saint-like behavior. Already jealous of Baba’s love for Hassan, Amir worries if Baba knew how bravely Hassan defended Amir’s kite, and how cowardly Amir acted, that Baba’s love for Hassan would grow even more. To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that â€Å"there is no act more wretched than stealing. † Hassan and his father Ali, leave anyway. Hassan’s departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his betrayal, but he still lives with his guilt. Five years later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, settle in an apartment and Baba works at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets fellow refugee Soraya and Soraya’s father, who was a high-ranked officer in Afghanistan. Baba is diagnosed with cancer but is still capable of granting Amir one last favor: he asks Soraya’s father’s permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and they marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya get to know that they cannot have children. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness. Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to Pakistan. He tells Amir â€Å"there is a way to be good again. † Amir goes. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba’s house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan’s request. One day the Taliban murdered Hassan, along with his wife. Rahim Khan reveals that Ali was not really Hassan’s father. Hassan was actually the son of Baba, therefore Amir’s half-brother. Rahim Khan tells Amir that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage. Amir returns to a Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and searches for Sohrab at the orphanage. He does not find Sohrab where he was supposed to be. The director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official comes often, brings cash and usually takes a girl back with him. Once in a while however, he takes a boy, recently Sohrab. The director tells Amir to go to a soccer match and the man â€Å"who does the speeches† is the man who took Sohrab. Farid manages to secure an appointment with the speaker at his home, by saying that he and Amir have â€Å"personal business† with him. At the house, Amir has his meeting with the man in sunglasses. The man is revealed to be his childhood enemy, Assef. Assef is aware of Amir’s identity from the very beginning, but Amir doesn’t realize who he’s sitting across until Assef starts asking about Ali, Baba and Hassan. Sohrab is being kept at the home where he is made to dance dressed in women’s clothes, and it seems like Assef might have been sexually assaulting him. Assef agrees to release him, but only for a price – a fight with Amir. Amir is the protagonist of the story. He lives with his father, while his mother died when he was born. He has trouble getting attention and love from his father. He is best friends with Hassan, and the story follows him from the time he is a child to adult. He is good at school, but he is a boy who is struggling to get his father to be happy, he feels that he is the disappointment of his father. He characterizes himself as a coward, with little purpose. He changes his personal beliefs twice throughout the history. First time when Hassan is raped, after the event he is not talking with Hassan because of his guilt and gets Hassan kicked out of the house. The second is when he goes back to Afghanistan to retrieve the son of Hassan. As an adult, he proved what he can do, and is presented as a man with so much courage that no one else ever had. Hassan is the son of Ali, who is the servant of Baba. Hassan is a Hazara and he is often discriminated against and oppressed by others. Hassan is brave, loyal and always protects Amir. Since Hassan has not gone to school, he learns to read and write from Ali. He’s doing what he’s told. He is incredibly loyal to Amir. When Amir accuses him of stealing his watch, he said to Baba that he was the one who took it, without Amir asking him about it. Hassan is the character that changes at least throughout the history. Assef is the evil character in this book. He hates Hazaras, which is shown clearly in the book. Therefore, he is looking for Amir. He believes that it is his fault that Hassan lives with him. He is the one that causes problems between the childhood friends Amir and Hassan. We have two turning points in this book. The first comes when Hassan is sexually abused by Assef and his gang. It changes the friendship of Amir and Hassan. Amir stops talking with Hassan because he feels ashamed and feels that he has betrayed Hassan. The second turning point comes when Rahim Khan calls Amir. Amir changes and realizes that he can make things better. He decides to find Sohrab and get him to safety. This is the structure of the story. The story starts with a short introduction where the narrator tells us a little about himself and Kabul. Then we get more excitement and we get the climax. The climax is when Hassan got raped by Assef. Anything could happen at that point because Amir was looking at everything that happened. The excitement fell down after that incident because Hassan and Ali left the house, but it became more and more interesting after that because the Russians invaded Afghanistan and Amir had to leave Afghanistan. That was a big change in the story. Once again we got a climax when Amir stood face to face against Assef. He had a chance to take revenge now. This was our presentation of ‘’The Kite Runner’’. We have told you a little about the plot, the characters, the turning-points, climax, the setting, the themes and the message in the book. I will end the presentation by talking about my opinion about the book. I loved this book. It has a good structure, the content is really good and you don’t want to stop reading. I don’t like to read books, but this book was special. Sources:The Kite Runnerhttps://thekyterunner. wikispaces. com/Dragel%C3%B8peren| http://www. smartguy. no/klaer/t-shirt/t-shirt-logo/marinebla_polo-ralph-lauren-t-shirt_179718_21 http://www. smartguy. no/klaer/t-shirt/poloshirt/hvit_lacoste-poloskjorte_175476_3 http://www. smartguy. no/klaer/t-shirt/poloshirt/mellembla_tommy-hilfiger-poloshirt_187632_74 http://www. smartguy. no/klaer/t-shirt/poloshirt/svart_hugo-boss-orange-poloskjorte_182674_4 http://www. smartguy. no/klaer/jeans-bukser/bukser/sand_vito-chino_192150_27 http://karrierestart. no/jobb? jobtype=2&municipality=89&page=5 http://www. free-tv-video-online. me/internet/the_ellen_degeneres_show/season_10. html http://www. handelsportal. no/butikk/iphone-4-4s/iphone-4-deksel-og-etui http://max100. no/index. php? route=product/product&path=20_64_67&product_id=292.

Essay on Want-Creation Fuels Americans Addictiveness by Slater

Philip Slater argues in his essay â€Å"Want-Creation Fuels Americans’ Addictiveness† that the dependency many Americans have on drugs is the result of the premium that American society puts on success. This success comes with costs attached, but these costs are brushed aside, often with the help of medicating drugs (Slater 392). The addictive personality of Americans extends beyond drugs, too, to addictions of all types.Slater argues that because we are told every day that were ignorant, misguided, inadequate, incompetent and undesirable we can only escape this condition if we indulge, an act that will make us feel better (395). Slater’s point is not that we are inadequate or any of those negative attributes, but that we are meant to feel that way if we do not achieve to a certain level. Yet, the level to which Americans achieve is actually very high. The quick fix mentality is ascribed by Slater to be one of the most important causes of drug abuse (392).Our soc iety is harsh, he describes, but we prefer quicker action rather than solutions that evolve over the long term (Slater 392). As a result, drugs become an attractive means of medicating ourselves in response to the harshness of our society (Slater 393). Too many people in today’s society want to mask their problems with drugs or alcohol instead of dealing with the problems face to face. I would have to strongly agree with Slaters point of view in this essay. Americans do tend to have addictive personalities as a whole.While all you need is food, shelter, and water to survive everyone has their own wants and needs that they feel they could not live without. For example nowadays I believe that most people would not be able to live without the internet. We have all become so dependent on the internet for almost all sources of information that if something were to happen and there was no internet anymore then people would feel as though we had gone back to the dark ages and start struggling to get through their everyday lives.Most people would completely lose themselves if we didn’t have the technology that we are so accustomed to; between computers, cell phones and other technologies Americans would be at a loss especially with cell phones and people not remembering numbers or writing them down and only keeping them in their cell phones. On the other hand Americans are resilient and would overcome the situation that was placed in front of them. Americans would overcome and adapt to the situation by going back to their roots and the way they did things before the internet.I know for myself I would be lost without GPS being that I use it for my job and in my everyday life for going almost anywhere I am not familiar with. Addiction is a part of everyone’s life in one way or another. This condition is not one of necessity but of want. Work Cited Slater, Phillip. â€Å"Want-Creation Fuels Americans’ Addictiveness. † One World, Many Cu ltures. 8th ed. Eds. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010. 391-395. Print.