Reading Pathways Edgar Allan Poe

Reading Pathways Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has long been hailed as the creator of the detective fiction genre and celebrated for his macabre contributions to literary Romanticism. Born in Boston, Poe lived a short life fraught with poverty and tragedyâ€"suitable, I suppose, for a romantic. The middle of three children, Poe’s father abandoned his family when he was an infant and his mother died of consumption a year later. He was sent to live with John Allan (who gave him his middle name), a Scottish merchant in Richmond, Virginia. At age sixteen, Poe inherited a substantial sum from his guardian’s uncle and decided to attend the University of Virginia, then in its infancy, to study languages. Soon Poe gambled away his inheritance and quit school. In need of funds he joined the army and served for two years. During that time he published his first book, a forty-page collection of poems that sold almost no copies. He went on to write a total of seventy poems, sixty-six short stories, nine essays, a novel (he died before a second could be finished), and one poorly received play. His death, in keeping with his work, was somewhat mysterious. In his penultimate chapter, he was found roaming the streets of Baltimore, delirious and wearing another man’s clothes. I. Tales of Mystery and Imagination Poe’s tales have been published in various anthological arrangements over the centuries. This modern collection contains all of Poe’s most famous short storiesâ€"“The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Masque of the Red Death.” It also contains a lot of tales you probably didn’t read in grade school, including “The Black Cat,” a story about a murderer trying to conceal his crime in the tradition of “A Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Premature Burial,” which is as horrifying self-explanatory as it seems. Poe’s tales are all very short. My copy, which contains thirty tales, is only four hundred sixty pages. I recommend an illustrated copy, like the Barnes and Noble Leather-bound Classics edition. II. The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe The most read of Poe’s poems are “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” the latter likely inspired by his wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe. Other poems include “City in the Sea,” a foreboding verse about a city ruled by death, and “The Conqueror Worm,” about the inevitability of death. Tales and Poetry can be purchased together in one volume as The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. III. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is the only novel Poe completed in his lifetime. A grim adventure, the story follows the title character as he stows away on a whaling ship named the Grampus. Many trials ensue, including shipwreck, mutiny, and an unpleasant encounter with cannibals. The book received mixed reviews, but went on to influence the work of Herman Melville and Jules Verne.  The Folio Society offers a beautiful slipcased collectors edition of this book. If you are interested in literary criticism and Poe’s views on poetry, another excellent book to read is his essay, “The Poetic Principle,” which was written near the end of his life. Save

Motif of Madness in Hamlet by William Shakespeare Essay

Motif of Madness in Hamlet by William Shakespeare It is the driving force of mankind that has delivered man from the age of stone to that of industry. This force is also the essential ingredient that produces the inescapable prison of the mind, a frightful disease that may be viewed as the greatest irony of life. Pain is a dreadful disease in which every individual has felt the everlasting effects. The grief of pain can become a crashing wave that leaves behind only a semblance of sanity in its wake. For in thinking there is both life and death. Trapped inside the prison of his mind, chained by a grief consciousness served only to torture him, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, reveals to the world his methods of dealing with pain.†¦show more content†¦Although he delayed his actions longer then Laertes, he planned all his actions out, instead of acting out in a fit of rage. He had to be completely sure before acting. Hamlet was completely aware of his actions and what was morally correct. Hamlet never lost sight of his objective to expose the Kings sin of murdering his father and obtaining revenge. Hamlet was completely sane throughout the tragedy. When Hamlet began to put the pieces of his fathers murder together, he paid special attention to his uncle Claudius. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. (II. ii. 366-371). Hamlet knows that his uncle is the murderer. Claudius further makes it difficult to uncover the truth by announcing that Hamlet is next in line for the throne of Denmark. Shakespeare shows the theme of appearances is deceptive by having Claudius appear to exhibit some affection towards Hamlet. Claudius appears to be a kind and loving person. As of a father; for let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our throne; A nd with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son do I impart toward you (I ii. 108-112). Appearances play a major role in the everyday life of an individual. TheShow MoreRelatedPerfect Idealism In Shakespeares Hamlet1631 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The play Hamlet is a fable of how the ghost of a slain king comes to haunt the living with disastrous consequences. A rancorous ghost and a brother s murder, lead the gloomy setting of Hamlet s Denmark. Hamlet story opens with an encounter between young Hamlet, his dad s ghost as well as the prince of Denmark. The ghost reveals to Hamlet that its murderer was his brother Claudius, who then rapidly wedded his widowed queen, Gertrude. 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Analytical Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup”...

Farris Qunibi WRC 1013 Riske October 4, 2008 Analytical Response to Barbara Kingsolver’s â€Å"Stone Soup† Barbara Kingsolver’s â€Å"Stone Soup† is a personal response to society’s view of the â€Å"broken† family. Kingsolver believes that society has for too long criticized divorce, remarriage, single parenthood, gay parents, and blended families, and that alternative families deserve equal standing in our society. In response to reading Kingsolver’s essay, this paper will serve to show which parts of â€Å"Stone Soup† are supported by outside evidence and which are not. â€Å"Stone Soup† is a personal reaction by Barbara Kingsolver that expresses the author’s feelings in response to society’s negative view and it’s holding of contempt of divorced,†¦show more content†¦For example, Kingsolver defends the notion that families of nontraditional arrangements do not need to be examined, ridiculed or treated differently with pity or tolera nce as traditionally married families when she says, â€Å"Arguing about whether nontraditional families deserve pity or tolerance is a little like the medieval debate about left-handedness as a mark of the devil† (Kingsolver 16). By this statement, the author clearly expresses her belief that nontraditional families are just as successful in their roles as traditional or married families, though evidence gathered has rejected Kingsolver’s argument. In an article by Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, the authors present the benefits of marriage as opposed to divorced or single parenthood families. Naomi Gerstel writes that, â€Å"advocates [of marriage] such as David Popenoe and Linda Waite assert that marriage is good for one’s pocketbook, health, happiness, sex life, and kids. Both men and women who are married tend to have higher incomes, more wealth, better health, and more property than those who are not.† The article goes on to describe the negati ve impacts of divorce and nontraditional families by introducing National Census statistics of relationships between married parents and their children compared with

The Murder of Emmett Till Free Essays

Clearly, the murder of Emmett Till was a major part of the Civil Rights Movement because it had opened the eyes of citizens who had believed there was no difference living as a person of color than there was living as a white person. The Emmett Till case was about a young boy who was visitings some relatives up in Money, Mississippi. He rode in a car with a few other cousins and family members around his age (14) to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market, when one of Emmett’s relatives had recommended that he attempt to get with the clerk of the store. We will write a custom essay sample on The Murder of Emmett Till or any similar topic only for you Order Now However after attempting to flirt with her he left unsuccessful and gave her a kiss on her cheek. The clerk then told her husband about the encounter and how she was approached as Emmett made unwilling advances upon the clerk. As Emmett left the store he had bragged about how he â€Å"Got a Date† with the clerk, his relatives were instantly worried for his safety warning him that it was dangerous to make advances on white people, especially women. After being taken to the home in which his relatives lived in, there was commotion at the door, then all of a sudden. The clerks husband and his brother in law had barged into the room where Emmett was sleep and drug him outside and beat him to near death. They had thought of taking him to a hospital and giving them a fake story about how they found him beaten up, but decided he was a lost cause and tied a cinder block to his ankle and dropped what was left of him down the Tallahatchie River to sleep with the fishes. After three days of the kidnapping of Till they had found his body in the Tallahatchie River, the only way they knew it was him was by the ring on his finger, a ring his father had given to him. The news had spread around Till’s family quickly, and his mother demanded his body be brought back to chicago so he can be buried properly. She had also requested that the funeral had an open casket to show the 50,000 people that attended the funeral just what those men had done to her son. She had later set up a trial to put the two men who had murdered her boy behind bars, however after hours of the court arguing who did what and who didn’t do what, the two men were found not guilty for the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till How to cite The Murder of Emmett Till, Papers

Water, Land and Air Pollution Essay Example

Water, Land and Air Pollution Paper Water pollution Water pollution is usually caused by human activities. Different human sources add to the pollution of water. There are two sorts of sources, they mostly come from pipelines or sewers and then into the surface water. Nonprofit sources are sources that cannot be traced to a single site of discharge. Examples some sources are: factories, sewage treatment plants, underground mines, oil wells, oil tankers and agriculture, acid deposition room the air, traffic, pollutants that are spread through rivers and pollutants that enter the water through groundwater. Water pollution can have a drastic impact on aquatic life in any body of water, which can result in the complete elimination Of certain species. Chemical compounds can be toxic to aquatic life Land pollution Land pollution is the demolition of Earths land surfaces often caused by human activities and their misuse of land resources. It occurs when waste is not disposed properly. Health hazard disposal of urban and industrial wastes, exploitation of minerals, and improper use of soil by inadequate agricultural. Primarily caused by industrial contamination, land pollution is a global problem. Becoming aware of the many ways that land becomes polluted, and recognizing the harmful effects of land pollution, is an important step in understanding how it can be remedied. Air pollution Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals or biological materials that cause arm to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere. We will write a custom essay sample on Water, Land and Air Pollution specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Water, Land and Air Pollution specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Water, Land and Air Pollution specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Air pollution presents big environmental threat in many parts of the world. Air pollution includes variety of different harmful chemicals and gases released from our vehicles and our industrial facilities that make our air dirty. Vehicles are the biggest source of air pollution. Air pollution has extremely negative effect on our environment.

Unlock your minds hidden potential with this trick

Unlock your minds hidden potential with this trick Who among us doesn’t want to reach our full potential? Most of us have been told by someone at least once during our lives- possibly a parent or other family member, or maybe a friend or someone else in a position of trust, like a teacher- that we have a great deal of potential for achieving great things in life, and if we could summon the dedication, discipline, and mental fortitude to unlock it and utilize it to its fullest, we’d be successful! Using our mind’s full potential could benefit us in all areas of our lives, from strengthening personal relationships to reaching our professional and career goals and everything in between, so putting in the effort to unlock this hidden potential is a worthwhile investment.According to a blog post on pickthebrain.com, there’s a great deal of evidence that suggests people can unlock significant dormant mental potential and go on to achieve great success: â€Å"Your mind is a vast, largely unexplained source of en ergy and power†¦ many very successful people have believed in these powers and used them to create incredible fortunes and success†¦They exist whether you are willing to admit it and use it to your benefit or not. If you don’t, then you are missing out on getting the very most out of your life.†So†¦ the big question remains: How do you go about unlocking your mind’s hidden potential? Well, a recent Psychology Today article by Dr. Chris Gilbert, MD, PhD may just hold the answer to unlocking what she terms your â€Å"inner genius.†Dr. Gilbert focuses on a curious phenomenon that occurs in individuals who have suffered damage to the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) in the brain and acquired what’s known as acquired savant syndrome, a disorder in which people spontaneously develop incredible  memories  and genius level abilities. This rare occurrence has been documented in a very small number of individuals (just 32 at the time of t his writing), but their experiences paint a powerful portrait of tapping into one’s latent potential.Take Derek for instance, who’s referred to in the article:Derek was a 39-year-old sales trainer with no musical skill when he dove head first into a very shallow swimming pool while visiting his mom. He suffered a severe head concussion and was taken to the hospital. Four days later, when he was resting at one of his friends’ house, he discovered that he was able to play the piano flawlessly and beautifully even though he couldn’t read music. That day, he played the piano for 6 hours. He is now working as a well-paid musician and composes music.Pretty powerful stuff, right? And Derek is just one example. There are others who, for some reason or another, often through an accident or brain altering illness like a stroke or dementia, acquired new talents after getting acquired savant syndrome. Dr. Gilbert notes, â€Å"Special skills in acquired savants, like the unusual abilities of ‘natural savants’ like autistic children, usually manifest as musical abilities- most often the piano with perfect pitch like Derek- visual memory, arithmetic abilities, painting, drawing, sculpting, and spatial skills where the savant can construct complex accurate models or excel at direction finding and map making.†However, before you go off and assume that you need to damage your brain’s LATL in order to get acquired savant syndrome, don’t get the wrong idea! Dr. Gilbert is not suggesting that anyone hurt themselves or do anything tragic and irreversible to their brains. However, she is saying that we can learn from the experiences of Derek and the others who have been diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome and apply this knowledge to answer the following question: Can healthy people acquire savant-like talents and unlock their â€Å"inner geniuses† by suppressing their LATL in a safer way? Dr. Gilbert argues tha t the LATL in our brains function to actively suppress certain portions of our ability to help us focus on the primary needs for survival, and that it keeps our full abilities and potential in check and dormant.Evidence for this has been shown in laboratory studies in individuals without brain trauma. Dr. Gilbert’s article refers to research performed by Dr. Allan Snyder, a neuroscientist at the University of Sidney, Australia, who demonstrated that there is a way to temporarily â€Å"turn-off† our LATL without any ill effects, so that all of us could exhibit savant-like talents:â€Å"Dr. Snyder artificially fatigued the LATL by stimulating it with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for 15 minutes in healthy subjects.  This technique is the equivalent of tiring out a muscle by vigorously exercising it. After TMS exposure, Snyder’s test subjects showed improved ability to draw objects from memory, to quantify the number of discrete objects in complex visu al scenes, and to accurately proof-read documents- all skills that depend upon memory for small details.†This means that there’s a potential sleeping â€Å"inner genius† inside all of us that’s just waiting to be woken up! But†¦can we emulate these results outside of a lab? It turns out that the answer is yes, we can.Based on Dr. Snyder’s work, Dr. Gilbert suggests that â€Å"anything we do that actively fatigues the LATL in a natural way could allow latent drawing, math, spatial, or musical abilities to surface.† She encourages engaging in activities that allow our brains to hyperfocus on the small, meaningless details of things to loosen the oppressive grip of our LATLs on our brain functioning. Things like transcendental meditation, repetition of a nonsensical mantra, and some forms of hypnosis can simulate the effects needed to temporarily suppress LATL activity, and allow our brains to unlock our hidden potential.The next time youâ €™re eager to unleash your mind’s hidden potential, consider the simple tricks mentioned here. Dr. Gilbert sums it up best: â€Å"So here’s the bottom line: To unleash your hidden talent, either focus exclusively on meaningless details or go overboard thinking about the meaning of things around you. Either way, you will push your LATL into the back seat and put your inner genius in the driver’s seat.†

The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus

The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage in March 1493, having discovered the New World...although he didn’t know it. He still believed that he had found some uncharted islands near Japan or China  and that further exploration was needed. His first voyage had been a bit of a fiasco, as he had lost one of the three ships entrusted to him and he did not bring back much in the way of gold or other valuable items. He did, however, have a handful of bedraggled natives he had taken on the island of Hispaniola, and he was able to convince the Spanish crown to finance the second voyage of discovery and colonization. Preparations for the Second Voyage The second voyage was to be a large-scale colonization and exploration project. Columbus was given 17 ships and over 1,000 men. Included on this voyage, for the first time, were European domesticated animals such as pigs, horses, and cattle. Columbus’ orders were to expand the settlement on Hispaniola, convert the natives to Christianity, establish a trading post, and continue his explorations in search of China or Japan. The fleet set sail on October 13th, 1493, and made excellent time, first sighting land on November 3rd. Dominica, Guadalupe and the Antilles The island first sighted was named Dominica by Columbus, a name it retains to this day. Columbus and some of his men visited the island, but it was inhabited by fierce Caribs and they did not stay very long. Moving on, they discovered and explored a number of small islands, including Guadalupe, Montserrat, Redondo, Antigua, and several others in the Leeward Islands and Lesser Antilles chains. He also visited Puerto Rico before making his way back to Hispaniola. Hispaniola and the Fate of La Navidad Columbus had wrecked one of his three ships the year before during his first voyage. He had been forced to leave 39 of his men behind on Hispaniola, in a small settlement named La Navidad. Upon returning to the island, Columbus discovered that the men he had left had angered the native population by raping local women. The natives had attacked the settlement, slaughtering the Europeans to the last man. Columbus, consulting his native chieftain ally Guacanagarà ­, laid the blame on Caonabo, a rival chief. Columbus and his men attacked, routing Caonabo and taking many of his people as slaves. Isabella Columbus founded the town of Isabella on the northern coast of Hispaniola, and spent the next five months or so getting the settlement established and exploring the island. Building a town in a steamy land with inadequate provisions is hard work, and many of the men sickened and died. It reached the point where a group of settlers, led by Bernal de Pisa, attempted to capture and make off with several ships and go back to Spain: Columbus learned of the revolt and punished the plotters. The settlement of Isabella remained but never thrived. It was abandoned in 1496 in favor of a new site, now Santo Domingo. Cuba and Jamaica Columbus left the settlement of Isabella in the hands of his brother Diego in April, setting out to explore the region further. He reached Cuba (which he had discovered on his first voyage) on April 30 and explored it for several days before moving on to Jamaica on May 5. He spent the next few weeks exploring the treacherous shoals around Cuba and searching in vain for the mainland. Discouraged, he returned to Isabella on August 20, 1494. Columbus as Governor Columbus had been appointed governor and Viceroy of the new lands by the Spanish crown, and for the next year and a half, he attempted to do his job. Unfortunately, Columbus was a good ship’s captain but a lousy administrator, and those colonists that still survived grew to hate him. The gold they had been promised never materialized and Columbus kept most of what little wealth was found for himself. Supplies began running out, and in March of 1496 Columbus returned to Spain to ask for more resources to keep the struggling colony alive. The Start of the American Indian Slave Trade Columbus brought back many native slaves with him. Columbus, who had once again promised gold and trade routes, did not want to return to Spain empty-handed. Queen Isabella, appalled, decreed that the New World natives were subjects of the Spanish crown and therefore could not be enslaved. However, the practice of enslaving indigenous populations continued. People of Note in Columbus’ Second Voyage Ramà ³n Panà © was a Catalan priest who lived among the Taà ­no people for about four years  and produced a short but very important ethnographic history of their culture.Francisco de Las Casas was an adventurer whose son Bartolomà © was destined to become very important in the fight for native rights.Diego Velzquez was a conquistador who later became governor of Cuba.Juan de la Cosa was an explorer and cartographer who produced several important early maps of the Americas.Juan Ponce de Leà ³n would become governor of Puerto Rico but was most famous for his journey to Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth. Historical Importance of the Second Voyage Columbus’ second voyage marked the start of colonialism in the New World, the social importance of which cannot be overstated. By establishing a permanent foothold, Spain took the first steps towards their mighty empire of the centuries that followed, an empire that was built with New World gold and silver. When Columbus brought back slaves to Spain, he also caused the question of slavery in the New World to be aired openly, and Queen Isabella decided that her new subjects could not be enslaved. Although Isabella perhaps prevented a few instances of enslavement, the conquest and colonization of the New World were devastating and deadly for Native Americans: the indigenous population dropped by approximately 80% between 1492 and the mid-17th century. The drop was caused mainly by the arrival of Old World diseases, but other Native Americans died as a result of violent conflict or enslavement. Many of those who sailed with Columbus on his second voyage went on to play very important roles in the history of the New World. These first colonists had a great amount of influence and power over the course of the next few decades of history in their part of the world. Sources Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America From the Beginnings to the . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962Present. Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan. Hardcover, 1st edition, Random House, June 1, 2004.