Dorcas Doyen, more popularly known as Helen Jewett, is at the centre of the book “The Murder of Helen Jewett” written by Patricia Cline Cohen in 1999. Doyen or Jewett as she is popularly known was born in Temple, Maine on October 18 1883 to a working class family. Her mother died while she was still a child and her father, who was an alcoholic, followed soon. Orphaned at an early age, she was adopted by a local judge, Chief Justice Nathan Weston and his family who provided her with a good education (Cohen, 23). She additionally worked as a servant in the judge’s home and it is here that she grew into a young woman renowned for her beauty. She is said to have developed sexual assertiveness at this point and was rumoured to be involved with a Banker in an affair that became scandalous. Upon attaining 18 years of age, the girl moved out of the judge’s home and began working as a prostitute in Portland, Maine, under an assumed name, as was the practice at the time. Her trade took her to Boston, and then finally to New York where she met her death (Cohen, 37). Her murder brought to the fore various aspects of people’s lifestyles that may have contribute to the nature of life that Jewett led besides other women and men. Upon the discovery of her murder and the attempted arson on her body, investigators focused on her long time client and close associate, Richard P. Robinson who used the name Frank Rivers when visiting prostitutes such as Jewett. Continue Reading »

What makes a story, poem or play interesting and appealing to the reader are the characters involved. Characters form the basis of a successful writing in the sense that they help in discovery of major themes and motifs. It is worth noting that what make heroic or villain characters are traits they depict. In this regard, this brief overview will highlight three main characters from The Merchant of Venice, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and Green Knight and their relationship to the theme of self-interest verses love. The heroic character of Beowulf and that of Sir Gawain will be assessed as well as the villain character of Shylock who although is not the protagonist of the play, is more active than Antonio. Their own interests, personal goals and love for objects and people prompt the heroic actions of the three characters. Moreover, their beliefs and humanistic values compel their actions.

Beowulf, an epic poem by Chaucer depicts Beowulf as the central character against three contenders, Grendel mother, Grendel and the dragon (Mitchell, Robison, 14). His brave personality and merciless character helps him in killing all his enemies. However, Beowulf heroic actions are driven by his personal goals and his love for his people. He is determined to prove his ability and courage to his people through eliminating their enemies. Continue Reading »

The importance of using logos, pathos and ethos correctly
What makes an argument great depends on whether one correctly uses logos, ethos and pathos. Logos, pathos and ethos are various ways of arguments. Ethos is a term used to describe reliability with an audience. Logos is engaging the logical part of a person. Pathos defines the emotional point of an argument. In using pathos, emotions are used to gain attention from an audience or a reader. Pathos argues through emotion. These are three crucial elements that one should address while writing. If a writer lacks credibility, an audience or a reader will not take the work seriously. On the other hand, if the writer did not show logic in his work, the writing does not have any meaning. If the work showed no emotions, then the message would be lost. if an author fails to exploit these three concepts in his writing, the reader will not meet the author’s expectations. Therefore, it is important for an author to use, as well as, write to the audience’s expectations.

Tone and style selection
Tone and style selection is not only important in the medical field, but also in any other profession or field. For example, a certain notary public has the permission of advertising its services in other languages and in English. However, in California it is forbidden for a notary to use Spanish terms such as “Notario Publico” or “Notario” while advertising or in other forms of communication. This is because Notario refers to a person with the responsibility of giving legal advice, for example, an attorney. A notary public means he/she can certify legal documents. Proper structuring of tone and style while addressing a specific audience is important, in order to avoid any fines or other problems. Continue Reading »

Example Essay on Ragged Dick:
This “Ragged Dick” is myth that people is rewarded if he does his best sincerely. Hero Dick is the poor boy who makes his living by shoeshine. To money, he is very sincere, and his sincerity is trusted by rich man and he achieves to go into rich circle. However, such a myth is an empty dream that is not possible rarely very much. In Japan, the American society is considered to be society with the dream that a chance is given to everybody. However, it is a lie. Isn’t it extremely difficult for the person belonging to a social of lower rank ba like this myth to achieve a success? For succeeding, the man’s circumstance is important first.

Does the American dream exist in everybody or not? An answer is NO. The United States is connection society in a academic career-oriented society more than Japan. In the society in that mobs has gathered out of the world like the United Stase, “personal character” and “the hidden ability” should not be understood by any means in the interview for several minutes. An immaterial thing is made to the object of evaluation in the case everybody is sharing difinite culture. In the society that everybody is not sharing the common cultural base like the United State, the degree depending on a material thing, for example what degree in what grades in what university, and influential person’s recommendation, will become large. People who is not a good university graduate and there is also no good connection, even if he has ability, a chance does not turn. Such conversation exists between Dick and the man in a book “Don’t you ever steal, then?” “No, I wouldn’t.” “Lots of boys does it, but I wouldn’t.”(36). I agree he is an honest. But, the present time does the boy of a shoeshine win a great success cause living honestly. Continue Reading »

Free college essay on The Battle Royal:
An archetypal initiation story involves a protagonist, of a specific culture, sorting through a personal battle of good versus evil. In order to combat unethical or immoral practices, the protagonist must find, within himself, a way to make the change. “The Battle Royal” by Ralph Waldo Ellison is an archetypal initiation story told by the protagonist, an African American male narrator. In his late teen age years, he must complete a speech, and then live up to his grandfather’s dying wish. Telling the story twenty years later, the narrator remembers the cultural journey he made to become the man he is today.

Mordecai Marcus has said that an initiation story will “show it’s protagonist experiencing a significant change of knowledge…or a change of character…and this change must point or lead him toward an adult world.”(219). The “Battle Royal” taken from the book, “the Invisible Man”, is the most conclusive of any initiation stories, showing the protagonist “embarked toward maturity” (219). First, the narrator must attend an unexpected battle, fighting his fellow classmates, then suffering electrocution, in order to say a speech. Saying the speech is very important to him, and after making the speech, he receives a briefcase containing a scholarship. Knowing that his grandfather would be proud, after receipt of the scholarship, the narrator went to his grandfather’s photograph. He “stood beneath his photograph with [his] briefcase in hand and smiled triumphantly into his stolid black peasant’s face” (218). By completing the speech, the narrator has faced what most archetypal initiation stories consider rules of culture and heroics. Participation in the battle and the subsequent scholarship form a “most decisive” (219) protagonist. According to Marcus, this type of protagonist is the most important of any initiation story. Continue Reading »

Free sample essay on The Invisible Man:
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is true in The Invisible Man.Wells, one of the leading science fiction writers of his time has more than a handful of incredibly successful books accredited to his name. The book “The Invisible Man” is one of the crowning examples of XIXth century fantastic fiction. Even though it is an early work of science fiction I feel that it is much more than that. The nature of the plot of the story encourages one to come to the conclusion that there is more to this saga than science fiction. “The Invisible Man”, is a book about human nature and the intricacies of the thoughts, opinions and judgments intrinsically made in their minds when confronted with scenarios they fail to understand.

Wells wrote this marvelous story as something of a lesson about scientists playing God, and placing themselves above normal people. In his book, HG Wells ventures into the abstract concept of invisibility and the human emotions and reactions involved in the attainment and realization of this amazingly incomprehensible power. A once sensible scientist is engulfed by the power he feels when unseen, and this power mongering eventually leads into insanity. He carries a sociopath anger that explodes at random, causing as much damage to himself as to others. There is a pervading angst and cynicism running through the story that makes the science aspect of it mere background. According to me, in his book, Wells has taken us on a tour of the extremes which human emotions and feelings can reach when confronted with situations requiring immediate action. The story is filled with innuendoes as indications of how petty, vindictive and suspicious the lay man can get. Wells expresses this by elucidating accounts involving the lame and unintelligent villagers with the invisible man. Continue Reading »

Free sample essay on Vampirism in The Fall of the House of Usher:
Originally written in 1839, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” has been the object of many literary questions and criticisms. One of the most interesting questions ever raised would undoubtedly pertain to the illness that Madeline Usher suffered. Many theories have been put forth about “the disease of Lady Madeline [that] had long baffled the skill of her physicians”. (Poe 786). The most obvious conclusion on this disease is that Madeline Usher suffered from vampirism. Although Poe never actually said outright that this is what affected Madeline, he did give enough evidence throughout the story for it to be a possibility and when paired with the society-of-the-time’s view of death and gothic literature, vampirism is the most logical answer. Continue Reading »

Free sample essay on Oliver Twist:
Charles Dickens wrote “Oliver Twist” in 1849 with the zeal of a reformer in order to expose the ugliness of material of the Victorian Age. He was a ruthless critic of the Victorian Society. A note of social satire runs through almost all his novels.

“Pickwick Papers” was hilarious comedy still it exposed the corruption rampant in the election system and the general law, moral climate of the society. But with “Oliver Twist” Dickens almost emerged as a crusader against the social evils of his times. In “Oliver Twist”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Bleak House”, “Hard Times” and “Little Dorrit”, he flayed (highly criticized) the social institutions with devastating force. Edmund Wilson remarks that Dickens was “of all the great Victorian writers probably most antagonist to the Victorian Age itself.” Along with giving poetic shape to the better characteristics of English life, he also attacked the abuses in the society “especially in the workhouse (poor and beggar’s dwelling), educational system, pawn-broken (shroff) shops, slums, delay in law offices, all the London Haunts of crime and pain. Dickens was the advocate of the downtrodden and the oppressed. He aroused the conscience of the public and he became the heart and conscience of England. “He is the master of our sunniest smiles and our most unselfish tears”, Lord Carlisle remarked. His age was an age of transition. The Industrial Revolution was rapid gaining power and England was changing from a country that was mainly agricultural to a country that was mainly industrial. Dickens criticizes the society in almost exclusively moral way. His criticism reminds us of the grave folds common more or less to all mankind. He was truly a Victorian and yet he is for all ages. Continue Reading »

Essay on Amy Tan: Mother Daughter Relationships
There are no simple or perfect relationships between mothers and daughters. Relationships are a delicate balance between the love and emotions of two individuals. They are ever changing and evolving, and are each unique as the people in them. Amy Tan’s novels offer an inside glimpse into several intricate mother daughter relationships. Her characters suffer hardships as well as times of joy. There are many similarities in the mother and daughter relationships in the books by Amy Tan.

One of the most difficult parts of maintaining a good relationship between mother and daughter is balancing the individual characteristics of each person. Even though daughters are truly a part of their mothers, this definitely does not mean that their personalities are at all similar. In Tan’s novels, the women that the daughters become are amazing. They face many challenges, such as homes with problems or no fathers, little to no money and problems adjusting to the American society, but they still become wonderful people in the end. Sometimes the daughters just want to be different from their mothers, to be their own independent people. This can sometimes be hard for the mothers to accept that their daughters take nothing from them. However sometimes the mothers’ personalities and traits aren’t the best to learn and take from. Continue Reading »

“Somebody once told me that a cow won’t bite. That somebody is as wrong as a sin on Sunday” (pg. 8). This little incident is the event that really gets the story on a move. A Day No Pigs Would Die narrates Robert Peck’s adolescent life in rural Vermont during the nineteen twenties. A Day No Pigs Would Die is a true story, written in first person, through the eyes of a Robert Newton Peck. The mood of the this story is smooth and uneventful with a few spots of joy and sadness. Much of the mood is derived from the plain and natural setting of rural Vermont. A Day No Pigs Would Die takes place during the nineteen twenties on the Peck’s family farm and the surrounding New England countryside. The Peck’s own a simple farm consisting of a dark brown log farmhouse, a plank board corn-cratch, and an old log milk barn. To the north of the Peck farm lies the Tanner’s farm. The Tanner’s farm is much newer and larger with many sprawling pastures and a large, modern milk barn. Behind these two farms, a high ridge stretches in to the rolling Vermont foothills. From on top of this ridge Robert can see almost to Rutland. The site of the bustling and exciting county fair. Continue Reading »