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Dissimulation in "Decameron" and "Heptameron", 2008.
An analysis of the theme of dissimulation in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and the "Heptameron" of Marguerite of Navarre.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 45.95
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Abstract
The paper discusses the differences and similarities between Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Marguerite of Navarre's "Heptameron". The paper focuses on the theme of "dissimulation" in both works, that is the deliberate withholding of information in order to deceive for a specific purpose. The paper looks at two stories from both works in order to highlight this theme and concludes that both works contain a mixture of fact and fiction, but both use this mixture with the higher goal of showing human hypocrisy and that deceit and dissimulation often rebound against the errant.
From the Paper
"The are large differences as well as strong similarities between Boccaccio's Decameron and the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre. The works are separated by about two hundred years in time, and also by the difference between the French culture of Marguerite and the Italian culture of Boccaccio. Also, Boccaccio wrote in the time before the Protestant Reformation, and his work is clearly of a strong Catholic bent, despite his constant criticism and poking of fun at clerics and church bureaucrats. Marguerite, on the other hand, wrote during the time of the Reformation and put strong Protestant leanings in her work, which caused some controversy at the time and put her into a certain amount of danger, according to the introduction in the anthology. Even so, the cynicism and critiques that both writers express toward the established churches of their day show strong similarities and suggest that clerical corruption and hypocrisy is a ripe topic of satire in nearly any century."
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The Doll-Maker, 2008.
A creative short story about the growing "designer baby" craze.
1,030 words (approx. 4.1 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 36.95
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Abstract
This paper presents a fictional story about a couple going to a clinic to have their baby designed. The paper describes the drive to the clinic of the couple, Jim and Nancy, noting that they are both quiet on their long drive to see the doctor. The paper relates that Jim realizes he was scared about the doctor and, maybe just a little, about Nancy, as well. The paper then relates that Jim wanted a baby, just not the baby that was now being built piecemeal by his wife.
From the Paper
""I'm fine," Nancy said. She was wearing sunglasses and Jim couldn't be sure if she wasn't looking at him out of the corner of her one eye. "Just keep your eyes on the road, hun'; we don't need an accident." From where he sat, Jim thought he saw the faintest flicker of a smile, but he really couldn't be sure. To be honest, she rarely smiled anymore."
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"Gods Go Begging", 2008.
A review of Alfredo Vea's novel on the world after the war in Vietnam, "Gods Go Begging."
1,134 words (approx. 4.5 pages), 16 sources, MLA, $ 39.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses Alfredo Vea's novel, "Gods Go Begging" that presents many vignettes and interrelated stories in a strange canvas of the real and the imaginary, that force the reader to provide his own definition of the world in the wake of the war in Vietnam. The paper discusses the plots and characters of the book and what the reader can take away from the novel as a whole.
From the Paper
"In their own way, these various characters are like characters in Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson: grotesques. But Anderson was not quite right in his belief that these various characters had become grotesques because they had seized upon some single and incomplete truth (Anderson, 23-24), but because of their inability to express themselves. (Cowley, Introduction," 14) In much the same way, Vea's characters in Gods Go Begging suffer from a similar inability to express themselves. Trying, failing, trying again, they often lash out against whatever is in their path, sometimes attacking the very things they love. (Vea, 312)"
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"Sonnet 126" by Petrarch, 2008.
An investigation into premise and images of "Sonnet 126" by Francesco Petrarch.
1,404 words (approx. 5.6 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 46.95
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Abstract
This paper looks at one of Francesco Petrarch's most challenging poems, his "Sonnet 126" or "Canonziere". The paper discusses the form and structure of Petrarch's poem and suggest that the work is, at least in part, inaptly named: It is not really a "sonnet" at all as such an item is characteristically defined. The paper also describes the premise of the song and discusses the major images and metaphors in the poem.
From the Paper
"Drawing from our class notes, we know that Petrarch, if sonnet 89 is any indication, would much rather be a prisoner of love than a man free of the entanglements of love. Seen in that light, he is a man who happily confines himself to a prison of his own making for a woman who either does not wish to love him or cannot love him. When observing how Petrarch idealizes Laura, and when one considers how he relentlessly employs the first person, it is hard not to arrive at the conclusion that the writer is really writing about himself as a love-struck bard. Ultimately, Petrarch has made a virtue out of being a love-struck suitor condemned to fall short of receiving the love of his "Laura" in his lifetime."
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"The English Reform Act of 1867", 2008.
A review of the contents and arguments of "The Politics of Democracy: The English Reform Act of 1867" by Gertrude Himmelfarb.
1,707 words (approx. 6.8 pages), 1 source, APA, $ 55.95
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Abstract
This paper reviews and summarizes "The Politics of Democracy: The English Reform Act of 1867" by Gertrude Himmelfarb. More specifically, the paper discusses the Himmelfarb's position that the Reform Act of 1867 was the most significant event in British history, specifically with regard to establishing household suffrage and democratic principles.
From the Paper
"Himmelfarb's real intentions and arguments are crystal clear. She wants to convince her readers that the Conservatives are responsible for the Reform Act, and history misrepresents their role in the affairs of the 19th century. The Liberals are not a progressive and altruistic party. She insinuates that the Conservative party is superior and works for the national interests, while Liberalism is an unstable and unimaginative ideology. Liberals see politics as a "rolling stone, uncontrollable and predictable" (Himmelfarb, 1967, p.123.). Civilisation is like the flickering flame of candle waiting to be snuffed out by the political mismanagement of the Liberal party. How, Himmelfarb asks, can such a party be responsible for the Reform Act of 1867? Only a strong and respectable party like the Tories could accomplish such a task. Although the Liberals advocated the Reform Act, Himmelfarb asserts that the "Reform Act was a Conservative measure, initiated and carried by a Conservative government"
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"Diamond Grill", 2008.
An analysis of how Fred Wah reflects on his multicultural heritage in his biofiction work, "Diamond Grill".
1,165 words (approx. 4.7 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 40.95
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Abstract
This paper examines Fred Wah's bio-fiction work, "Diamond Grill." It describes how Wah's words and ideas challenge binaries and how he reflects on his multicultural heritage throughout the book. The paper also questions why deconstructing oppositional thinking is important and discusses this in the context of Wah's work, "Diamond Grill."
From the Paper
"One must deconstruct oppositional thinking and analyze whether one can be both taken at face value based only on their individual person (regardless of race), and at the same time still champion a love for one's racial origin. Wah asks, "Why deny the immigrant his or her real world?" (125) and, at the same time, rejects society's ideal of what his family's "residue" must be: "Sorry, but I'm just not interested in this collective enterprise erected from the sacrosanct great railway imagination dedicated to harvesting a dominant white cultural landscape" (ibid). Again, even Wah admits it is difficult to loosen oneself from the bias that directs us to categorize people based on their race. The author himself notices glimpses of Chinese in his children's body posture, and searches for the hint of the "Nordic gloom" in their countenances (133). His brother Donnie is "the blondest Asian in our family" (140), "too blond to be the best Chinese cook in the family" (ibid). This is a bit of comic rhetoric on behalf of the writer: it is difficult to rid ourselves of these illusions, as society imputes them on a continual basis."
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Toni Morrison's "Beloved", 2008.
An analysis of the themes of ghosts, time, memory and trauma in Toni Morrison's "Beloved".
1,814 words (approx. 7.3 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 58.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses how Toni Morrison's "Beloved" offers sometimes confusing allegories stressing the power of the past over what may be bizarre events of the present and future. The paper also examines the ghost in the story, called "Beloved", and how the power of Beloved can be seen in how it forces attention to the past in those who need to exhume it and that whatever or whomever Beloved was, she had worked a kind of magic in evoking the deepest feelings of those with whom she insisted on living. The paper concludes that the surviving adults in the novel must make an effort to overcome their pasts, realizing they are past what harmed them, and transform themselves.
Outline:
124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati
Beloved
From the Paper
" At the beginning of Beloved, Morrison commented that Paul D had read of an incident in Cincinnati involving a slave woman who killed one of her children when her owner caught up with her, an example of the way in which Morrison added details in a matter of fact way that leaves the reader to knit together the story as he or she will. The manner in which characters arrive and leave is part of Morrison's able way of suggesting fluid time and how characters are often distracted by matters not of the immediate present. For instance, Sethe's son's, Howard and Buglar, ran away in 1873 after years of life with phenomena that made the household a misery. (Beloved 272) As for Paul D, upon his arrival he comes to terms with an obviously haunted house. "
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