Question 3

1. Read “The Story of an Hour” below. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “The Story of an Hour” share a universal theme, but the stories come to the same conclusion in very different ways. In a paragraph or two, explain what theme the stories share and how the authors approached the theme differently.

   Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.

   It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

   She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her. There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

   She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

   There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

   She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

   There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

   Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

   She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

   There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

   And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

   “Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.

   Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door—you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.”

   “Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

   Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

   She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

   Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

   When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease — of the joy that kills.

Question 4

1. The poem “The Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and the song “Hey You” by Pink Floyd share a common universal symbol. In a paragraph or two, explain how the symbol means the same thing in both stories and contrast how the poems use that symbol in different ways.

    

   “The Mending Wall” by Robert Frost Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’ We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

   “Hey You” by Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles With itchy feet and fading smiles Can you feel me? Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light Don’t give in without a fight. Hey you, out there on your own Sitting naked by the phone Would you touch me? Hey you, with your ear against the wall Waiting for someone to call out Would you touch me? Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone? Open your heart, I’m coming home. But it was only fantasy. The wall was too high, As you can see. No matter how he tried, He could not break free. And the worms ate into his brain. Hey you, standing in the road always doing what you’re told, Can you help me? Hey you, out there beyond the wall, Breaking bottles in the hall, Can you help me? Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all Together we stand, divided we fall.

After reading the two articles addressing privatization, Arizona’s private prisons: A bad bargain and The case for privatizing California’s prisons, respond to each of the following questions:

1. In your opinion, what groups of people benefit most when the prison system is capitalized? What groups or people benefit least?
2. In your informed opinion, are private prisons a bargain? Why or why not? Has the general public reached the same conclusion? Why or why not?
3. Has your opinion about private prisons changed as a result of this research?
4. What problems come with privatizing traditional government services like incarceration, military work, or policing? What benefits?
5. What do for-profit prisons say about society’s expectations of incarceration and criminal activity? What do they say about society’s opinion of inmates?

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

construct a 2-4 page paper that fully satisfies these two areas:

1. Based upon your topic chosen in the first assignment, or based upon an entirely new topic of your choice, describe two organizations (Feel free to do your own independent research on these organizations) that is seeking to address this social problem. (1-2 pages). Note: If you do change topics please get prior approval from you instructor.

1. Analyze two major ways that each organization is addressing the social problem you have mentioned. For example, are they helping to create homeless shelters, are they helping people receive drug treatment, or are they working with state and local authorities to curb suffering in some area

Description

In this assignment, you will write an essay about the various major centers of learning in the latter half of the first millennium. These centers had tremendous influence on civilizations past and present. Writing this essay will give you an opportunity to see how the events of the age came to be and how they still have an impact in your life today.

Instructions

1.  Read the following article. Note that Istanbul is now the capital of Turkey. Formerly called Constantinople, it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire during the latter half of the first millennium. As you read the article, find in the example of Istanbul indications of the divisions between Eastern and Western cultures and the historical sources of these divisions.

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2.  Write an essay to compare the Byzantine and Muslim centers of learning with the Western and Eastern cultural traditions of Rome and Asia during the first millennium. Consider these questions to guide your writing (Do not simply write a short answer to each question; you are writing a well-developed, coherent essay.):

• 1. • Given that the Byzantine and Muslim worlds had so much more in common with Western culture than with Asian cultures, why are they currently considered Eastern?
     • How does the article illustrate the historical sources of the modern divisions between Western and Eastern cultural traditions?
     • How were Byzantium and Muslim centers of learning influential in the past?
     • How are those influences evident today culturally, politically, and in other ways? Provide specific examples.
     • Why do these influences matter? How do they affect your life?

3.  Be sure to adhere to the following writing guidelines:

• • • Your essay must be between 3-4 pages in length.
    • Your essay must be double-spaced using 12-point font, with 1-inch margins.
    • Include your name at the top of the first page.
    • Proofread your essay to eliminate mechanical and grammatical errors.
    • For citations, follow APA format.