Over the last half a century, the American dream has changed. Originally, the dream life was to have a good job, a wife and kids and dinner on the table at six. Now, due to the Women’s Rights Movement, inflation and developing technology, the American dream has become materialistic. The American dream is based upon how much money you make, the car you drive, your looks, and so on. People want to make a lot of money and not have to do much. The immigrant American dream- that is, the dream immigrants have for why they should come over here-... Continue reading

On "The F-Bomb", there is a post called Coming of Age, by Shira and Dina, about women in the Israeli Armed Forces. The post talks about how many Israeli women consider joining the army to be their duty, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Women make up one third of the Israeli army while in America, women represent twenty percent. That's a considerable gap, but when women are still seen as needing a man's protection, does the number of soldiers really matter? "Israelis, mainly boys, spend their high school days planning their future in the army in the... Continue reading

While reading Seventh Son, by Orson Scott Card, a character that did not make sense to me was the visitor that Reverend Thrower kept seeing. It was not until after Alvin Junior’s leg got hurt that I realized who visitor is. I believe the Visitor to be the Unmaker. When Reverend Thrower and the Visitor are alone in the church they are talking about Alvin Junior. The Visitor says, “Let me put a case to you, reverend Thrower. Purely hypothetical. Let us suppose you were in the same room with the worst enemy of all that I stand for. Let... Continue reading

In November of 2008, Mark Malok married his friend and partner of 35 years, William Whitaker III. They had their ceremony in Stratford, Conn but when they went back to their home in Atlanta, GA, they were still considered strangers.[1] The reason for this is that Georgia not only bans same-sex marriages, but also passed a constitutional amendment against it. In fact, Georgia is one of thirty states that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman and passed a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.[2] Hundreds of couples share the same anniversary as Mark and William because... Continue reading

"High Cost of Death Row" is an editorial, published in The New York Times, about the cost of an execution being one of the reasons to abolish the death penalty. The article uses logos to convince that the death penalty should abolished because it cost taxpayers millions of dollars extra to execute a prisoner rather than hold them for life without parole. Between 1978 and 1999, Maryland’s estimated coast for five executions is $186 million. Other states have also “wasted millions of dollars” economically draining their governments' “already badly depleted budgets”. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Californian taxpayers... Continue reading

In chapter twelve of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale goes out to the center of town and stands on the scaffold of shame. He wants to unburden himself of his secret and let the town know of his adultery. I think that it is very courageous to do that, but at the same time, I feel that only a part of him wants the people to know. When he shrieked to awaken the town, "The shriek had perhaps sounded with far greater power, to his own startled ears, then it possessed." (102). His shriek was substantial... Continue reading

When I read Act III of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, one part stood out to me. The part where Abigail and the other girls "see" Mary as a bird. I wanted to know if it meant something so I re-read and then did a little research. According to Way Things Are Magazine and geocities.com, in visions the color yellow represents betrayal, treachery, and faithlessness; and a bird represents an omen or bad sign. On color-wheel-pro.com, yellow can also represent jealousy. I found this all to be appropriate with the context. When Abigail says to the "bird", "But God made... Continue reading

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien gives a criteria for what makes a war story true. He says that a true war story cannot be believed, does not have a moral or a point, and it does not matter if it’s true or not. So I asked myself: Is M*A*S*H* a true war story? In the movie M*A*S*H*, I feel a pain in the pit of my stomach... that could just be from laughing though. The movie M*A*S*H*, starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, is about a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital three miles from the front line of the... Continue reading

The movie To Sir, With Love, directed by James Clavell, is a movie about overcoming how other people see you. It may be an older movie, but in today's society, I believe that people still act based on the way they are treated. When people meet, I believe that people should get to know what is on the inside before treating people one way or the other. In the movie, Mark Thackeray, played by Sidney Poitier, is an engineering major who takes the only job he can find, teaching at an undisciplined school in London's East End. His students are... Continue reading