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French Revolution

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Revolutions evolve in definite phases. At first they are moderate in scope, then they become radical to excess and finally they are brought to abrupt conclusions by the emergence of a strong man to restore order. Discuss this statement with specific references to the French Revolution. The French Revolution brought about great changes in the society and government of France. The revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, also had far-reaching effects on the rest of Europe. It introduced democratic ideals to France but did not make the nation a democracy. However, it ended supreme rule by French kings and strengthened the middle class. (Durant, 12) After the revolution began, no European kings, nobles, or other members of the aristocracy could take their powers for granted or ignore the ideals of liberty and equality. The revolution began with a government financial crisis but quickly became a movement of reform and violent change. In one of the early events, a crowd in Paris captured the Bastille, a royal fortress and hated symbol of oppression. A series of elected legislatures then took control of the government. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed. Thousands of others met the same fate in a period known as the Reign of Terror. The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general, took over the government. At the beginning of the revolution, events seemed minor and proceeded in a logical fashion. One of the reasons the revolution originated was the discontent among the lower and middle classes in France. By law, society was divided in to three groups called estates. The first estate was made of up clergy, nobles comprised the second and the rest of the citizens, the third estate. The third estate resented certain advantages of the first two estates. The clergy and nobles did not have to pay most taxes. The third estate, especially the peasants, had to provide almost all the countrys tax revenue. Many members of the middle class were also worried by their social status. They were among the most important people in French society but were not recognized as such because they belonged to the third estate. Financial crisis developed because the nation had gone deeply into debt to finance the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). (Durant, 22) The Parliament of Paris insisted that King Louis XVI could borrow more money or raise taxes only by calling a meeting of the States-General. The States-General was made up of representatives of the three estates, and had last met in 1614. Unwillingly, the king called the meeting. The States-General opened on May 5, 1789, at Versailles. The first two estates wanted each estate to take up matters and vote on them separately by estate. The third estate had has many representatives as the other two combined. It insisted that all the estates be merged into one national assembly and that each representative had one vote. The third estate also wanted the States-General to write a constitution.

The king and the first two estates refused the demands of the third estate. In June 1789, the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly of France. Louis the XVI them allowed the three estates to join together as the National Assembly. But he began to gather troops around Paris to break up the Assembly. Meanwhile, the masses of France also took action. On July 14, 1789, a huge crowd of Parisians rushed to the Bastille. They believed they would find arms and ammunition there for use in defending themselves against the kings army. The people captured the Bastille and began to tear it down. Massive peasant uprisings were also occurring in the countryside. The kings removal led to a new stage in the revolution. The first stage had been a liberal middle-class reform movement based on a constitutional monarchy. The second stage was organized around principles of democracy. The National Convention opened on September 21, 1792, and declared France a republic. Louis XVI was placed on trial for betraying the country. The National Convention found him guilty of treason , and a slim majority voted for the death-penalty. The king was beheaded on the guillotine on January 21, 1793. The revolution gradually grew more radical-that is more open to extreme and violent change. Radical leaders came into prominence. In the Convention, they were known as the mountain because they sat on the high benches at the rear of the hall during meetings. Leaders of the Mountain were Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Jacques Danton, and Jean Paul Marat. The Mountain dominated a powerful political club called the Jacobin Club. Growing disputes between the Mountain and the Gironde led to a struggle for power, and the Mountain won. In June 1793, the Convention arrested the leading Girondists. In turn, the Girondists supporters rebelled against the Convention. One of these supporters assassinated Marat in July 1793. (Woloch, 526) This was the most horrific period of the revolution. The Conventions leaders included Robespierre, Lazare Carnot, and Bertrand Barere. The Convention declared a policy of terror against rebels, supporters of the king, and anyone else who publicly disagreed with official policy. In time, hundreds of thousands of suspects filled the nations jails. Courts handed down about 18,000 death sentences in what was called the Reign of Terror. Paris became accustomed to the rattle of two-wheeled carts called tumbrels as they carried people to the guillotine. (Woloch, 526) In time, the radicals began to struggle for power among themselves. Robespierre succeeded in having Danton and other former leaders executed. Many people in France wanted to end the Reign of Terror, the Jacobin dictatorship, and the democratic revolution. Robespierres enemies in the Convention finally attacked him as a tyrant on July 29, 1794. He was executed the next day. The Reign of Terror ended with Robespierres death. The Convention, which had adopted a democratic constitution in 1793, replaced that document with a new one in 1795. The government formed under this new constitution was called the Directory. France was still a republic, but once again only citizens who paid a certain amount of taxes could vote. (Woloch, 527)

The Directory began meeting in October 1795. In October 1799, a number of political leaders plotted to overthrow the Directory. They needed military support and turned to Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general who had become a hero during a military campaign in Italy in 1796 and 1797. Bonaparte seized control of the government on November 9, 1799, ending the revolution. Napoleon would restore order to the French people with such great achievements as his Code Napoleon.

Words for SAT Essays


respite a delay for a time, especially of anything distressing or trying; temporary suspension of the execution of a person condemned to death; reprieve. autonomous self-governing or independent; subject to its own laws only; not subject to control from outside. copious large in quantity or number; having or yielding an abundant supply. cognizant aware of and comprehending a situation. crass without refinement, delicacy, or sensitivity. eclectic selecting or choosing from various sources; made up of what is selected from different sources recalcitrant resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant; hard to deal with or manage. morose gloomily or sullenly ill-humored; characterized by or gloom. circumspect watchful; cautious; prudent. plethora overabundance; excess. augment

to make larger in size, number, strength, or extent, to increase; in music, to raise by a half step. hypothetical assumed by hypothesis; supposed. formidable causing fear, apprehension, or dread; of awesome strength, size, difficulty; intimidating. abstract to draw or take away; to divert or to steal. antithesis opposition; contrast; the direct opposite. volition the act of willing, choosing, or resolving. sanction to authorize, approve, or allow; or to penalize by way of discipline. terse neatly or effectively concise; brief and pithy; abruptly concise or curt. innate existing in one from birth; inborn; native. discreet judicious in one's conduct or speech, especially with regard to respecting privacy or maintaining silence about something of a delicate nature. succinct expressed in few words; concise. conundrum a riddle, the answer to which involves a pun or play on words; a problem. brevity shortness of time or duration; briefness. palpable readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived, etc.; obvious; evident. innocuous

not harmful or injurious; harmless.

Martin Luther King Jr. January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968


Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as

a Negro leader of the first rank. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the elevenyear period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

Mohandas K. Gandhi 2 October 1869 30 January 1948


Born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, Mohandas Gandhi studied law and came to aggravate for Indian rights both at home and in South Africa. He became a leader of India's independence movement, organizing boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. He was given the holy name Mahatmas and oversaw a diverse ashram. He was killed by a fanatic in 1948.

Indian nationalist leader. Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, Kathiawar, West India. He studied law in London, but in 1893 went to South Africa, where he spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. As a pioneer of Satyagraha, or resistance through mass non-violent civil disobedience, he became one of the major political and spiritual leaders of his time. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today.

In 1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported the Home Rule movement, and became leader of the Indian National Congress, advocating a policy of non-violent non-co-operation to achieve independence. His goal was to help poor farmers and laborers protest oppressive taxation and discrimination. He struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an end to caste discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for India.

Following his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was jailed for conspiracy (1922-4). In 1930, he led a landmark 320 km/200 mi march to the sea to collect salt in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. On his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table

Conference on Indian constitutional reform. In 1946, he negotiated with the Cabinet Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence (1947), he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a policy which led to his assassination in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.

Even after his death, Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and his belief in simple living--making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet, and using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest--have been a beacon of hope for oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world.

Adolf Hitler 1889-1945


Adolf Hitler was born in Branau am Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889. He rose to power in German politics as leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, also known as the Nazi Party. Hitler was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator from 1934 to 1945. His policies precipitated World War II and the Holocaust. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, in his Berlin bunker.

When Hitler was three, the family moved from Austria to Germany.Hitler showed an early interest in German nationalism, rejecting the authority of Austro-Hungary. This nationalism would become the motivating force of Hitlers life. At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler applied to serve in the German army. He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross First Class and the Black Wound Badge. After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich and continued to work for the military as an intelligence officer.

To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). Hitler personally designed the party banner, featuring a swastika in a white circle on a red background. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his vitriolic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, Marxists and Jews. In 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as NSDAP party chairman.

The Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his political allies embarked on a systematic suppression of the remaining political opposition. By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. On July 14, 1933, Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany.

A main Nazi concept was the notion of racial hygiene. New laws banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans, The Holocaust was also conducted under the auspices of racial hygiene. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of 11 million to 14 million people, including about 6 million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps and through mass executions. Other persecuted groups included Poles, communists, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and trade unionists. Hitlers political program had brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe, including Germany. His policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale and resulted in the death of an estimated 40 million people, including about 27 million in the Soviet Union. Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany, and the defeat of fascism. A new ideological global conflict, the Cold War, emerged in the aftermath of World War II.

Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821


Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica into a gentry family. Educated at military school, he was rapidly promoted and in 1796, was made commander of the French army in Italy, where he forced Austria and its allies to make peace. In 1798, Napoleon conquered Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an attempt to strike at British trade routes with India. He was stranded when his fleet was destroyed by the British at the Battle of the Nile.

France now faced a new coalition - Austria and Russia had allied with Britain. Napoleon returned to Paris where the government was in crisis. In a coup d'etat in November 1799, Napoleon became first consul. In 1802, he was made consul for life and two years later, emperor. He oversaw the centralisation of government, the creation of the Bank of France, the reinstatement of Roman Catholicism as the state religion and law reform with the Code Napoleon.

In 1800, he defeated the Austrians at Marengo. He then negotiated a general European peace which established French power on the continent. In 1803, Britain resumed war with France, later joined by Russia and Austria. Britain inflicted a naval defeat on the French at Trafalgar (1805) so Napoleon abandoned plans to invade England and turned on the Austro-Russian forces, defeating them at Austerlitz later the same year. He gained much new territory, including annexation of Prussian lands which ostensibly gave him control of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Holland and Westphalia created, and over the next five years, Napoleon's relatives and loyalists were installed as leaders (in Holland, Westphalia, Italy, Naples, Spain and Sweden).

In 1810, he had his childless marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais annulled and married the daughter of the Austrian emperor in the hope of having an heir. A son, Napoleon, was born a year later.

The Peninsular War began in 1808. Costly French defeats over the next five years drained French military resources. Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 resulted in a disastrous retreat. The tide started to turn in favour of the allies and in March 1814, Paris fell. Napoleon went into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. In March 1815

he escaped and marched on the French capital. The Battle of Waterloo ended his brief second reign. The British imprisoned him on the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died on 5 May 1821.

John F. Kennedy 1917-1963


Born on May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy was a congressman and senator before becoming the 35th U.S. president in 1961. As president, he faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. In 1963, JFK was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.

Nicknamed Jack, Kennedy was the second oldest of a group of nine extraordinary siblings. His brothers and sisters include Eunice Kennedy, the founder of the Special Olympics, Robert Kennedy, a U.S. Attorney General and Ted Kennedy, one of the most powerful senators in American history. The Kennedy children remained close-knit and supportive of each other throughout their entire lives. Handsome, charming and blessed with a radiant smile, Kennedy was incredibly popular with his Harvard classmates. Kennedy decided to research and write a senior thesis on why Britain was so unprepared to fight Germany in World War II. An incisive analysis of Britain's failures to meet the Nazi challenge, the paper was so well-received that upon Kennedy's graduation in 1940 it was published as book, Why England Slept, selling more than 80,000 copies. Shortly after graduating from Harvard, Kennedy joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned to command a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. On August 2, 1943 his boat, PT-109, was rammed by a Japanese warship and split in two. Two sailors died and Kennedy badly injured his back. Hauling another wounded sailor by the strap of his life vest, Kennedy led the survivors to a nearby island, where they were rescued six days later. The incident earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for "extremely heroic conduct" and a Purple Heart for the injuries he suffered. Kennedy continued to suffer frequent illnesses during his career in the Senate. While recovering from one surgery, he wrote another book, profiling eight senators who had taken courageous but unpopular stances. Profiles in Courage won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for biography, and Kennedy remains the only American president to win a Pulitzer Prize.

On November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated Nixon by a razor-thin margin to become the 35th President of the United States of America. Kennedy's election was historic in several respects. At the age of 43, he was the youngest American president in history.

Delivering his legendary inaugural address on January 20, 1961, Kennedy sought to inspire all Americans to more active citizenship. "Ask not what your country can do for you," he said. "Ask what you can do for your country."

Kennedy's greatest accomplishments during his brief tenure as president came in the arena of foreign affairs. Capitalizing on the spirit of activism he had helped to ignite, Kennedy created the Peace Corps by executive order in 1961. By the end of the century, over 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers would serve in 135 countries. However, the greatest crisis of the Kennedy administration was the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Kennedy finally sent a civil rights bill to Congress. One of the last acts of his presidency and his life, Kennedy's bill eventually passed as the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964. November 22, 1963, Kennedy died at Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly thereafter, at the age of 46.

Important Events in American History


Several events have influenced American history and made the country what it is today. Who discovered America? Why was the Civil War fought? And who killed Abraham Lincoln? Understand how these events occurred and contributed to American history.

Discovery of America

There's still a debate as to who discovered it: Amerigo Vespucci or Christopher Columbus. History states that Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci discovered a new land in 1497, and Martin Waldseemller (famous map-maker) named it America after Vespucci. However, recent evidence suggests that Columbus had already discovered this unknown land in 1492. Many historians also believe that the famed Chinese explorer Cheng Ho might have discovered America almost 70 years before Columbus. There may be a huge debate on who discovered America and when, but one fact is pretty clear since its discovery: trade and navigation flourished, and several European powers came and made America their base.

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a heroic event which took place on 17th December 1773 in Boston, Massachusetts. This act of defiance was executed to ban the Townshend Act. The Townshend Act was implemented in 1766 and allowed the British Parliament to tax

American colonies on tea, paper, paint and various other items. American colonists rebelled and started boycotting all goods imported from England. To control the ongoing agitation, the government canceled taxes on all goods, except tea. This led to protests all over America and in this chaos, five Americans were shot by British soldiers in Boston. Local citizens were outraged and demanded strict action against the guilty. In addition to this chaos, the East India Company was suffering from bankruptcy due to corruption. To save the company, Parliament removed all import/export duties on goods to reduce cost prices and put locals out of business. This angered Americans even more and citizens of Boston didn't allow the unloading of goods on the port. On December 17th, a group of colonists dressed as Indians boarded a ship carrying tea in disguise and threw all the valuable tea shipment in the sea. The Boston Tea Party is one of the most popular events in the history of the nation and is considered a landmark in the American War of Independence against European colonies.

Independence from Great Britain

On 4th July 1776, the Continental Congress (representing all the thirteen colonies) signed the Declaration of Independence. This meant freedom for all the thirteen colonies who were struggling for independence from Great Britain. The Declaration contained possible explanations on why the thirteen colonies deserved independence from British rule. While Thomas Jefferson is known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, there are others who were involved in the drafting: Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and John Adams. It was finally signed by 56 individuals representing the thirteen colonies.

American Civil War

The American Civil War was fought between Confederate States of America (Southern Slave States) and the Union States a.k.a United States of America (All Free States). The primary causes of this war are still unknown; however, historians believe that differences between the states existed right from the start and then came a time when talks proved futile and violence gripped the entire nation. The split between the Southern States and the Union led to four years of intense war and bloodshed that killed millions. There were also many cultural differences, but the real motives behind the Civil War are still a secret.

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln


An unforgettable American tragedy, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is yet another important chapter in America's history. History states that the defeat of the Southern States by the Union Territories during the Civil War led to the cold-blooded murder of Lincoln (who was the commander of the Union Army). The man who assassinated Lincoln was obviously

a Southern sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth - a stage actor. Booth considered Lincoln wholly responsible for the Southern destruction and the murder of his Southern brothers. He shot Lincoln on the back of the head with a .44 caliber Derringer, percussion-cap pistol at the Ford Theater on 11th April 1865 in Washington. After an intensive search for several days, Booth was finally killed in an encounter with the troops on April 26 1865.

Pioneering Aviation
The origin of the term 'Aeronautical Engineering' can be traced back to an event that occurred in a bicycle shop that the (Orville and Wilbur) Wright brothers owned. Both brothers had a keen passion for flying machines from a young age, and spent a great amount of time and effort studying everything related to it. After years of research, they designed a prototype, which took its first flight on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville climbed into the vintage cockpit and flew the model for 12 seconds. Four attempts to fly were made that day, and in the last one the prototype soared up to almost 800 feet and was in air for about a minute. Today, all of us are amazed at the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380; but it is strange to know all these gigantic flying machines had a humble beginning in the 1900s by two geniuses. They are regarded as the pioneers of aviation.

World War I
nt Wilson addressing Congress regarding the entry of the US in World War I. Hailed as the Great War, World War I is responsible for at least 3 million casualties. The US had maintained a neutral stand in the war. It was under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, who was a peace lover and wanted to avoid the war. However, Germany's constant submarine warfare on US passenger ships and its attempt to trigger the US-Mexico war again caused the former to declare war on Germany. Hence US inadvertently got involved in the Great War. To weaken the British, Germany started targeting all the cargo ships coming towards England with their U-Boats (submarines). Eventually, they started targeting any vessel that was heading towards England. In this warfare, it sank the British cruise ship Lusitania which killed 1198 passengers in which 128 were Americans. This incident was instrumental in pushing America to war.

Attack on Pearl Harbor: US Enters World War II


cts the bombing of USS Shaw (Mahan-class destroyer) during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US was merely a spectator, or rather a secret supporter of Britain in World War II. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor changed its stance. On December 7, 1941, at least 353 Japanese war planes attacked Pearl Harbor causing grave damage and killing more than 2000 US officers. This incident was the last straw and it entered the World War II as an active member, thereby leading to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The World War II was bigger than any conflict that mankind had ever seen. It was one of the most disastrous battles and caused more deaths than World War I. It was the first time that the US was an active member and was the only country that used an atom bomb in the war. It was also the first time that President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 8002

which meant a ban on racial discrimination. The US emerged a winner and a super power after the end of this war.

Equal Civil Rights


The 1900s was one of the most controversial times in the history of the United States. It was the time when African-Americans rose to gain equal rights in the country and marked the beginning of a movement that would abolish racial discrimination to a larger extent. Slavery was abolished in 1865, but in many states, African-Americans were still treated like slaves. To add to their misery, the state government implemented "Jim Crow" laws that barred African-Americans from attaining education in public schools, using public modes of transport and even entering hotels. There is no one movement that can be credited with eliminating racism against the African-Americans. The entire credit goes to the countless people who participated in this struggle and ensured that racism was abolished from the United States of America.

Attack on the Twin Towers


An incident America and the world will never forget, the falling of the World Trade Center was not just the fall of two tall buildings, it was the fall of humanity. On September 11, 2001, 19 Islamic extremists, on the orders of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, hijacked four passenger jets, and crashed two of them in the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex. The third jet was targeted at the Pentagon and the fourth one was crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The number of lives lost is still not clear; however, statistics say that almost 5000 innocent lives were lost. This incident triggered a decade long-war against terrorism, in which the United States invaded Afghanistan and demolished the rule of Taliban which was harboring al-Qaeda. Source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/important-events-in-american-

To Kill a Mockingbird
Context Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, a sleepy small town similar in many ways to Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Atticus Finch, the father of Scout, the narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lees father was a lawyer. Among Lees childhood friends was the future novelist and essayist Truman Capote, from whom she drew inspiration for the character Dill. These personal details notwithstanding, Lee maintains that To Kill a Mockingbird was intended to portray not her own childhood home but rather a nonspecific Southern town. People are people anywhere you put them, she declared in a 1961 interview.

Yet the books setting and characters are not the only aspects of the story shaped by even ts that occurred during Lees childhood. In 1931, when Lee was five, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicized, and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long prison terms. Many prominent lawyers and other American citizens saw the sentences as spurious and motivated only by racial prejudice. It was also suspected that the women who had accused the men were lying, and in appeal after appeal, their claims became more dubious. There can be little doubt that the Scottsboro Case, as the trials of the nine men came to be called, served as a seed for the trial that stands at the heart of Lees novel. Lee began To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s, after moving to New York to become a writer. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it, with revisions, in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement. Critical response to To Kill a Mockingbird was mixed: a number of critics found the narrative voice of a nine-year-old girl unconvincing and called the novel overly moralistic. Nevertheless, in the racially charged atmosphere of the early 1960s, the book became an enormous popular success, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and selling over fifteen million copies. Two years after the books publication, an Academy Awardwinning film version of the novel, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, was produced. Meanwhile, the author herself had retreated from the public eye: she avoided interviews, declined to write the screenplay for the film version, and published only a few short pieces after 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird remains her sole published novel. Lee eventually returned to Monroeville and continues to live there. In 1993, Lee penned a brief foreword to her book. In it she asks that future editions of To Kill a Mockingbird be spared critical introductions. Mockingbird, she writes, still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble. The book remains a staple of high school and college reading lists, beloved by millions of readers worldwide for its appealing depiction of childhood innocence, its scathing moral condemnation of racial prejudice, and its affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil.

Analysis of Major Characters

Scout Scout is a very unusual little girl, both in her own qualities and in her social position. She is unusually intelligent (she learns to read before beginning school), unusually confident (she fights boys without fear), unusually thoughtful (she worries about the essential goodness and evil of mankind), and unusually good (she always acts with the best intentions). In terms of her social identity, she is unusual for being a tomboy in the prim and proper Southern world of Maycomb.

One quickly realizes when reading To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout is who she is because of the way Atticus has raised her. He has nurtured her mind, conscience, and individuality without bogging her down in fussy social hypocrisies and notions of propriety. While most

girls in Scouts position would be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout, thanks to Atticuss hands-off parenting style, wears overalls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill. She does not always grasp social niceties (she tells her teacher that one of her fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch), and human behavior often baffles her (as when one of her teachers criticizes Hitlers prejudice against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks), but Atticuss protection of Scout from hypocrisy and social pressure has rendered her open, forthright, and well meaning. At the beginning of the novel, Scout is an innocent, good-hearted five-year-old child who has no experience with the evils of the world. As the novel progresses, Scout has her first contact with evil in the form of racial prejudice, and the basic development of her character is governed by the question of whether she will emerge from that contact with her conscience and optimism intact or whether she will be bruised, hurt, or destroyed like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Thanks to Atticuss wisdom, Scout learns that though humanity has a great capacity for evil, it also has a great capacity for good, and that the evil can often be mitigated if one approaches others with an outlook of sympathy and understanding. Scouts development into a person capable of assuming that outlook marks the culmination of the novel and indicates that, whatever evil she encounters, she will retain her conscience without becoming cynical or jaded. Though she is still a child at the end of the book, Scouts perspective on life develops from that of an innocent child into that of a near grown-up.

Atticus As one of the most prominent citizens in Maycomb during the Great Depression, Atticus is relatively well off in a time of widespread poverty. Because of his penetrating intelligence, calm wisdom, and exemplary behavior, Atticus is respected by everyone, including the very poor. He functions as the moral backbone of Maycomb, a person to whom others turn in times of doubt and trouble. But the conscience that makes him so admirable ultimately causes his falling out with the people of Maycomb. Unable to abide the towns comfortable ingrained racial prejudice, he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man. Atticuss action makes him the object of scorn in Maycomb, but he is simply too impressive a figure to be scorned for long. After the trial, he seems destined to be held in the same high regard as before. Atticus practices the ethic of sympathy and understanding that he preaches to Scout and Jem and never holds a grudge against the people of Maycomb. Despite their callous indifference to racial inequality, Atticus sees much to admire in them. He recognizes that people have both good and bad qualities, and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad. Atticus passes this great moral lesson on to Scout this perspective protects the innocent from being destroyed by contact with evil. Ironically, though Atticus is a heroic figure in the novel and a respected man in Maycomb, neither Jem nor Scout consciously idolizes him at the beginning of the novel. Both are embarrassed that he is older than other fathers and that he doesnt hunt or fish. But Atticuss wise parenting, which he sums up in Chapter 30 by saying, Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and Ive tried to live so I can look squarely back at him, ultimately wins their respect. By the end of the novel, Jem, in particular, is fiercely devoted

to Atticus (Scout, still a little girl, loves him uncritically). Though his childrens attitude toward him evolves, Atticus is characterized throughout the book by his absolute consistency. He stands rigidly committed to justice and thoughtfully willing to view matters from the perspectives of others. He does not develop in the novel but retains these qualities in equal measure, making him the novels moral guide and voice of conscience. Jem If Scout is an innocent girl who is exposed to evil at an early age and forced to develop an adult moral outlook, Jem finds himself in an even more turbulent situation. His shattering experience at Tom Robinsons trial occurs just as he is entering puberty, a time when life is complicated and traumatic enough. His disillusionment upon seeing that justice does not always prevail leaves him vulnerable and confused at a critical, formative point in his life. Nevertheless, he admirably upholds the commitment to justice that Atticus instilled in him and maintains it with deep conviction throughout the novel. Unlike the jaded Mr. Raymond, Jem is not without hope: Atticus tells Scout that Jem simply needs time to process what he has learned. The strong presence of Atticus in Jems life seems to promise that he will recover his equilibrium. Later in his life, Jem is able to see that Boo Radleys unexpected aid indicates there is good in people. Even before the end of the novel, Jem shows signs of having learned a positive lesson from the trial; for instance, at the beginning of Chapter 25, he refuses to allow Scout to squash a roly-poly bug because it has done nothing to harm her. After seeing the unfair destruction of Tom Robinson, Jem now wants to protect the fragile and harmless. The idea that Jem resolves his cynicism and moves toward a happier life is supported by the beginning of the novel, in which a grown-up Scout remembers talking to Jem about the events that make up the novels plot. Scout says that Jem pinpointed the childrens initial interest in Boo Radley at the beginning of the story, strongly implying that he understood what Boo represented to them and, like Scout, managed to shed his innocence without losing his hope.

Frankenstein
Context Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?

In the summer of 1816, a young, well-educated woman from England traveled with her lover to the Swiss Alps. Unseasonable rain kept them trapped inside their lodgings, where they entertained themselves by reading ghost stories. At the urging of renowned poet Lord Byron, a friend and neighbor, they set their own pens to paper, competing to see who could write the best ghost story. The young woman, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, took the prize,

having composed a story creepy enough not only to take its place alongside the old German tales that she and her Alpine companions had been reading, but also to become a bestseller in her time and a Gothic classic that still resonates with readers almost two centuries later.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797, in London, of prime literary stock. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a feminist tract encouraging women to think and act for themselves. Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary, leaving her daughter in the care of her husband, William Godwin, a member of a circle of radical thinkers in England that counted Thomas Paine and William Blake among its ranks. Marys upbringing in this rarefied atmosphere exposed her at an early age to cutting-edge ideas, and it forged useful connections for her to such notables as Lord Byron. Another of the literary types that Mary met as a teenager was Percy Bysshe Shelley, a dashing young poet. Sparks flew, and, in 1814, they ran away together for a tour of France, Switzerland, and GermanyMary escaping her family and Percy his wife. At first blissful, their affair soon came under strain. Percys relationship with Mary waxed and waned with the demands of his wife, Harriet; meanwhile, Mary busied herself with another man. Despite these distractions, the relationship endured and was eventually formalized under scandalous circumstances: Harriet, pregnant with Percys child, drowned herself in London in November of 1816; Mary and Percy were married weeks later. The union between Mary and Percy was not only romantic but also literary. Percy edited Marys manuscript for Frankenstein and is commonly supposed to have written the preface under her name. Frankenstein was published on January 1, 1818, and became an immediate bestseller. Unfortunately for Mary, this success was a single bright spot amid a series of tragedies. From 1815 to 1819, three of her four children died in infancy; in 1822, Percy drowned off the shore of Tuscany, leaving Mary a widow and single mother. Mary turned to her husbands poetry and prose, editing and publishing hisPosthumous Poems in 1824 and his Poetical Works and Letters in 1839. She spent the rest of her time on her own writing, publishing Valperga in 1823,The Last Man in 1826, The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck in 1830, Lodore in 1835, and Falkner in 1837. Serious illness plagued Mary, and she died in London in February 1851.
Analysis of Major Characters Victor Frankenstein Victor Frankensteins life story is at the heart of Frankenstein. A young Swiss boy, he grows up in Geneva reading the works of the ancient and outdated alchemists, a background that serves him ill when he attends university at Ingolstadt. There he learns about modern science and, within a few years, masters all that his professors have to teach him. He becomes fascinated with the secret of life, discovers it, and brings a hideous monster to life. The monster proceeds to kill Victors youngest brother, best friend, and wife; he also indirectly causes the deaths of two other innocents, including Victors father. Though torn by remorse, shame, and guilt, Victor refuses to admit to anyone the horror of what he has created, even as he sees the ramifications of his creative act spiraling out of control.

Victor changes over the course of the novel from an innocent youth fascinated by the prospects of science into a disillusioned, guilt-ridden man determined to destroy the fruits of his arrogant scientific endeavor. Whether as a result of his desire to attain the godlike power of creating new life or his avoidance of the public arenas in which science is usually conducted, Victor is doomed by a lack of humanness. He cuts himself off from the world and eventually commits himself entirely to an animalistic obsession with revenging himself upon the monster. At the end of the novel, having chased his creation ever northward, Victor relates his story to Robert Walton and then dies. With its multiple narrators and, hence, multiple perspectives, the novel leaves the reader with contrasting interpretations of Victor: classic mad scientist, transgressing all boundaries without concern, or brave adventurer into unknown scientific lands, not to be held responsible for the consequences of his explorations.
The Monster The monster is Victor Frankensteins creation, assembled from old body parts and strange chemicals, animated by a mysterious spark. He enters life eight feet tall and enormously strong but with the mind of a newborn. Abandoned by his creator and confused, he tries to integrate himself into society, only to be shunned universally. Looking in the mirror, he realizes his physical grotesqueness, an aspect of his persona that blinds society to his initially gentle, kind nature. Seeking revenge on his creator, he kills Victors younger brother. After Victor destroys his work on the female monster meant to ease the monsters solitude, the monster murders Victors best friend and then his new wife. While Victor feels unmitigated hatred for his creation, the monster shows that he is not a purely evil being. The monsters eloquent narration of events (as provided by Victor) reveals his remarkable sensitivity and benevolence. He assists a group of poor peasants and saves a girl from drowning, but because of his outward appearance, he is rewarded only with beatings and disgust. Torn between vengefulness and compassion, the monster ends up lonely and tormented by remorse. Even the death of his creator-turned-would-be-destroyer offers only bittersweet relief: joy because Victor has caused him so much suffering, sadness because Victor is the only person with whom he has had any sort of relationship. Robert Walton Waltons letters to his sister form a frame around the main narrative, Victor Frankensteins tragic story. Walton captains a North Polebound ship that gets trapped between sheets of ice. While waiting for the ice to thaw, he and his crew pick up Victor, weak and emaciated from his long chase after the monster. Victor recovers somewhat, tells Walton the story of his life, and then dies. Walton laments the death of a man with whom he felt a strong, meaningful friendship beginning to form.

Walton functions as the conduit through which the reader hears the story of Victor and his monster. However, he also plays a role that parallels Victors in many ways. Like Victor, Walton is an explorer, chasing after that country of eternal lightunpossessed knowledge.

Victors influence on him is paradoxical: one moment he exhorts Waltons almost -mutinous men to stay the path courageously, regardless of danger; the next, he serves as an abject example of the dangers of heedless scientific ambition. In his ultimate decision to terminate his treacherous pursuit, Walton serves as a foil (someone whose traits or actions contrast with, and thereby highlight, those of another character) to Victor, either not obsessive enough to risk almost-certain death or not courageous enough to allow his passion to drive him.

Lord of the Flies


Context William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. Although he tried to write a novel as early as age twelve, his parents urged him to study the natural sciences. Golding followed his parents wishes until his second year at Oxford, when he changed his focus to English literature. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he served in command of a rocket-launcher and participated in the invasion of Normandy.

Goldings experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. The novels sales enabled Golding to retire from teaching and devote himself fully to writing. Golding wrote several more novels, notably Pincher Martin (1956), and a play, The Brass Butterfly (1958). Although he never matched the popular and critical success he enjoyed with Lord of the Flies,he remained a respected and distinguished author for the rest of his life and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. Golding died in 1993, one of the most acclaimed writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on Goldings experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. As the boys splinter into factions, some behave peacefully and work together to maintain order and achieve common goals, while others rebel and seek only anarchy and violence. In his portrayal of the small world of the island, Golding paints a broader portrait of the fundamental human struggle between the civilizing instinctthe impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfullyand the savage instinctthe impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, scorn moral rules, and indulge in violence.

Golding employs a relatively straightforward writing style in Lord of the Flies,one that avoids highly poetic language, lengthy description, and philosophical interludes. Much of the novel is allegorical, meaning that the characters and objects in the novel are infused with symbolic significance that conveys the novels central themes and ideas. In portraying the various ways in which the boys on the island adapt to their new surroundings and react to their new freedom, Golding explores the broad spectrum of ways in which humans respond to stress, change, and tension. Readers and critics have interpreted Lord of the Flies in widely varying ways over the years since its publication. During the 1950s and 1960s, many readings of the novel claimed that Lord of the Flies dramatizes the history of civilization. Some believed that the novel explores fundamental religious issues, such as original sin and the nature of good and evil. Others approached Lord of the Flies through the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among different impulsesthe id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies. Although Goldings story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems and questions universal to the human experience.
Analysis of Major Characters Ralph Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist of Lord of the Flies. Elected the leader of the boys at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel. While most of the other boys initially are concerned with playing, having fun, and avoiding work, Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to maximize their chances of being rescued. For this reason, Ralphs power and influence over the other boys are secure at the beginning of the novel. However, as the group gradually succumbs to savage instincts over the course of the novel, Ralphs position declines precipitously while Jacks rises. Eventually, most of the boys except Piggy leave Ralphs group for Jacks, and Ralph is left alone to be hunted by Jacks tribe. Ralphs commitment to civilization and morality is strong, and his main wish is to be rescued and returned to the society of adults. In a sense, this strength gives Ralph a moral victory at the end of the novel, when he casts the Lord of the Flies to the ground and takes up the stake it is impaled on to defend himself against Jacks hunters. In the earlier parts of the novel, Ralph is unable to understand why the other boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. As the novel progresses, however, Ralph, like Simon, comes to understand that savagery exists within all the boys. Ralph remains determined not to let this savagery -overwhelm him, and only briefly does he consider joining Jacks tribe in order to save himself. When Ralph hunts a boar for the first time, however, he experiences the exhilaration and thrill of bloodlust and violence. When he attends Jacks feast, he is swept away by the frenzy, dances on the edge of the group, and participates in the killing of Simon. This firsthand knowledge of the evil that exists within him, as within all human beings, is tragic for Ralph, and it plunges him into listless despair

for a time. But this knowledge also enables him to cast down the Lord of the Flies at the end of the novel. Ralphs story ends semi-tragically: although he is rescued and returned to civilization, when he sees the naval officer, he weeps with the burden of his new knowledge about the human capacity for evil.
Jack The strong-willed, egomaniacal Jack is the novels primary representative of the instinct of savagery, violence, and the desire for powerin short, the antithesis of Ralph. From the beginning of the novel, Jack desires power above all other things. He is furious when he loses the election to Ralph and continually pushes the boundaries of his subordinate role in the group. Early on, Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behavior that society instilled in himin fact, in school, he was the leader of the choirboys. The first time he encounters a pig, he is unable to kill it. But Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting and devotes himself to the task, painting his face like a barbarian and giving himself over to bloodlust. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control the rest of the group. Indeed, apart from Ralph, Simon, and Piggy, the group largely follows Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery. Jacks love of authority and violence are intimately connected, as both enable him to feel powerful and exalted. By the end of the novel, Jack has learned to use the boys fear of the beast to control their behaviora reminder of how religion and superstition can be manipulated as instruments of power. Simon Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the spectrum between civilization and savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as Jacks evil. The other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as civilization is no longer there to impose it upon them. They are not innately moral; rather, the adult worldthe threat of punishment for misdeedshas conditioned them to act morally. To an extent, even the seemingly civilized Ralph and Piggy are products of social conditioning, as we see when they participate in the hunt-dance. In Goldings view, the human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply rooted as the human impulse toward savagery. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon acts morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the inherent value of morality. He behaves kindly toward the younger children, and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast and the Lord of the Fliesthat is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast but rather a savagery that lurks within each human being. The sows head on the stake symbolizes this idea, as we see in Simons vision of the head speaking to him. Ultimately, this idea of the inherent evil within each human being stands as the moral conclusion and central problem of the novel. Against this idea of evil, Simon represents a contrary idea of essential human goodness. However, his brutal murder at the hands of the other boys indicates the scarcity of that good amid an overwhelming abundance of evil. Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/

The Great Gatsby


Context Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, and named after his ancestor Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner. Fitzgerald was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though an intelligent child, he did poorly in school and was sent to a New Jersey boarding school in 1911. Despite being a mediocre student there, he managed to enroll at Princeton in 1913. Academic troubles and apathy plagued him throughout his time at college, and he never graduated, instead enlisting in the army in 1917, as World War I neared its end.

Fitzgerald became a second lieutenant, and was stationed at Camp Sheridan, in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wild seventeen-year-old beauty named Zelda Sayre. Zelda finally agreed to marry him, but her overpowering desire for wealth, fun, and leisure led her to delay their wedding until he could prove a success. With the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him. Many of these events from Fitzgeralds early life appear in his most f amous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy League school (in Nicks case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war. Also similar to Fitzgerald is Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman while stationed at a military camp in the South. Having become a celebrity, Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless life-style of parties and decadence, while desperately trying to please Zelda by writing to earn money. Similarly, Gatsby amasses a great deal of wealth at a relatively young age, and devotes himself to acquiring possessions and throwing parties that he believes will enable him to win Daisys love. As the giddiness of the Roaring Twenties dissolved into the bleakness of the Great Depression, however, Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown and Fitzgerald battled alcoholism, which hampered his writing. He published Tender Is the Night in 1934, and sold short stories to The Saturday Evening Post to support his lavish lifestyle. In 1937, he left for Hollywood to write screenplays, and in 1940, while working on his novel The Love of the Last Tycoon, died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four. Fitzgerald was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America, an era that he dubbed the Jazz Age. Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary documents of this period, in which the American economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the nation. Prohibition, the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1919), made millionaires out of bootleggers, and an underground culture of revelry sprang up. Sprawling private parties managed to elude police notice, and speakeasiessecret clubs that sold liquorthrived. The chaos and violence of World War I left America in a state of shock, and the generation that fought the war turned to wild and extravagant living to compensate. The staid conservatism and timeworn values of the previous decade were turned on their ear, as money, opulence, and exuberance became the order of the day.

Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive and exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. Now he found himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone of society, particularly in the large cities of the East. Even so, like Nick, Fitzgerald saw through the glitter of the Jazz Age to the moral emptiness and hypocrisy beneath, and part of him longed for this absent moral center. In many ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgeralds attempt to confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised.
Analysis of Major Characters Jay Gatsby The title character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty years old, who rose from an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota to become fabulously wealthy. However, he achieved this lofty goal by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. From his early youth, Gatsby despised poverty and longed for wealth and sophisticationhe dropped out of St. Olafs College after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job with which he was paying his tuition. Though Gatsby has always wanted to be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I in 1917. Gatsby immediately fell in love with Daisys aura of luxury, grace, and charm, and lied to her about his own background in order to convince her that he was good enough for her. Daisy promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but married Tom Buchanan in 1919, while Gatsby was studying at Oxford after the war in an attempt to gain an education. From that moment on, Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy back, and his acquisition of millions of dollars, his purchase of a gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his lavish weekly parties are all merely means to that end. Fitzgerald delays the introduction of most of this information until fairly late in the novel. Gatsbys reputation precedes himGatsby himself does not appear in a speaking role until Chapter 3. Fitzgerald initially presents Gatsby as the aloof, enigmatic host of the unbelievably opulent parties thrown every week at his mansion. He appears surrounded by spectacular luxury, courted by powerful men and beautiful women. He is the subject of a whirlwind of gossip throughout New York and is already a kind of legendary celebrity before he is ever introduced to the reader. Fitzgerald propels the novel forward through the early chapters by shrouding Gatsbys background and the source of his wealth in mystery (the reader learns about Gatsbys childhood in Chapter 6 and receives definitive proof of his criminal dealings in Chapter 7). As a result, the readers first, distant impressions of Gatsby strike quite a different note from that of the lovesick, naive young man who emerges during the later part of the novel. Fitzgerald uses this technique of delayed character revelation to emphasize the theatrical quality of Gatsbys approach to life, which is an important part of his personality. Gatsby has literally created his own character, even changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to represent his reinvention of himself. As his relentless quest for Daisy demonstrates, Gatsby has an extraordinary ability to transform his hopes and dreams into reality; at the

beginning of the novel, he appears to the reader just as he desires to appear to the world. This talent for self-invention is what gives Gatsby his quality of greatness: indeed, the title The Great Gatsby is reminiscent of billings for such vaudeville magicians as The Great Houdini and The Great Blackstone, suggesting that the persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterful illusion. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. As the novel progresses and Fitzgerald deconstructs Gatsbys self -presentation, Gatsby reveals himself to be an innocent, hopeful young man who stakes everything on his dreams, not realizing that his dreams are unworthy of him. Gatsby invests Daisy with an idealistic perfection that she cannot possibly attain in reality and pursues her with a passionate zeal that blinds him to her limitations. His dream of her disintegrates, revealing the corruption that wealth causes and the unworthiness of the goal, much in the way Fitzgerald sees the American dream crumbling in the 1920s, as Americas powerful optimism, vitality, and individualism become subordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth. Gatsby is contrasted most consistently with Nick. Critics point out that the former, passionate and active, and the latter, sober and reflective, seem to represent two sides of Fitzgeralds personality. Additionally, whereas Tom is a cold-hearted, aristocratic bully, Gatsby is a loyal and good-hearted man. Though his lifestyle and attitude differ greatly from those of George Wilson, Gatsby and Wilson share the fact that they both lose their love interest to Tom.

Nick Carraway If Gatsby represents one part of Fitzgeralds personality, the flashy celebrity who pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman he loved, then Nick represents another part: the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East. A young man (he turns thirty during the course of the novel) from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York in 1922 to learn the bond business. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island, next door to Gatsby. Nick is also Daisys cousin, which enables him to observe and assist the resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As a result of his relationship to these two characters, Nick is the perfect choice to narrate the novel, which functions as a personal memoir of his experiences with Gatsby in the summer of 1922. Nick is also well suited to narrating The Great Gatsby because of his temperament. As he tells the reader in Chapter 1, he is tolerant, open-minded, quiet, and a good listener, and, as a result, others tend to talk to him and tell him their secrets. Gatsby, in particular, comes to trust him and treat him as a confidant. Nick generally assumes a secondary role throughout the novel, preferring to describe and comment on events rather than dominate the action. Often, however, he functions as Fitzgeralds voice, as in his extended meditation on time and the American dream at the end of Chapter 9. Insofar as Nick plays a role inside the narrative, he evidences a strongly mixed reaction to life on the East Coast, one that creates a powerful internal conflict that he does not resolve until the end of the book. On the one hand, Nick is attracted to the fast-paced, fun-driven lifestyle of New York. On the other hand, he finds that lifestyle grotesque and damaging. This inner conflict is symbolized throughout the book by Nicks romantic affair with Jordan

Baker. He is attracted to her vivacity and her sophistication just as he is repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people. Nick states that there is a quality of distortion to life in New York, and this lifestyle makes him lose his equilibrium, especially early in the novel, as when he gets drunk at Gatsbys party in Chapter 2. After witnessing the unraveling of Gatsbys dream and presiding over the appalling spectacle of Gatsbys funeral, Nick realizes that the fast life of revelry on the East Coast is a cover for the terrifying moral emptiness that the valley of ashes symbolizes. Having gained the maturity that this insight demonstrates, he returns to Minnesota in search of a quieter life structured by more traditional moral values.

Daisy Buchanan Partially based on Fitzgeralds wife, Zelda, Daisy is a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nicks cousin and the object of Gatsbys love. As a young debutante in Louisville, Daisy was extremely popular among the military officers stationed near her home, including Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lied about his background to Daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to convince her that he was worthy of her. Eventually, Gatsby won Daisys heart, and they made love before Gatsby left to fight in the war. Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in 1919 she chose instead to marry Tom Buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic family who could promise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the support of her parents. After 1919, Gatsby dedicated himself to winning Daisy back, making her the single goal of all of his dreams and the main motivation behind his acquisition of immense wealth through criminal activity. To Gatsby, Daisy represents the paragon of perfectionshe has the aura of charm, wealth, sophistication, grace, and aristocracy that he longed for as a child in North Dakota and that first attracted him to her. In reality, however, Daisy falls far short of Gatsbys ideals. She is beautiful and charming, but also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Nick characterizes her as a careless person who smashes things up and then retreats behind her money. Daisy proves her real nature when she chooses Tom over Gatsby in Chapter 7, then allows Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even though she herself was driving the car. Finally, rather than attend Gatsbys funeral, Daisy and Tom move away, leaving no forwarding address. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury. She is capable of affection (she seems genuinely fond of Nick and occasionally seems to love Gatsby sincerely), but not of sustained loyalty or care. She is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgeralds conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set.

The Catcher in the Rye


Context

Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City in 1919. The son of a wealthy cheese importer, Salinger grew up in a fashionable neighborhood in Manhattan and spent his youth being shuttled between various prep schools before his parents finally settled on the Valley Forge Military Academy in 1934. He graduated from Valley Forge in 1936 and attended a number of colleges, including Columbia University, but did not graduate from any of them. While at Columbia, Salinger took a creative writing class in which he excelled, cementing the interest in writing that he had maintained since his teenage years. Salinger had his first short story published in 1940; he continued to write as he joined the army and fought in Europe during World War II. Upon his return to the United States and civilian life in 1946, Salinger wrote more stories, publishing them in many respected magazines. In 1951, Salinger published his only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which propelled him onto the national stage.

Many events from Salingers early life appear in The Catcher in the Rye. For instance, Holden Caulfield moves from prep school to prep school, is threatened with military school, and knows an older Columbia student. In the novel, such autobiographical details are transplanted into a postWorld War II setting. The Catcher in the Rye was published at a time when the burgeoning American industrial economy made the nation prosperous and entrenched social rules served as a code of conformity for the younger generation. Because Salinger used slang and profanity in his text and because he discussed adolescent sexuality in a complex and open way, many readers were offended, and The Catcher in the Rye provoked great controversy upon its release. Some critics argued that the book was not serious literature, citing its casual and informal tone as evidence. The book wasand continues to bebanned in some communities, and it consequently has been thrown into the center of debates about First Amendment rights, censorship, and obscenity in literature. Though controversial, the novel appealed to a great number of people. It was a hugely popular bestseller and general critical success. Salingers writing seemed to tap into the emotions of readers in an unprecedented way. As countercultural revolt began to grow during the 1950s and 1960s, The Catcher in the Rye was frequently read as a tale of an individuals alienation within a heartless world. Holden seemed to stand for young people everywhere, who felt themselves beset on all sides by pressures to grow up and live their lives according to the rules, to disengage from meaningful human connection, and to restrict their own personalities and conform to a bland cultural norm. Many readers saw Holden Caulfield as a symbol of pure,

unfettered individuality in the face of cultural oppression. In the same year that The Catcher in the Rye appeared, Salinger published a short story in The New Yorker magazine called A Perfect Day for Bananafish, which proved to be the first in a series of stories about the fictional Glass family. Over the next decade, other Glass stories appeared in the same magazine: Franny, Zooey, and Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters. These and other stories are available in the only other books Salinger published besides The Catcher in the Rye: Nine Stories (1953),Franny and Zooey (1961), and Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). Though Nine Stories received some critical acclaim, the critical reception of the later stories was hostile. Critics generally found the Glass siblings to be ridiculously and insufferably precocious and judgmental. Beginning in the early 1960s, as his critical reputation waned, Salinger began to publish less and to disengage from society. In 1965, after publishing another Glass story (Hapworth 26, 1924) that was widely reviled by critics, he withdrew almost completely from public life, a stance he has maintained up to the present. This reclusiveness, ironically, made Salinger even more famous, transforming him into a cult figure. To some degree, Salingers cult status has overshadowed, or at least tinged, many readers perceptions of his work. As a recluse, Salinger, for many, embodied much the same spirit as his precocious, wounded characters, and many readers view author and characters as the same being. Such a reading of Salingers work clearly oversimplifies the process of fiction writing and the relationship between the author and his creations. But, given Salingers iconoclastic behavior, the gen eral view that Salinger was himself a sort of Holden Caulfield is understandable. The few brief public statements that Salinger made before his death in 2010 suggested that he continued to write stories, implying that the majority of his works might not appear until after his death. Meanwhile, readers have become more favorably disposed toward Salingers later writings, meaning that The Catcher in the Rye may one day be seen as part of a much larger literary whole.
Analysis of Major Characters Holden Caulfield

The number of readers who have been able to identify with Holden and make him their hero is truly staggering. Something about his discontent, and his vivid way of expressing it, makes him resonate powerfully with readers who come from backgrounds completely different from his. It is tempting to inhabit his point of view and revel in his cantankerousness rather than try to deduce what is wrong with him. The obvious signs that Holden is a troubled and unreliable narrator are manifold: he fails out of four schools; he manifests complete apathy toward his future; he is hospitalized, and visited by a psychoanalyst, for an unspecified complaint; and he is unable to connect with other people. We know of two traumas in his past that clearly have something to do with his emotional state: the death of his brother Allie and the

suicide of one of his schoolmates. But, even with that knowledge, Holdens peculiarities cannot simply be explained away as symptoms of a readily identifiable disorder. The most noticeable of Holdens peculiarities is how extremely judgmental he is of almost everything and everybody. He criticizes and philosophizes about people who are boring, people who are insecure, and, above all, people who are phony. Holden carries this penchant for passing judgment to such an extreme that it often becomes extremely funny, such as when he speculates that people are so crass that someone will probably write fuck you on his tombstone. Holden applies the term phony not to people who are insincere but to those who are too conventional or too typicalfor instance, teachers who act like teachers by assuming a different demeanor in class than they do in conversation, or people who dress and act like the other members of their social class. While Holden uses the label phony to imply that such people are superficial, his use of the term actually indicates that his own perceptions of other people are superficial. In almost every case, he rejects more complex judgments in favor of simple categorical ones. A second facet of Holdens personality that deserves comment is his attitude toward sex. Holden is a virgin, but he is very interested in sex, and, in fact, he spends much of the novel trying to lose his virginity. He feels strongly that sex should happen between people who care deeply about and respect one another, and he is upset by the realization that sex can be casual. Stradlaters date with Jane doesnt just make him jealous; it infuriates him to think of a girl he knows well having sex with a boy she doesnt know well. Moreover, he is disturbed by the fact that he is aroused by women whom he doesnt respect or care for, like the blonde tourist he dances with in the Lavender Room, or like Sally Hayes, whom he refers to as stupid even as he arranges a date with her. Finally, he is disturbed by the fact that he is aroused by kinky sexual behaviorparticularly behavior that isnt respectful of ones sex partner, such as spitting in ones partners face. Although Holden refers to such behavior as crumby, he admits that it is pretty fun, although he doesnt think that it should be. A brief note about Holdens name: a caul is a membrane that covers the head of a fetus during birth. Thus, the caul in his name may symbolize the blindness of childhood or the inability of the child to see the complexity of the adult world. Holdens full name might be read as Hold-on Caul-field: he wants to hold on to what he sees as his innocence, which is really his blindness.
Phoebe Caulfield

Before we meet Phoebe, Holdens side of the story is all weve been given. He implies that he is the only noble character in a world of superficial and phony adults, and we must take him at his word. There seems to be a simple dichotomy between the sweet world of childhood innocence, where Holden wants to stay, and the cruel

world of shallow adult hypocrisy, where hes afraid to go. But Phoebe complicates his narrative. Instead of sympathizing with Holdens refusal to grow up, she becomes angry with him. Despite being six years younger than her brother, Phoebe understands that growing up is a necessary process; she also understands that Holdens refusal to mature reveals less about the outside world than it does about himself. Next to Phoebe, Holdens stunted emotional maturity and stubborn ou tlook seem less charming and more foolish. Phoebe, then, serves as a guide and surrogate for the audience. Because she knows her brother better than we do, we trust her judgments about him. Our allegiance to the narrator weakens slightly once we hear her side of the story. Phoebe makes Holdens picture of childhoodof children romping through a field of ryeseem oversimplified, an idealized fantasy. Phoebes character challenges Holdens view of the world: she is a child, but she does not fit into Holdens romanticized vision of childlike innocence. Although she never explicitly states it, Phoebe seems to realize that Holdens bitterness toward the rest of the world is really bitterness toward himself. She sees that he is a deeply sad, insecure young man who needs love and support. At the end of the book, when she shows up at the museum and demands to come with him, she seems not so much to need Holden as to understand that he needs her.
Mr. Antolini

Mr. Antolini is the adult who comes closest to reaching Holden. He manages to avoid alienating Holden, and being labeled a phony, because he doesnt behave conventionally. He doesnt speak to Holden in the persona of a teacher or an authority figure, as Mr. Spencer does. He doesnt object to Holdens calling him in the middle of the night or to Holdens being drunk or smoking. Moreover, by opening his door to Holden on the spur of the moment, he shows no reservations about exposing his private self, with his messy apartment, his older wife with her hair in curlers, and his own heavy drinking. Mr. Antolinis advice to Holden about why he should apply himself to his studies is also unconventional. He recognizes that Holden is different from other students, and he validates Holdens suffering and confusion by suggesting that one day they may be worth writing about. He represents education not as a path of conformity but as a means for Holden to develop his unique voice and to find the ideas that are most appropriate to him. When Mr. Antolini touches Holdens forehead as he sleeps, he may overstep a boundary in his display of concern and affection. However, there is little evidence to suggest that he is making a sexual overture, as Holden thinks, and much evidence that Holden misinterprets his action. Holden indicates in Chapter 19 that he is extremely nervous around possible homosexuals and that he worries about suddenly becoming one. We also know that he has been thinking about sex

constantly since leaving Pencey. Finally, this is not the only scene in which Holden recoils from a physical approach. He is made very uncomfortable when Sunny pulls off her dress and sits in his lap. Even when his beloved sister puts her arms around him, he remarks that she may be a little too affectionate sometimes. Holden regrets his hasty judgment of Mr. Antolini, but this mistake is very important to him, because he finally starts to question his own practice of making snap judgments about people. Holden realizes that even if Mr. Antolini is gay, he cant simply be dismissed as a flit, since he has also been kind and generous. Holden begins to acknowledge that Mr. Antolini is complex and that he has feelings. Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/

1984
Context Born Eric Blair in India in 1903, George Orwell was educated as a scholarship student at prestigious boarding schools in England. Because of his backgroundhe famously described his family as lower-upper-middle classhe never quite fit in, and felt oppressed and outraged by the dictatorial control that the schools he attended exercised over their students lives. After graduating from Eton, Orwell decided to forego college in order to work as a British Imperial Policeman in Burma. He hated his duties in Burma, where he was required to enforce the strict laws of a political regime he despised. His failing health, which troubled him throughout his life, caused him to return to England on convalescent leave. Once back in England, he quit the Imperial Police and dedicated himself to becoming a writer.

Inspired by Jack Londons 1903 book The People of the Abyss, which detailed Londons experience in the slums of London, Orwell bought ragged clothes from a second-hand store and went to live among the very poor in London. After reemerging, he published a book about this experience, entitled Down and Out in Paris and London. He later lived among destitute coal miners in northern England, an experience that caused him to give up on capitalism in favor of democratic socialism. In 1936, he traveled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War, where he witnessed firsthand the nightmarish atrocities committed by fascist political regimes. The rise to power of dictators such as Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union inspired Orwells mounting hatred of totalitarianism and political authority. Orwell devoted his energy to writing novels that were politically charged, first with Animal Farm in 1945, then with 1984 in 1949. 1984 is one of Orwells best-crafted novels, and it remains one of the most powerful warnings ever issued against the dangers of a totalitarian society. In Spain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, Orwell had witnessed the danger of absolute political authority in an age of advanced technology. He illustrated that peril harshly in 1984. Like Aldous

Huxleys Brave New World (1932),1984 is one of the most famous novels of the negative utopian, or dystopian, genre. Unlike a utopian novel, in which the writer aims to portray the perfect human society, a novel of negative utopia does the exact opposite: it shows the worst human society imaginable, in an effort to convince readers to avoid any path that might lead toward such societal degradation. In 1949, at the dawn of the nuclear age and before the television had become a fixture in the family home, Orwells vision of a post atomic dictatorship in which every individual would be monitored ceaselessly by means of the telescreen seemed terrifyingly possible. That Orwell postulated such a society a mere thirty-five years into the future compounded this fear. Of course, the world that Orwell envisioned in 1984 did not materialize. Rather than being overwhelmed by totalitarianism, democracy ultimately won out in the Cold War, as seen in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Yet 1984 remains an important novel, in part for the alarm it sounds against the abusive nature of authoritarian governments, but even more so for its penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of language and history can be used as mechanisms of control.
Analysis of Major Characters Winston Smith Orwells primary goal in 1984 is to demonstrate the terrifying possibilities of totalitarianism. The reader experiences the nightmarish world that Orwell envisions through the eyes of the protagonist, Winston. His personal tendency to resist the stifling of his individuality, and his intellectual ability to reason about his resistance, enables the reader to observe and understand the harsh oppression that the Party, Big Brother, and the Thought Police institute. Whereas Julia is untroubled and somewhat selfish, interested in rebelling only for the pleasures to be gained, Winston is extremely pensive and curious, desperate to understand how and why the Party exercises such absolute power in Oceania. Winstons long reflections give Orwell a chance to explore the novels important themes, including language as mind control, psychological and physical intimidation and manipulation, and the importance of knowledge of the past.

Apart from his thoughtful nature, Winstons main attributes are his rebelliousness and his fatalism. Winston hates the Party passionately and wants to test the limits of its power; he commits innumerable crimes throughout the novel, ranging from writing DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER in his diary, to having an illegal love affair with Julia, to getting himself secretly indoctrinated into the anti-Party Brotherhood. The effort Winston puts into his attempt to achieve freedom and independence ultimately underscores the Partys devastating power. By the end of the novel, Winstons rebellion is revealed as playing into OBriens campaign of physical and psychological torture, transforming Winston into a loyal subject of Big Brother. One reason for Winstons rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his sense of fatalismhis intense (though entirely justified) paranoia about the Party and his overriding belief that the Party will eventually catch and punish him. As soon as he writes DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought Police will quickly capture him

for committing a thoughtcrime. Thinking that he is helpless to evade his doom, Winston allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting OBrien and renting the room above Mr. Charringtons shop. Deep down, he knows that these risks will increase his chances of being caught by the Party; he even admits this to OBrien while in prison. But because he believes that he will be caught no matter what he does, he convinces himself that he must continue to rebel. Winston lives in a world in which legitimate optimism is an impossibility; lacking any real hope, he gives himself false hope, fully aware that he is doing so.
Julia Julia is Winstons lover and the only other person who Winston can be sure hates the Party and wishes to rebel against it as he does. Whereas Winston is restless, fatalistic, and concerned about large-scale social issues, Julia is sensual, pragmatic, and generally content to live in the moment and make the best of her life. Winston longs to join the Brotherhood and read Emmanuel Goldsteins abstract manifesto; Julia is more concerned with enjoying sex and making practical plans to avoid getting caught by the Party. Winston essentially sees their affair as temporary; his fatalistic attitude makes him unable to imagine his relationship with Julia lasting very long. Julia, on the other hand, is well adapted to her chosen forms of small-scale rebellion. She claims to have had affairs with various Party members, and has no intention of terminating her pleasure seeking, or of being caught (her involvement with Winston is what leads to her capture). Julia is a striking contrast to Winston: apart from their mutual sexual desire and hatred of the Party, most of their traits are dissimilar, if not contradictory. OBrien One of the most fascinating aspects of 1984 is the manner in which Orwell shrouds an explicit portrayal of a totalitarian world in an enigmatic aura. While Orwell gives the reader a close look into the personal life of Winston Smith, the readers only glimpses of Party life are those that Winston himself catches. As a result, many of the Partys inner workings remain unexplained, as do its origins, and the identities and motivations of its leaders. This sense of mystery is centralized in the character of OBrien, a powerful member of the Inner Party who tricks Winston into believing that he is a member of the revolutionary group called the Brotherhood. OBrien inducts Winston into the Brotherhood. Later, though, he appears at Winstons jail cell to abuse and brainwash him in the name of the Party. During the process of this punishment, and perhaps as an act of psychological torture, OBrien admits that he pretended to be connected to the Brotherhood merely to trap Winston in an act of open disloyalty to the Party. This revelation raises more questions about OBrien than it answers. Rather than developing as a character throughout the novel, OBrien actually seem s to un-develop: by the end of the book, the reader knows far less about him than they previously had thought. When Winston asks OBrien if he too has been captured by the Party, OBrien replies, They got me long ago. This reply could signify that OBrien himself was once rebellious, only to be tortured into passive acceptance of the Party. One can also argue that OBrien pretends to sympathize with Winston merely to gain his trust. Similarly, one cannot be sure whether the Brotherhood actually exists, or if it is simply a Party invention used to trap the disloyal and give the rest of the populace a common enemy. The novel does not answer these

questions, but rather leaves OBrien as a shadowy, symbolic enigma on the fringes of the even more obscure Inner Party. Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/

The Scarlet Letter


Context Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His family descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; among his forebears was John Hathorne (Hawthorne added the w to his name when he began to write), one of the j udges at the 1692 Salem witch trials. Throughout his life, Hawthorne was both fascinated and disturbed by his kinship with John Hathorne. Raised by a widowed mother, Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he met two people who were to have great impact upon his life: Henry Wadsworth Long-fellow, who would later become a famous poet, and Franklin Pierce, who would later become president of the United States.

After college Hawthorne tried his hand at writing, producing historical sketches and an anonymous novel, Fanshawe, that detailed his college days rather embarrassingly. Hawthorne also held positions as an editor and as a customs surveyor during this period. His growing relationship with the intellectual circle that included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller led him to abandon his customs post for the utopian experiment at Brook Farm, a commune designed to promote economic self-sufficiency and transcendentalist principles. Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century that was dedicated to the belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere, particularly in the natural world. It also advocated a personalized, direct relationship with the divine in place of formalized, structured religion. This second transcendental idea is privileged in The Scarlet Letter. After marrying fellow transcendentalist Sophia Peabody in 1842, Hawthorne left Brook Farm and moved into the Old Manse, a home in Concord where Emerson had once lived. In 1846 he published Mosses from an Old Manse, a collection of essays and stories, many of which are about early America.Mosses from an Old Manse earned Hawthorne the attention of the literary establishment because America was trying to establish a cultural independence to complement its political independence, and Hawthornes collection of stories displayed both a stylistic freshness and an interest in American subject matter. Herman Melville, among others, hailed Hawthorne as the American Shakespeare. In 1845 Hawthorne again went to work as a customs surveyor, this time, like the narrator of The Scarlet Letter, at a post in Salem. In 1850, after having lost the job, he published The Scarlet Letter to enthusiastic, if not widespread, acclaim. His other major novels include The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun(1860). In 1853 Hawthornes college friend Franklin Pierce, for whom he had written a campaign biography and who had since become president, appointed Hawthorne a United

States consul. The writer spent the next six years in Europe. He died in 1864, a few years after returning to America. The majority of Hawthornes work takes Americas Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to greatest effect. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s under the leadership of John Winthrop (whose death is recounted in the novel). The religious sect was known for its intolerance of dissenting ideas and lifestyles. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the repressive, authoritarian Puritan society as an analogue for humankind in general. The Puritan setting also enables him to portray the human soul under extreme pressures. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, while unquestionably part of the Puritan society in which they live, also reflect universal experiences. Hawthorne speaks specifically to American issues, but he circumvents the aesthetic and thematic limitations that might accompany such a focus. His universality and his dramatic flair have ensured his place in the literary canon.
Analysis of Major Characters Hester Prynne Although The Scarlet Letter is about Hester Prynne, the book is not so much a consideration of her innate character as it is an examination of the forces that shape her and the transformations those forces effect. We know very little about Hester prior to her affair with Dimmesdale and her resultant public shaming. We read that she married Chillingworth although she did not love him, but we never fully understand why. The early chapters of the book suggest that, prior to her marriage, Hester was a strong-willed and impetuous young womanshe remembers her parents as loving guides who frequently had to restrain her incautious behavior. The fact that she has an affair also suggests that she once had a passionate nature.

But it is what happens after Hesters affair that makes her into the woman with whom the reader is familiar. Shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, Hester becomes contemplative. She speculates on human nature, social organization, and larger moral questions. Hesters tribulations also lead her to be stoic and a freethinker. Although the narrator pretends to disapprove of Hesters independent philosophizing, his tone indicates that he secretly admires her independence and her ideas. Hester also becomes a kind of compassionate maternal figure as a result of her experiences. Hester moderates her tendency to be rash, for she knows that such behavior could cause her to lose her daughter, Pearl. Hester is also maternal with respect to society: she cares for the poor and brings them food and clothing. By the novels end, Hester has become a protofeminist mother figure to the women of the community. The shame attached to her scarlet letter is long gone. Women recognize that her punishment stemmed in part from the town fathers sexism, and they come to Hester seeking shelter from the sexist forces under which they themselves suffer. Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester is portrayed as an intelligent, capable, but not necessarily extraordinary woman. It is the extraordinary circumstances shaping her that make her such an important figure.

Roger Chillingworth As his name suggests, Roger Chillingworth is a man deficient in human warmth. His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul. From what the reader is told of his early years with Hester, he was a difficult husband. He ignored his wife for much of the time, yet expected her to nourish his soul with affection when he did condescend to spend time with her. Chillingworths decision to assume the identity of a leech, or doctor, is fitting. Unable to engage in equitable relationships with those around him, he feeds on the vitality of others as a way of energizing his own projects. Chillingworths death is a result of the nature of his character. After Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has a victim. Similarly, Dimmesdales revelation that he is Pearls father removes Hester fr om the old mans clutches. Having lost the objects of his revenge, the leech has no choice but to die. Ultimately, Chillingworth represents true evil. He is associated with secular and sometimes illicit forms of knowledge, as his chemical experiments and medical practices occasionally verge on witchcraft and murder. He is interested in revenge, not justice, and he seeks the deliberate destruction of others rather than a redress of wrongs. His desire to hurt others stands in contrast to Hester and Dimmesdales sin, which had love, not hate, as its intent. Any harm that may have come from the young lovers deed was unanticipated and inadvertent, whereas Chillingworth reaps deliberate harm. Arthur Dimmesdale Arthur Dimmesdale, like Hester Prynne, is an individual whose identity owes more to external circumstances than to his innate nature. The reader is told that Dimmesdale was a scholar of some renown at Oxford University. His past suggests that he is probably somewhat aloof, the kind of man who would not have much natural sympathy for ordinary men and women. However, Dimmesdale has an unusually active conscience. The fact that Hester takes all of the blame for their shared sin goads his conscience, and his resultant mental anguish and physical weakness open up his mind and allow him to empathize with others. Consequently, he becomes an eloquent and emotionally powerful speaker and a compassionate leader, and his congregation is able to receive meaningful spiritual guidance from him.

Ironically, the townspeople do not believe Dimmesdales protestations of sinfulness. Given his background and his penchant for rhetorical speech, Dimmesdales congregation generally interprets his sermons allegorically rather than as expressions of any personal guilt. This drives Dimmesdale to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition. The towns idolization of him reaches new heights after his Election Day sermon, which is his last. In his death, Dimmesdale becomes even more of an icon than he was in life. Many believe his confession was a symbolic act, while others believe Dimmesdales fate was an example of divine judgment.
Pearl Hesters daughter, Pearl, functions primarily as a symbol. She is quite young during most of the events of this novelwhen Dimmesdale dies she is only seven years oldand her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them

pointed questions and draws their attention, and the readers, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all. Pearl makes us constantly aware of her mothers scarlet letter and of the society that produced it. From an early age, she fixates on the emblem. Pearls innocent, or perhaps intuitive, comments about the letter raise crucial questions about its meaning. Similarly, she inquires about the relationships between those around hermost important, the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdaleand offers perceptive critiques of them. Pearl provides the texts harshest, and most penetrating, judgment of Dimmesdales failure to admit to his adultery. Once her fathers identity is revealed, Pearl is no longer needed in this symbolic capacity; at Dimmesdales death she becomes fully human, leaving behind her otherworldliness and her preternatural vision. Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/

HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT 12-POINT SAT ESSAY, EVEN IF YOU SUCK AT WRITING (PART 1)
By | April 30, 2008 Since Ive been getting so many requests in the last few days to write about the SAT Essay, Im going to take a break today from the Error Identification Questions to address this topic. When I was preparing for the SAT II Writing Test, the essay was one of the biggest sources of anxiety for me. With a different essay topic for each test, it just seemed like such a crapshoot. What if the topic is something I know nothing about? I always wondered. There were many times when I would take practice tests, and just not write anything! I didnt know how to approach the essay and my mind would just blank. How could you prepare for something you know nothing about?? Thankfully, I realized that just like the rest of the SAT, the essay is graded by standardized measures, and if I could just meet those measures I could achieve a high score, regardless of my writing abilities or knowledge of the topic. As many of you can imagine I eventually did very well on the essay, and Ill explain to you how. But before we get started, first take out the Official SAT Study Guide ( yes, that big blue book).Seriously, go get it right now. If you dont own a copy yet, you have bigger issues than worrying about the essay. Ok, now turn with me to page 200. DO IT. Stop being lazy, go pick up your book, and turn to page 200. You with me now? OK, good. This example essay (p. 200-201) is what the Collegeboard people consider to be a perfect SAT essay it would receive a score of 6 (on a scale from 0 to 6) by two separate graders for a total of 12 points. You dont have to read it yet. Just glance at it for a moment. Now turn to page 202: this is an example of an essay that would receive a score of 5. Turn the page again to p. 204: this is another example of an essay that received a score of 5. Turn the page again to page 206: heres an example of an essay that received a score of 4. Turn the page again to page 208: youll find another 4 essay. Turn the page again to page

210: here, youll see an example of an essay that would receive a score of 3. Over on 211 youll see an example of an essay that would receive a score of 2. And finally, if you turn the page one more time to page 212, youll see an example of an essay that would receive a score of 1. Notice anything??

The Superficial Things Matter, a lot


If you actually followed along with me on this exercise, you should have noticed one obvious thing, theres a direct correlation between the length of the essay and its score. Why is this the case? Well if you ask the ETS and CollegeBoard people (the people who develop and administer the SATs) theyll readily admit that such a correlation exists. Their reasoning is that while quantity does not necessarily equal quality, in a 25-minute essay, which is a relatively short amount of time, the more you write, the more youll develop and articulate your ideas which in essence is the point of the essay. Valid point. Another significant factor also explains this correlation between the length of the essay and its score: time. No not the time it takes you to write the essay, but the time it takes the grader to grade it. How much time do you think a grader spends on each essay? One hour meticulously weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each argument you make, determining the validity of each point, checking the facts you cite, and evaluating the structural sophistication of your sentences? No way. You would think that they have to spend at least 25 minutes, the length it took for you to write the damn thing, right? Wrong again. 10 minutes? 5 minutes? Nope and nope. The reality is that the graders spend in the ballpark of 2 minutes, if that, on each essay. And, they probably know after just the first 30 seconds what score theyre going to give you, within the range of one point. Think about it, with 2.5 million students taking the test each year, how much time COULD they really spend on each essay? Most of the graders are volunteer teachers who already have busy lives. Plus, theyre not getting paid! So what does this mean to you the test-taker? The SUPERFICIAL things, like length, matter a great deal on this test. Obviously the content of your writing does matter, but for the most part, the more you write, the better youll score, so write more! On a short 2 page, hand-written essay every sentence you add, adds significantly more to the essay. One of the best areas to add to essay is to explain your evidence more thoroughly. So anytime you site an example from a book you read in English class, or an event you learned in History class, add at least one more sentence than you already have to more thoroughly explain how this example supports your main point. Another superficial factor that could improve your score, is the use of SAT caliber vocabulary.You know all those words you studied for the Critical Reading questions? Use them in your essay! The best place to put these words is within the first paragraph of your essay. Since your grader will make a significant judgment of your writing abilities within the first few seconds of reading your essay, it would be smart to put those vocabulary words within the first few sentences. Just make sure you use them appropriately.

Structure
Ok, now on to how you should structure your essay. When it comes to structure, it may be worthwhile to first consider how every other student is going to organize his or her essay.Almost every high school English class uses a tripartite essay format, where the thesis comes in the first paragraph and introduces two or three examples. Then the body of the essay has one corresponding paragraph that

elaborates on each example from the thesis.Finally, the conclusion just reiterates the main point one last time. Refer to the example below:

What the Typical Student Writes: I. INTRODUCTION: - General introduction to topic. - Thesis: Examples A, B, and C prove my point that II. BODY: - Paragraph 1: - Topic Sentence 1: Example A supports my point because - blah, blah, blah - Paragraph 2: - Topic Sentence 2: Example B supports my point because - blah, blah, blah - Paragraph 3: - Topic Sentence 3: Example C supports my point because - blah, blah, blah III. CONCLUSION: - Through Examples A, B, and C, I have proven my point that
Look familiar? Im sure this is what most standard high school essays look like, and this is pretty much what every students SAT Essay will look like. If you follow this format and youre a decent writer, this should garner a score of 8 (4 points by each grader). But youre not reading this to earn an 8, you want that 12. So whats wrong with this essay? Nothing, its just that every single student will produce the same essay, and if you also produce such an essay, youll have give the grader no reason to give you a higher score than average, an 8. But not to worry. Ill go over exactly how to distinguis h your essay from all the others and impress the grader enough to earn you that 12 in my next post.

HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT 12-POINT SAT ESSAY, EVEN IF YOU SUCK AT WRITING (PART 2)
By | May 2, 2008 This post of is a continuation of my first post on the SAT Essay Section. If youre preparing for the SAT Essay, you may want to first start there. In my last post I talked a little bit about the Essay and some of the superficial things that matter. Basically what I wrote about yesterday is how to get an average essay one thatll pretty much assure you a score of 8. Today I want to talk a little bit about how to get your essay to the 10-12 score range. So what makes a good essay?? First Things First: Your Position Lets get some of the obvious out of the way first. The first thing youre going to have to do is decide your position on the topic. Each topic has an inherent yes-side and a no-side. For example, turn to page 283 of the Official SAT Study Guide (the Big Blue Book). The essay prompt first brings up the debate as to whether or not technology has made our lives better.Then the assignment asks, Do changes that make our lives easier not necessarily make our lives better? So, for this prompt, youre basically going to have to take a positions as to whether changes that make our lives easier (or more specifically advancements and technology) do or do not make our lives easier. Whatever position you decide to take the yes side or the no side doesnt really matter. Itll be entirely up to you. This decision will be based mostly on which side your sources/evidence more naturally supports, but well get a little more into this later. The Most Important Part: The Motive I know that in high school they teach you that the thesis is the most important part of an essay.However, when you get to college, most good expository writing classes will focus heavily on an essays motive. So what is an essays motive? The motive of an essay is too complicated of a topic to cover entirely in this one post, but I can at least show you how to superficially produce a decent motive since we know the superficial things matter on the SAT. While an essays thesis answers the question of What, its motive address the question, why. Its what makes your essay significant, and any serious writer should address this question first. The average high school student will jump into the essay with a thesis, something like Technology makes our lives easier because This will make for a very bland and boring essay. Readers, especially SAT graders, want something interesting to read. Theyll have read thousands of essays that say the same thing before they even read yours. Thats why you need to first engage the reader by addressing why he or she should care in the first place, or why your essay is different. You can only do this by getting by the obvious. This is what the motive is all about. Show the grader something more than the obvious (or at least pretend to). You may be wondering, How can I do this if I dont know more about the topic than the average high school student? Ah, this is where the superficial part comes in. Once, youve decided the position youre going to take on the topic, you want to introduce a special word into your essay: ostensible. If you dont know what ostensible, or ostensibly, means, look it up right now and add it to your vocabulary knowledge base. Its a good SAT word to know anyway. Put simply, it means outwardly seeming or appearing to

be. Applying this one word to your introduction will help for two reasons: first, itll show that you have a command of SAT vocabulary and second, itll make your essay appear more interesting because youre offering something more than the obvious, meaning better than the average SAT essay. So, again, heres the average students introduction to the essay:

Technology does (or does not) make our lives easier because
Notice, theres no motive. Now heres how youll apply a motive:

While ostensibly technology makes our lives better, in reality technology only makes our lives more difficult..
Which introduction appears to be a more interesting read? Notice that not only does your sentence have a motive, but it also has an added level of structural sophistication with two different clauses and applies some SAT vocabulary. The best part is that it also leads naturally into a solid thesis. Your next sentence could now introduce the examples or sources youre going to employ in the essay and reiterate your main point: The climactic ending in the Great Gatsby, the protagonists anguish in theCatcher in the Rye, and the inevitable conclusion of the Bay of Pigs fiasco all attest to the fact that technology that promises to make our lives easier, do not necessarily make our lives better.or something like that. This method can be applied to any essay topic. Notice that theres no flowery prose or unnecessary filler? It cuts straight to the point but does so in a more appealing way. It also guards against writers block because it provides a methodical way in which you develop your introduction without wasting time brainstorming. Now Ill briefly talk about your body paragraphs and sources

SAT ESSAY PROMPTS


The following is a compilation of every essay prompt administered by the Collegeboard since the introduction of the Writing Section in 2005. Credit should be given to ObsessedOne from the CC forums for compiling this list. How to Use these SAT essay prompts to prepare: While I dont think it would be an efficient use of your time to draft a full essay for every essay prompt listed below, I would certainly recommend coming up with an outline for each of the sub-categories. Make sure your outline includes a position, motive, thesis, examples, and a conclusion. As your preparation schedule allows, craft a few of these outlines into full essays. If you havent already read my previous posts on the SAT Essay, start with How to Write the Perfect 12Point SAT Essay, Even if you Suck at Writing (Part 1) . Without further ado, here are the SAT Essay Prompts:

Conformity v. Individuality
Following the Crowd - Do people need to compare themselves with others in order to appreciate what they have? - Are widely held views often wrong, or are such views more likely to be correct?

- Is there any value for people to belong only to a group or groups with which they have something in common? - Is it always best to determine ones own views of right and wrong, or can we benefit from following the crowd? - Is it more valuable for people to fit in than to be unique and different? - Are people more likely to be productive and successful when they ignore the opinions of others? Following Authority - Should we pay more attention to people who are older and more experienced than we are? - Should society limit peoples exposure to some kinds of information or forms of expression? - Can a group of people function effectively without someone being in charge? - Is it important to question the ideas and decisions of people in positions of authority? - Should society limit peoples exposure to some kinds of information or forms of expression? - Is education primarily the result of influences other than school? - Should schools help students understand moral choices and social issues? Following Creativity - Is it always better to be original than to imitate or use the ideas of others? - Is it better for a society when people act as individuals rather than copying the ideas and opinions of others? - Is creativity needed more than ever in the world today? - Can people ever be truly original? - Do we put too much value on the ideas or actions of individual people? - Does planning interfere with creativity?

Motivation and Success


Hardship and Success Do people truly benefit from hardship and misfortune? Do we really benefit from every event or experience in some way? Do people place too much emphasis on winning? Do people learn more from losing than from winning? Does true learning only occur when we experience difficulties? Does being ethical make it hard to be successful? Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit? Is persistence more important than ability in determining a persons success? Is the effort involved in pursuing any goal valuable, even if the goal is not reached? Self-Determination and Success Is identity something people are born with or given, or is it something people create for themselves? Is it best for people to accept who they are and what they have, or should people always strive to better themselves? Do success and happiness depend on the choices people make rather than on factors beyond their control? Are people more likely to be happy if they focus on goals other than their own happiness? Is it more important to do work that one finds fulfilling or work that pays well? Self-Expectation and Success

Do highly accomplished people achieve more than others mainly because they expect more of themselves? Can people achieve success only if they aim to be perfect? Is it best to have low expectations and to set goals we are sure of achieving? Collaboration and Success Is it necessary for people to combine their efforts with those of others in order to be most effective? Are organizations or groups most successful when their members pursue individual wishes and goals? Do people achieve more success by cooperation than by competition? Ethics and Success Does fame bring happiness, or are people who are not famous more likely to be happy? Are peoples actions motivated primarily by a desire for power over others? Quality or Quantity and Success Do people achieve greatness only by finding out what they are especially good at and developing that attribute above all else? Are all important discoveries the result of focusing on one subject?

Technological Progress
Does a strong commitment to technological progress cause a society to neglect other values, such as education and the protection of the environment? Are there benefits to be gained from avoiding the use of modern technology, even when using it would make life easier? Has todays abundance of information only made it more difficult for us to understand the world around us? Is the most important purpose of technology today different from what it was in the past? Have modern advancements truly improved the quality of peoples lives? Do newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, the Internet, and other media determine what is important to most people? Should modern society be criticized for being materialistic?

Heroes
Do we benefit from learning about the flaws of people we admire and respect? Should we limit our use of the term courage to acts in which people risk their ow n well-being for the sake of others or to uphold a value? Should we admire heroes but not celebrities? Is there a value in celebrating certain individuals as heroes?

Tradition
Do all established traditions deserve to remain in existence? Do people need to unlearn, or reject, many of their assumptions and ideas? Should people always prefer new things, ideas, or values to those of the past? Do incidents from the past continue to influence the present? Do memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and succeed in the present? Is it always necessary to find new solutions to problems?

Loyalty
Should people always be loyal? Do circumstances determine whether or not we should tell the truth? Can deceptionpretending that something is true when it is notsometimes have good results? Is it sometimes necessary to be impolite? Is acting an essential part of everyday life?

Others (less clearly defined; separated by spaces)


Is compromise always the best way to resolve a conflict? Should people choose one of two opposing sides of an issue, or is the truth usually found in the middle? Is the main value of the arts to teach us about the world around us? Can books and stories about characters and events that are not real teach us anything useful? Can common sense be trusted and accepted, or should it be questioned? Do people put too much emphasis on learning practical skills? Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that affect their communities or the nation in general? Should people let their feelings guide them when they make important decisions? Can people have too much enthusiasm? Do images and impressions have too much of an effect on people? Are decisions made quickly just as good as decisions made slowly and carefully? Should people change their decisions when circumstances change, or is it best for them to stick with their original decisions? Is it better to change ones attitude than to change ones circumstances? Is criticismjudging or finding fault with the ideas and actions of othersessential for personal well-being and social progress? Does having a large number of options to choose from make people happy?

HOW TO ANSWER SAT CRITICAL READING QUESTIONS WITHOUT READING THE PASSAGES
By | April 17, 2008 In my last post How I improved my SAT Critical Reading Score By 150 Points I emphasized the importance of focusing on the Questions and Answer Choices, rather than the reading passages themselves. In that post, I explained how to avoid some of the pitfalls in the reading comprehension questions by noticing indicators of poor answer choices. If you need to improve your Critical Reading score, I suggest you start there. In this post, Ill explain some of the factors of a good Critical Reading comprehension answer choice. But first, consider this. Did you know there are standardized test-taking experts who make a game out of taking SAT Critical Reading tests WITHOUT reading the

passages?? Read the excerpt below from an article by Malcolm Gladwell that was published in the New Yorker: Critics of the S.A.T. have long made a kind of parlor game of seeing how many questions on the reading-comprehension section (where a passage is followed by a series of multiple-choice questions about its meaning) can be answered without reading the passage. David Owen, in the anti-S.A.T. account None of the Above, gives the following example, adapted from an actual S.A.T. exam: 1. The main idea of the passage is that: A) a constricted view of [this novel] is natural and acceptable B) a novel should not depict a vanished society C) a good novel is an intellectual rather than an emotional experience D) many readers have seen only the comedy [in this novel] E) [this novel] should be read with sensitivity and an open mind If youve never seen an S.A.T. before, it might be difficult to guess the right answer. But if, through practice and exposure, you have managed to assimilate the ideology of the S.A.T. the kind of decent, middlebrow earnestness that permeates the test its possible to develop a kind of gut feeling for the right answer, the confidence to predict, in the pressure and rush of examination time, what the S.A.T. is looking for. A is suspiciously postmodern. B is far too dogmatic. C is something that you would never say to an eager, college-bound student. Is it D? Perhaps, but D seems too small a point. Its probably Eand, sure enough, it is. With that in mind, try this question: 2. The author of [this passage] implies that a work of art is properly judged on the basis of its: A) universality of human experience truthfully recorded B) popularity and critical acclaim in its own age C) openness to varied interpretations, including seemingly contradictory ones D) avoidance of political and social issues of minor importance E) continued popularity through different eras and with different societies

Is it any surprise that the answer is A? Bob Schaeffer, the public education director of the antitest group FairTest, says that when he got a copy of the latest version of the S.A.T. the first thing he did was try the reading comprehension section blind. He got twelve out of thirteen questions right.
The thing about these experts is that they dont do this to prove how smart they are, or to prove how good they are at taking standardized tests. Most of these people are CRITICS of standardized

tests! They do this to prove, or point out, the flawed nature of standardized test: the SAT Critical Reading Sections dont really test for Reading Comprehensions. So how do they do this? What theyre doing is simply pointing out what many high scorers on the SAT have known all along. Continue reading as I point out some of the indicators of good Critical Reading answers choices below. Anatomy of a Good SAT Critical Reading Answer Choice Have you ever noticed that many of the SAT Critical Reading reading comprehension answer choices is a matter of opinion? You ever think to yourself, WTF, both the answers could be correct? While in reality, youre probably right; you could justify almost any answer choice on this test, you have to keep in mind that the SAT is a standardized test. That means that only the answer choices that can be justified objectively according to the CollegeBoards standards are correct. And since the Collegboard people are the ones who grade your tests, thats what youll have to deal with. Well then, your goal should be to discern what types of answer choices the CollegeBoard wants. Remember, your goal is to learn to think like the creators of the SAT.

THE 5 FACTORS OF A GOOD SAT CRITICAL READING ANSWER CHOICE:


So without further ado, here are the Five factors that make a Good Critical Reading answer choice: 1. The Correct answer will always be the most defendable Consider the following sentence: - The recent findings on the uses of medical marijuana are the most controversial ever! While such a sentence is typical of something you might read in the newspaper headlines, overhear in daily conversation, or even find in this blog, its too extreme to be the correct answer on an SAT test. As the extreme words most and ever suggest as I pointed out in my last post make this statement very hard to defend. How is one to objectively know that anything is the most controversial? And ever? Thats quite a timeframe to cover. This statement is more of an opinion than anything objectively measurable, and not likely something the author of a passage on the SAT would claim. Good SAT answer choices on the other hand will be more defendable. They tend to have more moderate word choice and avoid the sweeping generalizations such as the one above.Rather than absolute ideas, they convey the ideas of more moderate terms such as may,might, can, or could. 2. Good answer choices are often paraphrased The CollegeBoard people know that students will like employ the strategy of simply looking for keywords. A student may read the referenced portion of the passage, then look for keywords that appear among the answer choices. However, a choice that takes a lot of key words from the passage is often a trap. On the other hand, the CollegeBoard people have gone through the trouble to paraphrase an answer choice, that is like to be the choice. For example, is a passage describes a character who is

sensitive to other peoples needs, a correct answer choice may describe him as a considerate individual; a trap, on the contrary would may simply call him a sensitive person. 3. Good answer choices are often ones that are echoed in other questions Ever realize that a few of the questions on pertaining to a Critical Reading passage point out the same thing? Well you should because its typical to see this in this section. Its not that the test developers want to ask the same question over and over, its just that the question is pointing to one of the major themes of the passage! So if you think about it, while the questions may point to different parts of the passage, all the parts of the passage should serve the same purpose for the author: to further support his main idea. 4. Good Answer choices are politically correct Not only are they politically correct, theyre in line with how society deems well-educated intellectuals should think. Ironically its probably not politically correct to be so crude in pointing this out, but my goal its simply true. This is what Malcolm Gladwell means when he more articulately points out the kind of decent, middlebrow earnestness that permeates the test. 5. Finally, Good Answer choices point out universal qualities of society and human nature. This is especially true when the answer choice is in accord with my last point (#4). When both these qualities are found in an answer choice, its very likely the correct answer. Often times these answer choices will literally use the word universal or a variation of it. This concludes my tips on the reading comprehension question on the SAT. If anything is unclear, please comment below. Id be glad to help you out.

HOW I IMPROVED MY SAT CRITICAL READING SCORE BY 150 POINTS


By | April 16, 2008

This post refers to how I learned to tackle thereading passages portion of the Critical Reading Sections. Many students struggle with the reading passage questions, so I thought Id tackle them first before I go into the sentence completions or emphasize the importance of vocabulary. When I first set out to master the SAT Critical Reading passages, I began by focusing my effort on the passages themselves, thinking that perhaps I was not reading properly or thoroughly enough, all the while wasting valuable time. Only after hours of analyzing the numerous Critical Reading Sections did I realize I was going about it incorrectly. It may seem counterintuitive at

first, but I realized, the key is to focus on the Questions and their Answer Choices, not the passages the passages themselves.
The single most important skill for succeeding on the SAT Critical Reading Passages is to learn to evaluate the ANSWER CHOICES! I cant emphasize this enough. Have you ever read an SAT passage and not understood what it was about?? No, of course not. The passages are relatively straight forward. Most 5th graders can understand what the authors are saying and give a fairly good summary. Ive never had a student read a passage and ask, what the heck was that about? Take a look yourself at this passage from the CollegeBoards Official Web Site: here. This is a typical passage you would encounter on the actual SAT. After just a quick read of this passage, you would realize that the passage is simply a personal narrative about the authors first experience witnessing a live theater show. Its just as easy to understand any of the passages in the CollegeBoards Official SAT Study Guide. For example, take a look at the first reading passages offered in Practice Test #1 (Section 2, p. 391). After a quick read, you can easily see that each passage is simply providing its authors perspectives on dolphin intelligence. Look at the longer passage on the next page. Again, one could easily conclude that the passage is about the perception (or misconceptions) that outsiders have had of Native Americans throughout history. Was there anything that was difficult to understand? Not really. So, then why do so many students do poorly on the Critical Reading passages?? If you think about it, each question can have only one correct answer (obvious, right?). Well, this means that the test makers have to create four other answer choices that are incorrect choices that are meant to lure you to them. Therefore, focus on the questions and answer choices, not the reading passages themselves! This does not mean to ignore the passages altogether. That would be foolish. Instead, get through them as quickly as possible while still getting the gist of them, so that you can focus your energy on what matters. You dont get points on the SAT for reading the passages; you only get points for each question you answer correctly. So why waste time and energy overanalyzing the passages? < You should spend, at most, only two minutes reading each passage, then one full minute on each question. For some of you that may mean skimming the passages (Ill explain in another post how to do this while still reading critically). But know, that overall, you should spend considerable more time on the questions than you do reading the passage itself.

OK, so what do you look for among the answer choices?


Lets start with things to avoid. The following are indicators of bad choices that should be avoided:

1. Extreme or absolute words


One of the clearest indicators of poor choices are those words that make a statement extreme or absolute. On the SAT, you have to take every word literally. If you do, youll realize that certain answer choices that seem plausible, or in accord with the overall theme of the passage, are actually poor choices. For example, take a look at the following sentences: - You should never eat right before going to bed. - All children should play as much as possible as exercise is good for their bodies. While these two sentences are examples of how we speak in daily conversations, they make for poor choices on the SAT because, when taken literally, they mean very different things than what is intended. Words such as never and all are very strong words in the context of the SAT and are rarely contained within the correct answer. Some other words and phrases that often indicate extreme answers that are rarely the correct choices are: -All, always, the only, oldest, the first, same. -superlatives (such as best, biggest, greatest) -and less words (such as pointless, useless, endless) The words above often suggest sweeping generalizations that are often too extreme. Correct answers for the Critical Reading Passages are usually presented in more moderate terms such as: -Not all, not always, seemed the only, oldest known, among the first, about the same *Keep in mind that there are no fool proof rules on extreme words.These are just some of the words that often but not always indicate good or bad choices. Whats more important is the principle underlying them. Always remember to keep context in mind. Here they are listed side-by-side so that you can more clearly see the differences:

Indicators of Extreme Answers (poor choices) all always

More Moderate Versions (better choices) not all not always

the only oldest the first same

seemed the only oldest known among the first about the same

Notice that while only almost always indicates a poor choice, the phrase not the only is often correct. Therefore, its not enough to just look for extreme words, but also to consider their context.

2. Politically Incorrect Choices


Avoiding politically incorrect choices is especially important when dealing with a passage that refers to a specific person. While the passage may highlight some of his or her faults, the overall tone of the passage will be positive. When the passage is about a woman or a member of any minority group, the answer will almost always be positive.

3. Choices that defy common sense


This may seem obvious, but its easy to get caught up in the details of the passages that you overlook these. In each set of answer choices, there will almost always be at least one answer choice that you know is so ridiculous that it most certainly cannot be the answer. Your intuition is correct. You should certainly avoid these choices.

4. Choices that require you to infer beyond the limits of the passage
There are something called an inference questions on the Critical Reading passages, but theyre not what you think. These questions are usually phrased in such a way as, Based on line 8-12, you can infer that the author Many students mistake this as an opportunity to assume something beyond the limits of the passage. These questions are not asking you to guess or jump to some conclusion; DO NOT read into things. These questions simply require you to look into specific parts of the passage and find the answers. If you find yourself thinking up a hypothetical question in your head to justify an answer, its probably the wrong choice. Remember this is a standardized test. The answer must be something that most other students can infer from the passage, not something random you draw up in your head. This also applies to the sentence completion questions that Ill get to later. So now that Ive gone over what types of answer choices to avoid on the Critical Reading passage questions, in my next post Ill go over the qualities of good answer choices.

THE MOST COMMONLY TESTED ERROR ON THE SAT WRITING SECTIONS


By | April 26, 2008

Continuing with Writing Section Error Identification questions, today Ill be discussing how to conquer Pronoun Errors. One thing you should note about Pronoun Errors are that they are the most common question-types tested on the Writing Sections, so pay close attention. First the basics. What is a Pronoun? Pronouns are simply general nouns that are used in place of more specific nouns. For example I may use the pronoun she when in place of a more specific noun Angela, or I may use the pronoun it in place of a more specific noun such as book, or hour, or any other thing. Listed below are the Pronouns that are regularly tested for proper usage on the SAT.

Ill be referring to this chart throughout this post. While you dont need to memorize this chart to answer Pronoun Questions correctly, itll help you to understand the various Pronoun Errors tested on the SAT. Pronoun Errors Come in Four Varieties on the SAT: 1. Wrong Number (singular vs. plural) Errors When dealing with pronouns, the term number refers to whether the pronoun is singular or plural. If you look at the chart above, youll notice that within each case (i.e. nominative case, objective case, and possessive case) there are both singular and plural versions for each person (i.e. 1 Person, 2
st nd

Person, 3 Person). Wrong Number Error Questions are simply testing if

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you know when to use a singular or plural pronoun as necessary. To determine if a pronoun is in the proper number, you simple have to find its antecedent (that is, the person or thing that the pronoun refers to) and make sure they match; singular pronouns should refer to singular antecedents and plural pronouns should refer to plural antecedents. Wow, that sounds way more complicated than it needs to be. The following example problem should clear things up:

Harvards lacrosse team performed (A) well throughout the 1990s (B) because (C) they were able (D) to recruit high quality athletes from various preparatory schools across the country. (E) No Error

The correct answer here is (C) they were because the plural pronoun they incorrectly refers to its singular antecedent team. The correct pronoun to use here would be the singular pronoun it but that alone sounds a bit awkward. Perhaps replacing that phrase altogether with its coaching staff would improve the sentence even more. 2. Wrong Case Errors The term case here refers to whether the pronoun is in thenominative, objective, or possessive case. A pronouns case depends on how the pronoun is used in the sentence. The nominative case (which is also referred to as the subjective case) should be used when the pronoun takes the role of a subject, the objective case should be used when the pronoun takes the role of an object, and the possessive case should be used when the pronoun takes the possessive form. Simple enough, right? Wrong Case Pronoun Errors occur when a sentence has , say, an objective pronoun such as me, when it should be in the nominative case I, for example. Notice that the person andnumber are the same, but its only the pronoun case thats used incorrectly. The pronoun case can be interchanged incorrectly from among any of the cases. Again, that explanation makes it sound way more complicated than it actually is, so why dont we look at an example:

(A) Determined that we sleep eight hours a night, (B) my mother made (C) my brother and I turn all our lights out (D) at ten oclock every night. (E) No Error
The correct answer here is (C) my brother and I because the nominative pronoun I should be in the objective case form me. Two important tips should be noted about Pronoun Case Errors: Firstly, Pronoun Case errors show up on the SAT almost always as the second noun in a compound noun phrase. What this means is that the pronoun will show up with another noun usually joined by and. In the example problem above, the entire compound noun phrase is my brother and I. This is a very typical example of how this error shows up on the SAT. So the point to take here is that whenever you see a compound noun phrase with a pronoun, always check to make sure the pronoun is in the correct case. A secondly, when youre unsure in these cases if the pronoun is in the proper case, simply ignore the other noun in the phrase. This will make it a lot more obvious if the pronoun is in the correct case or not. If I were to use the same problem above as an example, I would do the following:

(A) Determined that we sleep eight hours a night, (B) my mother made (C) my brother and I turn all our lights out (D) at ten oclock every night. (E) No Error
Now when you read through the sentence the phrase my mother made I turn out the lights sound very awkward, as it should since the pronoun is in the wrong case. 3. Pronoun Shift Errors The term shift refers to an incorrect change in person within a sentence. As a general rule on the SAT Writing Sections, the person should remain the same throughout the sentence. The most frequent Pronoun Shift Errors occur on the SAT involving the third person term one and the second person pronoun you. Note that when the term oneis used to refer to a hypothetical person, its the equivalent of the third person pronouns he orshe. Take a look at the following example:

(A) If one wishes (B) to play piano (C) like a virtuoso, you (B) must begin by mastering basics like chords and scales.
Notice in this sentence both one and you are used almost interchangeably. The answer is clearly (A) If one wishes. The person should remain consistent throughout the sentence.

4. Ambiguous Reference Errors Ambiguous Reference simply means that it is unclear what a pronoun is referring to. Sentences with Ambiguous Reference Pronoun Errors will have a pronoun that could refer to two different antecedents in the sentence; the sentence will have two different things or people in the same number and person making it unclear which one the pronoun is referring to. For example, if I were to say, James and John went to the mall, and he bought a shirt, who does the pr onoun he refer to? Since he is a Singular 3 Person Pronoun, it could refer to either James or John, making the reference unclear. Of course, it wont be that obvious on the actual SAT. A typical problem may look like the following example:
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(A) Many writers rely (B) heavily on their editors (C) when publishing a book because (D) they are determined to present the best final product possible. (E) No Error
The correct answer here would be (D) they are because its unclear in the sentence whether the pronoun they refers to the writers or the editors because both of them are Plural 3 Person subjects. *Tip: As a general rule, because pronoun errors show up so often on the SAT Writing Sections, any time you come across a pronoun, make sure that its being used properly. Youll be sur
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THE 10 GRAMMATICAL CONCEPTS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO ACE THE SAT WRITING SECTIONS (MC)
By | April 21, 2008 The big lie of the SAT Reasoning Test is that the Writing Sections test a students writing proficiency. Even the 25-minute written essay is not as subjective as you may think. However, Im not going to get into the Essay today (Ill go over that in another post). Instead, this post will focus on the main chunk of the SAT Writing Sections, the multiple-choice questions. Even if you suck at writing, you can still achieve a very high score on the SAT Writing Sections with minimal preparation. Thats because the majority of the Writing Sections test for grammatical errors you learned very early on in school; Im talking about rudimentary grammar here. Although it may seem as though the SAT can test an endless variety of questions based on a vast array of topics, in reality the test-developers limit themselves to a few, very specific question types. This is especially true of the Writing Section of the SAT. Almost all questions in the Writing Section can be categorized into 10 fundamental grammatical errors.Furthermore, question within these categories often repeat the same formatting. The following is a list of the grammatical concepts tested on the SAT Writing Sections. The 10 Fundamental Question Types on the SAT Writing Sections: I. Subject-Verb Agreement 1. When Subject and Verb Are Separated 2. When the Subject SEEMS plural

3. When the Subject SEEMS singular 4. When the Subject Follows the Verb II. Pronoun Errors 1. Wrong Number 2. Wrong Case (in Compound Noun Phrases) 3. Person Shift 4. Ambiguous Reference III. Faulty Parallelism IV. Faulty Comparison/Illogical Comparisons V. Misuse of Adjective or Adverb VI. Improper Idiomatic Expression 1. Infinitive vs. Gerund 2. Wrong Preposition after Verb VII. Wrong Word VIII. Wrong Tense 1. Basic Tense Shifts 2. Use of Past vs. Past Participle IX. Irregular verbs X. Double Negative Ill be going over each of these common SAT Writing question types and their variations, along with detailed strategies on how to conquer them over the next few days. But today, Ill start with the first one:

I. Subject-Verb Agreement
Believe it or not, this is the single-most overlooked error on SAT Writing Sections. In fact, when I first took the SAT II Writing Test, the one question I answered incorrectly was a subject-verb agreement error question. Obviously it wasnt because I didnt understand the concept. Instead, I fell for some of the traps that the test makers use to disguise this error-type. So read my strategies carefully, so you dont fall into the same traps. Subject Verb Errors come in 3 Varieties: 1. When the subject and verb are separated Actually, I lied. This shouldnt be a category of its own because the subject and verb will always be separated for subject verb errors. But its important enough to note because this is one of the disguises that makes these errors so easy to overlook.

2. When the subject seems plural In this variation, the subject will usually involve a collective noun (e.g. a team, a class, an organization, etc.) where the subject will represent a group of people making it appear to be plural, but will actually be a singular subject. Take a look at the following example:

The team (A) of researchers, technicians, and interns (B) have (C)worked hardduring the (D) threemonth project. (E) No Error
Did you spot the error? Its pretty easy when I separate this sentence for you from all the other different Error Types, eh? As you probably noticed, the correct answer is (B.). The actual simple subject in this sentence is the team, a singular collective noun, so the verb haveshould be in the singular form has. An easy way not to fall into the trap of overlooking this error is to cross out the portion of the subject that follows the preposition in this case of.

The team (A) (of researchers, technicians, and interns) (B) have (C) worked hardduring the (D) threemonth project. (E) No Error
This should make it clearer that the simple subject of the sentence is simply team. 2. When the subject seems singular This is the opposite variation of the last error.Sentences that test for this error will usually have to separate subjects (often both singular) that are conjoined by and making the overall subject plural. Take a look at the following example:

The new library on campus (A) dedicated to the former university president and the student recreation center (B.) built on the old lot (C) was funded (D) by privateendowment. (E) No Error
In this example, there are two subjects, each individually a singular noun the library and the student recreation center that are joined together by and, so the verb was should actually be in the plural form were. 3. The final type of Subject-Verb Agreement error occurs when the subject follows the verb. In most standard sentences, including the examples above, the subject comes early in the sentence followed later by the verb. However, on every SAT, there will be at least one sentence that test for subject-verb agreement in which the verb comes first. In these cases, you have to identify that the verb matches the subject that comes later in the sentence. Take a look at the following example: The band (A) has been played on the radio for years, (B) but only recently (C) has the less polished tracks from their first album (D) become known. (E) No error Youll notice here that that the correct answer is (C) has because the singular verb has does not correctly match the corresponding subject tracks that comes later in the sentence. The correct form of the verb should be the plural have.

Important Tips!
There are two things to note about subject-verb agreement errors:

1.) Its almost always the verb that is incorrect, not the subject. If you look back at the examples above, youll notice that the subject that corresponds with the verb usually isnt even a choice, and therefore by default, you can only chose the verb as the correct answer. 2.) Subject-Verb Agreement errors almost always involve the most basic verbs. The questions will almost always test for the usage or is vs. are; was vs. were; or has vs. have.You would think that this would make this question type even easier with this being the case.However, the fact that these questions involve the most basic verbs only makes it more likely that you would overlook this error. To make sure you dont fall into the trap, every time a Error Improvement question on the SAT Writing sections has is, are, was, were, has, or have as a choice, double check to make sure it they match the subject.

That wraps it up for this first error type. Make sure you check up on this blog over the next few days as I go over each of the different question types on the Writing Sections.

SAT PARALLELISM THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MATH


By | April 29, 2008 Continuing along with the Error Identification Question on the SAT Writing Sections, we come today to Faulty Parallelism Errors. Certain sets of words in a sentence, or the general design of a sentence, often require parallel construction in order to nicely balance the sentence. This is what Parallelism Errors on the SAT test for balanced sentence structure. Parallelism Errors show up very frequently on the SAT in two general forms: 1. Unbalanced lists simply put, each word or phrase of a sentence that comes in listed fashion should be in the same grammatical form, whether they all be nouns, noun phrases, verbs, or verb phrases. The classic example of this error looks something like this: As a multi-talented performer, Madison enjoys singing, dancing, and to play the piano. Youll notice in this over-simplified example that the first two listed verbs singing and dancingare in the gerund form (a gerund is simply the noun form of a verb ending with ing), but that the final phrase to play the piano uses the infinitive form of the verb. To fix this, you could simply change the infinitive to play to match the two gerunds as written below: As a multi-talented performer, Madison enjoys singing, dancing, and playing the piano. Now that you understand the concept, lets look at an example that m ay more likely show up on an actual SAT test:

Teachers and students (A) agree that developing good writing habits (B) is (C) not only important but also (D) of necessity to achieve academic success. (E) No Error
The correct answer here would be (D) of necessity which does not correct balance the adjective important. Instead, the phrase of necessity should simply be replaced with the adjective necessary. Try re-reading the sentence with this replacement. 2. Word-Pair Parallelism Errors Word Pair Parallelism refers to certain correlative words that should always be used in conjunction with other specific words. For example, the wordeither should be used in

conjunction with or, and neither with nor. The following is a list of the word pairs youll f ind tested on the SAT:

eitheror neithernor bothand not onlybut also not onlybut asas


Lets look at an example:

Neither his wifes pleas (A) or the (B) doctors advice scientific evidence (C) wasenough to (D) convince him to quit smoking. (E) No Error
The correct answer is (A) or because neither cannot be used in conjunction with or, as listed above. Simply enough. Lets move to another example:

(A) Few people (B) were aware that the famous opera singer was also as (C) accomplished a composer (D) than any.
The correct answer here is (D) than. The phrase should be more properly written as: asaccomplished a composer as any. As simple a grammatical concept as this is, these Word-Pair parallelism errors show up quite frequently on the SAT, especially the eitheror and neitherno pairs.

ILLOGICAL COMPARISONS: WHY YOU CANT COMPARE APPLES TO ORANGES


By | May 13, 2008

Wow, I really suck at maintaining a blog. I thank those of you whove been reading regularly and letting me know that my advice is helping you prepare for your tests. Youve motivated me to get back to blogging my SAT strategies more regularly.

On that note, today we continue with the fourth question type of the SAT Writing Error Identification questions: Illogical Comparisons. This is a commonly missed error type that many students dont even realize is tested on the SAT. However, once you learn this error type, its relatively easy to recognize and ensure you answer related problems correctly every time. So on to the learning Illogical comparisons errors are based on the old adage that states, you cant compare apples to oranges. Theres simply faulty logic in this comparison; theyre too different to make a meaningful comparison of them. Aside from the fact that theyre both edible and that we as humans label them both as fruits, they have little else in common. An alternative, then, would be to compare apples to apples, or oranges to oranges. There are infinitely more meaningful comparisons to be made by comparing two apples or two oranges. But enough with the fruity metaphors. Lets jump to an example:

Skateboarding in New York, (A) unlike California, (B) is usually (C) hampered by busy streets and (D) crowded sidewalks. (E) No Error.
Although its easy to understand what the writer of this sentence is trying to say (because we s peak like this all the time in our daily conversations) theres actually a fundamental error in this sentence. Although the point is clearly to compare skateboarding conditions in New York to those in California, whats really being compared in this sentence is skateboarding (a sport or activity) in New York to California (merely a state). This is what we call an illogical comparison: Skateboarding vs. California You cant compare a sport to a state. It just doesnt make sense. A more proper comparison would be the following: Skateboarding in New York vs. Skateboarding in California or New York vs. California Therefore, the correct answer here is (A). The sentence would be more properly rewritten as the following:

Skateboarding in New York, unlike skateboarding in California, is usually hampered by busy streets and crowded sidewalks. So how do you make sure you dont miss any of these error types? Well, any time you come across a problem that makes a comparison, make sure you check that its logically correct. Its as simple as that. Dont assume you know what the author means to say because its easy to read into her intent. Make sure that she is being precise with her words as to make the comparison logically. If the content of a SAT Writing Section question involves a comparison, 90% of the time there will be an Illogical Comparison error.

Brief History of Jamaica


Compiled from various history books by Donna Essix

I. Pre-Colombian Jamaica Prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494, Jamaica was inhabited by Arawaks,

living in simple communities based on fishing, hunting, and small scale cultivation of cassava. The impact of the contact with the Spanish was traumatic, and these communities disappeared in 70-80 years. Plunder, disruption of economic activities, new diseases, and migration decimated the indigenous population. Only a few artifacts-facts, examples of which are on display at the small museum at White Marl, and a few Spanish corruptions of place names (such as Ocho Rios) remain from this period. Otherwise, there is no Arawak influence on the subsequent development of life on the island. II. The Spanish Occupation, 1494-1655 Disappointed by the absence of gold on the island, the Spanish used Jamaica as a base for supporting the conquest of the Americas, particularly Mexico with its treasures of gold and silver. The population of the Spanish settlement, including their slaves, was never large. It was administered from the Town of Santiago de la Vega, now called Spanish Town, and much of the architecture of the original buildings is still evident today in the town square. Economic activity consisted primarily of production for domestic consumption, and to a lesser extent the supply of Spanish ships. In 1655, it was captured by the British expedition led by Admirals Penn and Venables, following their unsuccessful invasion of Hispaniola. By this time, the island was of little significance to the Spanish crown, and accordingly, very little was done to defend it against the British. As with the previous period, the influence of the Spanish settlement on the subsequent social, economic and political life of the island was marginal. Apart from remnants of buildings with the distinct Spanish colonial architectural styles, and names of places, there is very little visible evidence of the Spanish occupation. III. The Slave Economy, 1655-1838 After a brief period of experimenting with indentured European labor, the British turned to large scale importation of Africans to be used as slaves on the sugar plantations. In its hey-day, Jamaica was one of "the jewels in the English crown" because of the fabulous prosperity it brought to the English plantation owners directly, and indirectly to those cities, such as Liverpool and Bristol, which serviced the trade with Jamaica and the rest of the British Caribbean (West Indies). Plantation slavery was based on the Triangular trade among England (manufactured goods), Africa (slaves), and the Caribbean (sugar), which itself was the basis for what later emerged as the international economy. International trade was so important to the Jamaican economy that when the American war of independence disrupted trade between what was then the "North American colonies" and the Caribbean, 15,000 thousands of slaves died of starvation in Jamaica alone.

The plantation dominated economic life in every sense. It occupied the best lands, the laws supported the slave system, and in general all commercial and other economic activity depended on the rhythm of activity of the plantation. Some slaves inevitably ran away from the estates to live in small bands in the mountains as Maroons. In recognition of her leadership in the Maroon wars against the British, Nannywas eventually named a national hero. Except for the Maroons, all agricultural activity took place on the plantations. The towns served as the commercial sites for the export of sugar and the importation of the inputs for production. The political system consisted of a governor and his executive council, and an assembly of representatives elected on a limited franchise determined by property ownership. The politics of this period was characterized by an uneasy alliance between the governor as the representative of the crown, and the Assembly of planters, against the slaves. Frequently, the alliance broke down, invariably over taxation of the plantations. By the close of the 18th century, sugar was losing its economic preeminence because of competition from beet sugar as well as rising production costs. In 1838, the slaves were Emancipated and the plantations had to begin paying wages to its workers. One of Jamaica's national heroes, Rev.Sam Sharpe, after whom Montego Bay's city square is named, is celebrated for his leadership role in the famous Christmas rebellion of slaves in 1831, a few years before Emancipation. IV. The Development of the Peasantry. 1838-1938 After Emancipation, many of the ex-slaves settled down as small farmers in the mountains, cultivating steep hill slopes far away from the plantations. Still others settled on marginal lands in the plains nearby the plantations on land leased or bought in various land settlement schemes organized and sponsored by Christian groups such as the Baptists. Struggles over land were central themes in the history of this period, culminating in the Morant Bay rebellion, for which two of Jamaica's national heroes, George William Gordon and Paul Bogle paid with their lives. In this period, sugar continued its secular decline, but peasant exports of logwood, coffee, and eventually bananas grew steadily. In this way, the economy began to be diversified away from its traditional dependence on sugar alone. V. The National Movement and Decolonization, 1938-1962 The roots of the national movement for independence reach back into the struggles for land in the 19th century. More immediately, it was inspired by

the political ideas and agitation of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of Jamaica's national heroes, and precipitated by the reaction of the sugar and dock workers to the economic crisis spawned by the Great Depression. It emerged as a political force in the context of the rebellion in 1938. Its most enduring political institutions, are the two major political parties, and the labor unions affiliated to them. Both the founder of the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) and the Bustamante Industrial Trades Union (BITU), Alexander Bustamante, and the founder of the People's National Party (PNP) and the National Workers Union (NWU), Norman Manley, have been declared national heroes for their individual and combined efforts in securing political independence from England. The constitutional change that facilitated the emergence of these parties was the granting of adult suffrage and a measure of self-government in 1944. The period 1944- 1962 not only saw major political changes, but also major transformations of the structure of the economy. From a monocrop export economy, the economy became diversified around the export of sugar, bananas and other agricultural commodities, the export of bauxite and alumina, and the tourist industry. These in turn, stimulated a vibrant construction industry, and an import substituting manufacturing sector. The USA displaced the UK as Jamaica's principal trading partner. There was also a tremendous migration of labor to the UK and the USA which needed labor for the post-war reconstruction and expansion of their economies. VI. The First Decade of Political Independence, 1962-1972 Political Independence was granted in 1962, following Jamaica's rejection, by referendum, of membership in the Federation of the West Indies. Jamaica was given a Westminister style constitution, with a Governor-general as the representative of the British Crown, and a bicameral Parliament. There is a House of Representatives consisting of elected representatives and a Senate appointed by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The government is headed by a Prime Minister, who is required to consult with the Governor General and the Leader of the Opposition on certain matters. The first two governments were formed by the JLP, which had opposed membership in the Federation. The post-war boom in the economy continued through the 60's, though it gradually slowed down, with the completion of the investment cycle of the bauxite/alumina industry. By the end of the decade, there were well established mining, tourism, manufacturing, and construction sectors, alongside the traditional agricultural and distribution sectors. VII. The Second Decade of Political Independence Between 1972 and 1980, the PNP, the other major political party, held political office and initiated a shift in major economic policies. Most notable was the imposition of the Bauxite Levy in 1974, in order to increase Jamaica's share of

the income in that industry. The government positioned the state in the leadership role within the process of economic development, with a view to attenuating and rectifying the inherited economic inequalities. Related to this was an ideology of social reform to protect the weakest sections of the population, and to promote the welfare of the poor through subsidized food, housing, education, health, and other important social services. In international affairs, Jamaica opened up relations with many noncapitalist countries, and promoted the solidarity of the Third World in international negotiations with the advanced countries. The international economy was quite unfavorable for a number of reasons. The main ones were the weakness of the aluminum market, and hence, the bauxite industry, the inflation of oil and food prices, and the decline and reversal of capital inflows for private investment. All of this contributed to the decline in the economy, with the attendant problems of unemployment, inflation, and growing external indebtedness. By the end of the decade, the government sought assistance from the IMF and the World Bank, and since then these two institutions, along with the USAID, have determined the policy framework of the government. VIII. The Third Decade of Political Independence From 1980 to 1989, the JLP held political office. They were committed to the same free market development policies as the IMF, the World Bank, and the USAID. Because of a special political relationship with the Reagan administration, Jamaica benefited from generous USA assistance in the first half of the decade. The economy was substantially deregulated, the currency was devalued, and many public enterprises were divested in the process of adjustment, which has now been on-going for some 14 years. The eighties saw the development of Free Zone manufacturing especially of garments for export to the USA, the gradual recovery of bauxite/alumina production, and the rapid growth of tourism from North America. In the process, the traditional international economic relations, particularly with the USA, were strengthened at the expense of regional relations, such as Caricom trade. The eighties also saw large volumes of emigrants, primarily to the USA, swelling the ranks of established overseas Jamaican communities, and creating new ones. Jamaicans are contributing in every sphere of human activity, and distinguishing themselves in cultural activities, such as music, and sports. In addition, Jamaicans have been accumulating significant quantities of wealth in assets in the USA and other countries.

The Founding Of The People's National Party


1938 - THE TURNING POINT
THE YEAR 1938 was a turning point in the history of modern Jamaica. Workers across the island began to demand better wages and working conditions and the colonial government had no choice but to listen. Strikes by the sugarworkers of Frome estate in Westmoreland, by the dockworkers of the Standard Fruit Company in Kingston, by farmworkers in Islington, St. Mary led to mass rallies and public meetings, the likes of which had never been seen on the island, not even the decade before during the height of Garveyism.

In that year, workers around the island had recognized as their leader a tall, striking middle-aged man, with a shock of somewhat unruly hair that seemed merely a reflection of his unbridled energy. The leader of these meetings and of the negotiations on behalf of the workers was Alexander Bustamante. His charisma, bravado and sincere belief in the cause of the workers exemplified by his numerous letters to the newspaper and his willingness to be arrested and even shot for the cause, led him to acquire legendary status in his own time. In June 1938, not even a month after his release from being Norman Manley imprisoned for inciting unlawful assembling and obstructing a police inspector, Bustamante began converting the massive public support amongst workers all over the island into Jamaica's first recognized large scale trade union which would carry his name, the Bustamante Industrial and Trademen's Union, BITU. The Movement Towards Political Organization Meanwhile, his cousin, the renowned Oxford-educated Norman Manley from Roxborough, Manchester, who had mounted platforms to speak to workers upset about Bustamante's incarceration and attempted to keep the peace while he negotiated Bustamante's May release from jail, began to speak of the need for a political movement alongside the growing trade union one. This Manley believed was essential in order for Jamaica to achieve self-determination for Jamaicans. At a press conference in May, the tall, distinguished barrister announced that a number of committees were to be formed to propose solutions to debate ideas for Jamaica's development. It was these committees, he said, which would serve as the root of a genuine labour party. In this move towards national political organization Manley picked up on sentiments expressed as early as a decade before by skilled Jamaican orator Marcus Garvey who had attempted in his stirring public speeches and his US-based organization of the United Negro Improvement Association to better the condition of negroes everywhere. The events of 1938 were so monumentous that it was felt that a national political party had a better chance of survival as a result of the increased national awareness. Manley did not act alone. Bustamante supported his efforts, but at that time was himself consumed with the organization of the BITU. O.T. Fairclough, a Jamaican who had managed a bank in Haiti and returned to his homeland to find the only job he could get was as an accountant at the Water Commission, became heavily involved impressing upon Norman the need for him to lead a political party. There was also the "Public Opinion," a weekly paper launched in 1937 by men such as Jamaica College history teacher Hedley Powell Jacobs to put forward views on the question of self-government. Jacobs was also a member of the National Reform Association (a group that began agitating for self-government in March 1938 and is considered ideologically to be a forerunner of the PNP) along with others such as Ken Hill and Noel "Crab" Nethersole. Florizel Glasspole (who eventually became Governor General 1973-1991) and future MP Wills O. Isaacs were also heavily involved. Of course there was also Norman's wife, renowned artist Edna Manley, whose art reflected ideals of self-determination. She supported him in his actions but maintained that no matter how many urged her husband to take up political leadership the

final decision would eventually be his and his alone.

The launching of the PNP


BY AUGUST 1938 Fairclough had made a name for himself travelling all over the island to recruit members such as businessmen, lawyers and members from established organizations such as the Jamaica Union of Teachers (JUT) and the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS). A set of some 50 delegates were eventually selected and they appointed a steering committee of seven that included Norman Manley as chairman, accountant O. T. Fairclough as secretary, teacher H.P. Jacobs, lawyer N.N. Nethersole, Rev. O. G. Penso, architectural draftsman W. G. MacFarlane and Howard F. Cooke, a JUT representative H.P. Jacobs (and the present Governor-General of Jamaica, the only member of that committee still alive). He remembers the excitement of the time and the almost missionary urge of wanting to effect change. The steering committee's task was to draft a founding constitution and prepare the party's formal launch slated for September 18, 1938 at the landmark Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston.

On the evening of September 18 the Ward Theatre was packed to capacity with the overflow spilling out onto North Parade. People of different political beliefs from different walks of life were present to listen to Norman Manley and British Labour Party MP, Sir Stafford Cripps, the guest speaker. Manley spoke of a new era in Jamaica's history, stressing the "tremendous difference between living in a place and belonging to it and feeling that your own life and your destiny is irrevocably bound up in the life and destiny of that place. Radical change was under way." In addition, he spoke of the need for collaboration between politics and trade unionism.

Ken Hiill and Sir Stafford Cripps

He explained, "I have never been a labour leader and I have no ambition to be a labour leader. All I have offered is the counsel of a friend of the new labour movement..." and emphasized the fact that the movement towards the creation of the political party was a team effort. "I want to tell you that I am not the author of this party. I have discovered that a considerable number of persons in the country have been thinking about it, have been dreaming about it, but it wan ted some convulsion to make it plain that such a thing was necessary...." Sir Stafford Cripps expanded on Manley's words and called the formation of the political party a progressive and bold move perhaps one of the most significant events of Jamaica's history.

The PNP set up its headquarters at Edelweiss Park, the former headquarters of Marcus Garvey's UNIA. A move was eventually made to South Camp Road and today the headquarters can be found on Old Hope Rd. in Kingston. The presidents of the PNP have been Norman Manley, Michael Manley and P.J. Patterson.
Florizel Glasspole

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