Ian Frazier compares marginal activities to blue-sky research in his short essay “In Praise of Margins”. Blue-sky research is described as research with no direct motive, it is simply done out of curiosity. Marginal activities are similar to blue-sky research due to the fact that they are done out of fun and as a way to see what is out there in the world. Frazier explained that the world marginal has a negative connotation to it. When something or someone is described as marginal, most commonly it is to imply that they do not contribute much to society and have little to no importance. But can activities that allow us to take a break from our hectic lifestyles really be seen as unimportant? I believe that marginal place and activities are
David Kennedy’s Over Here: The First World War and American Society demonstrates Americans connection to global society. President Wilson “called the newly elected 65th Congress into special session on April 2 to receive his war message.” Wilson’s message would impact America socially, economically, and politically; that would continue to influence America throughout the twentieth century. Wilson presented to Congress four proposals on how America was to wage war: a bold tax program, a compulsory draft of young men into the nation’s service, “for the enforced loyalty of all Americans in a cause to which many were indifferent or openly hostile, and, by implication, at least,” and the expansion of presidential powers.
People use the word okay nearly every day. It is a word that everyone knows and uses due to its vast meanings. To be okay, is what Gary D. Schmidt’s novel Okay for Now really tries to get readers to understand. He poses the question: just what does “okay for now” mean? These answers are found through examining the characters in the store. While, okay can mean many different things, being okay means that the person is in a state where while things are not perfect, but they are tolerable and satisfactory and can improve.
Many individuals would define leisure as time free from paid work, domestic responsibilities, and just about anything that one would not do as part of their daily routine. Time for leisure and time for work are both two separate spheres. The activities which people choose to do on their spare time benefit their own personal interests as well as their satisfactions. While some people may enjoy one activity, others pay not. Leisure is all about personal interests and what people constitute having a good time is all about. Some may say that the process of working class leisure can be seen to contribute their own subordination as well as the reproduction of capitalist class relations. Self-produced patterns of working class leisure can lead to resistance to such reproduction. This leads to social class relations and inequalities, and the fact that it they can never be completely reproduced in the leisure sphere. This film Home Feeling: Struggle for a Community, gives some examples of the role of leisure within a capitalist society dealing with issues such as class inequalities, and how they are different among various societies.
In the article “Reading and Thought” the author Dwight MacDonald provides criticism and disagreement with Henry Luce’s idea of “functional curiosity”. Luce developed the term “functional curiosity” defining it as an eagerness of people to know the latest news happening around the world. On the other hand, MacDonald concludes that functional curiosity only strengthens reader’s practice in reading rather than in providing invaluable information. He underlines that literature nowadays is deficient and insubstantial since there is no deep meaning in the texts. Modern printed literature is simply being skimmed through by the reader as the reader nowadays tends to avoid too much information resisting thinking in such a way. Because of the new nature of the printed materials, MacDonald considers today’s reading behavior and the way people think as flimsy and indifferent. I agree that our thought has definitively changed since we are paying less time to serious critical thinking losing connections with society and awareness of it.
are involved in. If we take place in marginal activities or find our own marginal place, then we
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
The character of the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is introduced as a respected physician and a caring husband who strives to improve the mental health of his wife, the narrator, who is diagnosed with temporary nervous condition. John tries throughout the story to apply professional treatment methods and medications in his approach to helping his wife gain strength. However, his patient, his wife, seems to disregard John’s professional opinions and act as if she is following his advices only during his awakening presence with her. The narrator seems to be in need of John’s positive opinion about the status of her mental condition in order to avoid the criticism even though she disagrees with his treatment methodology. John, without doubt, cares for his wife and her wellbeing, but he does not realize how his treatment method negatively impacts their relationship his wife’s progress towards gaining strength. Although John was portrayed as a caring and a loving physician and husband to the narrator through out most of the story, he was also suggested as being intrusive and directive to a provoking level in the mind of the narrator.
Ray Oldenburg’s essay, “The Problem of Place in America,” is a well written essay about Americans and how we need to build a tripod, which would assist in balancing family, work, friends, and neighbors. In his essay he explains we spend much of our time at work and what is not spent at work, Americans spend at home with their families. You may be thinking, what else is there time for in our daily schedules? According to Oldenburg, we need to spend more time with our friends and neighbors. He believes Americans become bored and spend their money on materialistic things rather than meeting some friends at the local taverns/parks to simply relax and help relieve the daily stress. He also goes on to say, “that Americans would not be so stressed if they would complete this tripod and keep a healthy balance between friends, family, and the work force.” According to his essay, more time should be spent with neighbors and friends, whether it is at a local pub or coffee shop. Does Oldenburg have some good points? Yes, however this essay does not address some important factual information. In reality, Americans have extremely busy schedules. Therefore the main question is; is it possible to spread our time between family, friends, and work equally? According to Ray Oldenburg it is, but if you were to take a close look at the essay you may question his reasoning and his solutions for completing the “tripod.”
Mark Halliday was born in 1949 in Michigan. He is an honorable American poet, professor and critic. He is the author of six poetry collections, Poems included in the collection “Keep This Forever” published in 2008 will be analyzed in this essay. He has received various honors some of which are the Junior Prize in 1992, serving as the 1994 poet in residence at The Frost Place, inclusion in several annual editions of The Best American Poetry series and of the Pushcart Prize anthology, winning the 2001 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, receiving a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship. Halliday has a very interesting way of writing. His poetry is characterized by observation of every day events, his stanzas are really long, and in addition to his unique sense of humor he prefers to portray himself as a flawed individual and as an everyday man rather than an extraordinary person.
“So I take phosphates or phosphites whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good”(Stetson 648). “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson who based her story on her own personal battle with postpartum depression. After reading this short story one would believe that the narrator turns into an insane woman whose mind plays tricks on her and causes her to see people who are not really there. These mind tricks are due to the rest cure prescribed to the narrator by John. The narrator knows what is best
The series is set in Scotland and like the rest of Peter Turnbull's work, is a police procedural.
In literature, women are often depicted as weak, compliant, and inferior to men. The nineteenth century was a time period where women were repressed and controlled by their husband and other male figures. Charlotte Gilman, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper," showing her disagreement with the limitations that society placed on women during the nineteenth century. According to Edsitement, the story is based on an event in Gilman’s life. Gilman suffered from depression, and she went to see a physician name, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed the rest cure, which then drove her into insanity. She then rebelled against his advice, and moved to California to continue writing. She then wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is inflated version of her experience. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character is going through depression and she is being oppressed by her husband and she represents the oppression that many women in society face. Gilman illustrates this effect through the use of symbols such as the yellow wallpaper, the nursery room, and the barred windows.
While analyzing your summary of “How to Mark a Book”, by Mortimer Adler, I felt like your summary somewhat contradicted the central idea that Adler expressed within the book. In “How to Mark a Book”, Adler’s central idea encouraged readers to write “between the lines” to produce the most efficient kind of reading. However, Anna-Maria you suggested that Adler’s central idea within the book was to encourage readers to annotate the text so that readers could summarize what they read. Anna-Maria I would have to say that I disagree with this statement.
William James’s, “Lecture XX, Conclusions” wants us to understand that the nature of the universe is perfect because it’s what creates everything. He addresses that the universe is what creates everything like the sun, which lets people see and gives light to everything in that the universe contains. In James’s “Lecture XX, Conclusions,” he mentions that the universe created the sun, which “contributes to the primary purpose of creation: without it the race of man could not be preserved or continued.” From this I understood that the universe is perfect because it creates everything that we need to survive. Without the creations of the universe, human beings could not be able to exist. The universe is perfect since it is able to give humans,
Leisure activities are defined as an essential part of a healthy and fulfilled life. Offering a means through which thoughts, feelings, and behaviours can be expressed, leisure serves as an opportunity to achieve health, happiness, self-act...