Richard Rashke's Escape From Sobibor In the "New Afterword" to the 1995 reprint of Escape From Sobibor, Richard Rashke makes explicit what was already implicit in the original 1982 edition. He forthrightly challenges historians of the Holocaust to reexamine a "flawed premise" of much of their writing. Unconsciously accepting the flawed premise that "if the Nazis...did not give it much significance, it wasn't significant," Rashke argues, historians have distorted the nature of the Jewish response
operation that would most certainly fail. The pivotal players were Leon Feldhendler (leader of The Organization), Alexander Pechersky (Russian POW and mastermind of escape, and who I like to call “The Indispensables” or the kids like Shlomo Szmajzner and Thomas Platt who were given privileged or special access within the camp for their special technical skills. Each prisoner had a transformative moment throughout their time at Sobibor that would push them to their ultimate decision to escape. Usually such
“That’s so…. Exciting Kait, good for you,” Jennifer says in an unimpressed and uninterested tone. We’d been best friends since before high school, but now that we’ve gone our separate ways in the wake of college, I’ve seen how unsupportive she really is. I had just finished telling her about the tickets I’d bought to Melanie Nguyen’s show, which is much later tonight. Fancy recitals had never been Jennifer’s “thing”—as she often so eloquently put it—and so I nearly always had to go alone, no matter
Friend or Foe In the book, A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt there are a few people that can’t be trusted by Sir Thomas More, the main character in the book. Richard Rich is definitely one of those men who can’t be trusted and along with Thomas Cromwell the two destroy More’s life slowly but surely and to the point of death. In the end of the book More is executed for high treason and his family goes from being very well off to having to start over. So this book shows that through deceitfulness
Shusaku Endo's Silence The novel Silence has provoked much discussion on Loyola's campus this semester. As a predominantly Christian community, we find that the themes and dilemmas central to its plot land much closer to home for us than they would for many other schools: to non-Christians, the question of whether to deny (the Christian) God--for any reason--may not necessarily be such a personal one. Jesus' commandments to love God above all and one's neighbor as oneself do not find a parallel
politicians at its mercy. An alleged late twentieth-century incident of high-tech lynching involved the case of politician, Clarence Thomas. Thomas, appointed to the Supreme Court by President George Bush in 1991, was at the center of media frenzy when law professor, Anita Hill, accused Thomas of sexual harassment. It was Thomas’s word against Hill and though Thomas was confirmed as an associate Supreme Court justice, the lasting implications of the scandal follow both him and Hill to this day
Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan Above anything else, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan is a creation story and an investigation of human nature. The story begins in a time of chaos and death and through a journey of human development culminates in the establishment of a sustainable and rational society—the commonwealth—led by a sovereign. At a first casual glance, Hobbes’ reasoning of the transformation from the state of nature to the commonwealth is not airtight. A few possible objections can be quickly spotted:
competitive by nature and would never be happy in a society where everyone is equal and there is no chance of advancement. Sir Thomas More dreamt of a land that was much like England but could never surpass time. He opened the eyes of a nation and made its people desire something new. Views were significantly changed and the world would never be the same. Sir Thomas More inspired dramatic changes in religion, community life and even paved the way for communism. And he did all of this through
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas Many people get to the end of their lives and only then do they realize what they have missed. They realize that there is something that they just did not do in life and they try to do that thing before life's end. The poem, 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' by Dylan Thomas, is based around five people. There is a wise man, a good man, a wild man, a grave man, and a father. For some reason, others more obvious than the ones before
How the Victorian Age Shifted the Focus of Hamlet 19th century critic William Hazlitt praised Hamlet by saying that, "The whole play is an exact transcript of what might be supposed to have taken pace at the court of Denmark, at the remote period of the time fixed upon." (Hazlitt 164-169) Though it is clearly a testament to the realism of Shakespeare's tragedy, there is something strange and confusing in Hazlitt's analysis. To put it plainly, Hamlet is most definitely not a realistic play. Not
partisanship of 1800, it was expected by supporters and foes alike that the presidential administration of Thomas Jefferson would pioneer substantial and even radical changes. The federal government was now in the hands of a relentless man and a persistent party that planned to diminish its size and influence. But although he overturned the principal Federalist domestic and foreign policies, Thomas Jefferson generally pursued the course as a chief executive, quoting his inaugural address “We are all
speak of its law. Where this structure is absent we cannot legitimately apply those expressions, because the relation of the sovereign to the subjects constitutes, according to this theory, part of the very meaning of those expressions [2]. Thomas Hobbes' theory of government Hobbes expressed a clear personal confidence in his position as the 'author or originator of an authentic political science'. It was in De Cive, published in 1647, that he made a preliminary and tentative claim to have
Incompatibility of Subjective and Objective Knowledge In his book The View From Nowhere (1986), Thomas Nagel discusses the various problems that arise when we consider the contrast between the objective world we inhabit, and are part of, and the inherently subjective way we view that world. Nagel writes that understanding the relationship between these external and internal standpoints is central to solving these problems: 'It is the most fundamental issue about morality, knowledge, freedom
The Social Contract Tradition: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau ABSTRACT: The classical contract tradition of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau have enjoyed such fame and acceptance as being basic to the development of liberal democratic theory and practice that it would be heretical for any scholar, especially one from the fringes, to critique. But the contract tradition poses challenges that must be given the flux in the contemporary socio-political universe that at once impels extreme nationalism and unavoidable
or even Biosphere 2. What we have come to know as "Utopia," or, "Any idealized place, state, or situation of perfection; any visionary scheme or system for an ideally perfect society" (Neufeldt 1470), is just a name that was coined for us by Sir Thomas More for an eternal idea. There were centuries of utopian ideas before More came up with his idea for Utopia, but he has become the father of the word's meaning. Some of the previous ideal ideas were sources of information for More's book, just as
Bigger as a Reflection of Society in Native Son In Native Son, Wright employs Naturalistic ideology and imagery, creating the character of Bigger Thomas, who seems to be composed of a mass of disruptive emotions rather than a rational mind joined by a soul. This concept introduces the possibility that racism is not the only message of the novel, that perhaps every person would feel as isolated and alone as Bigger does were he trapped in such a vicious cycle of violence and oppression. Bigger
Naturalism and Determinism in Native Son "Today Bigger Thomas and that mob are strangers, yet they hate. They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces." This passage epitomizes for Richard Wright, the most radical effects of criminal racial situation in America. However, perhaps the most important role of this passage is
Tragic Heroism in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Othello In tragedy the reader often sympathizes and empathizes with the protagonist who attains "wisdom through suffering." Tess Durbeyfield, in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Othello, in William Shakespeare's Othello are protagonists who elicit the sympathy of the reader as they suffer, act, and triumph over their antagonists, who are embodied by the characters of Alec D'Urberville, Tess' wealthy defiler, and Iago, Othello's amoral
Mrs. Norris is provided by the author. Mrs Norris is only related to Mansfield Park through her sister, Lady Bertram. While she may not have managed to make the affluent marriage that her sister did, there is no doubting her love of money. Sir Thomas Bertram provides an income for Mrs Norris' husband, a member of the clergy. This enables them to live in comfort and in close proximity to the house at Mansfield Park. Mrs Norris is possibly the shallowest character in the community of Mansfield
a moment in time otherwise lost in the blink of an eye. British poet Dylan Thomas and American poet E.E. Cummings have both been noted for the recurring themes of passage of time in their poetry. In Thomas’ "Fern Hill" and Cummings’ "anyone lived in a pretty how town," both modern poets utilize a juxtaposition of paradoxes to express the irrevocable passage of time and the loss of innocence attributed to it. While Thomas projects his mature feelings into a nostalgic site of his childhood, Cummings