To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay â€Å"It takes one step at a time. Small changes eventually add up to huge results.† Life lessons are important in the way life is understood. Without life lessons to teach the importance of life there would be much suffering and unhappiness. To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. It was written in the early 1960’s about a young girl named Scout and her family about the racism that was provoked in the town. Harper Lee, in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, illustrates three main lessons with the Tom Robinson trial: Stand up for what you believe in, racism is painful and avoid mob mentalities. One of the most important lessons in To Kill a Mockingbird is to stand up for your beliefs. The character Atticus is a promonate example Harper Lee used to express the importance of standing up for your beliefs. â€Å"Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her moth and screamed.† (Lee 323). Atticus throughout the novel displays the courageous and daring act of standing up for his beliefs. Atticus presented a strong defence for the coloured man, even though he knew that there was nothing he could really do. Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson in his case. Atticus took the case seriously and took it upon himself to take all evidence into close examination. â€Å"This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience-Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship god if I didn’t try to help that man.† ( ). Atticus strongly defends Tom Robinson for his own personal beliefs and took this case ‘white vs. Black’ seriously and he has taken all odds against society to justify this man. Standing up for what you believe in is a strong way to under mind authorities and prove a strongly arguable point. Atticus did not end up winning the case, but he still stood up for what he believed was right and held on to those beliefs until the end. Roberts 2 Racism causes pain to so many coloured people in the 1930’s, still to this day racism affects the lives of many. The Tom Robinson case is a prime example of how racism can negatively affect the lives of many. Maycomb the town in To Kill a Mockingbird is very racial. The town folk locked Tom Robinson up for a crime he simply did not do. The men in Maycomb did not care if this man did it or not, they just wanted him to be imprisoned because of the colour of his skin. â€Å"To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical. Typical of a niger to cut and run. Typical if a niggers mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw. Atticus Finch might’ve got him off scot free, but wait-Hell no. You know how they are. Easy come, easy go. Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneers mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in ‘em.’’ ( ). Tom died because he was convicted of a crime committed by a white man. Tom was sent to jail, and first chance at free dome so he ran, ending himself with 17 bullet shots in him. Anger when associated with racism can drive a man insane. Bob Ewell let both of them get to him. â€Å"Mr. Finch-wasn’t crazy, mean as hell. Low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children. He’d never have met you face to face.† ( ). All just because Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson in his case, Bob Ewell got angry. Bob Ewell was furious with modem to kill because in the trail, Atticus’ defence for Tom Robison was rather embarrassing for Bob Ewell. Atticus made an embarrassment of Bob Ewell by presenting the jury and the courtroom to the evidence that clearly indicates that Bob Ewell was the one who abused Mayella. Bob Ewell being mad he had enough modem to go after Atticus’ children just because he did his job and defended a black man. Racism is still painful to many today. Harper Lee expresses the real pain behind racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. The white men of Maycomb posses mob mentalities which Harper Lee presents as despicable. All of Maycomb County think that black people are so different, but in reality no one is here to tell everyone who can be better or not. â€Å"A quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has to put his word against two white people’s. Need not remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand-you saw them for yourselves. The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the Sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption-that all Negros lie, that all Negros are basically immortal beings, that all negro man are not to be trusted around women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.† (273). Maycomb judges coloured people on the colour of their skin and not what really matters. Tom Robinson was brutally exposed to racism and never got the chance to live it down. Atticus is very well to avoid mob mentalities. Atticus makes a point of making what he wants to be heard, heard. Atticus is very courageous in Roberts 4 the way that he will stand up for and defend his beliefs and not follow in the same corrupt path that others are on. â€Å"I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant, To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white.† (271) Atticus actually took the time to consider all the evidence in the Tom Robinson case. Atticus presented his evidence before the jury and he strongly believed that it was not Tom Robinson. Atticus did not follow in the ways of others with no just assuming that because he is black he did it. Atticus took into all the consideration the evidence he had pulled together to treat Tom as an equal and give him a fair defence against a white man. Mob mentalities are everywhere. People believe in anything they hear and go along with it, but it takes one person to stand up and represent those who cannot. Standing up for what you believe in, racism is painful and avoiding mob mentalities are really important life lessons that Harper Lee expresses throughout the novel, epically in the Tom Robinson trial. Harper Lee incorporated life lessons into her novel to teach the reader the importance in knowing right from wrong and to teach you things you may not learn in schooling. History is full of examples of people that kept making the same mistakes because they fail to learn the first time. Life lessons are everywhere, you learn something new every day that builds your character and defines who you are as a person.

Cultures :: essays papers

Cultures Culture is something that is very stable but it is still something that is subject to change. There are different causes to change including accidents or the unexpected outcome of events that are already in existence. Sometimes it is also the attempt to solve a perceived problem. Change can also be forced upon a group through intense contact between two societies. Adaption and progress are both consequences and not causes of change. The ultimate source of all change is innovation. This is any new practice, tool, or principle that gains widespread acceptance within a group. A primary innovation is a change that involve the chance discovery of a new principle. A secondary innovation results from the deliberate application of known principles. A great example of primary innovation is the firing of clay which makes it permanently hard. Modeling the clay to be fired by known techniques into familiar objects. Primary stimulate other inventions and may prompt rapid cultural change. Diffusion is known as the borrowing of cultural elements from one society by members of another. Borrowing is so common that the North American anthropologist Ralph Linton suggested that as much as 90% of a culture is accounted for by borrowing. The Pilgrims that settled in New Plymouth might have starved to death if it wasn’t for the Indian Squanto which showed them how to grow crops. There is a creativeness behind the borrowing, picking and choosing from multiple possibilities. Most of these choices are made to be compatible with the already existing culture. Cultural loss has to do with the abandonment of some trait or practice with or without replacement. People think of change as an accumulation of innovations: adding new things to those that are already there. When reflected upon you come up with the conclusion that the existence of a new innovation leads to the loss of an older one. This in not only a feature of Western Civilization. In biblical times chariots and carts were in Widespread use but were replaced by camels because they worked better by the 6th century. Acculturation is the occurrence of two groups of different cultures coming into intensive firsthand contact with each other. An element of force is usually involved directly or indirectly. There are other variables which include the degree of cultural difference; circumstances, intensity, frequency, and hostility of contact; who is dominant and who is submissive: and whether the nature of the flow is reciprocal or nonreciprocal.

Describe Commodus Essay

Commodus changes for the worse. He is innately devious and this is not resolved throughout Gladiator. He identifies his main adversary as Maximus, his father’s favourite, but in reality it is his own lack of moral fibre that is his greatest enemy. Maximus’s fallicious death triggers a surge towards a more confident, vehement Commodus, but when Maximus resurfaces there is a resumption of his initial personality. As any emergence any improvement retracts. Maximus’s strengths are Commodus’s weakenesses. Commodus realises this and holds Maximus in contempt. Maximus is everything Commodus aspires to be. Whilst Maximus’s glass is full of orthodox qualities, Commodus’s is almost empty, apart from a few unvirtuous qualities he embodies. It is this emptiness that makes his lack of moral fibre so transparent. Marcus Aurelius sees through the glass and intends to deny Commodus succession by reverting Rome to a Republic. It is here in Commodus’s murder of his father that we see the true extent of his destructive capacity. Maximus has the love of Lucilla, in which Commodus intensley desires. Maximus has the love of Aurelius, the kind of filial love Commodus has always longed for. Maximus has acceptance, the kind Commodus will never achieve because he is an effete. Maximus is loved, respected and is in commands of power, whereas Commodus is not. It is these intangible commodities that motivate Commodus to aspire to metaphorically become Maximus. He acknowledges Maximus’s charisma as an obstacle and sets out to eradicate Maximus accordingly. He is however, unsuccessful in his plight. Commodus indicts others as the cause of his deficency. He fails to recognise that his greatest obstacle is his inner-self. If he had identified the key to success as self-discovery, then he may have acheived his goals. Commodus does not however; and makes no growth positive growth as a character. He remains immoral, fearful, ambitous, greedy, weak, and shrouded in consuming jealousy. These qualities are expressed in his actions and inter-relations with others. Thriving on death and blood, seen in the gladiatorial games, he mistakes violence for power. He is willing to cheat, threaten and murder to obtain it. He instigates himself as the protector of Rome, seen in his  speech to the Senate: â€Å"I am the father of Rome and they are my children.† Attempting to appoint the adulation that comes with a virtuous hero upon himself, an unvirtuous tyrant. The greatest hindrance to Commodus is his all consuming jealousy. It motivates corruption, disallowing Commodus the ability to recognise his own character and to also expand on it. Instead he is entangled in a perpetual reminder of what he is not. This is his pestilence. This jealousy is augmented when Maximus still comands adoration even as a gladiator, when it should be directed towards Commodus; the emperor. It is here that Commodus realizes the trickery he has employed to could his absence of virtues, to gain the love of Rome, has not prospered. The antithesis of virtue is denied admiration. In an attempt to demonstrate power; Commodus challenges Maximus in the battle arena; which signifies his desperation. Maximus is a conquering general and a gladiatorial champion, whereas Commodus is a skillfull swordsman, but he is weak due to his cowardess, and they are unequally matched. This encounter could have been a growth point for Commodus, by way of conquering fear; but he utilizes his insidious qualities and inflicts a mortal wound before the battle begins; to give himself an unfair advantage. Victorious he is not, and death awaits Commodus. Commodus could never find success with the detainment of vices. It would go against the definition of the conquering hero. Commodus as a hero would distort the structure of Gladiator. Commodus is the antagonist; the one in which unvirtuous qualities are shown; to enthrall a sense of moral code in the film and to also display the virtues that compile a hero; Maximus. From the moment Commodus murders his father, Aurelius, he is doomed not to discover success, unless he redeems himself from the wrong-doing he has committed. This redemption does not occur, and illustrates that Commodus is prepared to change for the worse. Commodus carries out more treacherous acts; such as ordering the murder of Maximus and his family. It is here in the killing of innocence that Commodus spirals out of control; and becomes the epitome of immorality. Commodus faces great conflict and motivation to change his ways. He does  change, he becomes worse. It is crucial to his role as the antagonist that he does not learn from his mistakes; otherwise; he would shift to being a protagonist. The tragic hero is one who faces much adversity; but after a journey of discovery finds redemption; and usually death. The negative growth of Commodus is essential to the plot line of Gladiator. Commodus offers a comparison by which Maximus can be measured; and the two share a symbiotic relationship in the way they need each other for the personality of the characters to be fully recognised. Commodus remains trapped in a downward spiral of unvirtue; disallowing himself from experiencing redemption; the redemption that would have made him a tragic hero. This entrapment in vice is however crucial to the narrative of Gladiator.

Why We Need Planned Parenthood - 1665 Words

Why We Need Planned Parenthood In July of 2015 an undercover video was released to the public claiming Planned Parenthood engages in the selling of fetal tissues. These highly doctored videos released as apart of a series by a group called The Center for Medical Progress in attempt to uncover this â€Å"malpractice† within Planned Parenthood clinics. The selling fetal tissue for profit is an illegal activity in the United States therefore the topic alone became of interest to the public. Due to the graphic nature of these videos telling this horrific story, it gained much attention from the public and the media, leading Planned Parenthood to come under a great deal of fire. It became such an issue that a bill went to congress arguing for Planned Parenthood to be defunded by the government. The misinformation spread by this group, and others alike, is dangerous for the otherwise unknowing public and could have led to a very negative outcome that would affect the public more than it is aware. In 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first clinic in Brooklyn, New York to provide contraceptives to women. The clinic was highly controversial and faced many issues due to birth control’s illegal nature at this time. Sanger continued in her efforts and in 1923 she started the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in Manhattan and the American Birth Control League, which joined to become Planned Parenthood Federation of America (Planned Parenthood). Since it’s creation, Planned ParenthoodShow MoreRelatedHealth At Stake . There Has Been A Recent Event Where The1441 Words   |  6 Pagesyear, which can save many lives. People rely heavily on Planned Parenthood, being the nation’s health care provider, as it provides them with reproductive health benefits. These benefits include, but are not limited to, access to contraception, cancer screenings, and basic preventative care. However, there are numerous amounts of people who concur with the decision to defund this or ganization. This issue is highly debated as Planned Parenthood provides abortions. Sometimes people fail to notice allRead MoreThe Ideology Of Planned Parenthood1263 Words   |  6 PagesThe Ideology of Planned Parenthood Prolife or prochoice? This is the debate that seems ongoing for as long as I can remember yet seems to have risen in intensity over the years. We have more recently seen things in the news about defunding Planned Parenthood and there always seems to be protestors on the streets no matter where you go screaming at you their point of view. This essay will focus around the ideology of Planned Parenthood as an organization. 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