.... Writers, poets, and musicians alike wanted to develop a style that all could call “American.” Spawned from the writings of the era, the other aspect of this theory is that it existed as a form of religion and spirituality. Social reform later grew from these beliefs, such as anti-slavery and women’s rights movements. So, what set off these changes in our society? Many trace the roots of these events back to the chief writers of the period. Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau preached beliefs in self-reliance, non-conformity, and in the Over-Soul. Ralph Waldo Emerson greatly accepted the concept of self-reliance, which is ....

.... owes it to himself to stop and consider the three advantages of single life. One, if you’re single, you can think. Two, you can act. Three, you can feel…there is no prison so deadly as a life of unnecessities, which is what marriage is.” In most religions marriage is considered a sacred joining of two people. “The Don’s” philosophy undermines the marriage ideology to the point that it is sinful to the religious community. Even if a person is not active in religion, s/he usually has a set of morals that frown upon the “life of a player.” “The Don’s” second downfall is his sexual habits. Any person who shares ....

.... together, Hemingway shows the pair's inability to accept "the hard, gratuitous quality of life." Stubbs begins by showing other examples, notably in In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises, in which Hemingway's characters revert to role-playing in order to escape or retreat from their lives. The ability to create characters who play roles, he says, either to "maintain self-esteem" or to escape, is one Hemingway exploits extraordinarily well in A Farewell to Arms and therefore it "is his richest and most successful handling of human beings trying to come to terms with their vulnerability." As far as Stubbs is concerned, Hemingway is quite blat ....

.... of capitalism and new forms of time-space experience. Working from Marxist premises, his argument is similar to Fredric Jameon's claim that postmodernism is "the cultural logic of late-capitalism," with the difference that Harvey provides considerably more empirical support for this view. To understand postmodernism and postmodernity, one first has to understand modernism and modernity, and Harvey provides good accounts of the major sources of modern ideas and the key structural features of modernity. Harvey's basic approach to postmodernism is sound. Rather than rejecting postmodern developments as superficial and merely transitory, he believes they represent a new parad ....

.... and his mother results from his preference to live with his father in New York. Keith has no choice in the decision and now he lives in Verity, a town he hates. This situation lies at the root of his rebellion against his mother. When he lives in New York he is never particularly well behaved, “but after eight months in Florida, he is horrid”(5). Through his rebellious actions Keith generates grief and worry in his mother Lucy. His backpack must be checked “for contraband everyday”(31), and he and his mother fight constantly. Because he is forced to live with his mother, Keith resents her. Keith is angry with Lucy because he feels as if he is trapped in Verit ....

.... he is presented with no opportunity in which he might refuse God outright. He has no control over the duration or intensity of his suffering. He is completely at the mercy of God. There is nothing to give an indication of how much agency Job had before the wager. However the arguments Job makes in chapter three through thirty-seven suggest some agency, especially in his questioning of God: “Does it seem good to thee to oppress, to despise the work of thy hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Are thy days as the days of man, or thy years as man’s years, that thou dost seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although thou knowest that I am not guilty ....

.... that he liked were Allie, James Castle, and sitting there chewing the fat with Phoebe. The reason this is a time when Holden falls is because he gets really depressed when he can barely think of anything he liked. The reason I think Holden gets so depressed is because two of the people he names are dead. That's why he is so lonely all the time. Holden finds things in common with Allie and James Castle and since they're both dead he feels, in the back of his mind, that he should also be dead which makes him depressed. Another example of a fall for Holden is when he realizes he can't erase even half the "fuck you's" in the world. This doesn't sound very important, but it is ....

.... the extravagant parties he throws, and the wealthy, careless lifestyle the Buchanans represent, are all vivid pictures of that time frame. Fitzgerald's portrayal of the time period creates lifelike characters in the novel. By creating these personable characters, Fitzgerald is allowing the reader to associate himself with Gatsby, and letting him use his imagination, so that in the end, the reader can decide if the Great Gatsby is truly 'great'. Fitzgerald allows the reader to incorporate the story into their own past and past relationships, ultimately putting the reader in Gatsby's shoes and seeing what the reader would do in the same situation. It raises a great deb ....