Conquering the Texas Frontier :: essays research papers

Conquering the Texas Frontier When looking at the vast lands of Texas after the Civil War, many different people came to the lands in search for new opportunities and new wealth. Many were lured by the large area that Texas occupied for they wanted to become ranchers and cattle herders, of which there was great need for due to the large population of cows and horses. In this essay there are three different people with three different goals in the adventures on the frontier lands of Texas in its earliest days. Here we have a woman's story as she travels from Austin to Fort Davis as we see the first impressions of West Texas. Secondly, there is a very young African American who is trying his hand at being a horse rancher, which he learned from his father. Lastly we have a Mexican cowboy who tries to fight his way at being a ranch hand of a large ranching outfit. Emily K. Andrews, wife of Col. George Andrews of Fort Davis, starts her journey in mid summer around the Austin area. She travels with others as they make their way East. Through her journal entries to her father, we can see that this was no easy trip. She seems to be used to a solid roof over her head, as well as a non-dirt floor. She tells that on many occasions of the threat of Indians, and how ruthless they are, keeping her distance and even sleeping "with one eye open" while in the camps along the way. Being a woman out on the frontier she does not seemed to be scared yet comes off as being rather brave and very smart. Her descriptions of the land and the towns they encountered along the way are very precise and if it had been possible for other females to read would have set their minds at ease. In her journal she talks about how inviting the other frontier people are and how reassuring that is to help keep her mind off the ever threatening Indian attacks. On the other hand there were people trying to settle and make a living for themselves, especially after the freeing of all the slaves. Will Crittenden is one of those people. He was born in Texas after his father moved here from Alabama. Will had been taught about being a horse rancher at the age of 5 from his father and now at the age of 15 was ready to go out on his own.

Classic Post-Modernist Writers

Charles Dickens. Thomas Hardy. Joseph Conrad. During their time, they were considered to be realists because they shape their readers’ perceptions of the world. In doing so, their writings are described to be modern and post-realist. This paper will discuss their approaches and on how their works, which we discussed this semester, are classic masterpieces simply because these transcend over time. Post-realism in literature is done when subjects are depicted on the page as how they are in daily life. There is no interpretation and embellishment.They reveal the mundane truth. Most of the time, in post-realism, these truths are ugly and sordid. Therefore, during the 20th century, when these writers came up with their works, they were often criticized for discussing subjects at that time were deemed as taboo. Realism was the cultural movement that was quite popular in literature in the 1800s. It was the opposite of romanticism because it encouraged artists to present objects at th eir most real. The perceptions are undistorted by bias and it is said that realism is the objective reality.The trend reformed the cultural movements in literature and became modernized. Cultural, political and artistic movements headed this direction at the turn of the century. It confirmed the ability of human beings to improve, create, reshape and enhance their environment. The period of modernism was during 1884 to 1914. Through technology, practical knowledge and scientific experiments, individuals are able to improve their way of life. It was at its earliest stages but these three novelists were able to become masters of the technique way before their counterparts did.Modernism examined the aspect of existence. It ranged from philosophy to commerce. It allowed the readers to reflect without holding back and replaced the old methods with the new progressive techniques. It was the introduction on how the world must accept the changes that were already occurring. By embracing the se changes and retaining some traditions, the post-realist movement came into place. (Crook, 1991, p. 32) Charles Dickens is known for his storytelling and immortal characters. With this, his literary creations received worldwide popularity which readers often anticipated for as well.The demand for Dickens’ short stories and novels didn’t allow these to go out of print. He wrote serialized novels which the public eagerly waited and religiously read. Scholars who studied why Dickens’ stories could reach out to his readers discovered that the author’s childhood influenced his fiction. These innocent experiences assisted him in bringing these stories to life. His writing style is poetic because it combines fantasy and realism which allows readers to shift from one to the other. He was also inspired by the gothic romance theme that was made popular in the 18th century.The downside to this writing style is that some of his characters are grotesque that they of ten overpower the stories. (Glancy, 1999, p 45) â€Å"Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great arm-chair by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new. Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes.Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet. † The two paragraphs are from the first chapter of Dickens’ â€Å"Dombey and Son. † Dickens was an active participant in social concerns and such themes were rooted in this novel. Examples were marriages being arranged a s if it were financial partnerships. Other themes were familial relationships and child cruelty.A factor that made Dickens’ works post-modernist is his take on social commentaries. He often wrote about poverty, specifically the social stratification in the Victorian society. The approach Dickens often utilized is presenting the incidences through caricatures in order to present the readers the social truth. (Glancy, 1999, p. 53) Another post-modernist theme is that Dickens often highlighted his idealism through the poignant social commentaries of his novels. A number of his novels discussed social realism and concentrated on the mechanisms of the social control which directed the lives of the individuals.He used coincidences which only showed how idealistic his works were. Thomas Hardy is Dickens’ exact opposite. He is a realist in the sense that his novels often ends in a tragic note. Hardy was an English novelist, writer and poet. Unlike Dickens, Hardy’s child hood was privileged nor luxurious. His father was a stonemason and his mother provided him with his formal education. He was trained as an architect before he moved to London where he enrolled at King’s College. Because of his skills in designing, he won prizes from the Architectural Association and the Royal Institute of British architects.He discovered he also had the knack in writing, thus he began his career as a novelist. â€Å"Jude the Obscure† was Hardy’s most controversial work. It received negative reviews especially from the Victorian public because of the brutal and unsanitized depiction of sex. It was touted as â€Å"Jude the Obscene. † It also caused further strain on Hardy’s marriage to Emma Hardy because it was said that the novel was autobiographical. Scholars pointed out that Emma was Hardy’s first love, just as Sue was Jude’s. Another evidence was Emma’s obsession with religion toward the latter years of her m arriage to Hardy.Incidentally, this was Sue’s predicament on the novel as well. Inspite of the controversies, Hardy became one of the best English novelists by the 20th century. His other works â€Å"Tess of D’urbervilles† and â€Å"The Mayor of Casterbridge† were well-received by the public. His novels are set in Wessex, an imaginary world that covered the large area of the south-west and south England. (Harvey, 2003, p 23) He also wrote poetry and these were published after 1898 when Hardy took a break from writing novels to concentrate on his poems instead. Hardy was a hybrid of the rural and the architectural world.He understood the former because he knew this as a child and at the same time, he also adapted to the changes of the latter because of how he was trained as an architecture. The post-modernist approach that is apparent in Hardy’s works is his ability to capture the industrial revolution, particularly the ones that took place in the E nglish countryside. He also set this in the Victorian setting which makes his novels more real. (Harvey, 2003, p. 25) â€Å"It was as old fashioned as it was small, and it rested in the lap of an undulating upland adjoining the North Wessex downs.Old as it was, however, the well-shaft that was probably the only relic of the local history that remained absolutely unchanged. Many of the thatched and dormered dweeling-houses had been pulled down of late years, and many trees felled on the green. Above all, the original church, hump-backed, wood turreted-and quaintly-hipped, had been taken down, and either cracked up into heaps of road-metal in the lane, or utilized as pig-sty walls, garden seats, guard-stones to fences, and rockeries in the flower-beds of the neighbourhood.In place of it a tall new building of modern Gothic design, unfamiliar to English eyes, had been erected on a new piece of ground by a certain obliterator of historic records who had run down from London and back in a day. † That is an excerpt from â€Å"Jude the Obscure. † Another post-modernist theme that is common in Hardy’s works is his depiction of the rural life in the nineteenth century. He presents it as a fatalistic world that is filled with injustice and suffering. The lead characters in his stories are often alienated and ostracized for following their innermost desires that do not coincide with what society expects from them.He emphasizes on the power of fate, especially on the working class. He also shows the deep human instinct and will to struggle against elemental passion. Examples are Tess in â€Å"Tess of the D’urbervilles† and Jude and Sue in â€Å"Jude The Obscure. † (Morgan, 1992, p. 15) â€Å"Tess of the d’Urbervilles† was a censored novel that followed â€Å"Jude the Obscure. † It is a great classic but received mixed reviews when it was first published because like â€Å"Jude the Obscure,† it presented sex in a straightforward manner that was rarely done during that time by other writers.Hardy illustrated modernism and this was a common theme in â€Å"Tess of the d’Urbervilles. † He portrayed Tess as a woman who was able to strike the balance between the rural world and the architectural world, just as what Hardy was able to do. Hardy also discussed the separation of man from nature. In one part of the story, Angel was reduced to a skeleton when he got sick. This is an allusion to his creation of the destructive machinery. (Morgan, 1992, p. 18) There is also the double standard on sexuality which Tess had to go through.Hardy questioned and criticized the Victorian period’s perception of female purity. In the novel, Hardy made Tess suffer in order to repent for the scenes of her forefathers. This was a common belief during that time. He also presented her heroine as a sacrificial victim which symbolized her personification of mother nature. This is the similar ity Tess shares with Sue in â€Å"Jude the Obscure. † (Morgan, 1992, p. 20) â€Å"Jude the Obscure† tells the story of Jude Fawley who wishes to be a scholar. He fell in love with his cousin Sue, an intellectual who is training to become a teacher.The apparent themes in the book that are post-modernist concerns are class, religion, scholarship, marriage and the modernization of intellectual thought along with society. It also questions whether fate has an important role to a person’s life letting it lead him to where it will or the person can eventually take the reins and control his life on his own. The accidents and the details that are encountered in the stories eventually leads to the ruin of both Jude and Sue. The book also discussed loneliness and sexuality, in terms of incest. Sexuality also prevents individuals from following through with their dreams.The most controversial topic that was present in the novel is marriage and on how personal dreams could no longer be fulfilled because of that. There was also the satirical look on how living a life as sophists, intellectuals and libertines often result to the condemnation from traditional society. All these themes are post-modernist. Scholars who focused on Hardy concluded that the author loved leading his characters to their downfall as if he were a sadistic god. There are also strong autobiographical references to Hardy’s life in â€Å"Jude the Obscure.†Two important clues to this theory is that Hardy did not attend a university and the love of Jude’s life, Emma Gifford, became more and more religious. (Harvey, 2003, p. 83) Joseph Conrad is the combination of Charles Dickens’ idealism and Thomas Hardy’s realism. He was one of the best English novelists of his time. Despite being Polish born, he was recognized as a master prose because of his approach on modernist literature. His style is narrative and his characters are often anti-heroic. He has b een said to influence the lieks of Graham Greene, DH Lawrence and even Ernest Hemingway.(Orr, 1999, p 46)Conrad reflected on his experiences in the navy in his works. He wrote short stories and novels that showed areas of an empire and how it affected the human soul. Closely looking into Conrad’s life and how this affected his work, other autobiographical accounts are the clear depictions of certain parts of the world such as South American, Malay states, Borneo and Australia in some of his novels. This was because Conrad quickly became first mate and was already the master of his own ship by 1886. By the age of 36, he settled down and started writing.(Orr, 1999, p 62) â€Å"Heart of Darkness† is a novella filled with symbolisms. It is a story in a story or what the post-modernist theme describes as â€Å"frame narrative. † It is the story of Charles Marlow and his recollection of his advenutre in the Congo with a group of men. He was employed by the Belgian tra ding company to transport ivory. During this task, he then developed an interest in checking out the Kurtz. Conrad’s inspiration in writing the novel was his real-life experience in the Congo. He was there for eight and a half years before he sat down to write â€Å"Heart of Darkness.†As a matter of fact, he was captain of the Congo steamer. Therefore, there details in the novel are quite accurate because Conrad was actually there in the Congo. â€Å"I looked at him, lost in astonishment. There he was before me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had managed to remain– why he did not instantly disappear.`I went a little farther,' he said, `then still a little farther–till I had gone so far that I don't know how I' ll ever get back. Never mind. Plenty time. I can manage. You take Kurtz away quick–quick–I tell you. ‘ The glamour of youth enveloped his parti-coloured rags, his destitution, his loneliness, the essential desolation of his futile wanderings. For months–for years–his life hadn't been worth a day's purchase; and there he was gallantly, thoughtlessly alive, to all appearances indestructible solely by the virtue of his few years and of his unreflecting audacity. I was seduced into something like admiration– like envy.†The previous paragraph is an excerpt of the novel which elaborates the post-modernist theme that is apparent in â€Å"Heart of Darkness. † This is the ambiguity between civilization and the barbarians. A number of characters in the novel had spiritual darkness and were looking for their morals. Those who were deemed to be barbaric turned out to be the civilized characters in the end. All throughout the novel, there is the tension between civilization and barbarism. Kurtz represented the darkness which only served as the foundation to the moral structures that are often connotated to civilization.Marlow confronted Kurtz and asked him to commit to the savagery of human instincts or to veneer in the civilization setting. Marlow was torn but between the two, it was the lastter that he couldn’t absolutely do. He was then horrified by what was in his heart. Conrad used the darkness in order to represent the unknown. Mr. Kurtz was the anti-hero of â€Å"Heart of Darkness. † Mallow’s recounts on the whole experience was also explored through the character build-up of Kurtz as well as Mallow’s interaction with the Africans.Another post-modernist theme is the novel’s regard on women’s naivety. There is also the struggle between the good and the evil in the characters. (Orr, 1999, p. 36) Conrad was an emotional man who was depressed and pessimistic. He doubted his s elf and his capabilities. He was able to discipline his craft by resorting to romantic temperament. As an artist, he focused on what could be seen and made the written word powerful by it. (Orr, 1999, p. 28) That was a post-modernist theme that was made popular by Conrad, Hardy and Dickens.Their ability to write in a style that is similar to visual arts single the three of them out as the best in prose. They create the settings of their story, be it real like that of Conrad’s Congo or fictional like that of Hardy’s Wessex. Whether they choose to have their characters be confined and isolated or out there socializing, Conrad, Hardy and Dickens could do so. Literary critics comment on the works of these three novelists and recommend them for their complex narration, pessimistic ideas, profound themes and exotic styles. However, these do not put the readers off.The ideas which Conrad, Hardy and Dickens presented way back in the 20th century are still interesting for 21st century readers. It only comes to prove that their approaches and their writing style are very modern and post-modernist. (Crook, 1991, p. 26) Modernists believed that rejecting tradition from the roots of romanticism and realism, they could make art that organized and guided individuals through the fast pace of the new century. Modernists take their cue from the Impressionists and they all believe that by redefining their art, they are able to arrange these in a modern way which anybody could relate with.Post-realist in literature emerged from the historical backdrop that was presented by the romantic period. By responding to the architectural changes going on around them, post-realist writers in the previous centuries unconsciously became modern-writers because they replaced the themes that were dominant during the period of enlightenment by listening to their emotions and by combating the widespread conventions with taboo subjects presented in a new, truthful and sordid manner.In fluenced by the constant evolution of society, modernists such as Dickens, Hardy and Conrad present their literature in a society that embraces the social truth they are in. Most of the characters in literary creations with post-modern themese are often dissatisfied but they embarked on a journey which allows them to revive the traditional elements or way of life and at the same time discover the other world out there and the new life that opens its doors for them.

Alex Robbins.Durango Street

Durango Street Reading Log for Chapters 15, 16, 17 Character: Alex Robbins Alex Robbins is a social worker. His goal is to break up the gang â€Å"the moors†, but until chapter 17 he has no success. Alex Robbins is one of the main characters in the book, because he affects the gang â€Å"the moors†. In chapter 17 he is at Rufus’ home, because â€Å"The Gassers† cut the pigtail of Rufus’ sister. When Rufus comes home Alex Robbins is talking to his mother, that he wants to talk with â€Å"the Gassers† about what happened. But when Rufus asks about what happened, Alex tries to tell him a lie. But Rufus is smart and knows that he is telling a lie. After Rufus knows what happened, he is very angry and Alex sais that he wants to solve this issue, but Rufus sais that he has no idea of gangs. I think the idea of Alex is very absurd. In this case there is no way out. He can’t speak with the police, because it will make more problems. Alex also made a very inexperienced impression, when he talked the first time to â€Å"the moors†. Everybody laughed about him and he couldn’t accomplish himself. He seemed to be much untaught. He is a little bit the opposite of Rufus, who is very smart. Finally, I think Alex really wants to reach his goal to break up â€Å"the moors†, but he has to learn a lot, how to handle these guys.

Being a Teenager

Being a teenager The teenage years are the years were you try to find out who you are. It’s the best period in life. But it’s also one of the hardest. By Frederik Handberg Hello I’m Frederik. I want to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being a teenager. My opinion is that it’s hard to be a â€Å"normal† teenager in 2011. It can get confusing whit all the different situations you have to deal with. But there are also many great things when it comes to being a teenager.And I think that that is very important to remember when you’re young and sometimes can feel a bit down over things in life. I think that teenager’s opinions are being heard in the public space. But they are sometimes being neglected. Because people just think we are a bunch of confused minors. Many teenagers have an opinion to how the world and life should be. But we don’t get influence on the decisions which is taken. People still treat us like a child. And that can sometimes get quite annoying when we try to grow up.Many teenagers see the school as a place where they are forced to be during the day. But that isn’t my opinion. Of course it can be irritating sometimes to get up a rainy day and go to school. But I mostly see the school as a place where you meet your friends. And meet new people. Another thing that approximately all teenagers have wondered about, I think. Is their popularity among their friends in the class. Sometimes you can feel like a complete idiot. And other times feel like you can take on the whole world.When you grow up you will also see that you get more responsibility and control over your own life. Although you can feel that your parents are being more irritating and over protective. And you don’t always see your parent’s decisions as a good thing. I guess that is a part of being a teenager and grow up. Sometimes you believe that your parents only are there to make life miserable for you . And set limits for your growing expression. You sometimes feel that your parents must have forgotten how it was to be a teenager.But in the end I think that you will see that you’re parents only tried to take care of you. And do the best thing possible for you. I think our parents would show us even more confidence, if we managed to have a good relationship to them. It is also in the teenage years that you try to define who you are as a person. In other words, what your identity is. That’s why many teenagers try many different things in these years. That not always is thought through. But if we don’t try we won’t move us and develop us in life. Frederik Handberg, 488 words.

Analyze (in the land of the free) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyze (in the land of the free) - Essay Example Customs officers tell them that their son cannot be allowed to go ashore. Due to the bureaucratic reason, Lae Choo and Hom Hing leave their sons with immigration authorities expecting to return the next day to pick him up. They are confident that the immigration authorities will give them back their child. However, after five months, their child has not been given back to them. Instead, the immigration authorities left the young boy at the hands of missionaries. Hom Hing hires a lawyer, James Clancy to appeal to the immigration authorities to release the boy. When he failed, the lawyer asks Hom Hing for five hundred U.S dollars to appeal to the government directly in Washington D.C. Lae Choo proffers her jewelry, as Hom Hing does not have enough money. She gives the lawyer, her hairpins, gold buttons, rings, and comp of pearl with the expectation that they were enough for acquisition of papers for her son’s release. Five more months passed before Clancy succeeds. When she regains her son, Lae Choo goes directly to the missionaries to bring him home. However, due to long time between them, a small boy runs back to the missionaries and tells her mother to go away (Sui, Ling & White, 1995). Lae Choo is one of the main characters. She is the wife of Hom Hing. The immigration authorities take away her two years old son and place him under the care of missionaries. Lae Choo is a good wife. While in China, where she went to give birth to her son, she takes care of her husband’s sick parents for two years even though she had gone there to give birth. In addition, Lae Choo is a loving and a caring mother. When the immigration authorities took her baby, she could not sleep that night. When asked to sleep by her husband, she responded, â€Å"Ah, how could I sleep with my hands empty of the young boy?† (p. 53). She also shows her loving and caring nature when she decided to give James Clancy her jewelries as her husband

Diversity-Impact of globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Diversity-Impact of globalization - Essay Example Multi national companies working in different countries need to be monitored with varied administrative techniques to keep in the track with the changing face of the industrial and economic environments to tune up the organization according to these changes. Diverse culture demands coordinating with workforce from different cultural back ground etc. These employees are to be empowered to organization goals and objectives to turn them towards organizational excellence. The author in the article has asserted the need to give due importance to the diversity of top executives of the different regional background to work in different regions to understand the native environment and enhance the reach to the overseas employees. The racial discrimination in the top notch companies executive level positions have been highlighted where most of the individuals are white-skinned. The notion that the other section of employees are been confined to the middle level management positions was ably raised as a concern. The example that Pepsi Co adopted to hire diversified workforce to lead different regions has clearly justified the importance of diversity in work environment and the growing importance of women in prime positions in organization. The vital reason here that has to be noted is the Asian and African countries have had made rapid development and in order to gain benefits from their manpower and service excellence, the organizations has to provide them freedom to act on an issue and give them an opportunity at their native regions to lead the firm performance. The women workforce value has to be recognized and they have to be encouraged to implement their strategies in pursuit of the organization... http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hr022 Written by Kelli A. Green, Mayra Lpez, Allen Wysocki, and Karl Kepner, Extracted from Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges, and the Required Managerial Tools1

White collar crime #6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

White collar crime #6 - Essay Example fically speaking, it includes â€Å"fraud, bankruptcy fraud, bribery, insider trading, embezzlement, computer crime, medical crime, public corruption, identity theft, environmental crime, pension fund crime, RICO crimes, consumer fraud, occupational crime, securities fraud, financial fraud, and forgery† (Karri & Associates). The concept nowadays is often related to the socio-economic status of an individual involved in the crime. A white collar crime, performed either through computer or through paper, is often committed by people belonging to the middle class or the upper class because people get influenced by their origins. Also, since they belong to high social status, the crime may go undetected. The only thing that distinguishes the white collar crime from a low class crime is that it is implemented in a different way and at a different level. Thus, white collar criminals are only administratively different from lower class criminals. However, , Sutherland’s theory best described the white collar crime because it brought upper class and lower class criminals on same