Creative Writing - Gratuitous Vengeance
Gratuitous Vengeance "Son, hurry up, you're going to be late for school." "Yeh whatever dad, it's nothing new." "But it's your first day!" Yes - it was my first day at school and no - I wasn't nervous, I wasn't scared, and I wasn't worried, I was ready. What's the big deal anyway? Constantly, consistently moving house and schools, you kind of adapt to it, like an animal adapting to its conditions, you know? Here we were. Shattering, scratched, small windows; crumbling, decaying, aged bricks; inexpensive, inert sheds and lots of helpless, dim morons to use for my liking. Dominating this school will be as easy as A.B.C. It wasn't exactly the best looking school but no matter, I'd be gone within a week... Okay, by my second glance, this school had some pretty mischievous competition. My main worry was Derrick Hopkins; Derrick is the guy to go to when you want to know something or need permission for something else. He controls everything in this school. I guess that'll have to change... I went up to him. "Derrick, I'm Bradley Crewe, new here, I heard about a party going on this weekend, I was wondering if I can come along? We can get acquainted." "It's not that easy kid. So no, you can't just 'come along'. Get out of here you weasel faced low life." "Weasel faced? Low life? Who do you think you are?" "I'm Derrick, but nobody cares who you are." He walked up to me and
In Multicultural Britain, people from different cultures should not try to live separate lives
'In Multicultural Britain, people from different cultures should not try to live separate lives.' Many people from all over the world have been coming to Britain for over 2,000 years. This long history of immigration has made Britain a very diverse and culturally rich country. Examples of this are evident in fashion, food and language. About 8% of the British population is made up of different ethnic groups; this is approximately 4.6 million people. This essay will be addressing whether people from different cultures should try to live separately or not. People from different cultures should not try to live separate lives as this could lead to racial segregation, misunderstanding and conflict among societies. Those who live in 'parallel communities' are only in contact with their own culture and 'kind' and so live separate lives to others in the surrounding areas. This separation can cause misunderstanding to breed which could lead to hatred and unnecessary conflict. These types of conflict have been emerging from parts of Britain between Asian and White groups, who live in 'parallel communities' and therefore have never had the chance to meet. The benefits of having more people of different ethnicity in one community would mean that it would be a more accurate representation of modern Britain. It enriches people's understanding of cultures and the world, therefore leading
The Gender Transformation of Caesar
The Gender Transformation of Caesar Shakespeare's Julius Caesar opens with the concurrent celebrations of Caesar's defeat of Pompey and the annual fertility festival of Lupercal. The coupling of the two historically separate events each celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically highlights the importance of gender characterization. Rome's patriarchal society demands a leader who embodies the virile spirit of the state with leadership marked by strength, courage, and constancy. Caesar quite fittingly assumes this role as he returns valiant and victorious from the battlefields; thus, in order to remove him the strong ruler of Rome, Caesar's enemies must retrench his masculinity. Roman society considers women as the embodiment of weaknesses, thinking that their physical, mental, and political inferiority make them of little use beyond reproductive purposes, explaining why aspirants to the throne feminize the identity of the masculine warrior figure to position him as unfit for the crown. The portrayal of the two female characters of the novel, Portia and Calphurnia, captures the prevailing stereotypical perceptions of women. Caesar's wife, Calphurnia, demonstrates women's predisposition towards fearfulness and superstition when she pleads with Caesar to remain at home after dreaming that a statue made in the likeness was Cesar pouring forth blood. Calphurnia establishes
How does Lady Macbeth change throughout the play, "Macbeth"?
How does Lady Macbeth change throughout the Play? "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised;" These are the powerful opening lines of Lady Macbeth - the most infamous and indomitable female character in all of Shakespeare's many works, who defies the position of order and gender of her time and used power and ambition to achieve her dreams. Her opening scene in I.v where she is reading the letter from her husband, which proclaims the witches' prophecy, and the following soliloquy are the first exposure to her character, as it allows us an insight into her most intimate thoughts and feelings. At the idea of her husband being possibly made King she jumps straight to the conclusion that he will be, "and shalt be what thou art promised". This is shocking to the audience as her superstition shows her underlying hunger for power by the fact she takes three deranged, women on a moor as the literal truth - any excuse for her to rise in authority. Shakespeare's use of the witches adds drama because at the time the play was written, during the reign of James I, witchcraft and heresy were deemed punishable by death and to "consult with any evil sprit" was illegal under the 1604 Witchcraft Act, so they would have seen it as a scandal that Lady Macbeth believed the witches. She seems even more ruthless by the fact that automatically she presumes that they will
How does Shakespeare create dramatic tension in act 2 scene 2 of Macbeth?
How does Shakespeare create dramatic tension in act 2 scene 2 of Macbeth? Act 2 Scene 2 of Macbeth is a decisive scene in the play as it creates dramatic tension, conflict and controversy. There are many themes in this play: tragedy, the supernatural, love, dishonesty, betrayal and greed. Macbeth murdered Duncan to prove his masculinity for his wife and also his hunger for more power. Lady Macbeth wanted Duncan dead because of her greed and the witches' prophecies influence her. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is brave, content and loyal in contrast to his dark and sinister persona he adapts later on in the play. Whilst the main theme of Macbeth is one of tragic loss (in terms of the death of the King and indeed the loss of Macbeth's mental state), greed also proves to be an influential factor in the downfall of both Macbeth and his wife. It, ultimately, changed their actions and cost them their lives. At the beginning of the scene, Lady Macbeth is feeling confident. She says " What hath quench'd them hath given me fire", this indicating that she is feeling so powerful and inspired that nothing can stand in her way. Despite feeling confident, she feels agitated and remarks "Hark! Peace!" which demonstrates that she is concerned someone has been alerted to the couple's plans and will discover their wretched methods; this sudden feeling of concern contrasts with her prior
Is Iago The Perfect Villain?
Othello Essay 'Is Iago the perfect villain?' Few Shakespearian villains radiate evilness and jealously quite as much as Iago, the unbeknown nemesis of the play's title character, Othello. In other plays written by the bard of Avon the villains can come across as one-dimensional- weak, personified by a flaw in their genetic make-up or unattainable ambition yet Iago is a far more complex and compelling character. True, he has the power to both betray and murder those he once worked alongside, but Iago isn't the complete cold-blooded murderer in the same sense of Macbeth or King Claudius from Hamlet. True, he meticulously plans the death of Cassio but he plans it to be by hands of Rodrigo, his puppet. In the end opportunity presents itself to Iago and he seizes the moment to stab Cassio in the back but the blow fails to kill him. Iago also reveals a moral conscience through his three soliloquy's which I will explore in more detail later. In short Iago is like no other of Shakespeare's villains which makes him an utterly compelling and absorbing character. And like the other characters in the play, Iago delights in absorbing us, the viewer... The tragedy of Othello was believed to have been first performed in the early 1600's and is one of Shakespeare's more famous plays. The play is also rich in historical context and features the Moorish race heavily, leading many to believe
What is the significance of Piggy in the novel The Lord of the Flies?
What is the significance of Piggy in the novel The Lord of the Flies? The author William Golding uses the character of Piggy to relates to certain themes in the novel. He is linked closely with civilisation, time and the conch which itself represents order. As savagery becomes more intense in the novel, Piggy begins to suffer more injustices and eventually loses his life speaking out against it. Piggy is described by Golding as 'short' and very 'fat'. This has earned him the nickname 'Piggy' in his previous school. It's no coincidence that Piggy's nickname is such, it relates to the overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters feel when they feel the urge to 'kill the pig'. This indirect metaphor suggests that the boys are killing a part of Piggy each time and that their aggression is directed at him. In fact, while Jack and his gang continue to kill more pigs, the logic and reason which Piggy symbolizes progressively diminishes with the pigs. Piggy's appearance alone has made him an outsider, because the other boys look down on him. He has asmtha and doesn't do much physical work on the island. He is not welcomed on their first exploratory trip of the island. "We don't want you," Jack says to Piggy. It is his academic background and his isolation from the savage boys that had allowed him to remain mostly unchanged from his primitive experiences on the island.
Effectiveness of death of Simon
The effectiveness of the death of Simon At the beginning of the chapter, Simon realizes that the boys have mistaken the parachutist for the deadly beast that has plunged their entire group into chaos. Adding to his Christ like figure, he frees the parachutist from the rocks, and then, anxious to prove to the group that the beast is not real after all, Simon staggers down the mountain toward the distant light of the fire at Jack's feast to tell the other boys what he has seen. Golding uses the weather throughout the chapter to show the build up of tension on the island and then a release of all the built up tension. He opens the chapter with a sinister description of the odd weather on the island, with the "brassy glare" of the sky where "colours drained" and "nothing prospered". During the climax and the killing of Simon, the weather stimulates the confused frenzy as a streak of lightning is described as a "blue white scar" above the boys and the "dark sky shattered". Simon's death brings about the use of weather again used as a downpour erupts, as though the weather were responding to the boys' actions and because Simon is always very closely connected with nature, so the rain may represent tears - "the clouds opened...poured" Golding uses this thunderstorm as a means of terror and the result is that the fear drives the boys together. In the rain, Ralph asks Jack how
Examine the ways in which The Great Gatsby explores the corruptive effects of wealth.
Examine the ways in which The Great Gatsby explores the corruptive effects of wealth. The Great Gatsby was set in the 1920s and in this time wealth was spread all over America, particularly in New York, and in F. Scott Fitzgerald's fictional villages of the East and West Egg, where The Great Gatsby was set. In America many people had made their money by themselves without the help of an inheritance. Wealth was displayed in the type of car you drove, to the size and position of your house, and this idea that each person, no matter what their background, could succeed, was known as the 'American Dream'. This occurred because unlike England where there was a clearly defined class system, in which people remained within their class level, in America a poor person born into poverty could by whatever means, become a wealthy person, mixing in society with other wealthy people. This is no more evident than in F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby. However, such wealth often attracted jealousy, and in turn, corruptive behaviour. In the 1920s, America was a financial goldmine with many individuals making huge sums of money. Post-World War One, many women entered the workforce, and factory production methods improved, creating a significant boost to America's economy. More often than not, however, some of the money that people made was earned through corruptive methods. Two
Persuasive Speech - Poverty
The gap between the world's rich and poor has never been wider. While wealthy individuals are relishing in a lavish life of luxury, millions are being forced to endure an insufferable daily reality of poverty, conflict and lack of food. For these disadvantaged people, the hunger is unrelenting and the desperation is overwhelming. The time for a drastic change has arrived. It is up to you and I to make a difference before a significant proportion of the world's population drown in an ocean of poverty. We must save lives. Shockingly, a child dies every three seconds from AIDS and severe starvation. I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that this infant mortality rate is unacceptably high. Something must be done in order to help countless families escape the famine pandemic. Unsurprisingly, there is sufficient food in the world to cater for everyone's needs. So why do so many find themselves ensnared by extreme poverty? Millions of people worldwide are trapped on an incessant downward spiral, frenetically fighting for food, education...and their lives. These people lack money; they are unable to purchase enough food to nourish themselves and their families. Inevitably, this continuous malnutrition leads their physical and mental condition to deteriorate, therefore decreasing their ability to work. With no employment, their finances continue to diminish, leaving only one
