Friday, January 24, 2020

The Power of Secrets in The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Power of Secrets in The Scarlet Letter Deception is defined by Webster's Dictionary as the art of misrepresentation. Throughout the history of mankind, the use of deception to promote oneself to a higher level, or to hide one's past, has been a common occurrence. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne , Chillingworth and Dimmesdale both use deception to hide secrets from each other, and from the rest of the town. Hester Prynne is the only one who knows the secrets that Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are hiding from the townsfolk. Hester has to control her desire to tell the truth and practices the art of deception to hide these secrets. When she will not reveal the father of Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale says, "She will not speak." It is ironic that the person who committed the sin with Hester is the one who announces publicly that she will not reveal the name of the other sinner. Later, Chilling worth wants to know who it is and he says, "Thou wilt not reveal his name?" Hester refuses and continues to hold her silence. Then Chillingworth, still trying to find out the name of her lover, comments, ". . . but Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?" When he says this, he is hinting that he is going to do something to Dimmesdale. This is why Hester makes Chillingworth promise not to kill her lover if he finds out his identity. Chillingworth deserves to know who slept with his wife, although Hester should not have had to tell him. I think that Dimmesdale should have admitted that he was Pearl's father. Today, if a priest admitted such a crime, he would probably be sent to jail. However, in the novel, had Dimmesdale confessed, the townsfolk would have liked him even more. Hester also has to live with, and conceal, the secret that the scholar, Chilling worth, is her husband. When he comes to visit her in jail he says, "Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour. Keep, likewise, mine! There are none in this land that know me. Breathe not, to any soul, that thou didst ever call me husband.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

The Avengers Story Map

Story Map Title: The Avengers Author: Joss Whedon Setting: New York City Characters/Actors: – Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man * Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America * Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk * Chris Hemsworth as Thor * Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow * Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye * Tom Hiddleston as Loki * Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson * Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill * Stellan Skarsgard as Dr. Erik Selvig * Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury Problem: An Asgardian, Loki meets the leader of an alien race known as the Chitauri.In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the other promises Loki a Chitauri army with which he can subjugate the Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency  S. H. I. E. L. D. , and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill  arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where physicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the Tesseract. Agent Phil Coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy. The Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a portal, allowing Loki to reach Earth.Loki takes the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and several agents, including Clint Barton, to aid him in his getaway. Event #1: The  Asgardian Loki  encounters the Other, the leader of an alien race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract,  a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki a Chitauri army with which he can subjugate the Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S. H. I. E. L. D, and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill  arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where physicist Dr.Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the Tesseract. Agent  Phil Coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy. The Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a portal, a llowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki takes the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and several agents, including Clint Barton to aid him in his getaway. Event #2: In response to the attack, Fury reactivates the â€Å"Avengers Initiative†. Agent Natasha Romanoff is sent to Calcutta, India  to recruit  Dr.Bruce Banner; Coulson visits  Tony Stark  to have him review Selvig's research; Fury approaches Steve Rogers  with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract. While Barton steals  iridium  needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power, Loki causes a distraction in  Stuttgart, Germany leading to a confrontation with Rogers, Stark, and Romanoff that ends with Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S. H. I. E. L. D. ,  Thor, his adoptive brother, arrives and frees him hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard.After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agrees to take Loki to S. H. I. E. L. D. ‘s flying aircraft car rier, the  Helicarier. There Loki is imprisoned while scientists Banner and Stark attempt to locate the Tesseract. Event #3: The Avengers become divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S. H. I. E. L. D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent  against hostile extra-terrestrials. As the group argues, Barton and Loki's other possessed agents attack the Helicarrier, disabling its engines in flight and causing Banner to transform into the Hulk.Stark and Rogers try to restart the damaged engines, and Thor attempts to stop the Hulk's rampage. Romanoff fights Barton, and knocks him unconscious, breaking Loki's mind control. Loki escapes after killing Coulson and ejecting Thor from the airship, while the Hulk falls to the ground after attacking a S. H. I. E. L. D. fighter jet. Fury uses Coulson's death to motivate the Avengers into working as a team. Stark and Rogers realize that simply defeating them will not be enough for Loki; he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth.Loki uses the Tesseract, in conjunction with a device Selvig built, to open a portal above  Stark Tower  to the Chitauri fleet in space, launching his invasion. Event #4: The Avengers rally in defense of  New York City, but quickly realize they will be overwhelmed as wave after wave of Chitauri descend upon Earth. Rogers, Stark, and Thor evacuate civilians with assistance from Barton, while Banner transforms back into the Hulk and goes after Loki, eventually beating him into submission. Romanoff makes her way to the portal, where Selvig, freed of Loki's control, reveals that Loki's scepter can be used to close the portal.Meanwhile, Fury's superiors attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and takes it through the portal toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile detonates, destroying the invaders' lead ship which disables their forces on Earth. Stark's sui t runs out of power and he falls back through the portal, but the Hulk saves him from crashing to the ground. Romanoff deactivates the portal to prevent further invasion. In the aftermath, Thor returns Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard. Fury notes that the Avengers will return when they are needed.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Rolling the Rs by R. Zamora Linmark - 841 Words

â€Å"No†¦ we have a daughter, and I don’t want to break a holy vow† (Linmark 94). This is a perfect example of how religion has oppressed these people over time. Furthermore, this may contribute to the extreme discourse between the parents and the children throughout the novel. The children can see how religion has affected their parents as they are virtually brainwashed by their spiritual beliefs and the children wish to avoid the oppressions of this institution. They do so by using their language to rewrite traditional Catholic litany and hymns invoking other â€Å"cultural† saints to paint a picture of their lives and the lack of God’s presence that they feel. The education system serves to be another oppressive institution as the teachers purposely alienate the Asian American students from the others. Instead of being seen as unique for being first-generation citizens, they are viewed as being deviants and hassles. The teachers, though some have Asian roots, refuse to understand the struggle or lifestyle of these children who have come from immigrant families. This is seen when Florante talks about Mrs. Takara saying she is, â€Å"A Japanese and an American wrestling in one mind. He says that her American upbringing has blinded her from reading between the lines of the history textbooks where silent people choke from invisibility and humiliation† (Linmark 49). This mindset definitely results in the obvious racist undertones that are evident throughout the education system.Show MoreRelatedRolling the Rs by R. Zamora Linmark435 Words   |  2 PagesThe United States is infamously branded as the â€Å"Great Melting Pot.† In R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the R’s, the reader recognizes that this legendary melting pot can also be a system that continually ensures some races and cultures remain inferior. Through a series of vignettes written with Pidgin English, the reader follows a group of F ilipino-American fifth graders from Kalihi, Hawaii as they struggle with personal and sexual identities while they come of age. The characters in this novel are