Free Essays - Boys to Men in The Red Badge of Courage :: The Red Badge of Courage

Boys to Men in Red Badge of Courage      The Civil War took more American lives than any other war in history.   It divided the people of the United States, so that in many families brother fought brother.   The four years of bloodshed left a legacy of grief and bitterness that remains in part even today.   The war started on April twelfth, 1861 in Charleston, South Carolina.   It ended four years later on April ninth, 1865.   Many people call this tragic conflict the War Between the States, the War of the Rebellion, the War of the Secession, or the War for southern Independence.   But regardless of what it is called, the war was a great turning point in American history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What is so interesting about Crane's Red Badge of Courage?   I found out that war turns boys into mature men, the real dialect and slang used during the war, and what it's like to be a soldier in the Civil War.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The whole novel covers only two days in the life of Henry Flemming, the main character.   In that amount of time, war can turn a boy into a man.   It does not physically turn an individual into a grown man, but it mentally matures them.   War matures boys into a men is by experiencing new, unpredictable environments and adjusting to unfamiliar smells, sounds, and emotions.   Think about it, being there on a battlefield witnessing deaths of friends and comrades would have to have an effect on a human being.   Being in a war and to be around new faces, new personalities, confusion, and trauma would force one to adapt to an environment faster than you usually would.   Just imagine leaving your country home and entering a new and frightening world on a battlefield.   What can make one a hero or a coward?   Fears, emotions, thoughts, and feelings can be the factors that contribute towards the struggle.   As I read this novel I lived not only Henry's actions, but also his individual thoughts and feelings.There was shootin' here an' shootin' there, an' hollerin' here and hollerin' there, in th' damn darkness, until I couldn't tell t' save m' soul which side I was on (p.136, Crane).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By utilizing the soldiers talking in a dialect that was common during the war and using slang to represent certain words reflected the authors' emphasis on realism and descriptiveness.

Background Checks: Give People a Second Chance

On every application for employment, there is always a section that asks about whether or not a person has ever had an felony charges against them, and to explain what they were if so. Despite the fact that employers are not â€Å"supposed† to discriminate against a candidate based on something like felony charges, there is no real way to qualify whether or not such discriminatory practices were exhibited in the candidate selection process. I would think it stands to reason that most employers will take one look at that box checked â€Å"yes† and move that application to the â€Å"no† pile.And this is only one question. Nowadays, most professional and corporate employers will conduct background checks on job candidates. This can be a problem for a person who has made mistakes in their life but has changed their behaviors and is looking for honest employment, and this is why the practice of running full background checks is basically set up to continually punish t hose who have made mistakes in the past. According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, many â€Å"negative† records are expunged from employer background checks after 7 years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).This includes arrests over 7 years ago, criminal records compiled by law enforcement agencies, and bankruptcies over 10 years old. However, much of this is public record, and though a standard background check might not yield this information, there are plenty of private information brokers on the web that will track it down, and this information is often not verified by the broker (such as charges being dropped against a person who was arrested—the broker might report only the arrest). As Crane notes in â€Å"The ABCs of Pre-Employment Background Checks†: â€Å"Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccurate information out there.Just like the mistakes that may pop up on your credit report, bad data can turn up in the course of a background check. And t his wrong information can cost you a job. † Not only is there a stunning lack of privacy in this age of electronics, there is also no guarantee that the information being reported is accurate, which causes immediate problems for the individual applying for the job. Also, despite the fact that, for example, arrests made over 7 years ago are not supposed to be reported in a background check, there is nothing stopping the employer from asking, â€Å"Have you ever been arrested?†, a question which acts as a double-edged sword for someone who had been arrested several years before. In the cases of individuals who might have something in their past that they’re not proud of, information that can cost them their fair opportunity for employment is readily available to potential employers, even if it the FCRA specifically rules against it. Because of these Internet-based information brokers, there is no guarantee that information that shouldn’t be reported isn†™t still getting into the hands of the employer, and this is information that creates an inherent bias against the candidate in the employer’s mind.Information about long-ago prior arrests, fiscal irresponsibility in the form of previous bankruptcies, and criminal records which are not part of the public domain are easily acquired in a background check, and potential employers use this information as a major strike against the candidate. There is plenty of other information that is legitimately acquired in the course of a background check that can be detrimental to the perceived character of the person applying for the job.Information such as driving records, credit reports, interviews with neighbors and former employers, medical records, court records, and drug test records (just to name a few) are all standard-practice as part of an employer background check. Checking the box that authorizes an employer to conduct a background check opens a door into a person’s pas t in ways they might not have initially considered and affecting their chances at employment in ways they might not even conceive.It is understandable that in the wake of 9/11 and as a result of a recent surge in lawsuits due to negligent hiring practices (in which an employee caused harm to others), employers are practicing greater caution in their hiring practices. But by going as full-throttle as they are with the extensive amount of information being made available to them, they are essentially weeding out candidates who are talented, qualified, and educated but who have a spot on their records which leads to automatic disqualification of consideration by potential employers.People deserve to have a second chance in life, especially when they have taken all of the steps necessary to better themselves. It is grossly unjust that a prior arrest or criminal charge, especially one that isn’t even supposed to be part of a standard background check, would follow a person for the rest of their working lives, making it impossible for them to work in a professional field (especially when the rules as set by the FCRA are moot in cases involving government positions or positions that pay $75,000 per year or more).Let’s say a person, Joe Doe, has an old petty larceny charge, which many states consider a misdemeanor, but then loses a potential job offer because of it. The system is set up to continually punish those who have made mistakes in their past. In the above example of the felony charge check box (and a â€Å"felony† can be as simple as extorting $2,000 or being caught urinating in public), there is no way to avoid checking â€Å"yes† when the proceeding background check will show all of the related information, and act as an automatic disqualification for a person’s employment.When background checks are so pervasive and INVASIVE, what other options or opportunities does a person have left? This is why the system needs to be ch anged, and tighter restrictions need to be placed on what information is made available to the public. No record older than 7 years—criminal, felony, bankruptcy, or otherwise—should be made available for anyone to see.Only in the cases of serious potential endangerment (such as the higher-level sex offenders) should records older than 7 years be made public; otherwise people are being continually punished for old mistakes that they have more than rectified by paying their dues (either with community service, probation, monetary repayment, etc. ). It isn’t just that a person shouldn’t lose an opportunity due to long-ago mistakes; the reality is that employers WILL and DO discriminate based on that.In order for people to have the second chance they deserve, the restrictions on background checks and public records need to be tightened, to protect people who are trying to rehabilitate themselves. Otherwise, there is no rehabilitation to be had because the cha nce is never really given. References Crane, Amy B. â€Å"The ABCs of Pre-Employment Background Checks. † Online. Available: www. bankrate. com Fair Credit Reporting Act. Online. Available: www. ftc. gov Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Online. Available: www. privacyrights. org

Dystopian Society Essay - 1214 Words

Consilience between society and its government requisites a veto of propaganda ploys which separate politics and the populace as two disparate entities. Examination of Henry Reynold’s monograph memoir Why Weren’t We Told in contrast with Thomas More’s political meditations in Utopia and Vladimir Bortko’s 1988 film adaptation of Heart of a Dog reveals how composers shape their audience’s political perspectives in support of pellucid law and order. The three texts conclude on a collective consensus of what the worst bi-product of social manipulation is through analyzing the contrast between modern day Australia’s journey of reconciliation against examples of a utopian and a dystopian society. The root of crime in society is all acts of†¦show more content†¦is to give to all Australians, a shared ownership of their history vying for reconciliation through domestic policy. What is exposed in the memoir is the shiny perfect veneer cons tructed by Australia’s laws and policies on paper inaccurately representing the prejudice present to this day after years of brutality and displacement. More contends for philanthropic order and punishment against 16th century England’s religious doctrines, by defining his Utopia as the â€Å"best state of Commonwealth† fundamentally based on humanitarian principles and the prevalence of reason in natural law; as a combination of communism and liberalism. Through the use of a benign common citizen narrator and a self-representative character of high stature, the fictional history of the island of Utopia is told with a focus on the cause and effect cycle between the government and society. The audience is directly addressed by More’s narrative voice eliciting guilt by assuming that â€Å" if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes† results in â€Å"You first make thieves and then punish them.† With the country’s hamartia lying within the nature of the reward and punishment cycle, The violence is dir ected inwards rather than outwards in the fictionalized rendering of England due to Utopia being an isolated island and not being able to war with anyone else other than itself. The lawShow MoreRelatedDystopian Society Essay1882 Words   |  8 PagesThe United States: Movements Toward a Dystopian Society The destruction of nature, increase in the pollution across the globe, constant surveillance upon everyone, and the inability to have the freedom to search what you would like on electronic devices. This action will result if the cautionary text, Fahrenheit 451, is not utilized to locate and withdraw flaws in our own modern and developing North American society. Despite the date of the text, the messages displayed can directly correlate toRead MoreDystopian Societies Essay886 Words   |  4 PagesThey rule by having everyone as an equal, so no one is poor and few people are rich. They are seemingly alike in so many ways. Amongst the political spectrum there are two dystopian governments more alike than as difference, communism and monarchy. A monarchy the farthest right one can go on the political spectrum, dystopian ideas running at the max. In retrospect its a single person in control. Thats right a single person also know as the king a queen. In isnt like this person is a presidentRead MoreEssay of Dystopian Societies #21154 Words   |  5 PagesDystopian Societies Human vegetables, all controlled by the eights of their technology, all unaware of the real problems around them; a dystopian society. Farhenheit 451 and The Island, two stories that share this wretched theme. But both stories each have a character that questions it all. They both go against what others say. They followed what their hearts had to say, and thought for themselves. With no literature for Guy Montag in Farhenheit 451 and the longing for freedom for Lincoln 6-EcoRead More1984 Dystopian Society Essay1164 Words   |  5 Pageslittle freedom to express their own opinions. This is because dictators create societies that they feel are supreme. In order to have an almighty society, each person has to think and behave the same. George Orwell created a dystopian society, Oceania, where the government was controlled by Big Brother. Winston Smith, the main character, slowly realized that the Party, or the government, was manipulating their society to make the Party immortal. Wins ton presumably wanted to stand up for his beliefsRead More1984 Dystopian Society Essay1212 Words   |  5 PagesEnvision the presence living in a dystopian society - where citizens are watched day-and-night. George Orwell’s novel 1984, written in 1949, depicts and illustrates the future of the 1980’s. Orwell imagined the world in which totalitarianism reigned, individualism is dead, and history is just sentiment. The world diverged into three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. With protagonist Winston Smith and the citizens of Oceania, they have experienced the impression, having to live life behindRead More1984 Dystopian Society Essay1445 Words   |  6 Pages1944, famous author, George Orwell, composed a novel about a dystopian society called 1984. Telescreens that could see and hear everything someone did, children who turned in their parents for ideas about overthrowing the government, and a clueless society surviving on only what the government told t hem were the main problems in Orwell s novel. Orwell s purpose for writing this novel was not as a prediction of what the future of society would look like, but more as a warning. He warns of the problemsRead MoreFahrenheit 451 As A Dystopian Society Essay1048 Words   |  5 PagesImagine living in a society where the whole world of literature has been completely turned upside down. Books are now being burned in attempt to stop the characteristic we know as individuality and a dystopian society seeks to control the population by eliminating individual desires, thoughts and passions. The novel Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury explores the idea of a dystopian society that burns books to eliminate individuality and specific opinions between all persons. The protagonistRead MoreEssay about Dystopian Society, V for Vendetta658 Words   |  3 PagesV for Vendetta History has a tendency to repeat itself.   One of humanity’s most popular ways of getting its point across is through violence.   When words are no longer enough to argue a point, human casualties not only directly solve the problem, but symbolically send a message to all those affected as well.   Just as the American colonies fought against the British for Freedom when their voice was no longer heard, and just as the Islamic extremists used terrorism to send an evil message to AmericaRead MoreEssay about Dystopian Characteristics in Society Today1852 Words   |  8 PagesThere will always will be a power or a government with a society. Whether it be as small as a group or as large as a country. According to multiple sources, government has been around since the first city-state was created. Just by this source alone we demonstrate how society has always needed an order and power: Government. Dystopian: An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad , typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Lord of the Flies, a novel that is realisticRead MoreThe Dystopian Society in George Orwells Novel 1984 Essay469 Words   |  2 PagesPEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.† Part 1,Chapter 1,pg. 6. These three principles were repeatedly emphasized throughout the book and helped lay the foundation of the dystopian society George Orwell imagined in his novel 1984. Fear, manipulation, and control were all encompassed throughout this dystopian society set in the distant future. The freedom to express ones thoughts was no longer acceptable and would not be tolerated under any circumstances. Humankind was rapidly transforming into