Life of Oscar Wao analysis free essay sample

Why does society as a whole stand for everything it fights? In a world that criminalizes bullying and preaches about equality, do social crimes slip through the cracks unnoticed. It is true that things we are afraid of draw our attention, and we are dedicated to crushing our fears aren’t we? Did a kindergartener know what a terrorist was before September Eleventh? No, and he likely wouldn’t have been able to locate the Middle East anymore than his house on a map. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended the thought of an immediate end of the world by nuclear war. A war we thought we have swept under the rug is the war on social injustice. America is the land of the free, because of the great lengths we go to protect ourselves, but as a result we have ostracized our own people and abandoned our founding principals. We will write a custom essay sample on Life of Oscar Wao analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page America was formed by outcasts from every region in the world. Many sought religious freedom and others escaped from trouble at home. As a nation full of the unwanted we do a lot to make others feel ostracized. The Jim Crow laws, which were in place in the south for almost a century accomplished the sole goal of separating African Americans from the rest of society. During the onset of World War Two we incarcerated thousands of Japanese Americans, because of their heritage. We have a history of making every effort to prevent change and divide this nation. All of this is simply evidence that this problem has existed between races and communities, since this nation’s founding. Today, however, it is unacceptable to target other races and as a result we have turned our focus to within our communities. Our change of focus toward our communities is profound in the school systems. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a Dominican boy living in the ghetto experiences both ends of what it means to be Dominican. Oscar has experienced two very different lives, one where people honor him and another where people walk over him. The ironic part is, which one he had first, how Oscar could go from the top to the bottom without changing himself shocks me. Oscar seems to be contempt with his lifestyle, only his family can’t seem to accept this fact. Oscar was meant to be the ladies man he was in his early years and not the big, sci-fi loving teen he turned into. The only people who push for a change in Oscar’s life are the ones who surround him. â€Å"Oscar, Lola warned repeatedly, you’re going to die a virgin unless you start changing Cut the hair, lose the glasses, exercise† family always knows best, right? Oscar’s family is willing to force an alternate lifestyle upon him and if they are willing to target family they’re likely target others. Oscar, to the surprise of others, accepts his position amongst his fellow dominicans, realizing he will never bat three hundred or date the prettiest girl in school. Oscar is contempt with his life and enjoys every second, which is what others should understand and appreciate. If they fail to do this our very own principals, which were based on freedoms of the individual are being threatened. This war being fought at home is largely one sided with the people who posses social power using it to suppress those like Oscar. While Oscar is an example of a victim, the Underground man is an example of a persecutor. He may not be the first person you think of when it comes to bullies, but think of The Underground man’s outlook on society. He seeks to change societies many faults, but within himself many of the same stereotypes he seeks to destroy exist. His rare dialogues with friends and Liza often leave the reader frustrated, because of his tendency to contradict himself. He finally meets a new face with Liza, and he allows himself to open up to her at first, but this quickly changes. His need to develop a profile for her drives her away from him. He does this to himself and in a sick way it almost satisfies him. The Underground man seems to enjoy being the martyr for the downtrodden. It is almost like he does not belong there, but he desires to be and as a result he continuously shoots himself in the foot during any social interaction. He continues to do this as he searches for purpose in the taverns of St. Petersburg and he does this hoping to get thrown out of the bar in a physical confrontation. He makes up reasons for being thrown out and when nobody satisfies his temporary addiction, he takes a forgettable event and turns it into the next great atrocity of man kind. The Underground man fights to belong, and when he can’t he targets others for no sensible reason. People who are quick to judge and persecute are often the most conflicted internally. This odd plight the Underground man suffers through resembles that of many americans, who seek a good for society, but instead drive society further apart. The media is perhaps the strongest weapon for change. The liberal and conservative media both have a tendency to blow things out of proportion, and people latch on to the hysteria that is caused. The West Memphis Three were victimized for their differences within the community. One of the boys wore black around town and listened to metal music, thus he was instantly paired with devil worshiping. An accusation of devil worshiping was enough to send him and his two friends two prison for about twenty-five years. This town was afraid of a new, said to be violent religion and quickly expelled those involved. Such drastic measures were so easily taken by innocent people who were overwhelmed in a time of racing emotions. By allowing the media to sway public opinion; we run the risk of allowing hysteria to take over our actions. We have found that people are quick to judge those who don’t fit in with the community for many reasons, but the sad part is that this is often a result of intense and quickly reseeding emotions. People have two types of persecution in them: they either hold deep grudges based on stereotypes or they over react for a short amount of time. The problem is the damage inflicted on the targets of the hazing. Kids are prone to the quickly fading hate and this often hurts kids the most who don’t understand, like me, the source of the hate. Isn’t it true that bullies in school are often letting out pent up aggression from home? This may be so, but what does it say about our parents. Adults tend to be the owners of grudges and these grudges show the true colors of stereotypes in every level of society. Stereotypes result from a lack of two things: knowledge and understanding. You can know everything about someone else, but if you are unwilling to understand the facts, not much progress can be made. The world is not all dark, and there are many people who do great things to bring awareness to this issue. Our teachers do a great deal to prevent bullying in school and they create programs to break down barriers that exist. Rapper Machine Gun Kelly stands for those who feel betrayed and outcasted by society. Many of his songs speak about the trials he passed and essentially crawled through. His fans relate to him and feed his drive to give back through music. In his song See My Tears his verse â€Å"Look man, I been through it all, and Im a damned if I got this far, And I let them strip me of this message, let these haters take my heart. This for the ones that had it hard, the ones like me, the underdogs. †, MGK speaks of the times he was considered down and out, but he won’t let those who doubted him take everything he made himself to be. This speaks to the belief that everyone has a potential and it can be reached in many different ways. Potential is something that brings up an interesting subject, because maybe those who stand out against the social norm are in fact better than the majority. The majority becomes contempt with itself after some time and it needs people to shake the foundations it stands on. America is the land of the free, because of the great lengths to protect ourselves, but as a result we have ostracized our own people and abandoned our founding principals. We have gone to great lengths to protect ourselves against foreign enemies, but Americans have overlooked the changes occurring within. We have committed crimes throughout our history and its time for change. Oscar is an example of those who are victimized for being different, and The Underground man persecutes others for not being up to his standards. They represent the two sides of the war, that threatens our founding principals. Society has many upstanding people who fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. These people are our best chance to repair the weakening foundations within our communities. Their efforts may take some time, but their efforts are proof, that not all is lost. America was founded with the idea that change is necessary, and as long as people are willing to fight there is always hope.

Analysis and Assessment of Baumgartner Jones Agendas and Instability in American Politics essays

Analysis and Assessment of Baumgartner Jones Agendas and Instability in American Politics essays I find a certain amount of difficulty when I attempt to offer an assessment of Baumgartner and Jones work, Agendas and Instability in American Politics. The reason for this is because the book is written in such a manner that it is enormously difficult to offer a conflicting argument to the model they use to describe how issues become part of agenda, the power of interest groups, policy monopolies, how power shifts, and other issues related to the aforementioned. For this reason, I must say that I find their model to be on solid ground. The previous reading assignments in this course which where mostly based on the writings of C. Wright Mills and his protg Robert Dahl read like the thoughts of writers who were desperately trying to convince the reader that they are right. To the contrary, Baumgartner and Jones made no real attempts to sell their research and rather presented their findings and beliefs in a way that seems to say to the reader that this is the way things are. Examples of legislative activity that seem to conform to their model offered to the readers of Baumgartner and Jones are presented in a way that basically shows the reader how their model translates into real life as opposed to an offering of evidence to bolster the correctness of their assertions. The notion of policy monopolies I find to be a very believable concept when describing the formulation, definition and promotion of issues in the American political agenda. Making an issue a taboo or untouchable or dangerous to national security, thus ensuring its longevity, perhaps even immortality. This phenomenon is most visible in the issues of Medicare and Social Security. Both programs are in deep financial trouble, but anyone who advocates even the slightest bit of change in either program is immediately labeled an extremist who lacks compassion for our nations senior cit...

Was the foreign policy of the Bush administration driven by fears of Essay

Was the foreign policy of the Bush administration driven by fears of global terrorism - Essay Example However, many people believe that most of the changes made in the foreign policies by President Bush were motivated by imperialism rather than patriotism or fears of global terrorism. Two of the major components of Bush’s foreign policies were the doctrine: preemptive strikes against potential enemies and promoting democratic regime change. In other words, Bush declared that America has the right to attack any other nation which promotes terrorism. Moreover, he also declared that it is the duty of the Americans to promote democracy in the world. The current war on terror conducting by America in Iraq and Afghanistan were the result of the foreign policy changes made by President Bush. Most of the Americans are against war on terror since they believe that these wars are destroying not only the economy of the country but also life of American soldiers. 9/11 was of course an unexpected and shocking incident for the Americans; however, majority of the Americans think that terrori sm cannot be tackled with the help of war alone. Science and technology advances more and more and the terrorists finding new ways to attack their targets. Removing terrorisms from the grass root level is definitely the right option for the safety of the public, but it is not easy because of the widespread network of terrorists. President Bush was definitely aware of the fact that the terrorist network cannot be destroyed completely with the help of war on terror alone. Moreover, the immediate reason cited for Iraq war was the theory of weapons of mass destruction. However, even after the execution of the Saddam, no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons seized from Iraqi soil. Many people believe that the declared reason for Iraq war was not the actual reason for attacking Iraq. Some people argue that Bush Sr. was humiliated by Saddam earlier and Bush Jr. was taking revenge for that. Some others believe that Bush had sight on the immense fresh water and oil resources in Iraq which was the major reasons for attacking Iraq. America is currently suffering from huge energy crisis and shortage of drinking water resources. In any case, it is already proved that the declared reasons for the Iraq war were not justified. The case of Afghan war is also not an exception. Under such circumstances, it is logic al to think that President Bush had other intentions rather than the declared ones. Actually President Bush was trying to spread imperialism and he made use of the 9/11 incident to spread American imperialism. While declaring war on terror, President Bush kept meaningful silence on issues like; How a country can attack another country without convincing reasons? How the idealism of spreading democracy with the help of war can be justified? Is it necessary for America to take more pragmatic approach in fighting against terrorism?. Since Bush failed to answer these questions, it is logical to believe that Bush was motivated by imperialism rather than the fear of glob al terrorism. This paper argues that the real intentions of America’s foreign policy changes during the Bush regime was not for destroying terrorists, but for spreading American imperialism. Imperialism, global terrorism and Bush’s foreign policies ‘Imperialism’ can be defined as the attempt to dominate over other states with the