William Preston Essay Example for Free

William Preston Essay The Half-Brothers is a short, realist, tragedy story, that illustrates the hardships that the poorer people had to undergo in the late Victorian period especially the hardships faced by widows and some of those around them. I think that the purpose of the story other than to entertain the reader is more to make people realise how difficult it is for people living in harsh conditions and to perhaps examine human relationships. I think that the genre of the story is perfectly suited to the purpose because of its realism and tragedy, I think that the reader is possibly affected emotionally even if the emotion felt is a slight feeling of happiness because they are not in the scenario faced by the fictional characters portrayed by the author Elizabeth Gaskell. Obviously the reader faced with such a tragedy would want to read all of the story and that is why I think that genre is well suited to this story. The story can be divided into six sections. The first section is the introduction, the second section is the development of the story, the third section is the climax, the fourth section is the narrator of the younger brother and the final section is the conclusion of the story. Many events take place in the story, in the introduction the story mentions the death of the eldest brothers farther, the story tells us that the narrators sister dies before he is born, it also tells us that the narrators mother did not cry at her daughters death but instead did not cry until the coming of the narrators half-brother were I quote, When my aunt came back from the funeral, she found my mother in the same place, and in the same place, and as dry-eyed as ever. So she continued until after Gregory was born; and, somehow, his coming seemed to loosed the tears, and she cried day and night, day and night, in the development of the story it tells the reader about how the narrators mothers job and how his mother had to end her job because of bad eyesight, this part of the story also tells about William Preston asking the narrators mother to marry him and her reaction to that, the narrators mother gets married and has a child early she then dies, with the farther blaming the narrators brother for hastening his brothers birth. In the climax the story tells the reader about the narrator leaving home and getting lost. In the rescue the narrator gets rescued by his elder brother but his older brother dies in the process. And in the conclusion of the story, the narrator tells the reader how his brother saved him, about the respect that his brother gains from saving his life and the sadness faced by everyone because of the way they treated his eldest brother. I think that the plot fits well into the structure because the structure and plot work up gradually to the tragic ending that concludes the story, that is why I think that the story can induce emotion into the reader because of the tragedy involved especially at the end. There are very few settings involved in this story, there is the home of the narrators mother at the beginning, the home of the narrator at his farther farm and the fells which the narrator describes it as, It looked dark and gloomy enough; but everything was so still that I thought I should have plenty of time to get home before the snow came down. And, The right path was clear enough in the daytime, although at several points two or three exactly similar diverged from the same place; but when there was a good light, the traveller was guided by the sight of distant objects, a piece of rock, a fall in the ground which were quit invisible to me now. This is where the narrator gets lost. I think that the narrator choose these settings because this is were the narrator grew up and so new the most about. I think these settings achieved the purpose of the story because the last setting illustrates the difficulty faced by the eldest brother to find the narrator at great risk. There are few main characters in this story, the narrator, his brother Gregory, his mother, his aunt fanny and his farther William Preston. The narrator describes himself as, I suppose I was a cleaver lad; at any rate, I always got plenty of praise; and was , as we called it, the cock of the school. He also says how everybody thinks of his brother, But everyone said he was stupid and dull, and this stupidity and dullness grew upon him.

Essay --

In my opinion, the most influential time period in American history since 1945 would have to be the 1960s. So much was going on in America during this time period. Such as the civil rights movement, the counterculture, the war and so much more. I am going to focus on the counterculture because I think that out of all of the commotion that was going on in the 1960s, the counterculture has the most lasting affects and the most came out of it that we still have in our society today. They shaped music, politics, and the culture of America. They had fresh ideas that most were scared to act on or did not believe in. They had open minds and wanted everyone else to try to as well. â€Å"Your mind is like a parachute, it doesn't work unless it's open.† -Jordan Maxwell †¨ The counterculture was so important to America because it changed norms of the early 1900s to the norms of today. The definition of the Counterculture is as follows. â€Å"The counterculture of the 1960s refers to an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed first in the United States and United Kingdom and spread throughout much of the Western world between the early 1960s and the early 1970s. The movement gained momentum as the African-American Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and became revolutionary with the expansion of the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam.† (Previous Quote taken from an online source) During the counterculture movement, people’s lifestyles started to change. People started dressing differently and acting differently. People’s clothes transformed. They changed from vary tailored styles into looser fitting and much more revealing especially for women in public. Men started growin g their hair out and... ...id, â€Å"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.† –John Lennon that is a perfect example of how people felt and why they wanted to change so much. As you can see, the 1960s was a turning point for America. Not only did we break free of social norms in society but also the generation fought for what they thought was right. Yes maybe they were looked at a little bit strangely but in the end the ended up changing America and molding it into the place that we all call home today. "If someone thinks that love and peace is a clichà © that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.† –John Lennon That is why, I believe the 1960s were the most influential years of American history since 1945.

Assessing Importance of School Factors Such as Racism Essay

A variety of material disadvantages that may confront ethnic minorities coming from working class backgrounds are they do not achieve the same level of education. The main achievers are Indian, Chinese and African students, but the lowest achievers are Turkish, Bangladeshi And Afro Caribbean students. The white working class students are the lowest achieving, which is peculiar because most sociologists are white who stereotype and label other students from different backgrounds. The main cause of underachievement in schools are cultural and language factors which sociologists clarify and focus on and are thought to be main cause of everything. Previously the spotlight has been put on what happens in school and racism in common As shown by Cecile Wright, which explains that, Asian students can also be the victims of teachers Cecile found out that regardless of the schools evident promise to equal opportunities, teachers still hold ethnocentric views they believe that British culture and English are greater. This prepared teachers to assume that they would have a poor pronunciation of English and left them out of class debates or used basic, childlike speech when speaking to them. Asian pupils also felt cut off when teachers spoken dissatisfaction of their behaviour or misread their names. Teachers saw them not as a risk but as a difficulty they could take no notice of. This resulted in that Asian pupils in particular the girls were hard-pressed to the limits and disallowed from play a part fully. Close at hand is proof of teacher racial discrimination and harmful labelling. Nevertheless study shows that pupils can take action in variety of ways. They may take action by becoming unsettling or withdrawn but pupils may decline to agree to the label and even choose to prove it incorrect by putting in hard work. Off-putting labels do not repeatedly twist into self-fulfilling prophecy Working class white pupils attain below standards and have lesser desires. There isn’t much parental support at home, which means there is low achievement and goals. Reports show that teachers have to deal with low level of behaviour and discipline in white working class schools. Nevertheless they had fewer kids on benefit programs teachers blame this on inadequate parental support at home and negative attitude that white working class parents have towards their children and their education. The life in the street for white working class can be tough for pupils which means they get used to getting intimidating and intimidate other which they pick up and use in school to cause disruptions and make it hard for other students to succeed at school. Underachievement of student of different is blamed on cultural deprivation. Few sociologists say that Afro-Caribbean families lack a close relationship to their family and therefore are extremely violent towards everything they do. Arguments explain that families aren’t very supportive towards their children and they don’t offer enough cultural capital for their children. Stereotypical views suggest those students are not deprived because of their class or because of their backgrounds. Factors like social class are important to certain ethnic minorities like Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and a considerable amount of Afro-Caribbean students, which are all working class backgrounds in which material deprivation play a main role because to find out why they achieve below the national standards. Sociologists say schools and curriculums made just for one specific group of ethnic minority gives priority to one particular ethnic minority while disregarding other ethnic groups. Some schools have curriculums, which are ethnocentric because they only give priority to English languages. The British curriculum has been described as exclusively British. In history Britain is thought to bring civilisation to ancient people are colonised. Black people as inferior weakens black children’s self esteem and Leads to them to underachieving and failing. It isn’t for sure what effects the ethnocentric study shows that black don’t really suffer from low self esteem. Wright’s study found some ethnic minority groups received poorer interaction from staff. Teachers perceptions were seem as stereotypical although Asian students were seen as good and black students were seen disruptive and disobedient. Study show that schools in cities which contain ethnic minority students were not benefitting in terms of O Levels entries because of being in low set and having to achieve high grade in order to get good results and become successful. Overall taking into consideration we can not split or label ethnicity from social classes and gender since this is really difficult matter as some of the main achieving students are from ethnic minorities so for that reason there isn’t a connection here so we can’t make statements or come to conclusions as to what the association among ethnic groups and schools actually are. Pupils can refuse to accept negative classing and teacher expectations. Sociologists can’t come to a conclusion to explain what occurs between teacher and students or what takes place in different ethnic groups related to education. Students live up to roles they are given but can try to resist the labels and getting put behind by carrying out what is thought of them to do or do what they want to do and achieve good education and become successful.

Depressed Parents A Child s Bad Behavior - 1631 Words

Reitz, Samantha AP Capstone Period 9 3-25-15 Depressed Parents Lead to Depressed Kids The finger is often pointed at the parents as an excuse for a child’s bad behavior, however this may be with good reason since parents have a huge affect on their child’s psychological development, leading to the way they act, good or bad. Raising a child to behave is not an easy task and this becomes considerably more difficult for parents suffering from some form of postpartum depression, parents who suffer from this are almost definitely going to negatively impact their child’s psychological growth in some way. According to the National Research Council, â€Å"Depression in parents has been consistently associated with a number of behavior problems and†¦show more content†¦Two weeks after the babies where born, they were scanned using an MRI to look at their brain and more specifically their amygdala. Researchers found abnormal wiring in the right amygdala of babies with more depressed parents. If depression during pregnancy does not mentally affect the baby, it can physically. When an expecting mother is depressed she is less likely to properly take care of herself which can lead to miscarriages, delivering before the due date, or giving birth to an underweight child. Diana Dell, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who is both an ob-gyn and a psychiatrist says, I ve said to my patients, when the mother-to-be is anxious or depressed, you generate some noxious chemicals associated with that, and in terms of (fetus) development it is not good† (Dell). Dell focuses on the sleeping patterns of children whose mother was diagnosed as depressed during pregnancy. The study proved that after six months a child’s sleep cycle should have been established, but if their mother was depressed or anxious during the pregnancy he or she is less likely to have an established sleep cycle (Doheny). Approximately 13% of all pregnant women take some form o f depression during their pregnancy. In order to cope with this depression during pregnancy, many mothers to be take anti-depressants however, after birth these medications