“Brother, Can you Spare a Dime?”: The Depression Era
(624 Words)
What became infamously known as the Depression Era saw the crippling of a great country from 1930 to 1936. It had followed the epoch of the Wall Street Crash which rocked the American economy to the ground and hit every working man. Near on fifteen million people were out of work, and even those fortunate ones who before had had money were left with nothing, not a ‘dime’. And, this was not England where welfare is given, these men had nothing. So, how do you capture this moment in history? E. Y. Harburg’s ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime’ is one of the most famous songs of that era that encapsulates all that was happening in those desperate times as the protagonist protests his woes.
To begin, the opening lines of each verse tell us what this hard-working man has done for his country; ‘they used to tell me I was building a dream’, ‘once I built a railroad, I made it run’, ‘once I built a tower way up to the sun’. This guy has made an investment in his country, he has worked blood, sweat, and tears to make it better. He was one of the many that helped build the infrastructure; railroads, towers, to make America prosper and grow. Now, this average Joe’s dream of building an all-powerful country where he continues to work for its prosperity has been smashed to the extent that he has been reduced to begging in the street with only his past to think about.
Planet Mars, is it worth it?
(Words 1664)
Major countries from around the world may have longed to make a manned flight to the planet Mars. A human mission to visit, and successfully land on the planet Mars has long been a pipe-dream for science fiction writers and space exploration believers. It has been a fascinating subject, seen in movies, and talked about in science books. This mammoth task to an unknown land is certainly an issue of debate as to the significance of exploration to a faraway planet. The journey will be inordinately expensive and tremendously risky. Opponents have their reasons to dismiss the exploration and rightly so when the earth has so many problems to deal with, notwithstanding that we do not own Mars. The essay that follows will present an argument and give evidence to disagree that it is worth the expense and risk to make a planned flight to Mars.
The year was 1957, and Russia had just put their first artificial satellite into orbit in October 1957 starting the infamous Space Race which had two of the most powerful nations at that time battling for supremacy. President Eisenhower, the American President had to face the reality that the Soviet Union was winning the Space Race. In 1958, President Eisenhower sent a bill to Congress to create NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Congress passed the bill. The Space Race was a long-lasting competition between the United States and the Soviet Union between the years of 1957 to 1975. On May 25 in 1961, John F. Kennedy – who had become president four months earlier – told a Joint Session of Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” He included reasons such as being impressive to mankind, important for long-range space exploration. Moving on 50 years from JFK’s prophetic speech, there is the realization for some that a trip to Mars could open up a new planet as a new place to live. Mars has tremendous value to the human race as an occupied, settled planet where we can shuttle backward and forwards from our place here on earth to this new found land. Mars is said to be the only other place in the solar system on which settlement is relatively easy. The Martian day is only 30 minutes longer than ours, the sun provides adequate energy to grow food, the gravity is reasonable, and the temperature is not too cold. No other place is as conducive to a continuous human presence. There is also the overpopulation of the world which is rapidly growing each year, while it must be recognized that Earth has its own environmental problems. Some are amazed to think how this planet could help us, and the potential it holds. Being the first to be there would not only unite the conquering nation, but put that country on a firm standing, and bring unknown worth. The Obama Administration’s new mission for NASA, far from being anti-space exploration, puts the focus on developing new space technologies, exploring the solar system with robots, and pushing humans closer to living off the world. All of which will be funded a budget increase to NASA of $6 billion over five years. In “You Decide: Manned Mission to Mars” by Melissa Joulwan (2004), an American freelance writer, on KQED website, even puts “Regaining the top position in science and technology is another reason to support a Mars mission.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray – A summary
(950 Words)
Set in the nineteenth century, The Picture of Dorian Gray takes us into the life of the ever-youthful Dorian Gray, our main character, and his plunge into the depths of ignorance, indulgence, corruption, and murder as the picture painted for him reveals his fate through a ghastly transformation.
To begin, Basil Hallward, the painter so admires Dorian Gray’s elegance and beauty that he paints a picture of him that he quips is the finest picture he has ever created. Dorian is a well-to-do gentleman who is with money and very pure in that he is not one to indulge in the nastier habits of life. The only problem with Dorian is that he is impressionable and by meeting Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian is captivated by the Lord’s hedonism and contempt of Victorian society. Lord Henry only lives for his aristocratic life and does nothing while getting pleasure from corrupting others.
Memoirs – A trip that goes astray
I had been partying hard on the idyllic island of Ibiza for 3 months. It was time to go home, back to England. It was either that or lose my mind to endless sleepless nights with too much drink. I had already sold my flight ticket home and was looking for the same deal. This involved using someone else’s ticket to get home. All the ticket holder had to do was check in with their passport and your bag, then you swapped. Thus, when you went through boarding, onto the plane, they only checked your ticket, ending up you went home cheaply on someone else’s ticket.
So, the ticket seller checked in my bag and showed his passport, got the boarding pass and my flight home was on. He then gave me the boarding pass, I paid him the money, and he left leaving me to catch the flight. On the way to the terminal I bumped into a girl friend of mine and told her the trick, she laughed. We both walked through the airport chatting about special Ibiza times without a care in the world.
It was now time to board, so I walked up to get on the flight. Unfortunately for me this time was like no other. The usual drill of just checking the ticket had gone, maybe they had cottoned on to the deceit. They were now checking tickets and passports together. What could I do? I had paid the money for the ticket and had to chance my luck. Moreover, I had already decided it was time to leave or risk further crazy problems. So, I walked up to the ground staff, they looked and looked again at the ticket and passport. There was a discrepancy. They pulled me to one side. My friend worryingly looked over, but there was nothing she could do.
The police arrived in no time, I was in trouble. They spoke no English and marched me away; all I could do was to accept the possibility of jail. They took me down the out of the main concourse and down flights of stairs. This was a long walk, where was I going? It was all getting louder. I could see the planes. It was then that I realised this must be the plane I was supposed to be on. I was marched up to the side of the plane and lifted up to find my bag. This was found in no time; at least it felt like that. I was certainly in a daze. Now, it was time to face the consequences of my actions. I thought my next move would be in the police car and kept overnight in some rough jail. They again marched me though the airport and then through a set of doors near the exit. It was then that they pushed me away and showed me the exit. I just walked half expecting this was not my chance to go. I was now outside; I kept walking then ran a little just be free of what just happened. I jumped in a taxi and was soon back to where I started all those hours ago.
(532 Words)
A&P Themes by John Updike
Once you read John Updike’s short supermarket story you are hit by many different themes. A reader could say it is the decadence of the girls who go against society’s norms by wearing their bikinis in the supermarket; there is also Sammy, a shop worker, who could well have made a rash and stupid decision to leave his job. Both of these themes are justified, although I believe that the main theme in this passage involves how mundane life can be. This is shown in the supermarket which is turned upside down with the entrance of the three scantly clad girls.
Within the first paragraph, the reader gets an idea of the two worlds Sammy is faced with. On the one hand Sammy has a welcome female distraction that he can not keep his eyes off, as he rings up the same product twice on the cash register. This is contrasted by the lady he is serving, as we find out she is a ‘witch’ of about fifty who sees his mistake and gives him ‘hell’. Sammy rudely comments that she would notice the mistake, as she had been doing week in week out for forty years.
Sammy alludes further to the dullness of the supermarket when he refers to the shoppers as ‘sheep pushing carts down the aisles’ and how they walk around the shop following each other, even though there are no one-way signs. Of course, the girls clash with this almost robotic movement of the shoppers by going against the flow of traffic.
Furthermore, we find the manager with some decisions to make. Sammy comments that he is a ‘pretty dreary’ figure. The manager does not help alleviate the mundane feel of this place, as his attitude to the girls does not raise a smile on his face. He comes straight out and tells them ‘this isn’t a beach’ He gives them a ‘sad superintendent stare’ as he reprimands them for not being decently dressed. We again see Sammy’s contrast to the situation, as he raises a smile which his manager notices and does not like. The manager compounds his dull attitude by commenting to the girls that it is the ‘company policy’.
Finally, the boredom and monotony of the supermarket is ultimately shown as Sammy quits his job. The experience of the day has told Sammy to seek a more interesting profession.
(Words 397)
