Bret Harte Essay Example for Free

Bret Harte Essay The United States has some of the best literature that has ever been written. American literature is very well refined and unique from other countries. In the writing world, American literature has not even been around that long. The past 337 years that America has been a country is relatively short compared to the thousands of years that literature has existed. The many great American writers are what make American literature able to overcome its short lifespan and be one of the greatest countries for literature in the world. From Washington Irving to Mark Twain, American authors are responsible for American literature’s current amazing state. One certain author played an especially important role in shaping a specific genre in American literature. Bret Harte is the man responsible for making the Western genre of literature popular. His stories are captivating. Bret Harte was able to contribute to the rise of American literature by shaping the Western genre so that other authors may adapt to his new style of writing, and by writing some of the most memorable stories of all time, such as â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat. † Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, on August 25, 1836. He was raised as one of his family’s four children. Harte was very ill from ages six to ten, which gave him free time for reading (Franks 829). This time for reading had a great influence on Harte, giving him blocks for him to build on in his writing career. He was especially affected by the writings of British author Charles Dickens (Franks 829). His family was so poor, that they were unable to afford for him to finish school (Franks 829). When his father died in 1845, Harte and his family moved to Brooklyn. When his mother became engaged again, he and his family moved to Oakland, where his mother was married. His family was still very poor though. These times of hardship were also very influential on his writing. He was able to understand difficult struggles, thus making the problems that his characters face in his stories more interesting. He connected with his characters in many ways when they would experience times of hardship. His time in Oakland is what made him such a great â€Å"Western† writer. It made writing about the Wild West natural for him. Harte then moved to Union, California, but was run out of town after publishing a newspaper story about local white men slaughtering Indians. Harte married Anna Griswold, and they had four children together. They lived together in San Francisco, where Harte wrote most of his popular stories and became quite famous. During the height of his popularity, he signed a contract with The Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 for 12 stories a year, the most money then offered to a U. S. writer (â€Å"Hutchinson’s†). His fame led to his stories becoming even more popular, but it would also go to his head. The main genre used in most of Harte’s stories is the â€Å"Western†. According to The New Encyclopedia Britannica, the â€Å"Western† is defined as â€Å"an original genre of novels and short stories, motion pictures, and television and radio shows that are set in the American West, usually in the period from the 1850s to the end of the nineteenth century,† (598). An average Western story was about a cowboy fighting Indians or a sheriff catching a bad guy, but Harte made his special. Of those stories, one of the most popular is â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat. † This story is about a group of people who are kicked out of their town for being â€Å"bad† people. They set up camp together and attempted to work with each other to stay alive. The group experiences many setbacks, including a member betraying them, a long snowstorm, and a shortage of food. While the reader watches the story unfold, he or she starts to see that these people really are not that bad, and perhaps they did not deserve this punishment. This story is very different from the traditional Western stories. In â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† Harte is able to make criminals seem like good guys. Usually a â€Å"Western† is about a perfect main character, who stops the bad guys; but in this story, the main characters are some of the worst people in the town. His is also different from traditional â€Å"Westerns† in the way that it does not have any guns. When most people think of a â€Å"Western,† they think of guns, but Harte was able to change that. He wrote a story with no guns at all, and it is able to focus more on the characters and their feelings, rather than action and violence. Harte goes far beyond the ordinary way of writing with this story. In the opening paragraph of â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† Harte writes: As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous. (â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat†) As is visible in this paragraph, Harte was a very descriptive writer. He was able to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and effectively set his story’s mood. The characters that Harte used in this story were very significant. As said by Abby H. P. Werlock, his characters included â€Å"the stoic gambler, the soft-hearted prostitute, the unthinking drunk, and the vigilante committee driven by personal interests and blinded by the passion of a moment† (Werlcok). All of these characters that Harte used are still seen in many Western stories today. In fact, they are quite typical in modern Western stories, but Harte was the one to come up with them. Shaping the Western genre and writing some of the most memorable stories of all time, such as â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† was how Bret Harte was able to contribute to the rise of American literature. After Harte’s era, â€Å"Westerns† became much more popular. He forever changed American literature to be much more Western themed. Harte will always be remembered as one of the best authors of all time, and more specifically, the man who changed the way Western stories are written.

Radioactive Frequency Identification: A Threat to Privacy :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Radioactive Frequency Identification: A Threat to Privacy As technology advances and the government continues to attempt to control us, an idea that was once thought ridiculous is now coming back with full force. The idea of RFID chips (Radioactive Frequency Identification) has already been put into place by many large companies and businesses however most civilians don’t even know they probably own products or clothing with RFID chip implanted in them. The government has not effectively publicized and made the information as available as they should have to educate people about this new technology. Radioactive frequency identification tags are very similar to barcodes in that they both scan onto computers to read information about a specific product. Experts say that eventually RFID chips will take over barcodes and be used in every store worldwide. RFID chips are also manufactured to use a certain frequency range. â€Å"Early RFID pilots have shown that other radio-frequency-based technologies often clash with RFID readers when frequency ranges overlap. As a result, companies have experienced difficulties during RFID pilots with bar-code scanners, cordless phones, push-to-talk devices, wireless networks, security systems, and other RF-based technologies† (Smart 4). As technology advances, we will see how RFID chips will take control of the market take the place of bar codes. Since the idea of RFID chips are new and haven’t been explored much, we have limited examples and uses available to us. However, we have to accept that RFID is going to take effect because large companies have already begun putting them to use in the products they sell. Eventually almost every product you own, wear or see will be implanted with an RFID chip. Sounds easy and helpful right? It is only going allow the government and monopolies to control customers and take away the little privacy we have. Granneman agrees that †by implanting RFID chips into everything we buy, the government will be able to track everything we do from which products we bought to where we went and what we did with them† (17) The concern here is that. â€Å"Whatever direction the industry at large takes, your business must operate on the Spider-Man principle: With great power comes great responsibility. Where privacy and data collection are concerned, privacy professionals understand that with more data comes greater responsibility and legal risks. If the industry reaches a point where it can somehow use RFID tags to track a product all the way into consumers' homes and beyond, the industry also must ensure that it's protecting the privacy rights of the individuals who buy that product.

Lab 2 Biology

Mitosis Hands-On Labs, Inc. Version 42-0091-00-01 Lab Report Assistant This document is not meant to be a substitute for a formal laboratory report. The Lab Report Assistant is simply a summary of the experiment’s questions, diagrams if needed, and data tables that should be addressed in a formal lab report. The intent is to facilitate students’ writing of lab reports by providing this information in an editable file which can be sent to an instructor. Mitosis Worksheet – Answer the questions about the photos below: Onion root tip photos at 600x and 1000x taken by Stan Carpenter of Hands-On Labs, Inc. 1. What phase is this cell undergoing? Telophase 2. What happens after this phase? Cytokinesis 1. The two center side-by-side cells are undergoing two different phases of mitosis. a. What are these phases? Prophase & Metaphase b. What diagnostic features can help you with your decision? The cell under going prophase is starting to lose it’s envelope yet the cell is still very much intact.General Biology Ii Study Guide (Online Class) The cell under going metaphase has spindle fibers all around the cell suggesting its in the metaphase stage of mitosis. 1. What phase is this cell undergoing? Anaphase 2. How can you tell? The chromosomes are separated yet not completely in two yet. 1. This cell has clearly visible chromatids. a. What's the next phase this cell will undergo? Tellophase b. Where will the chromatids go in the coming phase? Half the chromosomes go into one cell and half in the other 1. The cell in the lower center is exhibiting signs of what phase of mitosis? Prophase 2. What phase does it appear the cell above is undergoing? Anaphase 1. Explain what happens during anaphase. The spindle fibers begin to split the chromatids in two. Equal halves of the chromosomes are the result 2. When the chromatids separate, what is each called? Chromosomes Questions A. What is the purpose of mitosis? Produces the cells in the body as well as DNA. B. Why is the cell cycle important for organisms? The reproduction of cells is essential to the healing of wounds and natural development. C. What role does mitosis play in the growth of an embryo? Mitosis creates the embryo. The constant replication of DNA is needed to develop the embryo and it genes. D. What is one main difference in the mitotic processes between plant and animal cells? The main difference is seen in the cytokenisis stage of development. An animal cell will pinch into to form the daughter cells while a plant cell will form a new cell wall to divide the two. E. If the cell that has undergone mitosis originally had the diploid (2n) number of chromosomes, then what number of chromosomes will the nuclei in the two new cells have? 2n F. Can mitosis ever be used for reproduction? Yes in asexual reproduction G. What parts of plants are most impacted by mitosis? Apical meristem H. Why might mitosis be easier to study in the tip of the root? Because that is the area that is most affected during mitosis I. Where else in a plant might you find a large amount of mitotic cell division occurring? J. How might the mitotic index be applied in agriculture? K. What did you compute to be the mitotic index of the combined six slides (assume there are 54 total cells)? In comparison to the indexes reflected in Figure 8, from approximately which area of a root was the sample taken?

Why We Must Join Gangs - 2571 Words

People join gangs for many reasons and they could be in a lot of different situations. For instance, some kids could join gangs because of peer pressure. They could join gangs because one of their friends it doing it and they may think its cool. They may also do it because they think its fun or they may think it’s a quick way to make money. God does not want us robbing and hurting people for money. Unfortunately some kids grow up in less fortunate places where they might not have some of the everyday things we might have. So I believe that instead of showing hate towards the kids for their crimes we should look for ways to help are youth. Me being a teenager believe that unless you have a mental Illness there is no reason you should be affiliated with gangs. I definitely don’t believe that they should be committing any crimes. As for adults I believe that they have there reasons to, on why they join gangs, and why they affiliate with them. However that does not mean I agree with them or I am trying to defend them. I believe that nobody young or old should be in gangs let alone committing crimes however some people have different reasons. The people who are less fortunate tend to lean more towards violence and crimes as oppose to people who are more fortunate. I also believe that people who have a religion and are saved don’t commit as many crimes as people do. Young people might feel that they don t receive enough support or attention at home. They may be trying toShow MoreRelatedThe Is A Gang And His Article Develops A Convincing Argument1640 Words   |  7 Pages Ludeke believes MLO is a gang and his article develops a convincing argument. 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