The Decline of Morals and Morality in America Essay -- Expository Exem

America is in a Moral Decline      Ã‚  Ã‚   The founders of America believed that a popular government and its laws necessarily rested upon an underlying moral order that preceded both the state and man-made law. They referred to this transcendent moral order in the Declaration of Independence as "self evident truths" and "the laws of nature and of nature's god" (Barr pg. 211). For a republic to work, the founders thought, the people had to internally guided by commonly shared moral values. The founders viewed themselves as launching a great experiment: Could a free people retain a moral culture that would promote the self-discipline and virtues needed to restrain corruption? "We are still, in many ways, 'the shining city on the hill' for the rest of the world. What has sustained us over these two centuries has been our commitment to our great moral heritage" (Barr pg. 212). Today though, this "great experiment" appears threatened. According to a recent poll, 73 percent of Americans worry that the nat ion is experiencing a moral decline (Baker). They have the right to be concerned. For the last thirty years, a moral crisis has been brewing. It is undeniable that since the 60's, there has been a steady assault on traditional values. "Crime, broken homes, racial hatred, and problems related to sexual activity are on the rise" (Schuller). America's morals and culture are declining.    As reported in The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, since 1960, the population has increased 41 percent. The gross domestic product has nearly tripled; and total social spending by all levels of government has risen from 142.73 billion to 787.00 billion. During the same thirty-year period, there has been a 560 percent inc... .... Bennett, William J., The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, The Heritage Foundation, 1993. Ehrenreich, Barbara, "Oh, Those Family Values," Time, July 18, 1994. Krauthammer, Charles, "Down with 'Family Values,'" U.S. News & World Report, October 17, 1994. Kristol, Irving, "The Coming 'Conservative Century,'" The Wall Street Journal, February 1, 1993. Murphey, Dwight D., "America's Civilizational Crisis: The Rise of Internal Barbarism," Conservative Review, vol. 4, no. 5, September/October 1993. Schuller, Robert A. (1997) In Search of Morality, How You Can Live a Fulfilling Life from the Inside Out [On-Line]. Available: http://www.fni.com/heritage/aug97/Bookshelf.html Thomas, Clarence, "The Rights Revolution and America's Urban Poor," Vital Speeches of the Day, June 15, 1994.

Jane Eyre compares to The Eyre Affiar

The maln protagonist from both Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair both deal with the struggles of achieving honest love with their respective love interest due to the unusual circumstances of the relationships. For Jane, her and Rochester's relationship is not normal in any sense of the word. For Thursday, the issues she has with Landen are much more realistic, but they sting just the same. Both Jane and Thursday have their fair share of Issues with their men, but some of them are not that far off from each other. Quite a few of their relationship problems are the same, however varying In some degree.The want to no longer love but know deep Inside you always will, the surprise wife that springs up out of nowhere, and a purposeful distancing because of differences in ideal. Both Jane and Thursday understand what it feels like to love even though you wish you didnt. For Jane, she has felt this way about Rochester a few times throughout the book. One of them is when Rochester leaves Thornfie ld for a few days on business. This where Jane starts to become confused about how she really felt about Rochester, what exactly does she want to happen between the two of them? l had not intended to love him; the reader knows I ad wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me† (Bronte 128). This shows that the feeling are definitely there and, apparently, stronger than ever. This is an example of how Jane's feelings snuck up on her and that they are not what she Intended to happen at all. No matter how much she desires to not feel this way, It Is out of her control.Even though she may think that she is able to repress her feelings, they can never truly isappear, they may only be momentarily hidden. For Thursday, her feeling for Landen are there from when the book begins. She has her personal reasons for wishing that she no longer loved him. Whenever his name comes up, mostly by her family, she does her best to completely ignore it and quickly move past it. She hopes that the distance will take away her feelings but It only makes her heart grow fonder. During her first meeung with Landen, when she Is finally able to bring herself to look at him, her emotions hit her. The warmth and sensitivity I had once known so well as still there. I looked up at him, caught his gaze and looked away quickly. I had felt my eyes moisten. I was embarrassed by my feelings and scratched my nose nervously† (Fforde 114). Without warning, they come back and she does he best to try and hide them. She doesnt want to show how she feels in hope that she will start to believe the Ile that she Is telling herself. It Is obvious that she does not want Landen to know that she still loves him, she wants to keep up the act that she is angry with him.She is fighting a losing battle on the inside that shows on the outside, evide nt by er eyes starting to tear up. Both Jane and Thursday know too well the feeling of love and wishing it away with little success. One thing that makes these two situations different is that Jane is allowed to feel however she wants, she Just thinks it would be better to hide It. Thursday on the other hand Is not allowing herself to feel the love tnat Dotn ner ana Landen Know sne nas. sne nas Dullt up tnls wall towards nlm, wanting to keep him out but still close enough.A rather surprising similarity between these two novels is that the concept of the surprise wife appearing in both. In Jane's case, Jane finds out on the day of her planned wedding to Rochester that he is actually a taken man. He is technically married to a woman by the name of Bertha who he keeps locked away in the attic because she is not fit to wander the manor. She mentally sick and unstable, prone to violent outburst, especially to Rochester. When Rochester reveals Bertha, he compares her to Jane. â€Å"Compa re these clear eyes with the red balls yonder- this face with that mask- this form with that bulk† (Bronte 213).Rochester is basically calling Bertha a beast, trying to Justify his wrong actions. He is trying to reason his actions to Jane by saying Bertha should not even be considered a person worth making such a fuss over. His argument however is not the best, despite his true feelings for Jane, she can not look past it. For Thursday, the situation is a little more practical but actually hurts instead of shocks. During Thursdays second meet up with Landen, Right after they argue about the Crimea and her brother, Landen tries to end the fghting. Can we ever get over this Thursday? I need to know as a matter of urgency' (Fforde 188). This one line, seemingly somewhat unimportant, sets the hole scene for Daisy Mutlar, Landen's fianc ©. This information is revealed later on when Thursday calls Landen, only to end up talking to Daisy. Right off the bat, Daisy seems like a nasty women whose only goal is to get married, and it doesn't really matter to who as made clear in her remark to Thursday: mfou listen. If you try anything at all to interfere with my happiness I'll wring your stupid little neck! † (Fforde 214).Later on, Landen tries to Justify what he did by explaining to Thursday that he tried with her, but she made it clear to him that she couldn't let go of the past. It was time for him to move on with his life. For Jane and Thursday, this idea of the â€Å"other woman† really hurts and send both of them on an emotional rollercoaster. The unexpectedness of the situation creates the shock value that simply adds fuel to the fire. However, a key difference to notice is that Rochester is completely in the wrong while Landen technically had every right to do what he did, whether he should have done it is a different question.He had no actual commitment to Thursday, she is the one who broke thing off and she is the one who constantly pushes hi m away. Everyone has that point where they are done and accept reality. To him, finally ending thinks for Thursday was the right thing to do because that's what he thought she wanted. Both Jane and Thursday come to a critical point in their relationships where they are faced with the choice to stay or walk away. Their desire to stay is overcome by the flood of hurt feelings along with the instinctive intuition that leaving is best.For Thursday, this conflict happens before the book actually starts. It is later revealed to the reader that Landen Parke- Laine is an ex-boyfriend that Thursday was very much in love with. Both of them fought in the Crimea, where Landen lost one of his legs and also Thursday. Thursdays brother, Anton, also fought but sadly didn't make it, along with practically all of the Light Armored Brigade. This tragedy of war was devastating and because there were few survivors; the story of what actually happened is unclear.Landen, nowever, 010 survive, ana accor01n g to nlm, tne reason tnat all tnose llves were lost that day was because of a mistake made by Anton. Because Landen was the only one able to make the report, his word became the truth. This is where the ten year long eparation started. Thursdays anger toward Landen is so powerful hat even after all this time, she still refused to look at him when she finally saw him again. â€Å"We played like this for perhaps ten minutes, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him.I knew that if I did I would smile and I didn't want to do that. I wanted him to known I was still pissed off' (Fforde 114). Thursdays active attempts to show her anger shows Just how deeply what he did hurt her. It is clear that she still loves him but can't simply won't allow herself to. Thursday is pushing Landen away but is also holding on to the ope that he will stay. For Jane's situation, her and Rochester's critical moment is after Jane finds out about Bertha, a mentally ill women whom Rochester was tricked into m arrying and is still considered his wife.This is the last straw for Jane as she had previously put up with Rochester's harmless deceitful ways, but this time, it was too significant to overlook. Jane's anger stewed up inside her until she couldn't hold it any longer, and she and Rochester get into a heated argument the night Jane decides to leave. The argument reaches its climax when Jane pronounces, â€Å"Mr. Rochester, I will not be yours† (Bronte 227). It is here where Jane takes her final stand and factually states her view of the situation.A statement as clear and direct as this plainly conveys Jane's emotions, leaving no room for any other interpretation other than the one that it means, that she is done. She does not leave Rochester with any sense of hope that she still has the intention of being with him. The argument comes to a close and later that night, Jane leaves, without any notice. Both Jane and Thursday make this rash decisions but with every right to do so. T hey are extremely urt by what has happened to them and they can no longer bare to be around these men, so they remove themselves from the situation.It was an not an easy thing for either of them to do; leaving the one you love is not a happy experience, in any sense, but both of them knew it was what needed to be done. Love is only one of the things that these two women have to deal with throughout their stories, but it may be the most important. In both cases, the book ends with the evident marriage of the unusual couple, forgetting all the problems they had along the way. In the personal lives of these characters, love is what matters to them.No matter what they are experiencing on the outside, the subject still stays somewhere in their head, it never fully leaves. That is why happy endings tend to wrap up with the wedding that could be seen practically from the start. Jane and Thursday, though they both had great struggles with love, some of them not too different from each other , both managed to get what they wanted in the end, even though they spent so much time wishing they didn't want it. They were able to but all of the deceit in their relationships behind them and focus on the truth, that they are in love.

Edgar Allan Poe s The Haunted Palace Essay - 943 Words

Edgar Allan Poe: The Haunted Palace Edgar Allan Poe is a classic name in literature and is known for many of his works. Most of his works reflect one s thoughts, emotions and life. Many of his works fall under the category of Gothic literature, which is a combination of horror, death, and a little romance. Edgar Allan Poe s poem The Haunted Palace is a perfect example of Gothic literature, that also has a twist on romance. The Haunted Palace is one of Poe s most explicitly allegorical poems. In regard to Poe s most predominant theme here, it would be Gothic Romance. While each of his stories has some theme variation, a universal theme for all of Poe s Gothic stories is the dark nature of mankind. Poe was a Dark Romantic which means that while he agreed with the supernatural elements, focus on nature, and strict poetic structure of Romanticism, he did not share the Idealistic view of humans that many of the other Romantic authors of his time stressed. Poe constantly demonstrates through his works, that humans can always start off and appear to be normal and then somehow is overcome by the darkness of their mind and souls. The poem The Haunted Palace describes the decline of a stately palace from radiance to chaos. Rearing its head in Thought s dominion, the palace is an elaborate conceit for the human mind, the palace is where consciousness dwells. As I read this poem I assumed Poe was referring to possibly his own mind. Poe s mostShow MoreRelatedThe Fall Of The House Of Usher By Edgar Allan Poe1570 Words   |  7 Pagessister’s health. Would that not be terrifying? Like any tale of horror, whether it be written or an act, the fear factor will only increase with the small realistic details. One author who has mastered this single effect would be the ingenious Edgar Allan Poe. 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