A detailed analysis of The Red-Headed League Essay Example for Free

A detailed analysis of The Red-Headed League Essay In 1888, A Study in Scarlet was published, bringing together the infamous duo of Holmes and Watson and in the creation of Holmes, earned Conan Doyle his fortune. Scandal in Bohemia and the following stories of his characters journey into the world of crime solving appeared in The Strand magazine. The 1880s saw a growing market for popular fiction and at a mere sixpence a week, it had anxious people rushing to the stands for literary entertainment, amusement and escapism. The double act of Holmes and Watson is very effective in the short stories by Conan Doyle. Holmes is often described in the short stories with extended imagery, often like creatures and monsters.  His head was sunk upon his breast, and he looked from my point of view like a strange, lank bird, with dull grey plumage and a black top-knot.  This imagery helps to reinforce the idea that his sharp and piercing eyes give the impression that he is very alert. Holmes is also described as having a tall, gaunt figure with slick black hair and hawk-like yet austere facial features. He is portrayed as being a blunt and impatient man. At the beginning of The Red-Headed League after Watsons initial intrusion, he pulls Watson abruptly into the room and he is anxious for Mr. Jabez Wilson to recommence his narrative. Watson, on the contrary, is a polite man. When he walks in on Holmes and Wilson having the conversation, he apologises and starts to withdraw. The choice of Watson as the narrator for these short stories is very effective. From the beginning, it is clear that they are very close friends, and the feeling of this friendship is made tangible in The Final Problem, as Watson mourns the tragic death of Holmes. Another reason Watson is effective as the storyteller, is that compared to Holmes amazing powers of logic and deduction, he seems more like a normal person. He, like the reader, is amazed by Holmes skills, yet he does not understand them. During the denouement of The Red-Headed League, Watson helps the reader understand how Holmes came to his conclusions by asking him the questions that are in the readers mind, such as, But how could you guess what the motive was? and, how could you tell that they would make their attempt to-night? This satisfies the reader and adds realism it helps them accept it is possible. Also, as Watson is left in the dark until the conclusion, it emphasises Holmes ingenuity and powers of deductive reasoning. Throughout The Red-Headed League, there are many clues that enable the mystery to be solved. The idea of the Red-Headed League was so bizarre that there had to be something beyond the obvious evidence. Holmes chuckles after the reading of the advertisement found in the newspaper and concludes that it is a little off the beaten track. The strange factors that surround the hiring of Wilsons assistant, Vincent Spaulding, make the reader (and the characters) quite dubious of his authenticity. Vincent worked at half wages and he had been with Wilson about a month before he showed Wilson the advertisement for The Red-Headed League and recommends strongly that he applies. When Holmes and Watson go to Mr. Wilsons shop to meet the assistant, Holmes notices the knees of his trousers. All of these ideas are evidently significant to solving the mystery, but the significance cannot be seen by anyone else but Holmes. The scene with Holmes, Watson, police agent Mr. Jones (of Scotland Yard) and Mr. Merryweather, the bank director, sitting in the pitch darkness is effective at building the atmosphere and mood needed for the finale. Watson depicts the scene with fantastic imagery. As they wait in the earth-smelling passage in absolute darkness, Watsons nerves are worked up to a pitch of expectancy. This illustrates the anticipation being felt by the characters and the readers themselves. Watson says there is something depressing and subduing about sitting in the sudden gloom and the cold, dank air. Although he is excited about their scheme, he realises the darker side to the outcome. After sitting in the darkness for a period of time, and after Watson thinks that the night must have almost gone, and the dawn be breaking above them, Watsons limbs become weary and stiff. Watson is physically starting to feel very uncomfortable in that situation, yet he fears to change his position. His hearing becomes very acute and he can start to distinguish the deeper, heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin sighing note of the bank director. This details how still and silent the characters are in this intense moment. Suddenly, his eyes catch the glint of a light. Starting as a lurid spark, it turns into a yellow line before an almost womanly hand appears from the gash. The culmination of the action will soon be played out before the reader. At this point, you can see how Conan Doyle has created the tension for the reader and how this will affect their enjoyment of the concluding pages. The Final Problem has a very different theme. As soon as the first paragraph has been read you can sense the feeling of desolation as Watson writes with a heavy heart and speaks of the singular gifts by which Holmes was distinguished. The whole story has a disheartening ambience. This is reinforced by the surprise and very uncharacteristic entrance of Holmes. He acts very unusually and Watson seems confused. Holmes use of euphemisms is unanticipated, as he is usually a very blunt and straightforward man. Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely'  He also uses heroic understatement here for effect. You can also detect the use of present participles as soon as Holmes presence is felt, he starts flinging the shutters together and persists in bolting them securely. The word bolted has a very aggressive sound and therefore helps to visualise Holmes urgency and distressed nature. Their brief and minimal exchange is particularly dramatic.

Lawsuits and the End of Sanity in America :: Exploratory Essays

Lawsuits and the End of Sanity in America Not having experienced much of the past is a mixed blessing. What's grotesque, shocking and unheard of to older Americans might seem normal, perhaps just a bit curious, to younger Americans. For example, last year New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial brought suit against gun manufacturers to recover carnage costs in his city. This January, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell met with his advisors to consider whether the City should sue gun manufacturers for creating a public nuisance since guns were used in Philadelphia's 400-plus homicides. The City would seek to recover the cost of everything from cleaning up after bloody murders to the costs of court and social workers for victims. Mayor Rendell's imagination has also led him to discover a new liability for tobacco companies: since some of Philadelphia's fires have careless smoking as their origin, why not sue tobacco companies to recover the city's fire losses? Decades ago anyone suggesting bringing lawsuits against gun manufacturers for homicides, or tobacco companies for fires caused by careless smoking would have been considered a prime candidate for a lunatic asylum. If one generalizes from the lawsuits brought against gun manufacturers because people use their product to commit murder and mayhem, and against tobacco companies for smoking illnesses and fires caused by careless smoking, he would conclude that people are not to be held responsible for anything they do. It is the inanimate object, while incapable of acting, that is responsible. That is, a gun is responsible for murder, not the gun's user. A cigarette is responsible for a fire, not the careless smoker. That being the case, it "logically" follows that manufacturers of the offending inanimate object are culpable. After all had the manufacture not produced the gun or cigarette there would be fewer homicides, smoking-related illnesses and fires caused by careless smoking. This it's-not-my-fault principle could be broadened to include just about anything. If a scantily clad young lady is prancing along the street, distracts my attention, and I have an automobile collision, the it's-not-my-fault principle would hold the young lady liable for my accident. But she might make the case that it is the manufacturer of her mini-skirt who is really liable. If we Americans were to carry the it's-not-my-fault principle to its logical conclusion, we would virtually guarantee poverty. There would be little production. Why should I manufacture irons if I could be held liable for anything a person might do with the iron, including assault or leaving the iron unattended thereby causing a fire.

Lord of the Flies and Psychology Essay

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, narrates the story of a group of English boys as they struggle to survive on an uncharted, uninhabited island. The boy’s airplane crashes into the island and kills any adults on board — leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Ralph and Piggy meet each other first and, upon Piggy’s counsel, Ralph decides to call a meeting of all the boys by blowing on a conch shell. The boys quickly begin to form a society in which they elect Ralph as their leader. A boy called Jack quietly disagrees and believes that he should lead the group. As times passes, Jack and his choir become hunters for the rest of the boys and they begin to enjoy the ways of a predator. As Jack grows more savage, he becomes unhappy with the way that Ralph leads the boys and decides that he will go to the other side of the island and start his own tribe. Boys slowly begin to leave Ralph to join Jack. The boys become so savage that they kill two boys and they plan to kill Ralph. Just as Jack has cornered Ralph, a naval officer appears and rescues them all. Golding depicts not only the struggle of the boys to survive, but also the psychological reasoning that leads the boys to abandon the civilized nature that they know. Through characterization and setting Golding creates in his novel, an ideal forum for validating psychological principles introduced by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud was a psychologist who pioneered the thought that the mind contains three different levels, the id, the ego, and the superego. The id bases itself on the pleasure principle; it meets basic needs. The id wants a quick satiation of needs and has no consideration for the reality of a situation. The ego bases itself on the reality principle, it understands that other people have needs and desires and that impulsiveness or selfishness can cause harm in the future. The ego meets the needs of the id, while taking the reality of the situation into consideration. The Superego develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on a child by influential adults in their lives. One could compare the superego to the conscience, as it dictates belief of right and wrong. Golding acknowledges these different states of consciousness within his novel by using characters to represent each one. For instance, Jack represents the id. Jack never takes into consideration the best thing for the group or himself in the long run and he holds himself accountable to no set of rules or any code of ethics. â€Å"Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat† (91). Jack addresses the issue of a beast believed to inhabit the island by filling his thirst for violence and neglecting to take into consideration that confronting a beast will most likely lead to danger. Jack’s reasoning involves selfish motives; he wants to get rid of the beast, he wants to kill, he does not care that he has potentially placed the others in a dangerous situation, nor does he realize the ludicrousness of the beast, Jack has neglected reality entirely. Piggy represents the ego. He constantly tries to reason with the other boys, when he and Ralph first meet, Piggy understands that the other boys also landed on the island and someone needs to find and help them. â€Å"We got to find the others. We got to do something† (14). Piggy also realizes that the boys will most likely stay on the island for a while before someone rescues them — if someone ever rescues them at all. Piggy understands the boys while staying in touch with reality and he knows that if he does not find the smaller boys and take care of them, they will die. Piggy comprehends the seriousness of their predicament and realizes what it will take to keep everyone in order and alive. Simon represents the superego because he adheres to the principles instilled in him by society and civilization. After Jack has killed a pig for the first time, he and his clan approach while chanting, Piggy whimpers and â€Å"Simon hushed him quickly as though he had spoken too loudly in church† (69). Simon’s conscience keeps Piggy in line even when dealing with savage Jack. Towards the end of the novel, the other boys savagely murder Simon; when the boys kill Simon they also kill their conscience, they kill the rules and implications set upon them in order to keep society civilized and from this point until the boys get rescued their savage nature completely takes over and nothing holds them back any longer. Alfred Adler believed that personality difficulties are rooted in a feeling of inferiority. He also believed that people focus on maintaining control over their lives. Golding shows these ideas in his novel. Piggy, Ralph, and Jack all have issues with inferiority and control, in some way each of them feels inferior and each them strives for control. The other boys consider Piggy substandard to them because physically he is not their equal, Piggy realizes that the other boys perceive him this way and tries to make up for it with his intellect and emphasis on the rules, which leads into Piggy’s control issue he tries to use control to counter act the feeling of being out-classed. Jack always strives for superiority, from the very beginning Jack feels that he should be chief instead of Ralph. Jack crumbles underneath his need to become more superior than Ralph and decides to takes control of his situation and forms his own tribe. Jack tries to control his life by getting his way and convincing other boys to get his way as well. Ralph fears inferiority, leadership thrusts itself upon Ralph but he holds his position in very high regard. As Ralph loses support from his tribe, he loses his superiority and he begins to lose faith in himself and become more nervous. Ralph does not like the loss of control in his tribe or in his life, the signal fire and getting the boys to help him make shelters was so important to him for this reason. Adler studied various types of people and he came to the conclusion that there are the four main types of people: The ruling type that tries to control others, the getting type that tends to go along with others ideas, the avoiding type that tries to isolate themselves to avoid defeat, the socially useful type that values having control over their lives and strive to do good things for the sake of society. Jack represents the ruling type with his demand that the boys do as he says â€Å"‘go on’ the two savages looked at each other, raised their spears together and spoke in time. ‘The chief has spoken’ â€Å"(141). Jack thrives off of ruling and absolute power. Sam and Eric fit into the category of the getting type, they tend to go along with and do what others tell them to do. Whenever Ralph is their chief they listen to him and go along with what he says, and then when Jack captures them and takes them to his tribe they adhere to his code and do what he says. Sam and Eric follow — they do not contribute to creative thought but they willingly take part in its aftermath. Simon represents the avoiding type, he largely keeps to himself, and he goes and finds a secret place where he can sit alone in the quiet with his thoughts. Ralph represents the socially useful type, he likes to have control of the boys but, unlike Jack he wants them to do things for the betterment of the group. Adler’s ideas come to life in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Psychologist Carl Jung believed that symbol creation was a key in understanding human nature. Symbols express something essentially unknown in the best way possible. The boys in Lord of the Flies create a symbol for their fear, at times the boys feel afraid and they cannot exactly express why. The boys create the symbol of the beast because they cannot touch or see their fear and so they imagine a beast that they could touch and see. Whenever Simon recognizes that the thing to fear lies within the boys he also creates a symbol, the Lord of the flies. Jung also believed that the introvert and the extrovert make up the main components of personality. The introvert, like Simon, tends to keep to themselves, and find more interest in ideas than in people. â€Å"Simon paused. He looked over his shoulder as jack had done at the close ways behind him and glanced quickly around to confirm that he was utterly alone† (56). The extrovert however, is outgoing and socially oriented. Both Jack and Piggy fit the description of extroverts because, they both freely express their ideas and long for others to hear and admire them. According to Jung a person that has a healthy personality can realize these opposite tendencies and can express each. Ralph most closely adheres to Jung’s theory about healthy personality. Ralph has a need for socialization but, he also knows when he needs time for reflection and thought, many times Ralph wishes that he had time to gather his thoughts before he had to go and present them in front of the rest of the tribe. When reading Lord of the Flies some readers may miss the latent meaning and only focus on the manifest. Readers who do not take in deeper psychological nature of the novel would attribute the boy’s different reaction to the island, to differences in personality and background instead of the boys taking on the image of the different levels of consciousness. This reader might think that they could not keep order simply because they are just young boys when their real motives were their subconscious need for superiority. The entire novel deals with the psychological principles set forth by Freud, Adler, and Jung; it could be considered a case study that verifies the very things that these psychologists believed.

Ed Mezvinsky, Father of the Groom - Urban Legends

A forwarded email attributed to Cincinnati news reporter John Popovich claims that Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clintons new husband, is the son of Edward Mezvinsky, a former Iowa Congressman who was convicted and sent to prison in the early 2000s for fraud. The forwarded email is correct. Description: Viral textCirculating since: August 2010Status: True (details below) Example Email contributed by James H., August 19, 2010: Subject: Birds of a featherFATHER OF THE GROOMBy: John PopovichBefore I came to Cincinnati, I was a news reporter at WOC in Davenport Iowa. I covered a lot of city council and a lot of political stuff. One of the guys I covered was Ed Mezvinsky, who was the Congressman from Iowas first district.Seemed like a pretty nice guy, but when he ditched his wife for a New York reporter, the Iowa voters ditched him.My most vivid memory is that he sat on the House Judiciary Committee that was deciding the fate of President Nixon.Anyway, years later, Fast Eddie got caught with his hand in the till. He cheated investors out of more than $10 million dollars. He went to prison for several years.This weekend, his son married Chelsea Clinton. Analysis True. On July 31, 2010, Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former president and first lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, was married to Marc Mezvinsky, the son of a former Democratic Congressman, in a Rhinebeck, New York ceremony the press described as lavish. The father of the groom, Edward Ed Mezvinsky, who served four years in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1977, indeed went on to serve five years in a federal penitentiary after being convicted of fraud in 2002. According to prosecutors, Mezvinsky crimes included repeatedly defrauding others by misusing attorney escrow accounts held in his name, engaging in schemes involving worthless checks deposited at banks, creating forged bank statements, using false financial statements, tax returns and accountants letters, and giving false testimony under oath. U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell ordered him to pay nearly $10 million in restitution to the victims of his scams. The former Congressman was contrite in an interview with the New York Post that took place in July 2010 just before the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding. Im remorseful for what happened, he said. It was a terrible time, and I was punished for that. And I respect that and accept responsibility for what happened, and now Im trying to move on and am grateful I have the opportunity for that. For purposes of verification, I attempted to contact former Cincinnati newsman John Popovich, to whom the above text is attributed. I received no reply. Update: Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky became parents with the birth of their first child, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, on September 26, 2014. Sources and Further Reading Chelsea Clinton Marries Marc MezvinskyPeople, 31 July 2010 Chelsea Clintons Father in Law Lives Down Criminal PastNew York Post, 29 July  2010 Will Father of the Groom Be Welcome Figure at Chelsea Clintons Wedding?ABC News, 1 December 2009 Former Congressman Duped by Nigerian ScamsABC News, 8 December 2006 Mezvinsky Gets 6 Years for FraudPhiladelphia Inquirer, 10 January 2003 Last updated 06/22/15