Remember The Titans :: essays research papers

Coach Boone is a great example of a leader. He knows he faces a tough year of teaching his â€Å"hated† team. But, instead of listening to the hating town or administrators, Boone pushes his team to their limits and forces good relationships between players, regardless of race. His vision for the team involves getting the players concerned in what the team needs to become, and not what it is supposed to be; a waste. Boone is a convincing leader with a brutal, boot camp approach to coaching. He believes in making the players re-build themselves as a team. When Boone says,† You will wear a jacket, shirt, and tie. If you don't have one buy one, can't afford one then borrow one from your old man, if you don't have an old man, then find a drunk, trade him for his.† It showed that he was a handy Craftsman and wanted done what he wanted done no matter what it took. During training camp, Boone pairs black players with white players and instructs them to learn about each other. This idea is met with a lot of fighting, but black linebacker Julius Campbell and stubborn white All-American Gerry Bertier end up getting a strong bond through Boone's heavy discipline. Boone teaches them that they can build their strengths and look beyond when they work together. Boone also uses both power and authority with his position as Head Coach to get his way. Since he is Black and has power, the white players do not immediately accept Boone's authority. Many threaten to quit the team if Boone remains as head coach, and their parent’s pressure to move their children to other schools. Boone must use power and mind-games to force the players to tolerate each other until he can help them look beyond the racial conflict. When training camp at the college ended, the players gradually respected his leadership more and more and no longer saw his power as unlawful or hurtful. The players thus agreed with Coach Boone’s philosophy and became friends with one another. When Boone's tactics finally began to pay off, the players start to recognize who they are and where they are going in life.

Lamb to the Slaughter Essay

Mary Maloney proves to be an interesting character in this story. She fits well with the dramatic irony, tone, symbolism, and the overall theme of the story because of the brilliant characterization done on her character. Dahl, at the beginning of the story, sets up the premise that the reader should solely empathize with her character. Continuously, he keeps building the pretense that she is a sweet, innocent lamb (which is a major motif); only capable of following the followers (previously mentioned under symbols). As the story progresses, the reader realizes that she is basically being slaughtered by her butcher of a husband. There are three parts to this slaughter. One is the emotional slaughter that her husband undertakes, which starts to slowly alter her character. The second part is the aftermath of the more physical part of the slaughter where Mary Maloney actually kills her husband with a leg of lamb. The results of this also ‘slaughter’ her ‘lamb-like’ character even more, and that is the third and final part of this massacre. Instead of being a naà ¯ve, innocent slave to her husband, she is now a malicious, demented (evident in the latter part of the story where she giggles due to the fact that she got away with murder), and a free woman; a woman with no slight implication that she was ever under her husband’s power. Dahl makes sure to use tone to describe just how much her husband controlled her, and how uplifted she was when he was gone. Using dramatic irony, he highlighted the one end of Maloney’s mental spectrum. Overall, Dahl compacted many literary elements in such a short story, yet he composed it into such a way that everything is delicately related upon each other. Without the tone, one wouldn’t get such a powerful impact from the irony. Mary’s characterization would have seemed less severe, and the idea of slaughter would be interpreted differently. Dahl uses this story to describe the extreme result of a common theme. Our main concern was to question if this was a worthy piece of literature that could convey a theme or a moral decision that could impact anyone. With the evidence previously mentioned, this piece was worthy of the Dahl name, and that the elements in this story hanged together in a delicate balance. Without one element, his message would not have been conveyed as strongly as it was. Round Mary goes from slaving over her husband’s every move, to killing him! Expanding more on that, she goes from being a lamb, one who follows, to being the butcher, the one who rules. She finally takes control of her life, as if she has been resurrected from the depths of her despair, ironically, after her husband’s death. She goes from being weak to actually being in charge of her life and what she does. The point of a dynamic character is not to just change morally/physically, but to become more complex. Obviously, as this story continued, Mrs. Maloney is a prime example of a complex character. Her name (Mary Maloney), that she has a husband (Patrick Maloney- a police officer), how long she has been pregnant (six months), inferences on her home (rather comely, with a pleasant aura; classic feel of a late 20th century house), her status (housewife), and a description of her looks (translucent skin, large, dark, placid eyes), daily habits and personality (before and after h er ‘realization’). *All occur during the exposition (paragraphs 1-33) Symbolism: The club of lamb: The lamb in the story is the wife. She does everything for the husband. She gets his slippers, makes him dinner, and slaves over him. And to thank her for all her work, he gives her a divorce. Basically, the reader can obviously see she is the weakest one here. She has no say in it–he has his mind set. Her labors and efforts†¦her life is being torn apart by this guy. He wants it to be a hush-hush affair, for the sake of his job. And she’s just the wife to do it. His career will be intact, while hers (the loving housewife) will not be. She is a weak, pathetic lamb, and she is being slaughtered. Then, she just couldn’t take it anymore. She fought back, and that resulted in murdering her husband. When killing occurs in a story, it’s usually significant for some reason. It shows someone overcoming some obstacle. Here, the ‘lamb’ of a wife overcomes her ‘butcher’ of a husband (the fact that he is a pol ice officer screams control freak) by killing him. And with it, she kills her status as a lamb. The lamb [status] has been slaughtered, and a free woman is left. Due to the fact that her husband is leaving her for someone else, while she is pregnant, her innocent, worthless, and helpless self is exaggerated. Though, after the murdering of her husband, this ‘lamb’ status is slowly crumbling away to reveal a more strong, take initiative type person. The slaughter: This occurs when the police arrive and eat the lamb. That is the slaughter; it is the destruction of the leg of lamb. It, the leg of lamb, was the symbol of her meek status, for it was the only reminder of what she had done and what she was like back ‘then’. Once that lamb is gone, so is all evidence that she was ever under her husband’s power. Irony: There are two major examples of irony in this story. 1. Dramatic Irony: Where Mrs. Maloney feeds the police officers that were investigating her husband’s death, and were friends with the late officer, the club of lamb that she used to kill Patrick Maloney. One officer saying that the murder weapon could have been, â€Å"Probably right under our very noses?† (Paragraph 131). 2. Situational Irony: The title of the story is itself, a large pun! A lamb to the slaughter usually refers to someone who is unaware they are about to be harmed. This is from the idea that lambs are easily led to their slaughter since they trust the one leading them, and they are unaware of what is to become of them. In this story, the husband, Patrick Maloney, is killed like a lamb. He totally trusts his wife, Mary, and is completely unaware of his impending doom. However, the title is also ironic because it is actually a frozen leg of lamb that is used to slaughter the hapless victim. Tone: Ironic- the lamb that was supposed to be served as supper to nourish Patrick was, in the end, the weapon used to kill him. And the said club of lamb was given to the cops to eat at dinner. Tragic- That a couple, who is expecting their first child, end up hurting each other. Patrick wants to destroy his wife mentally, while his wife destroys him physically. Comical- At the end, the sergeants who were supposed to capture the murderer, unknowingly cooperated with our murderer to destroy the evidence by eating up the murder weapon. Tone played an essential part for the smooth transition from Mary’s innocence to a charming psychopath. To fit with the desperation of her upcoming divorce, Dahl dwells into the habitual life of Mrs. Maloney and every chronic detail of that period of time. He goes into describing every agonizing second of her life, and elongates those seconds into years when her perfect ritualistic life suffers a small change that snowballs into something catastrophic. The minute she kills her husband, the story seems to be more uplifting. As if the reader is no longer suffocated by simple, yet overbearing aspects of the couple’s life. Towards the end of the story, one could even take the tone as somewhat humorous. The childish giggle let out at the end not only emphasized what she had done and serve as a way to ease tension. Theme: The universal theme is that you should not underestimate the power that the weak may hold. In this story, there was a clear indication how much power Mary held within the relationship between her and her husband. My interpretation was that even though the weak may seem powerless, they can be stronger than those in control when they claim their power. â€Å"She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.†(Paragraph 42) She swung the leg of lamb so hard; it had the strength of a steel club. Women are typically, small and not as strong as men, so being able to strike a man in the head with the force of a â€Å"steel club† is astonishing. â€Å"She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying. Then he crashed to the carpet.† (Paragraph 44) Crashed to the floor, that’s how much power she had, when driven by a strong anger. By power came intelligence, as soon as Mary realized she had killed her husband, she was able to devise a plan in order to ultimately get away with murder. Don’t underestimate the weak, because sooner or later, they’ll rise to become powerful. In this case, the consequence of such thinking resulted into murder. The control Patrick had on his wife became just an illusion after we saw the capability of Mary. View as multi-pages

The Epic Of Gilgamesh And The Ramayana - 1088 Words

In two ancient classics, we see a clear display of an abuse of power. In both The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Ramayana, we find protagonists who commit deeds of treachery in the name of slaying a monster. These slayings seem justified at first; however, as we examine them further we find that they are no more than heinous acts in the name of asserting power over the other. Both Gilgamesh and Rama kill monsters in the name of supporting what they believe in, but their beliefs are not always justified. When we closely examine the scenes of the monster slayings in both epics, we find that our that protagonists appear as power hungry war mongers and not the heroes that they claim to be. Both of these â€Å"heroes† kill in the name of supporting their own beliefs. For Rama, he kills in the name of subduing women’s sexuality while Gilgamesh kills in the name of claiming resources, particularly cedar trees, for his own. Let’s begin with one of the earliest stories ever wr itten, The Epic of Gilgamesh. In this story, Gilgamesh is king of Uruk; he eventually meets his partner in crime Enkidu, who is a wild man created by the gods to keep Gilgamesh from becoming an oppressive king. After Gilgamesh and Enkidu duke it out and, naturally, become best friends; they decide to go on a conquest for some cedar trees -- like best all best friends do. When they reach the forest, it does not take long until they run across Humbaba. Humbaba, being the guardian of the Cedar forest is not pleased withShow MoreRelatedGilgamesh and Ramayana1559 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿An Epic Definition There was a time when gods and demons roamed the earth. A time when humanity lived at the mercy of divine beings, who executed their wills against the humans, following their own selfish desires and placing humans in a position of piety to these dominant beings. This time on earth is one of great men who fought against these demigods, giving them great fame passed on as stories in the oral tradition. Though it is unrealistic to believe that these men truly fought against divineRead MoreThe Epic Of Gilgamesh, And The Mahabharata971 Words   |  4 Pagessuch as: the Ramayana, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Mahabharata. Each of these texts depicts a hero or protagonist that is unique to their culture and although each of these heroes embark on a different journey with different purposes and goals in mind, they all display a variety of features that people of then and now can relate to. It becomes transparent that each of the journeys these heroes undertake are a lot like that of the lives of people today. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of theRead MoreEast Vs. West Literature Essay931 Words   |  4 Pages25 October 2016 East vs. West Literature Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚   Eastern and Western Literature has so many unique characteristics of their own. Eastern Literature usually deals with epics such as The Ramayana and Confucius. While Western Literature typically are epics like Beowulf, The Odyssey, and similar characteristics are also in Gilgamesh.   These types of literatures are so rich in their text and have so many different beliefs.   The Eastern and Western Literature compares throughout topics like gender rolesRead MoreA Leader Is Good And Ethics Essay1424 Words   |  6 Pagescharacteristic to develop the capabilities of others instead of accentuating their own skills. The epics of Gilgamesh and The Ramayana present opposing perspectives of effective leadership based on the personal integrity of one’s morality and ethical standards. In Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is a very terrifying ruler, he harasses his subjects and oppresses them under his tyranny. In contrast, in The Ramayana, Rama is a very different kind of leader. He acts in accordance to the code of dharma, showing theRead MoreThe Epic of Beowulf733 Words   |  3 Pagesend. Beowulf meets all the features of an epic poem: it is a long narration of a national hero ( he is recognized, rewarded and glorified by the king himself and his people), his travel on the sea, his adventures and the heroic episodes hes the central figure in. Moreover, the main protagonist, Beowulf, is a brave young man, like Gilgamesh, Achilles or Hercules, with more-than-human strength and wiser, more courageous than others. Unlike the other epic heroes we have studied untill now, BeowulfRead MoreElements Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh918 Words   |  4 PagesThe epic hero has been part of world literature since time immemorial. Epic tales have contained within them, various elements that have helped define the genre. These tropes have existed at least since the writing of the ancient Mesopotamian text, The Epic of Gigamesh. These vital characteristics transcend region, as they have been employed in the literature of disparate parts of the world. These elements can be seen the Old Engli sh tale of Beowulf, as well as in the ancient Indian epic The RamayanaRead MoreGreek Myths And Stories Serve A Greater Purpose1799 Words   |  8 PagesGreek myths and stories serve a greater purpose than to simply entertain someone. These stories also serve as a way to teach important lessons and explain the history of certain things. Although the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Illiad,The Ramayana, and the Golden Compass are all very different they all have similar aspects that connect the stories and serve a greater purpose. These myths and stories serve as an insider into what it was like to live in that specific society. Myths allow us to learn whatRead More12 Literary Piece1670 Words   |  7 PagesChristianity originating from Palestine and Greece 2. Koran: The Muslim bible originating from Arabia 3. The Iliad and the Odyssey: These have been the source of Myths and Legends of Greece. They were written by Homer. 4. The Mahabharata: The Longest epic of the world. It contains the history of religion in India. 5. Canterburry: it depicts the religion and customs of English in early days. This originated from England and written by Chaucer. 6. Uncle Toms Cabin: written by Harriet Beecher StoweRead MoreThe Modern Epic of Batman Essay731 Words   |  3 Pages An epic is a long narrative poem that tells the exploits of an epic hero. Epics are comprised of an epic hero and an epic battle between good and evil. The earliest known epic today is The Epic of Gilgamesh. This tale is about Gilgamesh’s search for eternal life. Although epics have been around for thousands of years, the epic tradition still has an enormous impact on modern writing and film. In fact, Batman, a story about Bruce Wayne trying to conquer all criminals in Gotham, can be seen as modernRead MoreThe Movie Ramayan 1257 Words   |  6 PagesSachinbhai Patel Dr. M HUM – 121 July 16, 2015 Paper # 2 Movie- Ramayana This movie Ramayan is based on one of the great literature epic of India Called Ramayana, the other being the Mahabharata. Ramayana story transmitted orally for generations but not recorded until the eighth century B.C.E. It was written by the poet Valmiki. In this great epic story the main person was Rama who was an seventh incarnation of the Lord Vishnu who is the care take and protector of this world, Rama was like a Buddha