Of Mice And Men By Steinbeck Report Essays - English-language Films

Of Mice And Men By Steinbeck Report The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is about two ranch hands, George and Lennie. George is a small, smart-witted man, while Lennie is a large, mentally- handicapped man. They are trying to raise enough money to buy their own ranch, by working as ranch hands. During the setting of the story, they are at a ranch whose owner's name is Curley. It is in this setting that the novel reveals that the main theme is death and loss. Lennie accidentally killing all of his pets establishes that the theme of this novel is death and loss. These pets consist of mice, dogs, kittens, etc. Lennie loves to feel and pet animals, but he does not know his own strength. He kills them without really noticing what he has done, until George tells him that he did something wrong. After being scolded, Lennie is very remorseful about what he did. Once, after being yelled at Lennie says, "I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead- because they were so little (13)." Lennie's remorse is probably more for upsetting George than it is for actually killing the animal. Another way that death and loss is evidenced by this novel is when Lennie killed Curley's wife. When Lennie is in the barn (after killing his new puppy) Curley's wife came into the barn and came on to Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley's wife became flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, "I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (121)." The final confirmation of the death and loss theme occurred to George, not Lennie. After going to the place where George had told him to go if anything went wrong, Lennie lays and waits in the brush for George to come get him. What Lennie wasn't expecting was George to come with a posse of ranch hands with him. The ranch hands were not quite there, when George shot Lennie in the back of the head to save him the pain the posse would do to him. After he shot him "the brush seemed filled with cries (140)", which symbolizes the loss of George after shooting Lennie. This was a truly great loss for him since Lennie was his best friend. Of Mice and Men is a very sad and depressing story that contains many deaths of many living creatures. Many people had a loss from these deaths, especially George. He had to shoot his best friend. This can possibly be the greatest loss of all, because without friends, where would we be?

A Reflection On Paul Hindemith Essays - Harmony, Ballet Composers

A Reflection On Paul Hindemith Essays - Harmony, Ballet Composers A Reflection On Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith was revolutionary and a musical genius. Many people who lived around the same time saw him as nothing more than an untalented noisemaker. Granted, these people didnt have all of the various forms of music that we have today, but untalented would not be a word I would use to describe Paul Hindemith. He helped begin the last great change in classical music from the Romantic Era, which was very tonal and diatonic, to 20th Century Modern Music, which is extremely atonal. Diatonic means within in the key. In other words, everything sounds nice and pretty. There are no weird noises, no funny pitches. Atonal itself is defined as the avoidance of the traditional musical tonality, or in laymans terms, it sounds very weird. Paul Hindemith was born in the German State of Hesse in 1885, and grew up in Germany. After he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Frankfurt-am-Main, he was appointed conductor of the opera orchestra (1915-1923). In 1921, he also helped organize the famous Amar-Hindemith Quartet, in which he played viola. In 1927, he became the composition teacher at the Musikhochschuk in Berlin (Germany). In 1934, Hitler banned his work in Germany because of its extreme modernism. Around the same time, Hindemith was forced to flee the country of his birth after being openly Heppner - 2 opposed to Hitler and the doctrines of Goebbels. (Emory University, website). The doctrines were documents written by Dr. Joseph Goebbels recording the history of the Nazi party (Encyclopedia Britanica Online). In late 1939, he moved to the United States, and became the composition professor at Yale University. He was only there until World War II ended. After the war, he returned to Europe to take the position of the professor of composition at Zurich University. He died from a heart attack in a hospital in Frankfurt in December of 1963. The earliest known works of Hindemith were written in the year 1913. There were four main pieces, which were all written in a composition class taught under Arnold Mendelssohn at the Hoch Conservatory, which is located in Frankfurt, Germany. Theyre all considered student works. That creates a problem for historians, because normally only one copy was written. All of his early music was lost, unpublished, or only bits and pieces. The first masterpiece he wrote that is still very popular today is the Concerto in Eb for Violoncello and Orchestra, Opus 3. Later on when asked about it, Hindemith stated, I like this piece very much, particularly the first movement; the other two do not seem to me to have come off so well. I soon found out that I would have to try something else (The Larousse Encyclopedia of Music). . Through his work, Hindemith, like most composers show whats going on both in his life and in the world. His String Quartet in F Minor, Opus 10, also known as his First String Quartet, written between February and May of 1918 is a prime example of Heppner - 3 this. The end of WWI was nearing, and Germany was staring right into the face of defeat. This is portrayed with movements that are very dark and somber. Like any of the great composers, there are characteristics which make Hindemiths music his. His melodies often incorporated an interval of a fourth, as well as diatonic seconds. These, especially in the Classical and Romantic Eras of Music, were considered unbreakable rules, especially when writing for singers. They were avoided whenever possible, due mainly to the fact that theyre extremely hard to hear and sing. Other unique characteristics of Hindemiths music are the occasional use of Gregorian chants. An example of this is found in what is disputably his best Opera, Mathis der Maler. He frequently used dissonant counterpoint (a second melody which usually counters the main melody) with the use of fugato and imitative writing. A real turning point came in his music in the 1930s, around the time Hitler came to power in Germany. In his early works, he experimented with expressionism, jazz, atonality, parody and satire. From the 1930s on, he was more of a serious composer, and used forms including the canon (which is a round the same

Evaluative argument Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Evaluative argument - Assignment Example Hence, the two sides agree on one thing that video games should be played sparingly to enable an individual balance with work or assigned duties because of its addictive nature. This paper will focus on the effects of video games. Most video games have negative implications for children or adults because they shape the way individuals thinks and modifies their behaviors. For instance, some video games such as â€Å"Mortal Combat† contain violence, which affects the behavior of the player (Mullan 5). This makes the player develop aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions towards the third party (Mullan 5). Similarly, it makes the players develop decreased pro-social of helping making it have a harmful effect. The violent nature of video games is because of its interactive nature since the players are rewarded for being violent (Mullan 7). In addition, the players become in control of the violence experience through killing, stabbing, shooting, among others depending on the programming of the game (Greitemeyer 500). Hence, the active participation makes the players learn the violent behaviors, which they might exercise after the end of the game (Mullan 7). Secondly, video games make the players become socially isolated since they spend most of their time playing games than interacting with other peers (Kim, Byungjoon and Robert 22). Those who become addicted to video games spend little or no time to do their homework, read, sports and interact with family members, hence contributing to their isolation. In many cases, a child who is used to interacting with the game finds pleasure in games than bonding with family members. This makes others lock themselves as they play the game. In other instances, gamers stay away from others whom they feel interferes with their gaming ability. For this reason, many children will abscond their duties assigned to create