To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

One of the major masterpieces of American literature, To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee originally as a love story, was published in 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It also won an Academy Award when it was later made into a film starring Gregory Peck. The story is set in imaginary Maycomb County in southern Alabama. The time frame for the story is the early 1930's during the great depression. Poverty was common and times were extremely tough. This book is loaded with interesting characters. Here is an outline and description of some of the most important characters. The story revolves around the Finch family, led by Atticus Finch, a lawyer. Atticus has two children: Jem, short for Jeremy, his eldest son and Scout, nickname for Jean Louise, his younger and only daughter. Scout is a bit of a tomboy and enjoys hanging out with her brother and their friend Dill. Dill is a young boy who comes to stay in Maycomb every summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel. Aunt Alexandra is Atticus' sister and the family has a maid named Calpurnia. The children spend a great deal of time at the house of Arthur "Boo" Radley. Bob Ewell who lives with his daughter Mayella Ewell is the man who accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping Mayella. Law enforcement in Maycomb consists of Heck Tate, county law official and Judge Taylor. The story begins when Jem and Scout meet a new friend, Dill, who has come to spend yet another summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel. The town is full of gossip about Boo Radley, which fascinates the three friends. Dill, Jem and Scout try to think up creative ways to lure Boo out of his house with no success. The next summer Dill returns and is even more curious and becomes more daring in his attempt to see Boo. On the last evening of Dill's stay in Maycomb the children decide to sneak up on Boo's porch to see what they can see. Just as Jem reaches the window, Nathan Radley, Boo's son, fires his shotgun and scares them off. One night during the following winter one of the Finch's neighbor Miss Maudie's house burns to the ground. As Scout was standing and watching the efforts of the town in fighting the fire, someone placed a blanket over her shoulders.

Black Panther and Ku Klux Klan Essay

After doing research to compare/contrast the two groups, the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan, it opened my eyes. I realized that the new generation is oblivious to the existence of both groups and the similarities and differences in them. I researched the two different groups to see when the groups came into existence who were the members, why they fought for rights they thought they deserved and the group’s involvement in violent acts and their remnants today. In World War II, blacks fought for the American dream willingly, but separately from the white soldiers. When the war was over, human rights activists of all races and educated blacks thought the soldiers and blacks deserved the right of equality. Malcolm X was one of the many human rights activists. He was an African-American Muslim minister he thought after years of non-violence, signing petitions, marching, praying and crying and blacks doing the impossible to be recognized as human beings, it was time for them to take it into their own hands. Malcolm X was then assassinated February 21, 1965. Today many of his quotes like this one are famous. â€Å"And when I speak, I don’t speak as a Democrat. Or a Republican. Nor an American. I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy – all we’ve seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the fruits of Americanism. We see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We don’t see any American dream. We’ve experienced only the American nightmare.† The Black Panther Party was then founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale,  in 1966, it was based on ideas which were strongly associated with Malcolm X’s life works it was made up of progressive militant political organization. They advocated Black Nationalism and had strong believes in the necessity of violence and armed self-defense. They patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality and to obtain freedom from white oppression. Fought for the rights of American blacks in the US, they called themselves â€Å"Revolutionaries†. Ku Klux Klan on the other hand was founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee. The Klan members were many former Confederate veterans determined to fight for the right to restore white supremacy they called themselves â€Å"The Invisible Empire of the South†. Ku Klux Klan believed that black weren’t fighting for right but for special right and that Negros were happier when they had nothing not even their own name. They also showed resistance to policies that gave the right to economic equality for blacks and other minorities. The Black Panthers were non-violent they petitioned for the right for Black Americans to bear arms. Reason being the police weren’t there for their safety or to promote their welfare they were there to contain, brutalize and murder them. With the blacks starting to carry guns came violence. There were shootouts with police which killed many innocent people, riots that destroyed towns, blacks had means to defend themselves but then crime skyrocketed. The Black Panther weren’t organized as some thought and weren’t ready to fight a revolution they just wanted to be treated like an equal and were ready for anything that crossed there path. Ku Klux Klan had and still have a very violent disposition, they could terrorized the black and any other minorities that they thought threatened their white purity as they referred. Being that the sheriff upheld the rights of the Klan and courts upheld the rights of the sheriff. The Klan killed civil right helpers’ blacks and whites. Civil rights helpers assisted blacks learn to read so that they could vote as well as getting them to the poles to vote. KKK burned many churches, schools and were involved in lynching of hundreds. Now after two decades of failure 1982 was the official end of the Black Panther Party they did accomplish one thing a major change in police brutality in Oakland went way down. Black Panther also went back to square one the non-violence approach, by setting up organization to help needy family such as free clinic and free meal programs. Educated blacks and activist in this generation are very disappointed in blacks not getting involved and how they accept the minimum for themselves. KKK on the other hand are still very prominent and doubled in size. They even still to this day try to recruit new members by putting flyers with candy on doors in residential areas, doing pod cast, and even do interviews to try to convince the public what they are doing is right and isn’t racist as all. They are even trying to adopt highways in some states which judges aren’t allowing, even after they try to convince them it’s to keep nature clean.

Essay on Exploring Autism - 1768 Words

Exploring Autism Autism is a developmental disability of the brain, much like dyslexia, mental retardation, or attention deficit disorder. Autism is not a form of mental retardation, and though many autistic people appear to function as retarded, they are frequently quite intelligent. Approximately 15 of every 10,000 individuals and nearly 400,000 people in the United States today have some form of autism (Dowdy). The word autism may actually refer to several similar disabilities, including Autistic Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, and Atypical Autism. Atypical Autism is a type of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified. Though there are some differences between these conditions, they are quite similar,†¦show more content†¦Many autistic people have trouble making out what is said to them, as they have trouble processing sound. Vision may also be affected. Some autistic people have trouble recognizing people. This means that learning to recognize someone is hard, recognition may be slow, faces tend to be analyzed rather than recognized automatically, and many normal effects of seeing a person may be absent. The exact effects and severity may vary between people. Other autistic people may have their eyes hurt by bright light or certain flickering or vibrating frequencies (All). One common effect of these heightened senses, is that autistic people are vulnerable to sensory overload with continued low-level bombardment. This may also result from too much emotional or social stimulation. Autistic people may become overloaded in situation that would not bother, or might even entertain, a normal person. When overloaded, autistic people have trouble concentrating, may feel tired or confused, and some may experience physical pain. Too much overload may lead to tantrums or emotional outburst. Another result of too much overload may be shutdown, in which the person looses some or all of the persons normal functioning. Shutdown may feel different to different people, but is extremely unpleasant (Dowdy). Autistic people have a great deal of trouble understanding things in the social environment. This includes bothShow MoreRelatedEssay on Exploring Autism936 Words   |  4 PagesExploring Autism Autism was first described by Leo Kanner in 1943 and is known to affect 1 in 500 Americans with boys being four times more likely to have autism than girls. Although the focus of research is on children, thereRead MoreEssay Exploring Autism in Children2819 Words   |  12 PagesExploring Autism in Children Susan was a normal, happy, active infant. Her parents were so relieved that all her checkups at the pediatricians office indicated that her growth and development were above average. At 6 months she could sit up and crawl and at 10 months she was walking. She seemed to babble more than her older brother did at the same age and was talking at 16 months. All the milestones in her early development were ahead of schedule. One day when she was 18 months old, herRead MoreExploring and Unraveling Autism Essay2244 Words   |  9 PagesAutism Spectrum Disorder, known as ASD, is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. Autistic Disorder, referred to as autism or classical ASD, is the most common and severe form of ASD. Other less severe conditions along the spectrum include Aspergers Syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder. Autism affects information processing in the brain by alteringRead More Exploring Autism in the Movie, Rain Man Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pages Exploring Autism in the Movie, Rain Man Autism is considered a unique disorder that affects 1 in 500 people. Autism impairs three main areas of human development: speech, communication, and social interaction. The trademark feature of autism is impaired social interaction. All impairments can range from mild to severe. Individuals with autism may lack speech altogether or only learn basic language specific to their needs. In the area of social interaction, the individualRead MoreAutism Is A Psychological Disorder Essay817 Words   |  4 Pageslong ,2008 p.284) â€Å"autism is a neurological disorder that effect a person ability to communicate, to understand language, to play and to relate to others. A diagnose of autism is given when a person exhibits 6 or more of 12 symptoms listed across three major areas social interaction, communication, and behavior.† These symptoms can start as early as childhood. The Prevalence is 2% of the population and is it is more common in boys than girls. Also, there is no known cause for autism but has to haveRead MoreAutism : What Causes Autism? Essay1112 Words   |  5 Pages What is Autism? How is Autism classified? What causes Autism? Why do Autism happen? There are some many questions about Autism, and what it is. Many of those questions are still unknown. Everyday researchers are exploring reasons for these questions. However, Autism was introduced in the 1940s autism was first described in the 1940s. Leo Kanner in the United States and Hans Asperger in Austria independently published papers describing children with severe social and communicative impairments. BothRead MoreAutism Is A Disorder Of Neural Advancement1622 Words   |  7 PagesWhat is Autism? Autism is a disorder of neural advancement, impeded by social association and correspondence, and by dull and limited activity in conduct (Carlson, 2007, p. 594). These are signs that seem to start before an adolescent is four years of age. A mental imbalance influences, creating data in the mind by controlling how neural connections and nerve cells join together and are organized systematically, how this happens is not surely understood, but its 1 of 3 recognized issue in the a mentalRead More The Etiology of Autism Essay1704 Words   |  7 PagesThe Etiology of Autism Autism is a syndrome that is characterized by the impairment of social interaction skills, verbal and nonverbal communication, and a decreased interest in participating in a variety of activities. In 1943, Kanner, the man who is attributed with the identification of this disease, hypothesized that autism might be a biological disorder as opposed to a psychological one. Numerous studies have been conducted supporting Kanner’s hypothesis. These studies have ranged from examiningRead MoreAustim Spectrum Disorder1637 Words   |  7 PagesINTRODUCTION Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that have overlapping diagnostic criteria related to deficits in communication, and restricted interests and repetitive behaviour, Duffy and Healy ( as cited in Worley Matson, 2012). Recent studies in the United States reported the diagnosis of an ASD in 1 out of 91 children of between age three to seventeen years (Kogan et al., 2009) and 1 out of 110 children age eight years (Rice, Baio, Van, Doernberg, MeaneyRead MoreAutism Spectrum, Asperger, And Pervasive Development Disorder1519 Words   |  7 PagesThe autism spectrum consists of three main disorders, autism, Asperger s, and pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). One issue regarding disorders on the autism spectrum is the minimal research funding for them. While treatable diseases are heavily studied due to the search for a cure, the disorders on the autism spectrum cannot be treated. The complication of limited funding is t hat people are not dealing with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) correctly, which worsens the