... to specific historical backgrounds and to contemporary social and political issues. The story is founded in regional history, most prominently building on the fact that New York was initially a Dutch colony and retained Dutch influences through the nineteenth century. Irving utilizes the "ancient" and "peculiar" Dutch (p. 272) to add apparent depth to American history and to stand as a sort of American folk. Irving also tethers the tale to local events of the Revolutionary War, setting ... , perhaps, on Irving's part, as well as a register of his own doubts about the possibility of being...

• Word Count: 1590
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... some nice clothes and went down to the lobby. My teacher and the girls were waiting for me. We went to eat at restaurant, the food was good. After we got done, we went to see historical places. The next day we went to eat breakfast and went to go look at more places. In the afternoon we went to Time Square and we shopped. There was a lot of people. When we ... got done shopping and left to the hotel. We changed and went to the pool. Then I got out and went to my room and slept. I woke up and looked at the time and it said 6:30 ... . I got up washed my teeth, changed clothes, packed, and...

• Word Count: 659
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Thesis: The definition and history of the word assassin is very complex and intriguing. Assassin is usually a negative word describing a person hired to kill somebody, but that's not the reason I chose to write about this word. I chose assassin because it had an unusual history and I like the way it sounds. I was trying to think of a word to write about so I went to a web-site that was devoted to origins of words. On this ... page was a list of words and one of the words was assassin. I clicked on the ... ...

• Word Count: 374
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... seems a normal life. Germany is another important setting in the book, especially the city of Dresden. During the war Billy pilgrim is captured by the Germans and is held as a prisoner of war in Dresden. In Germany Billy undergoes the painful experiences of captivity and violence that cause him to start skipping through time. This setting mirrors the narrators the most. Vonnegut having ... experienced war and imprisoned in Dresden himself. Another important setting in the story is the planet of Tralfamadore, where Billy is taken to by aliens. ... There he is held against his will and di...

• Word Count: 521
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... at that point in time and in life. Both characters were given dark backgrounds to set the theme of a homecoming making them feel better. Next up, the setting of both novels creates a great ambience for the novels and works great with the theme. The setting of Quicksand helped the reader understand the current plan for Helga to start a new and escape her darkness. The setting of being on a ship ... leaving New York for Denmark with a bunch of fellow travelers and people she ... knew. That help set the road for Helga to start developing feelings for those people and take a small step out ...

• Word Count: 631
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Dead Rabbits, the Plug Ugly's, the 40 Thieves, the Slaughter Houser's and the Confederation of American Natives. All historical gangs of New York during the late 1800's. Though a fictional story, Gangs of New York is centered in historical accounts of the time period. Critics gave the move good reviews. Nominated for 10 academy awards, the nearly 3 hour-long movie has however received mixed reviews from my ... friends. My friend Miles owns a copy. He loves the battle scenes and is repeatedly drawn to imagining himself living in such an environment ... . "Just think what it would be like h...

• Word Count: 457
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... in the 1970's. His crimes caused the death of six people, and the injuries to seven others. He is currently serving a 365-year sentence at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York. In 2002 he will be up for parole. Upon reading this article, it has come to my attention that most serial killers kill, due to physical and/or mental abuse. David Berkowitz was one ... of the most notorious serial killers of New York City. In my readings, his parents both physically and mentally abused Berkowitz. I think that sometimes we all lose our sanity for short periods ... of time. Se...

• Word Count: 326
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... shows insight into the lives and minds of American soldiers who fought in Europe during the conflict and the interesting experiences some may have had in the years following their return. Through written conversation, the novel deals with many of the social attitudes and ideas which prevailed during the early 20's. Historical facts are cleverly infused into the body of the novel that gives the ... reader an authentic and classic impression of the story. A clear view of the discrimination that existed in that time period against non-whites ... to his lost love. Daisy soon rekindles the l...

• Word Count: 779
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... nineteenth century. His works include many subjects - the civil war soldiers, landscapes, slavery, hunting and American women... Some of his works linked with significant national events such as the civil war. In 1859, after more than twenty years living in Boston, Massachusetts, he decided to go to New York and work as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly magazine. New york in the late nineteenth century ... was america's best artistic center with tons of art, artists, artistic schools , living in that enviroment, an artistic life, homer began ... to produce many great arts. In 1862, ho...

• Word Count: 261
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... York City, which just happens to be the setting for Death of a Salesman. This play was first published in 1949 and on November 18, 1950, when the play closed, it had encountered 742 well-liked performances. Death of a Salesman was Miller's "most critically celebrated play" (Leone 14). The play won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and the Drama Critics" Circle Award. Death of a Salesman is about a salesman named ... , Biff said that it was he that took the rubber hose and threw it away. Eventually, at the end of the play, Willy kills himself by wrecking his car. "Miller attempts to take hi...

• Word Count: 1159
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the mine where the doctor was met and Mouche got malaria. At this setting and point in the novel of where Mouche lies and the camp's shelter brings the narrator back in time. The area where the narrator and Rosario made love under Mouche, the setting and the atmosphere brings the narrator out of the monotonous life that he was so accustomed to live in. His trip goes on from ... there to the tree and its marks. The darkness and wetness are pivotal ... in showing the moods, the attitudes, and what the narrator was going through. When the ... ...

• Word Count: 1028
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... was much different from the bustling and busy life of the North. Large plantations covered the vast majority of the south. These Plantations were huge farms, which grew cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. Slaves made up the most of the Southern population as rich plantation owners would exploit them to pick the crops. Shops weren't needed as many of the plantations would care for themselves ... and had all they needed on their land. Both the ... North and South grew up in different ways, but could still function ... ...

• Word Count: 305
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... ;The Great Gatsby" it starts with a flashing black and white Warner Bros Advertisement. I think that this is very effective, because it is introducing us the time setting of "The Great Gatsby" which was set in New York 1922.The constant flashing is very affective as it is mimicking the technology of movie filming during that time era. Technology was not as ... advanced as it is today, the lights would flash during the filming and they were all black and white. In the script the ... . The camera then shows a patient file with the symptoms alcoholic, fists if ager, anxiety and insomnia wri...

• Word Count: 645
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... it's big machinery. So after a while the word got around that they had, in fact, struck an iceberg. Surprisingly no one cared and everyone went back to bed. The captain of the Titanic could if in emergency hit an electric button and many airtight doors sealed off special rooms that could keep the ship floating even if it had a hole in its double reinforced ... word soon spread that the collision was a lot worse than before expected, the captain and the crew members went to go check the damage. The blow caused a two-foot gash in the side of boiler room number 5. People were scared. Women...

• Word Count: 564
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... family or a young, urban, working-class, male Hispanic from New York City. A dialect spoken by everyone of a particular community is the symbol of a part of his social status. So in the specific situation and context, dialect, a local symbol, becomes the social cultural symbol. In order to reveal the characters that have different language habits representing different social positions, in the novel, Flags in the Dust, William ... Faulkner compared the spelling variation of pronunciation in American southern dialect with the standard spelling of the standard pronunciation in American En...

• Word Count: 682
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , such as: "Reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones; or sauntering with a whole bevy of them-. Lines like that made it really hard for me to understand what he was trying to say sometimes. The way he described the setting and characters however was great, he wrote extremely descriptive lines such as " Broken down plough horse, that had outlived almost everything but ... let you create your own ending by not explaining entirely who the headless horseman really was, Some might think it was truly the ghost of an old Hessian trooper, others might think it is Brom Bone...

• Word Count: 1805
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . At one time, America was the world leader in technology, service, and industry, but overconfidence based on a historical belief in our superiority has caused our nation to fall behind the rapidly growing competitive market in the world with regard to education. The report in some respects is an unfair comparison of our education system, which does not have a national standard for goals, ... the schools. These students have extremely low attention spans and can be very disruptive in class. Early intervention programs designed to target these children and focus on behavior management wi...

• Word Count: 2432
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... feeling that he was above all of the mediocre happenings of Cordelia Street, and belonged in New York. Paul's love of these opulent settings symbolizes his desire to enter the opulent world of the stylish and wealthy. Eventually, the theater is unable to satisfy Paul's need to be in and around a setting of wealth and beauty. When Paul's father refuses to allow Paul to go to the theater he is deprived of the settings that he desires ... . He is thrown into a middle class setting, which he detested so greatly that he is forced to break free. Paul decides to steal from his employer and go t...

• Word Count: 839
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

And Then There Were None, was written by Agatha Christie. It was published in 1939: by Berkley Publishing Group in New York, New York. This book is a work of fiction. The setting of this book is an island off the coast of England called Indian Island. This is where the mysterious letters invited people to go for a visit. The setting impacts the work because the characters are on ... an island, so when people start to die they have no way of getting off. The island setting is more dramatic than a town or ... everyone arrived at the island however the only people there were the butler and his...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... been reading a lot of pieces on what is to be done about the "evildoers'' who attacked New York and Washington. I would just like to bring a particular comment to your attention. In the National Review, syndicated columnist Ann Coulter wrote: "We should invade their countries; kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We aren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We ... carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.'' Coulter is not the only one who feels this way. By now, ... think almost everyone would ...

• Word Count: 594
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... killing causes this variation from the play. Due to this law the two gang leaders, Benardo and Riff had to plan a secret fight in order to avoid the consequences of disobeying the law. Since Romeo and Juliet took place in the past, the laws were not as strict of sophisticated as today. Therefore the people in the city could kill each other whenever they felt it was necessary ... . The big difference between the two versions of the story was the ... ending. In the play both Romeo and ... ...

• Word Count: 472
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... . Along with the death of the leader the gang is destroyed. The Butcher, named Bill, killed the rabbits leader and plays a very powerful role. He, like anyone else is all about profit. The Rabbits leader's son is taken away by Native Americans and locked up for fifteen years to be "educated". After this time Amsterdam, the son, returns to New York motivated to kill Bill in revenge ... . When first arriving in New York Amsterdam meets Johnny, who tried to save him from being taken away by the Natives. Amsterdam and Johnny become friends as they both work for the Native ... Leader and Amst...

• Word Count: 690
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... throughout the years. Even though there have been improvements in the air quality of many regions in the word, pollutants from traffic transportation and fossil fuel combustions continue to remain as a particular concern (Rage et al. 2009). Asthmatics are predominantly sensitive to the oxides of nitrogen that are produced by vehicles. It affects predominantly nonwhite populations living in ... District (APCD) was created to regulate the high levels of pollution in the U.S. particularly in Los Angeles. California in particular began the crack down on motor vehicles emission (Boffey 1969)...

• Word Count: 621
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... phrase "hip-hop" often music, dancing and rapping come to mind. Hip-hop is all of that and much more. Hip-hop is a culture. When you look up culture in the dictionary it is defined as "the concepts, skills, arts, instruments, etc. of a given people in a given period." To be more specific hip-hop is a combination of graffiti, break dancing, DJing, and rapping (also known as MCing) that ... creates its own lifestyle and is continuously evolving. Most of these forms of art were originated in New York City. In the early 1970's hip-hop was ... born on the crime-ridden streets of south Bronx...

• Word Count: 303
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... he helped pushed for the construction of the Erie Canal. The major issue in the election of 1812 was the war of 1812, and understandably so. There were two sides, the people who were for the war and thus siding with Madison. Then you had those who were against and sided with Clinton. One group of voters that Clinton didn't have to worry about persuading were the shipbuilders ... in New England, who because of the war could do no trading and in turn make no money. The result of this election was for the most part conceivable. James Madison won the election in a land slide ... turns out ...

• Word Count: 391
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School