... of faith in conventional images of American society. A type of moral ambiguity emerges in a way never seen before in cinema. In film noir, the heroes begin to skirt along the edge of corruption, eventually rooting out the villains, but typically using questionable methods to do so. "Audiences and artists were now eager to take a less optimistic view of things"," Schrader suggests ... of society can solve the crime and bring about true justice" (Reyes, 78), later versions of the noir protagonist seem to lack such integrity. They are still figures on the edge of society, and are equally t...

• Word Count: 1980
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . In the late twentieth century United States, gangs have taken on a different character and have moved into areas unimagined by Dickens. Most significantly, they are spreading from inner cities to "edge cities" cities at the outskirts of large urban centers, and to suburbs. Yesterday it was almost unheard of for one to read about gang activity in the affluent "lily white ... ...

• Word Count: 2351
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... with grid paintings, and her infinite variations on a schema consisting of the interplay of horizontal and vertical lines have been recognized as presaging a number of postmodern art movements, including hard-edge painting, op art, conceptualism, and especially minimalism. But as the poet and critic John Ashbery has pointed out, Agnes Martin's "minimalism" is not merely reductive; it is the result of ... ...

• Word Count: 3087
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate