Stranger in a Strange Land Essay - 1314 Words

Stranger in a Strange Land is a book written by Robert A. Heinlein that completely throws away the social mores of the late fifties/ early sixties society. The book opens with a ship returning from a trip to Mars with an interesting passenger, a man, Michael Valentine Smith who was the son of a previous voyage to Mars that was believed to be entirely dead. This was a human raised by Martians, who are an ancient race that has various powers that are discovered later in the book to be possessed by Smith through his knowledge of their language. When Smith gets to earth the U.S. government, under the pretense that he is not well sequesters him away in a hospital. Smith is spirited away by a nurse and her reporter friend. Smith is taken to†¦show more content†¦In the book Heinlein followed and influenced some of the 1960’s counterculture. The Hippie movement started in the early sixties and continued in force until roughly 1970 (Hippies and 1960’s counterculture). H ippies rebelled against their parents’ conformity and many ran away from home to experiment with their lives and what they could do. Heinlein wrote Stranger in 1962, although in letters to his editor he had been thinking about writing the book since the late forties (Grumbles from the Grave), the book was a huge success largely thanks to the 1960’s counterculture as the book portrays many of their ideals. Stranger in a Strange Land falls in perfect step with the Free Love movement influencing it in a few ways; in the book Michael Valentine Smith creates a small commune in which sex is common, shared, and without jealousy, sex for Smith starts at a â€Å"young† age, although he is a man, socially he has had no experience. This book came about at a time when the hippie movement was gaining steam and it influenced hippie leaders in how they viewed sex the book was written in direct opposition to the social standards of the fifties and it is very different with itsS how MoreRelatedWomen on the Edge of Time and Stranger in a Strange Land Essay1254 Words   |  6 PagesThe novel Women on the Edge of Time and Stranger in a Strange Land have some similarities. They both depict how the gender socialization process is bias and a catalyst to gender disparity in the society. Both stories bring to light how men are given privileged as compared to women in the society. Analyzing the two stories and using outside sources I will draw a conclusion on how gender and power ideologies have equality impacted our society. â€Å"Women on the Edge of Time† is a book written by MargeRead MoreAnalysis Of Richard Rodriguez s A Stranger And Strange Lands Essay2274 Words   |  10 Pagesstudying the concept of reading and writing in different communities. To assess this, we have read two different texts. Richard Rodriguez’s the achievement of desire†, from his autobiography â€Å"Hunger of Memory†; and Lucille McCarthy’s â€Å"A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum† from â€Å"Research in the Teaching of English†. Both answer key questions regarding what it takes to become a great reader and writer, however, from the reading that I have done, each one onlyRead MoreThe Human Martian, By Robert A. Heinlein1658 Words   |  7 Pagesthe the truth about religion to the world and create a utopian society in the novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein served in the Navy and was a socialist politician bef ore beginning his writing career. His second wife had a large influence on his political views and was the one who convinced him to run for the state assembly. After his loss, he became an author. Stranger in a Strange Land is Heinlein’s most popular book, however, his views on socialism and liberalism wereRead MoreNo Men Are Foreign1717 Words   |  7 PagesNo Men Are Foreign ------------------------------------------------- [pic] No men are foreign tell us that we should not consider anyone as foreign or strange. Humanity is the same all over the world and in harming anyone we are harming ourselves. This poem emphasizes the fact that men might belong to different races, nations, but are basically bound by a common bond i.e. they all feel pain when hurt and shed tears on the loss of someone close and wars should not break this common bondage.Read MoreMy Student Personnel Class : An Director Of The International Center At Springfield College901 Words   |  4 Pagesinternational students to be an active part of the college community. To be successful in this field, according to Deborah, ones need to have empathy and communication skills. They should possess the ability to understand what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land, to have an open mind and the patience in understanding differences. Her position demands her to have a balanced role between being an administrator and an educator. She both ensures that the international students’ logistical needs areRead MoreThe Immigrants Experience Through The Graphic Novel The Arrival 1305 Words   |  6 PagesTan sets many emotions and thoughts in motion, without using any words. Tan depicts the many challenges immigrants face when venturing to a foreign land for the first time. This graphic novel depict the immigrant experience in a very effective way. Tan does so by using many different methods to demonstrate this experience, the strange language, strange surrounds, and unfamiliar people, are some of the most prominent. While the immigrant story is often one riddled with struggle, they too have timesRead MoreEssay on History of Thanksgiving885 Words   |  4 Pagesmother country, and inured the difficulties of a strange and hard land, which yet in a great part we have by patience overcome . . .’† (qtd. in Philbrick 6). After the Pilgrims arrived they picked land by rivers with good planting area and called it Plymouth. A harsh winter came quickly upon the Pilgrims where they faced many hardships before spring relieved them. Now was their time to plant and prepare for the oncoming year. They did not know the land well and many people say that the only reason theyRead MorePowers of Horror by Julia Kristeva, Questions and Answers1384 Words   |  6 PagesTo what extent are we all ‘strangers to ourselves’, even in our own countries? Answer with reference to Kristeva’s book. Exile, the reality and practice of being barred from a native country, has prolifically influenced many philosophers’ theoretical writings. Indeed, Julia Kristeva being in exile from her native Bulgaria is a foreigner in an unascertained land. Being an outcast influence’s her philosophical, political and sociological extended essay Strangers to Ourselves published in 1991. TheRead MoreThe Golden Fleece And The Golden Rule880 Words   |  4 Pagesterrible pain and suffering were almost always the outcome. 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The Odyssey

The Impact Of Media On The Media - 920 Words

Growing up in the 1970’s, violence in the media, and television in general, was reserved for late prime time programming and the 11 o’clock news. With deregulation of the broadcast industry in the 1980’s, under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, violence on TV became mainstream (American television, n.d.). With more channels to watch, the advent of 24 hour news, along with more content to view, the audience as well became increasingly younger. Alongside standard television programming, cartoons became even more violent. With each passing decade thereafter the trend of increasing violence in the media and television continues into present day. Violence in the media has become so prevalent that it seems to elicit almost automatic aggressive behavior in those who view it. Perhaps, this was Bandura’s initial point with his experimentation involving the Bobo doll in the 1960’s. To further understand this concept, viewed was a video on YouTube entitled The Brain: A Secret History-Emotions; Bandura Doll Experiment (Debate Films, 2011). The 1960’s footage involved two elementary school children, one male, one female, viewing an adult male in an enclosed room viciously attacking the Bobo doll by punching, kicking, and striking it with a hammer. The duration of the assault was approximately 10 minutes. The female child was placed in the same room and for the same time period. Quickly, the child began assaulting Bobo the same way she had seen the adult by punching andShow MoreRelatedThe Impact Of Media On The Media2801 Words   |  12 PagesMisrepresentation of Blacks in the Media Mammies to nannies, bucks to thugs and deadbeats, servants to crooks in positions of power: this is the evolution of Black images in the media. Although in more recent years, it seems that film and television representation has evolved for the better, there are always messages that are not positive being subliminally sent through to the viewing audience. Regarding this, movie and television show characters are not the only representations in the media. In fact, what is possiblyRead MoreThe Impact Of Media On The Media913 Words   |  4 Pagesthat were rarely discussed in media are now at the frontline of our media coverage, such as police brutality, racial disparity and immigration reform. Everything from political party preference to the increasing diversity of race and sexual orientation in each generation has an effect on the values portrayed in media. The value of each new generation effects how the media shapes itself to market to that general public. In order to understand th e fluidity of the media, it is important to examine theRead MoreThe Impact Of Media On The Media1285 Words   |  6 Pageswere given to the media according to the Constitution and are roles that they must follow. However, the media has not been following those three roles and instead has focused on reporting other issues that have no importance at all. As a result, the media has been highly criticized since it has only been reporting only the government line on issues because the media is owned by six corporate conglomerates. Although the American media has changed throughout the years due to the media ownership, it hasRead MoreThe Impact Of Media On The Media929 Words   |  4 PagesAs we all know that there so many changes which have occur in Media world. 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An unprecedented amount of technology uses as tools of influence to convince citizens to purchase and consume on a regular basisRead MoreThe Impact Of Media On The Media892 Words   |  4 PagesAs I pondered what I would do for this action project I knew I wanted to steer more towards women in the media. I have always been curious about what the public thinks about certain things, what is trending, what the common thought is on a specific thing, idea etc. As I thought about what my main focus was going to be, I remembered talking to my family about what I was learning and discussing in my Gender and Women’s Studies class and brought up how there seems to be a stigma in todayâ €™s culture onRead MoreImpact Of Media On Gender And The Media1303 Words   |  6 PagesImpact of Media on Gender Annie Hernandez Keiser University August 13, 2014 Abstract Boys and girls have for long spans of time considered themselves to be different. The media and advertising has played a significant role to make sure that they influence the way that boys and girls view themselves. Society has always had a main focus on getting people to behave in certain ways, the media has been magnificent at causing each gender to classify themselves in particular waysRead MoreThe Impact Of Media On New Media1313 Words   |  6 Pagesreceived information and news through paper-based media,like newspapers,magazines and books.Owing to the appearance of mobile phones and IPADs,people can look through news easily and conveniently,paper-based media need to innovate and reform.This assignment will present the status quo of paper-based media,it will explain the combination of new media and paper-based media,the significance of paper-based media innovation. 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Statista statistics claim, â€Å"In 2016 there is 78 percent of U.S. Americans had a social media profile, representing a five percent growth compared to the previous year.† This number will increase as we rely more and more on technology. One of the negative social media trends that have been increasingly popular is catfishing. Catfishing as google dictionary defines it as to â€Å"lure someone into a relationship

The Accidental Tourist Essay Free Essays

Life just is. You have to flow with it. Give yourself to the moment. We will write a custom essay sample on The Accidental Tourist Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now Let it happen. † -Jerry Brown If an individual allows changes to occur in one’s life, then love can be the wonderful result of that acceptance. The theme of reasons why we love and how we love different people is demonstrated throughout the book The Accidental Tourist, written by Anne Tyler. There are two main characters that undergo and accept the changes in their lives, and one character that stays static throughout the book, helping one of the characters to change. Macon Leary is first grounded by loneliness and comfort, then slowly opens himself up to what appears to be a whole new world for him. Then, there is Sarah Leary, who controls some of the changes in her life, and tries to make the best of the rest of them. The character that remains the same throughout the book is Muriel Pritchett—a dog-trainer who takes an interest in Macon and helps him to accept the changes in his life. Above all, the universal theme of this book is love—a surprising new journey for all the characters. In the beginning of the book, it is explained how Macon and Sarah Leary’s son is murdered and how their marriage suffers because of this. Sarah leaves Macon, which is the beginning stage of Macon’s renovated life, but one that does not start off happily: â€Å"He didn’t eat real meals anymore†¦His hair, which Sarah used to cut for him, jutted over his forehead like a shelf. Ande something had caused his lower lids to droop. He used to have narrow gray slits of eyes; now they were wide and startled†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (14). Macon is not at all used to living alone. He wants to control everything and likes nothing to be left to chance—Sarah’s departure is not something he can control and he does not deal with it well. Macon begins to think that he cannot live without his wife, but soon realizes a few things that really make him think about the marriage: His brain buzzed with little worries†¦The worries changed, grew deeper, he wondered what had gone wrong with his marriage. Sarah had been his first and only girlfriend; now he thought he should have practiced on someone else beforehand. During the twenty years of their marriage there’s been moments—there’s been months—when he didn’t feel they had really formed a unit the way couples were supposed to. No, the stayed two distinct people, and now always even friends. Sometimes they’d seemed more like rivals, elbowing each other, competing over who was the better style of person†¦ (15-16) Macon realizes that he and Sarah never actually became one person; they had always stayed as two separate people living in a stale, routine marriage. Finally, Macon comes to terms with the fact that Sarah is not coming home to him: â€Å"Well, of course she wasn’t there. He knew it the instant he stepped inside that house, when he smelled that stale hot air and heard the muffled denseness of a place with every window shut. Really he’d known it all along. He’d been fooling himself. He’d been making up fairy tales† (41). Macon knew that when he got home from his business trip that Sarah would not be there waiting for him like she used to. Although he did not ask for this change in his life, and after living alone for a while, moves back with his sister and brothers—a comfortable change for him. This all begins to change when Macon meets an unusual woman working at the animal hospital where he takes his dog and becomes acquaintances with her. Muriel allows Macon to open up to her, and Macon shows his willingness to do so: ‘I lost my son,’ Macon said. ‘He was just†¦he went to a hamburger joint and then†¦someone came, a holdup man, and shot him. I can’t go to dinner with people! I can’t talk to their little boys! You have to stop asking me. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings but I’m just not up to this, do you hear? She took one of his wrists very gently and she drew him into the house, still not fully opening the door, so that he had a sense of slipping through something, of narrowly evading something. She closed the door behind him. She put her arms around him and hugged him. (189-190) At first, Macon does not give Muriel Pritchett a second thought, but before he knows it, he is dating her and soon living with Muriel a nd her young son. This shows a tremendous change for Macon, and a step forward in his life. Muriel helps Macon to see the world in a different way. She is the character that seems to know exactly what she is after in life, and therefore does not change during the course of this book. On the other hand, all Macon does throughout the book is change his life in extreme ways. Macon learns how to love and trust Muriel in a way that he never has with anyone. In an addition to Macon’s changing life, there is his wife, Sarah, who makes the decision to leave Macon a year after the death of their son. Sarah feels that Macon does not express his emotions as she would like him to, and that he does not provide her with the comfort she needs and has needed in the past. This frustrates Sarah greatly and she does not feel as if she can continue in the marriage: I said to you the other day, I said, ‘Macon, now that Ethan’s dead I sometimes wonder if there’s any point to life. ’ Do you remember what you answered? †¦ ’You said, ‘Honey, to tell the truth, it never seemed to me there was all that much point to begin with. ’ Those were your exact words†¦ ’You just go on your same old way like before. Your little routines and rituals, depressing habits, day after day. No comfort at all. ’†¦ ‘I just can’t live with you anymore,’ Sarah said. 3-4) Sarah is heart-broken with this decision, as is Macon, but she is just not happy with her marriage. During Macon and Sarah’s separation, Sarah starts to move on and begins dating a man. Though she has an apartment of her own, which is what she wanted, Sarah realizes how much she truly loves and misses Macon, and mak es a slight and almost unnoticeable attempt to get back together with him much later in the book during a conversation between her and Macon: ‘It [the rain] looks like strips that just fade away about halfway down from the sky. ’ ‘I wish I were there to watch it with you,’ Sarah said†¦ ‘Macon? Do you†¦What’s her name? The person you live with? ’ ‘Muriel,’ he said. Which he knew before she asked, he suspected. ‘Do you plan on staying with Muriel forever? ’ ‘I really couldn’t say,’ he said. (289-290) Sarah is now the one longing for Macon. Macon thinks that the only thing to do is go back to Sarah, since, after all, he had been longing to get her back for some time. Macon returns to his house with Sarah, leaving Muriel: â€Å"He rode on through the city, up Charles Street, into his old neighborhood. He parked and cut the engine and sat looking at the house. The downstairs windows were dark. The upstairs windows were softly glowing. Evidently, he had come home† (291). Macon is reluctant about coming home to Sarah, but in the back of his mind he still feels like he needs her because they shared so much of their lives together. Soon after, while Macon is on another business trip to Paris, his back goes out and Sarah flies in to take care of him. Things seem to be going well, but then Sarah sees Macon packing his things a few days later, which provides yet another change for Sarah, as well as Macon: Sarah said, ‘Macon? †¦ ‘What are you doing? ’ ‘I’m packing to leave. ’ ‘But what about your back? ’ she asked. ‘And I’ve got all those appointments! And we were going to take a second honeymoon! ’ ‘Sweetheart,’ he said. He lowered himself cautiously till he was sitting on the bed. He picked up her hand. It stayed lifeless while she watched his face. à ¢â‚¬ËœYou’re going back to that woman,’ she said. ‘Yes, I am,’ he said. ‘Why, Macon? ’ ‘I just decided, Sarah. I thought about it most of last night. It wasn’t easy. It’s not the easy way out, believe me. †¦ he saw now how such couples evolved. They were not, as he’d always supposed, the result of some ludicrous lack of perception, but had come together for reasons that the rest of the world would never guess. (339-340) Macon realizes that he is happier with Muriel, and although he does not want to cause Sarah pain, this time, it is Macon that is making a change that Sarah cannot help—instead of the other way around. Therefore, Sarah must accept these changes in her life, along with all the ups and downs. Finally, Muriel Pritchett is shown to be the one character that does not go through changes in the duration of the book, already having experienced major alterations in her earlier life. Muriel assures Macon of himself and makes Macon feel needed for the first time in a long time: â€Å"Macon presented himself in front of her, holding out the pizza. ‘Ta-da! ’ he whispered. She looked up at him and gave that perky smile of hers—an ornate, Victorian V. ‘Ma,’ she said, ‘I’m going now! Macon’s here! ’ It had been a long time since anyone made such an event of his arrival† (196). Macon shows that he is beginning to allow himself to care for Muriel, and to be happy with her and this change in his life—being needed. Later on, when Macon is at his sister’s house, he begins to actually miss Muriel: Macon laid the photos aside without looking at the rest of them. He knelt to pat Edward†¦Macon suddenly wished he were at Muriel’s. He wrapped his arms around Edward and imagined he smelled her sharp perfume deep in Edward’s fur†¦ above all else he was an orderly man†¦ There was no room in his life for anyone as unpredictable as Muriel. Or as extreme. Or as†¦well, unlikable, sometimes†¦ Then he knew what mattered was the pattern of her life; that although he did not love her he loved the surprise of her, and also the surprise of himself when he was with her. (201) As much as Macon never thought he could care for Muriel, he finds himself almost loving her, and loving himself more whenever he is with her. He begins to enjoy his time with Muriel, and now moves with the flow of life, instead of life passing him by while he is still standing still. After Macon leaves Muriel to get back with Sarah, he finds that Muriel will not give up on him. She follows him to his business trip to Paris: â€Å"‘†¦why Muriel? Why are you doing this? ’ ‘Because I felt like it,’ she said. ‘You felt like spending five days alone in a Paris hotel? That’s what is will be, Muriel. ’ ‘You need to have me around,’ she said. ‘Need you! ’ ‘You were falling to pieces before you had me† (318). Muriel is very persistent—just like when she had been pursuing Macon; she refuses to give him up. In the end, Macon cannot refuse Muriel, and leaves Paris without Sarah. This shows Muriel to be a stagnant character in this book—with her unwillingness to give up and her belief in the goodness of people. In conclusion, Macon and Sarah prove to be the characters that undergo the most rapid changes, and Muriel remains static. Above all, Macon’s desire to control his own life in such a regimented way as packing for trips with a great notion of order is probably due to the fact that he does not trust other people. He feels that he cannot rely on others and instead can only trust himself. However, this all changes with the help of Muriel, who proves to be one of the most beneficial people to come into Macon’s life. Sarah learns the hard way that you cannot always go back to people and places in your life and try and fix things that are not worth fixing, or not capable of being salvaged. In this case, it was she and Macon’s marriage. Sometimes it is better to let go of the past and move on to the future. The main theme of this book is love, and it is substantiated by Macon’s capability to lose sight of his fear and love someone completely different from himself and all that he has known. All of this happened because of one individual’s acceptance of change and the flow of life. How to cite The Accidental Tourist Essay, Essay examples