Fighting Charges of Assimilation in Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun and

Fighting Charges of Assimilation in Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and The Cosby Show The critical reception of The Cosby Show, an enormously popular television sitcom in the 1980's, roughly paralleled that of A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry's highly acclaimed play of the 1950's. Both the television series and the play helped change the way Blacks are portrayed in the entertainment media. But despite being initially greeted with critical praise, both subsequently fell under heavy scrutiny by many critics for being too assimilationist. However, in both cases, the charges of assimilation may perhaps be too harsh. A Raisin in the Sun, a drama of a middle-class family in Chicago, should not be regarded as a wholehearted endorsement of black assimilation into "white society. " Instead, the play offers a rather realistic view of the complexity of struggles that involves this issue. The Cosby Show, a comedy series about a successful upper-middle-class black family in New York, must also not be viewed as an endorsement of black assimilation into "white society ." Instead, the sitcom dealt with universal family issues and posited traditional family values and morals. But most importantly of all, both tried to do away with the prevailing negative black stereotypes in order to promote more positive and realistic representations. The claim that A Raisin in the Sun expresses the idea of black assimilation can be somewhat justified. Walter Lee Younger and George Murchison openly and consciously admit that desire for the white lifestyle. George has willingly denounced his race rather than uplifted it and is the epitome of a black man that has fully assimilated into the White mainstream. Walter, on the other hand,... ...revolution, not the just the entertainment industry. Works Cited Color Adjustment.Videotape. Dir. Marlon Riggs. Narr. Rudy Dee. California newsreel.1991. 87 min. Crenshaw, Anthony. "The Cosby Show Changed the Way Blacks are Viewed." Once Upon a Time in the Eighties. (1995) n. pag. Online. Internet. 3 Aug. 1998. Link to above site: www.engl.virginia.edu/~enwr1016/amc2d/cosby.html Pouissant, Alvin. "The Huxtables: fact or Fantasy." Ebony. Oct. 1988. 72-74. Turner, Darwin T. "Visions of Love and Manliness in a Blackening World :Dramas of Black Life Since 1953." The Black Scholar. vol. 25. No.2. 2-12. Link to the Lorraine Hansberry Page: http://www.%20accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/hansberr.htm Link to an interesting site which provides some helpful info and question about A Raisin in the Sun: www.randomhouse.com/acmart/raisintg.html

Foreshadowing In “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck Essay

John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing through out the story of â€Å"Of Mice and Men† to prepare the reader for the final scene. Foreshadowing is the composition of layered hints or clues about what may happen in the future of the story. Early in the story, these lines or events suggest a wide range of possibilities to the audience. But as the story progresses, the range narrows. In order for the impact of foreshadowing to be effective, the audience has to be both surprised by the climax of the story and find it logical. The logic comes from foreshadowing. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing in the course of â€Å"Of Mice and Men† by pulling together past events in the story, to build to the ending impact and overall importance and effect of the final scene. In the first chapters, it is apparent that Lennie is a simple minded man who likes to pet things that are soft and delicate. George and Lennie are traveling through to the farm for work. They had to escape from the town they were previously at because Lennie had an incident with one of the women in the town. He was a rather large, frightening fellow. He went up to a young women because the beauty of her dressed marveled him. Just as he did with mice, he insisted on touching it. That is all. Because of her frightened screams, he grabbed onto the dress and did not let go out of fear and panic. This led him into much trouble and the townspeople to go after him. George took Lennie and they escaped the town. This is foreshadowing to the ending scene because once again, Lennie just had to have a touch and once again, led him to trouble that even George could not fix. When Carlson insisted on killing Candy’s old worn dog friend, it was foreshadowing to the final scene in which all of the men insisted on searching and killing Lennie. Although Candy deep down knew that his dog was beyond his years and was suffering day to day, it was hard for him to accept it and let go. His dog was his only true friend. The same is true about Lennie and George’s relationship. Although George knows what Lennie has done is wrong, and that if he were to remain around or alive that he would just suffer more with his conscience and the other men searching for him. Candy feels that he should have been the one to take his best friend out of the world in which he played such a great part in. This is foreshadowing to the  time that George is faced with the same decision. George feels it is his job and right to have the choice to be the one to kill Lennie. George kills him quickly and painlessly, without the suffering that the other men wished to cast upon hi m. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing in the course of â€Å"Of Mice and Men† by pulling together past events in the story, to build to the ending impact and overall importance and effect of the final scene. At the beginning, Lennie gets in the middle of mass confusion when he approaches a woman and tries to stroke her soft dress. George then collected Lennie and they both escaped town. This is foreshadowing to the ending scene because once again, Lennie just had to have a touch and once again, led him to trouble that even George could not fix. Another example of foreshadowing is when Carlson kills Candy’s dog who was past his time. Candy said he should have been the one to do it. This foreshadows George’s decision with Lennie. Although he knows he needs to do it, it is just to painful.

Jack the Ripper – Describe law and order in London in the late nineteenth century

In the late nineteenth century the methods of policing were still in their infancy. There was not the technology and experience of crime we have today. Because of the under developed methods there was a lot of petty theft, murder and robbery was common. Riots broke quite often; they usually ended up with injuries and distrust towards the police and army. Law and order up keeping was not organised well enough so it had little effect on the crime. There were too few police to arrest enough criminals. Prostitution was the most common was that poor woman made a living for them and their families in bad times. In the area of Whitechapel there were roughly 8000 prostitutes working in 1888. The east end was on of the poorest communities and London the richest square mile right next to poverty. The Metropolitan police force was set up to keep order and deter crime in London as well as tackle major disturbances, e.g. riots. They were set up to take over the function of the watchmen and constables. When the police force had to deal with large riots or protest there was frequent deaths as the army backed up the police. When dealing wit riots or protest the police often launched a baton charge on the crowd, however public complained that the police didn't follow orders and used violence all too often. The police were armed with only a truncheon. Later the inspectors began to carry revolvers at times. The police force dealt with street crimes, as that happened the number of burglaries went up. A detective department was set. This lead to corruption and 3 out of 4 policemen were found guilty of corruption. Two years later big improvements were made. As the number of detectives went up and the number of arrests the amount of corruption went down. The methods were basic, value of footprints and following suspicious characters. Detective work progressed slowly; however many arrests were made and crimes solved with detective work. They used such methods as measuring parts of the human body believing that no two humans would have the same measurements, matching materials discovered and fingerprinting. These methods of detective work weren't very effective. They were too underdeveloped to help the police force investigate crimes well. The significance of evidence was not known. Crime still thrived in the streets in London. The amount of police in London at the time was 13,319 but at any one time only 1,383 were available, while the population was 5,255,069. Not enough police meant that too many crimes were being committed still. Slowly however improvements were being made. Question 2 Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? The Whitechapel murders attracted a lot of attention because they were the first serial, sexual murders. The short time between the 5 murders was only 2 months and a week, 70 days. The types of murders, press reports, mystery and injuries also attracted attention to the murders. The Rippers' victims were all working prostitutes. Prostitutes were just people he picked at random; he didn't plan to kill that specific person. Prostitutes were seen as the lowest of people by the upper and middle classes. The murders thrilled the upper classes and gave them something to talk about. The injuries he caused to the bodies were a big reason why the murders attracted so much attention. All the victims died instantly from a deep slit across their neck from left to right. The injuries were mainly abdominal; they became increasingly more horrific as the murders went on. The murders were extremely bloody, disturbing and moving. Organs such as the uterus, intestines and kidneys were removed. In the last, most horrific murder the heart was missing, it was never found. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both murdered on the same night. Their bodies were found less than a quarter of a mile away from each other; and murdered in less than an hour. The body of Elizabeth Stride was not mutilated, so the Ripper obviously hadn't had enough time to finish. However the body of the other woman was badly mutilated. She had all the stabs and mutilations as the other victims; but she also had multiple cuts on her face; right earlobe was sliced off and V's cut on her cheeks. The press also over exaggerated about the injuries to the bodies. The press had said that the injuries were more horrific than they really were; and in each report small details were added to keep the public interested. The name ‘Jack the Ripper' was a catchy name that would draw attention to the article; it turned him into a celebrity. The murders become a sensation after the name was put forward. Press reports contained information like suspects, injuries and stories from witnesses. The press turned it into stories that lead the public to buy more newspapers or magazines; it was a series that people just had to find out the ending to. The murders attracted attention to the area of Whitechapel, the bad conditions and lives. It was a very widely publicized and talked about event. It drew curiosity and interest to the homes of people everywhere. What happened in those few weeks was very new to crime. Question 3 Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper? There were many factors about why the police were unable to catch the Ripper. He was the first sexual serial killer. He only focused on murdering prostitutes. He was an opportunist murder. It was common and normal to see men and women go into dark corners and it didn't look suspicious. This made it hard for the police because he didn't follow a pattern or he didn't have any connections between the people he murdered; it was completely at random. The police didn't know how to deal with this situation, as it was the first of its kind. The police couldn't establish anything in particular. The bodies were moved around a lot before they were taken to the mortuary so evidence was destroyed. There were two main police forces at work at the time of the murders. They were competing against each other for the capture of the Ripper. The Metropolitan police and City Police were heavily guarding information from each other in competition to catch the Ripper and get more publicity. If the two police forces had joined information it would have helped them to capture him before anymore murders took place. Because of this they limited the chances of catching the serial murderer. During the few weeks of the murders there were too many other murders. There were approximately 82 other murders at the same time. It was hard to distinguish who was the murderer for each of the murders. The press interfered with the investigation; by publishing information about the investigation that the police had gathered. This could give ‘tips' to the murder to stay ahead of the investigation and make advances. The murderer could have been anyone. He could been any normal person who lived in the middle class areas in London who only came on the weekends after his work for a little fun. Or he could have been a street dweller. It could have been an immigrant. This hindered the investigation because it wasn't certain exactly who it could be clues lead to it potentially being either. There were many homeless street dwellers in Whitechapel so it was common for people to be out on the streets late in the night. It could have been anyone who was sleeping on the streets at the time. Or could have come from London for the weekend. Also different detectives had different points of views of the killer. Most said that he was a professional medic on human anatomy but one or two argued that he hadn't even the skill of a butcher. Despite that today we have methods such as physiological profiling, which makes it slightly easier to catch serial killers however it's still hard. In 1888 there was no such thing; so they could not focus on specific suspects easily and was ever harder for them. There was also a lot of racial argument at the time; figures were being pointed at the foreigners mostly. The skills that investigation used was very basic like the significance of footprints and fingerprints. They believed in old wives tales such as the last image a person sees is preserved on their retina. The police might not have ever caught the Ripper. Many arrests were made and theories were thought of. The press interfered greatly with the investigation. They drove it for the police basically. Also the low experience of the police in serial killers hindered the chances of capturing him. Catching serial killers is still very difficult despite all out technology, so with none of what we take for granted today; it probably slowed down his capture even more.