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In both Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, we find many characters making choices about how they will handle the circumstances facing them. Rowling actively portrays the role of fate versus free will in the decisions a person makes as a theme throughout the Harry Potter novels. Harry is marked by Voldemort from a very young age, and during his youth he is told repeatedly that he is special or different as the “boy who lived.” He is orphaned and introduced into the wizarding world much later than most, trying to gain footing and learn about his past. A prophecy tells him what he is destined to do, and he chooses to embrace the cause. In great contrast, Kathy H. in Never Let Me Go is completely compliant, refusing to work to change her fate. Both authors’ messages speak clearly: regardless of what daunting task lies in front, how you approach the situation speaks for the choices you make.

The debate between free will and fate is a very common theme in literature because it is so potent in our everyday lives. There is no scientific proof that a higher power does or does not exist: we question religion our whole lives, unsure of what to practice and if what we are practicing is valid. We wonder if the decisions we make were actually our choice, or if our life has already been decided by fate. Because this is such a “human” thing to consider, we see it pop up in literature over and over, from Harry Potter to Hamlet.

Harry feels that he has no control over the relationships in his life. He is so concerned about Voldemort hurting Ginny that, as much as he loves her, he refuses to be with her. She was targeted before just for being a sister of a friend, and Harry knows that Voldemort would run wild if he knew that Harry had a girlfriend. Instead, Harry sacrifices his feelings and love for her, putting their relationship on hold while he fulfills his responsibilities. This is especially bitter after the death of Harry’s godfather, who was used to bait Harry and then murdered by Deatheater Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry felt that he had no choice but try to save Sirius, just as he feels he has no control over leaving Ginny. Harry cannot control that he loves Ginny, but chooses to push her away in order to protect her from danger.

Draco also struggles with free will after being chosen by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. “‘I haven’t got any options!’ said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. ‘I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!’” (591). The fear of the evil, dark wizard makes him hysterical and he fails to see options before him. Dumbledore replies, “‘I appreciate the difficulty of your position … Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you… come over to the right side, Draco… It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now,”” (591-592). Dumbledore tries to reason with Draco, telling him he does have options and that he will protect Draco. He explains that his mercy is most important; Draco is only spawn for Voldemort, but for Dumbledore, who has cared about Draco and watched him grow up, this act is unforgivable and damning. Dumbledore tells Draco, fearful or not, he is making a conscious decision in the eyes of the headmaster.

Harry plays a vital role in the prophecy. When his parents were murdered, he was left with part of Voldemort – his soul. Harry becoming a Horcrux meant that for Voldemort to die, he would have to find all the Horcruxes and destroy them – including himself. Harry never argued this fact, prepping for this moment throughout all seven novels.

“Got to?” said Dumbledore, “Of course you’ve got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you’ve tried! We both know! Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!” …

“I’d want him finished,” said Harry quietly, “And I’d want to do it.”

“Of course you would!” cried Dumbledore. “You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal … In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy! But Voldemort continue to set store by the prophecy.” (512).

Harry may have been destined to kill Voldemort, but the emotional damage Voldemort has inflicted on Harry is irreplaceable. This fury drives Harry with more passion and strength than a glass ball saying he was destined to destroy Voldemort ever could. Harry has lost countless loved ones and spent his youth worrying about Voldemort—the prophecy has no impact on the pain he has been caused. Harry has the mental determination and reasoning to kill Voldemort, and that is free will.

Harry’s attitude shifts from disbelief to acceptance as he realizes nobody is better destined to kill Voldemort than him. “It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew – and so do I, thought Harry …” Although he is handed a terrifying and terrible task, he lives his life for his friends and hopes to do right in their book. He wants to avenge the death of his loved ones and prevent any more pain. This is the spirit of a martyr, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for something he believes in.

Kathy H. in Never Let Me Go is the opposite of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. She is used to harvest organs – a clone of a more important human. Although she knows she is destined to die so another can live, she puts up no fight or has no thoughts about how this is wrong. “‘I was like you, Tommy. I was pretty much ready when I became a donor. It felt right. After all, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?’” (6). She feels that since that was her purpose, it was what was meant to be. “‘One big idea behind finding your model was that when you did, you'd glimpse your future. Now I don't mean anyone really thought that if your model turned out to be, say, a guy working at a railway station, that's what you'd end up doing too. We all realised it wasn't that simple.’” Kathy is made to live her life through a window. She has no future besides donor or carer, so she thinks about her clone’s life instead. We do see a sense of free will in Kathy H. as her narrative comes to a close; although her humanity is questioned, being made for no purpose but to provide organs for other humans, she aspires to live a fulfilling life.

Miss Lucy wants to tell the students about how they are treated with a lack of humanity:

“She said we weren't being taught enough, something like that.”

“Taught enough? You mean she thinks we should be studying even harder than we are?”

“No, I don't think she meant that. What she was talking about was, you know, about us. What's going to happen to us one day. Donations and all that.”

“But we have been taught about all that,” I said. “I wonder what she meant. Does she think there are things we haven't been told yet?”

The way the students so nonchalantly talk about their purpose is disturbing; they speak of “all that” as if at some point they will need to eat breakfast and not have their internal organs harvested.

The following quote best summarizes how Rowling exemplifies that free will triumphs fate:

His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace to enjoy with Ron and Hermione. (652)

Harry knows what is to come, but still chooses to ensure that any time spent with his best friends and in which they are happy, safe, and healthy is not to be wasted. This is Harry choosing to make the best of his life. In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, many characters are forced to make difficult choices when facing their circumstances. Rowling challenges the idea of a set destiny by using the decisions characters make about their fate to show that free will always prevails.

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In both Never Let Me Go and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, many characters must make choices about how they will handle the circumstance in front of them. While Kathy H. is compliant, Harry refuses to be anything but complacent; he knows he is the best man for the job. Both Rowling and Ishiguro explore the line between free will and fate to show that regardless of what daunting task may lie ahead, an individual can be defined by how he or she chooses to approach the situation.

The great thing about writing, and poetry in particular, is that there can be so many meanings to the same section of text, and that it can touch so many people that the author did not even know. It can also help that author. It helps them express held in feelings that they can just not find how to express, but poetry will always be there to listen to them. And as weird as it is to put a slogan on all of poetry when I am sitting here talking about how different it is for everybody, I think that John Keats says it best with his quote, “Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject”.

This quote from John Keats is a great representation of poetry for many reasons. Starting with the beginning of the quote, “Poetry should be great and unobtrusive”, this is a critical part if poetry is to remain as great as it is now. If poetry were to be obtrusive, than people would not write poetry from their hearts or feelings, but to gain more attention from people, which would lead to an overall decrease in meaningful poetry from writers. The second half, “a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject” is also very integral to all of poetry. As said before, poetry means many different things to many different people. If everybody read poetry in the same way, than almost all of the poem’s meaning would be washed away immediately, as interpreting a poem different ways is what gives the poem life and its ability to connect with people.

The poem, My City, illustrates this quote and its ideas as a whole wonderfully. In this poem, the narrator talks of his love for his city of Manhattan as he wonders what he would miss most about it if he were to die. He goes over nature first, thinking that he might miss the sun or the trees, before saying no, and assuring himself that the loss of Manhattan would be the greatest sorrow for himself. This connects with the quote from John Keats because Manhattan became an integral part of this narrator's soul, so much so that he would miss it more than the sun or the trees. The narrator was able to interpret and explore the city himself, and got his own personal message from the city, and from that personal meaning he got, he treasured it more dearly than anything else in the world. And this is similar to what John Keats is saying poetry should be, something that the reader can explore themselves and find their own personal meaning to. And so just as the narrator found his version of the city from exploring, the reader should get their own version of the poem as well.

While each reader can get their own personal message from a poem, from John Keats words we can see that there should be one thing that all poetry should have in common, and that is the varying messages for individuals who just might read the poem different than the person sitting right next to them. And so while you may go along with everyone else when it comes to seeing themes in poems, make sure to find your Manhattan every once in awhile.

In Jodi Picoult's novel 19 Minutes, she brings her readers on a roller coaster ride of emotion and gives psychological insight to all of her characters. Ms Picoult uses multiple flashbacks from past and present while switching between different characters. This provides wonderful detail into the inner mind of all characters and reveals personality. However, it is a little difficult to follow at first. This novel tackles many social issues including suicide, bullying, social barriers between kids and adults, along with many other aspects of teenage life. Her use of plot and dialogue slowly reveal and develop theme, moral, and overall tone to the novel. The only aspect I did not like is how the book concluded. She left many loose ends and that irked me. Taking all of the book into account, it would receive an eight out of ten.

Throughout 19 Minutes, readers will learn about what drove Peter to shoot up a school and look back on what others could have done to stop the problem. "Why" by Rascal Flatts relates very well to this book. "Why" was written about a boy that took his own life and people questioned why, even though he had always looked happy. Peter was always dumped on and bullied from his first days in kindergarten and he felt "It must've been in a place so dark you couldn't feel the light". His life was a living hell, he would be tortured at school and nobody would help him and school administrators did nothing. He would then come home to a house where he would have to live up to the expectations set by his older brother. He could not get away and felt useless and worthless. Peter seems to have thought the only way to make it stop was to kill them. However, he did not really want them dead. It was not the "way you meant to draw a crowd". After all his suffering, he wanted out and it hit the breaking point. He lashed out and used violence to end his problems. In the end he failed his ultimate goal, ending his life.

Bullying is a major theme and point of emphasis in this book. IT drives the plot and shows how much it can hurt a person on the inside, as well as the outside. This theme also dwells on adults not doing their part in stopping bullying or other hazing. "Fitting In" is another important theme. Josie ditches Peter when she matures into a beautiful young lady and leaves for the popular crowd. It is not that she did not like Peter, she did not want to be bullied like Peter and was willing to lose him in order to save herself. "Safety" is an important idea as well as common thought. Nobody ever thinks that their child could be shot one day. A little town in Sterling, New Hampshire or even Huntley, Illinois seem to be perfectly safe places until something horrific happens. The idea of "safety" is challenged in 19 Minutes and shows we may never be totally safe. "Communication" is an important part of every person's life. The relationships between Alex and Josie and Peter and Lacy show how communication can save a life or take one. Parental involvement in a child's life are critical to their health and safety, as well as the safety of others, in Peter's case. Finally, "Innocent until Proven Guilty" is a phrase often used in everyday life. However, when Peter is arrested, every citizen in Sterling believes that he is guilty and should automatically be sentenced to life. This phrase is challenged often and unfair because nobody but the perpetrator knows the whole story and whether there is a just cause. However, killing nine and wounding many others, is extremely difficult to justify.

I am very surprised to know that a child could be bullied at school, on the way to and from school, and outside of school, and nobody has the courage to stop it. School administrators had been notified of the incidents and did not do anything about it. Many emotions flood through my brain knowing that a child dreads going to school because he will be beaten, teased, and humiliated. Events like this, though fictional, are why schools, workplaces, and society has laws and rules against bullying and hazing. I was reminded how great my parents truly are. Both my mom and dad are supporting me at anything I do. It could be sports, school, or music, and they are still there. I felt as if Josie was feeling abandoned and wished she had somebody to talk to. It did remind me that our parents will truly do anything so their kids can have a great life and I am truly grateful. Finally, the central issue in this novel is bullying and harassment. The teenage years are stressful with all of the changes happening and our futures at the doorstep. Having a group of kids harass you about everything you do, making you contemplate suicide or murder is horrible and no child should deal with this. It reminded me that seemingly harmless teasing can escalate to somebody doubting themselves and their life. This novel gave me a new perspective on people who seem to be outcasts and that lending a helping hand can make all the difference in the world to them.

Jack Burden, the chronicler and one of two possible protagonists of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, is anything but a static narrator. His character is quite possibly even more dynamic than that of Willie Stark, the novel's man of the hour. Throughout the adventures and misadventures Jack encounters on the capricious road of life, he ultimately destroys his original self, tries on numerous vaguely different personalities, and ends up an entirely altered entity. Although many factors shape the destruction of Mr. Burden's primary character and the shaping of his ultimate persona, the departure of his father when he is very young, his love affair with Anne Stanton, finding evidence of Judge Irwin's wrongdoing, the Judge's suicide and the revelation that he is Jack's father, and the deaths of Willie Stark and Adam Stanton are the five monumental events that have the greatest effect on his personality.

Although he does not realize it at the time, Jack's life is first significantly impacted by an episode that occurs when he is a boy of six. Ellis Burden, the man Jack calls the "Scholarly Attorney" and believes to be his father for a sizeable portion of the novel, walks out on Jack and his mother for the life of a poor, street-corner evangelist. Jack does not find out the reason for this seeming abandonment until some years later. Until he discovers Ellis' motivation for fleeing, Jack interprets his departure from the viewpoint of the small child he is when the episode occurs. He feels rejected, angry, and does not understand why a man has discarded him and his infatuating mother. After this incident, Jack carries with him a sense of inadequacy and defect that shapes his mindset throughout adolescence and adulthood. Jack's denial of responsibility throughout part of the novel is also rooted in this event, as is his lack of understanding of human motivation. Jack considers that his "father" simply left, and does not take into account the possibility that Jack's mother may have given him reason to leave. When visiting Ellis, believing that he is his father, a grown-up Jack is ashamed, even though Ellis is helping others and appears to be happy with his life. Jack feels that Ellis is "weak." As Jack sees it, he has not inherited the genes needed to succeed; it is futile for him to toil for any goal, and he is condemned to drift through life indefinitely. Jack refers to his own lack of ambition throughout the novel, which results from his observations of where the ambition to be successful has gotten his father-the street corner. Jack has no hopes and dreams partly because he has no father whom he may strive to emulate.

Another influential event in Jack's life is the romantic relationship he shares with Anne Stanton in their youth. Anne, Jack's first love, changes him by allowing him to feel emotions unlike any he has experienced before. Loving a parent or parent figure and being in love with a peer are separate and very different emotions for him. The difference between these sentiments is especially distinct because Jack has had no peer love and little normal parental love until he and Anne fall in love. Jack's feelings for Anne are some of the purest, most honest feelings he expresses throughout the entire narrative. Jack's descriptions of Anne and their times together illustrate true love, rather than lust or infatuation. All images of Anne and their romance are idealized; however, and the indistinct, inconclusive end of their youthful relationship creates much cynicism in Jack's character. His picture of the perfect summer that simply drifts along forever is shattered, along with his impression that he is in the perfect relationship. Jack learns that there is no perfect relationship, nor perfect woman, and allows this knowledge to destroy his already scant idealism completely. As he and Anne fall out of love, Jack becomes even more emotionally withdrawn, and ultimately resorts to a relationship with Lois based purely on physical attraction.

Jack's personality is further transformed when he finds proof that Judge Monty Irwin, his father figure after the departure of Ellis, accepted a bribe to salvage his home, possessions, and position. When initially confronted by Willie to "dig up some dirt" on the judge, Jack is confident that he will find nothing. Adulating the older man for much of his life, Jack refuses to believe that Irwin is anything but lily-white until Irwin confesses to the entire scandal Jack uncovers. After his through search and this confirmation, Jack is amazed, disappointed, and shocked. Jack has now been disappointed by the second man he has looked up to. This event leaves Jack with even less faith in people than he had to begin with. If his father and Judge Irwin could both be susceptible to such disappointing failure, Jack is surely doomed.

Almost immediately following his revelation about Judge Irwin, Jack experiences another momentous event. After considering the position he has been put in by the uncovering of his past sins, Judge Irwin commits suicide. In a state of horror and disbelief, Jack's mother reveals that Judge Irwin is Jack's father. Jack has been bombarded with two facts of great magnitude at once, and he must digest this new information as it pours into his character, changing him definitely and irrevocably. He weeps, showing the most candid emotion since his love affair with Anne. Knowing that Judge Irwin would rather kill himself than sell out his power, Jack appreciates a newfound reverence for the responsibility of men. Judge Irwin takes such accountability for his actions that he sacrifices his own life. Jack has no choice but to reject his "Great Twitch" theory in the phenomenal irony of the situation: Judge Irwin accepts a bribe to save the estate that Jack inadvertently inherits by exposing the bribe. Much as he might like to, Jack can no longer believe that life simply happens to men. Through Judge Irwin's suicide, Jack also learns that his mother is capable of love. She truly loved Judge Irwin, and that love produced Jack. Finally, Jack is somewhat relieved to know that he has a strong father rather than the weak "Scholarly Attorney," but he again recalls tender moments with Ellis and remains unclear about his feelings regarding his paternity. Needless to say, Jack's perception of life changes significantly in the instant that he finds out he has driven his father to suicide.

When Willie Stark and Adam Stanton are gunned down essentially simultaneously, the final significant change in Jack's character transpires. Accustomed to Willie being in control of every situation, Jack is somewhat shocked when Governor Stark is fired upon in a cold blooded situation even "the Boss" can not control. Most importantly, Jack must come to terms with his own responsibility, specifically his role in the eventual death of Willie. Had he not begun to research the Judge, the ironic, tragic chain of events that unfolds in the final chapters of All the King's Men would never have been instigated. This cements the concept Jack begins to develop after Irwin's suicide-the theory that men have no responsibility for what happens to them is impossible. Because he blames Tiny for Willie's death, Tiny must have responsibility for something, and henceforth, so must everyone else. Jack must realize that he played a pivotal role in the deaths of the two most important men in his life. This epiphany shatters Jack's comfortable bubble of denial and self-righteousness, and awakens him to a more empowered, slightly more difficult to deal with, way of living in a world of accountability and possibility.

Unmistakably, Jack Burden's character in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men evolves from impressionable child to irresponsible cynic to matured, complete adult throughout the course of this respected literary work. The critical turning points in this destruction of his original self include the departure of Jack's alleged father, Jack's first love, Anne Stanton, finding proof that Judge Monty Irwin accepted a bribe, Irwin's suicide and the revelation that he is Jack's father, and the deaths of Adam Stanton and Willie Stark. By the time the novel concludes, our often unwittingly confused protagonist has found his true love, resolved his unfinished thesis, and accepted, "the awful responsibility of time."

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Biography and achievements
3. Conclusion
4. Works Cited

Introduction

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives” (Jackie Robinson). In the United States in the 1940s, segregation was the way of life. You probably know Jackie Robinson as number 42; the first black man to play major league baseball. In 1947, he broke the color barrier in Major League baseball. Jackie Robinson’s life had many twists and turns. He was a very strong man who impacted a countless number of people and still does today.

Biography and achievements

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. Jackie was named after President Theodore Roosevelt. About a year after he was born, he moved to Pasadena, California with his mother. In California, he started to learn about how awful discrimination and racism was. Jackie watched his brothers play sports as he grew up. He attended John Muir High school and excelled in four sports. In high school and college he played basketball, baseball, football, and track. His mother was a labor worker and they did not have much money, but Jackie found his own way of living.

Jackie’s parents are Mallie and Jerry Robinson. He was born into a sharecropping family. Jackie’s dad left when he was about a year old and he never seen him again. His grandparents were slaves. He was the youngest of 5 children. He had three older brothers Mack, Edgar, and Frank and one sister, Willa Mae. Jackie met nursing student Rachel Isum at UCLA. He married Rachel on February 10, 1946. They had three kids; Jack Robinson Jr., Sharon, and David. Jack Jr. died in a car accident when he was 24. His daughter Sharon is an author and a consultant for Major League baseball and his son David is a coffee farmer in Tanzania.

Jackie played four sports at UCLA, basketball, baseball, football and track. He was the first person to get varsity letters in four sports at UCLA. He went to Honolulu, Hawaii to play semi-professional football for the Bears. About halfway through the season, he was drafted into the army for World War II. Jackie served as Second Lieutenant in the army, but he was never in combat. In this time African Americans were not allowed to serve alongside white people. In boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, he refused to move to the back of the segregated army bus and he almost got kicked out of the army. In 1944, Jackie left the army with an honorable discharge.

Jackie started playing baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs. While playing for the Monarchs, he had a batting average of .387 and he was an outstanding shortstop. The general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers Branch Rickey wanted to integrate Major League Baseball. He wanted to win the pennant. Branch Rickey knew the racism and comments would be nasty, so he wanted to find someone strong enough to handle it and not fight back. Branch approached Jackie to play for the Dodgers, and in their first conversation Jackie said, “Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a negro who is afraid to fight back?”, Branch replied “Robinson, I am looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.” https://www.ducksters.com/sports/jackie_robinson.php.

Jackie started playing for the Dodgers farm team, the Montreal Royals. It did not take long for the racism to start, teams would not show up for games, he got yelled at, threatened, and things thrown at him. He was able to work through it and play hard. While playing for the Royals he had a .349 batting average. He won the league’s MVP award. In 1947, Jackie was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played his first major league season as a first baseman. On April 15, 1947, Jackie became the first African American to play Major League Baseball, when he was 28 years old. There began to be more and more black fans at each game.

The Dodgers players opposed Jackie playing on the team. They said they would rather sit out. “This is the United States of America and one citizen has as much right to play as another” (Ford Rick). Jackie had 175 hits, scoring a total of 125 runs, 12 were home runs, 48 RBIs, and 28 stolen bases. “This guy didn’t just come to play. He came to beat ya.” That year the Dodgers won the pennant and Jackie received the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year award.

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” (Jackie Robinson). In the 1940s, the United States was segregated. Now it is normal to have mixed race teams. However in the 1940s, it was not a thing. Black people were prohibited from playing baseball with white people. Brooklyn was a very segregated city, the African American population was only 4 percent. Many people opposed Jackie signing to play for the Dodgers and the integration of baseball. The harassment and abuse that Jackie had to work through without showing anger would get someone in major trouble today. His strength, courage, and black supporters got him through, but having his wife Rachel by his side, was the most important thing.

In Jackie’s baseball career, he had a batting average of .311. He had a total of 137 home runs and 197 stolen bases. He was a great bunter and base stealer. His best position was second base. He won the All-Star award 6 times. Jackie retired from baseball January 5, 1957. Jackie retired because the Dodgers traded him for a pitcher and $30,000 after winning their sixth National League Pennant. He did not accept the trade to the Dodgers biggest rival, the New York Giants, so he retired. Jackie sent a letter to Horace Stoneham, the Giants owner, requesting to retire. Warren Giles, the National league president approved Jackie’s request to retire and added his name to the voluntary retired list. His letter remains in The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Jackie played for the Dodgers for 10 years.

“Jackie Robinson is perhaps the most historically significant baseball player ever, ranking with Babe Ruth in terms of his impact on the national pastime.” When Jackie stepped foot on the field for the first time playing Major League Baseball broke the color barrier and ended more than sixty years of segregation in baseball. “He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint.” Jackie opened up opportunities for more African Americans to play major league baseball. He was able to bring people together through baseball as many were struggling with the war. He integrated baseball, but that is not all. When he refused to move to the back of the army bus, he helped integration in the army.

After Jackie retired from baseball, he became active in the business and continued to work as an activist for social change. He was the first black U.S. Vice President of a national corporation. In 1964, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank. The foundation was to help African Americans gain financial independence. Jackie called the Yankees out for being racist in 1952 when they still did not have any African American players after 5 years of the color barrier getting broken.

Jackie passed away October 24, 1972 because of a heart attack. At 7:10 A.M. he passed away in Stamford Hospital in Connecticut. Jackie was 53 years old. Rachel Robinson started the Jackie Robinson Foundation after he passed away. It is to help young people by mentoring programs and providing scholarships. He was entered into the hall of fame in 1962. His jersey number 42 was retired in 1972. Every year on April 15th, everyone puts on the number 42 for Jackie Robinson day.

Conclusion

“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life” (Jackie Robinson). Jackie did not stand back and watch or let things happen. Jackie worked in the world and took risks to change the world. He helped end segregation in many organizations. He was so much more than just the first African American baseball player. His life accomplishments inspire me and have inspired and impacted so many people. The movie “42” about his baseball career, it is what inspired me to write a research report about him. I hope this will inspire you in a way to do something big in the world. He is proof that you can make anything happen if you are courageous.

Works Cited

•  “Biography.” Ducksters Educational Site, www.ducksters.com/sports/jackie_robinson.php.
• “Biography - The Official Licensing Website of Jackie Robinson.” Jackie Robinson, www.jackierobinson.com/biography/.
• “Effect on Society.” Jackie Robinson: A Man Who Changed Sports Forever, jackierobinsonchangedsports.weebly.com/effect-on-society.html.
• History.com Editors. “Jackie Robinson.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/jackie-robinson.
• “Jackie Robinson.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Aug. 2019, www.biography.com/athlete/jackie-robinson.
• “Jackie Robinson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson.
• “Jackie Robinson.” Jackie Robinson | Society for American Baseball Research, sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb9e2490.
• “Jackie Robinson and the Montreal Royals (1946).” The Canadian Encyclopedia, thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jackie-robinson-and-the-montreal-royals.
• Muder, Craig. “Jackie Robinson Retires Following Trade to Giants.” Baseball Hall of Fame, baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/jackie-robinson-retires.
• “An Unwritten Rule.” The City Reliquary, 28 June 2016, www.cityreliquary.org/an-unwritten-rule/.
• Voa. “Jackie Robinson, 1919-1972: The First Black Player in Modern Major League Baseball.” VOA, VOA - Voice of America English News, 4 Apr. 2009, learningenglish.voanews.com/a/a-23-2009-04-04-voa1-83144212/130584.html.
• abc7NY. “7 Memorable Quotes Attributed to Jackie Robinson: ABC7 New York.” ABC7 New York, abc7ny.com/archive/9061631/.

For a long time, America has been known for breaking barriers in history. Breaking barriers in history is natural, physical, or ideological that has a positive or negative created by people or societies. For example, figures like Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman. Jackie Robinson, a professional baseball player who played in the Major league, was the very first African American male to do this. Jackie Robinson broke barriers in history, by being the first colored male to play baseball. This helped break color barriers that changed the culture and society of America.

Jack also is known as Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was named after President Theodore Roosevelt died twenty-five days before Robinson was born, and he helped inspire Jackie’s middle name. Jackie was born into a family of six, his parents were Mallie and Jerry Robinson. He grew up with three older brothers Mack, Edgar, Frank, and one older sister Willa Mae. He attended John Muir High School in California, then Pasadena Junior College, where he was an athlete that played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. Not only did he play these four sports, but he also played tennis where he was named the region’s Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938, but that is also when he played tennis and won the junior boys singles championship in the Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament. After this he attended Washington Steam Management Program for about four years, then he went to Pasadena City College for two years, then to UCLA. During his time in UCLA he became the first student in that college to win varsity letters in four sports. Despite his athleticism, he was forced to leave college just before graduation due to financial issues. Then the following year Jackie was drafted into the army during which was during World War II when most men were instructed to go into duty. He was assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. During this time Jackie became friends with a boxing champion name Joe Lewis, they used his celebrity to protest delayed entry of black soldiers in an officer candidate school. At this time Robinson was arrested when he refused to sit in the back of an unsegregated bus. Due to this, he received an honorable discharge in 1944.

The following year in 1945 Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Kansas City Monarchs where he played shortstop and later on eventually placed in Negro League All-Star Game. A year later he married Rachel Islum and had three beautiful children named Jackie Jr., Sharon, and David. With Robinson’s incredible baseball skills he became the rookie of the year with a batting average .297, 12 home runs and more. One of Jackie’s friends named Larry Doby was another African American baseball player in the American League, the same year as Robinson. When people found out that Jackie was playing for the LA Dodgers he started to get violent and hasty racial slurs from people. When one of his teammates found Dee Wee Reese found out he spoke up about it and said that “You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them.” At this moment this is where he would break the color barrier. Even though he had racial comments and put-downs, Jackie never gave up, and today people are recognizing Jackie as the first African American in the twentieth century.

Robinson breaking the color barrier influenced not only America itself but many people around the world. Jackie Robinson strived for equal rights, he was also an effective figure during the civil rights movement. African Americans during that time struggled to find jobs because of their skin color. But now people are seeing others as an individual and not mainly by the color many African Americans are able to acquire jobs for themselves. Someone that was influenced by Jackie was, Harry Truman the thirty third president, because of Robinsons impact he ordered armed forces to be integrated, where they work together and not be separated by the shade of color. The Civil Rights Movement thrived due to Jackie, when he broke the color barrier in sports. When Robinson was playing baseball during that time, he faced defamatory remarks, and even death threats from fans and others, because of his shade of color. But he didn’t let that get in the way of his career. It just shows that even though things may put you down, your courage and determination can get you somewhere. Which is why Jackie Robinson altered society as to what it is now, where many people in America work or play in sports with people of different colors.

After Jackie retired from his career, he became a businessman and became active in politics. He truly wanted to influence this country in a positive way. During the years that followed his retirement, many major events happened which also help to break the barrier of racism. With the formation of the Congress of Racial Equality, then the March on Washington featuring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. People began to change perspectives of others by the content of their character rather than the skin color of a person. Unfortunately, even though the racial barrier is blurred it still affects society today. Robinson may not have intended to play such a major role for equal rights when he broke the color barrier in baseball, but as an individual he greatly influenced our country for the better. As he told a white sports writer from New Orleans, ‘We ask for nothing special. We ask only to be permitted to live as you live and as our nation’s Constitution provides’.

In conclusion, overall Robinson was a key figure in history, he displayed extraordinary leadership. As a professional baseball player, he gave speeches and raised money in support of various civil rights groups, but even after his career as a professional baseball player, he still continued to be an advocate for African Amricans and many others. His efforts in the business world helped give African Americans equal opportunities they deserve to have. Jackie Robinson’s influence both on and off the field cannot be understated and will never be matched because he set a path for many colored people in sports and many other things. Today not many athletes obtain his combination of star talent and social awareness. His untimely death on October 24, 1972 left a vacant space that has yet to be filled. Even though he died early on in his life he not only changed professional baseball forever, but all of Americas sports and the future of our country.  

Works Cited

1. Eig, J. (2018). Jackie Robinson: A controversial icon who transcended baseball. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/jackie-robinson-controversial-icon-who-transcended-baseball-180968698/
2. Forman, S. (2019). Jackie Robinson. Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jackie-Robinson
3. Glinton, S. (2019). Jackie Robinson's impact on baseball and America. NPR.
4. Kashatus, W. C. (2010). Jackie Robinson: A biography. ABC-CLIO.
5. Long, T. (2017). Beyond baseball: Jackie Robinson and civil rights. History. https://www.history.com/news/beyond-baseball-jackie-robinson-and-civil-rights
6. Rampersad, A. (1997). Jackie Robinson: A biography. Knopf.
7. Redmond, D. (2008). Jackie Robinson. Lerner Publications.
8. Robinson, J., & Duckett, A. (1995). I never had it made: An autobiography. Harper Collins.
9. Tygiel, J. (2010). Baseball's great experiment: Jackie Robinson and his legacy. Oxford University Press.
10. Zaretsky, R. (2013). The color line: Legacy of Jackie Robinson. New York Amsterdam News, 104(16), 17.

At the turn of the 19th century, a Danish immigrant by the name of Jacob Riis set out to change New York City’s slums. Jacob, born in Denmark in the year 1849, emigrated to America when he was 21, carrying little money in his pocket searching for work in the northeast. He ended up working several labor jobs including farming, sales, and ironwork. In 1873, he landed a job at a local newspaper as a police reporter covering stories that eventually landed him in the heart of the tenement slums. It was this turn of fate that caused Jacob to write his book, “How the Other Half Lives,” and push social reform to pass the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901.

Riis worked on Mulberry Street Police Station as a police reporter. There he made professional acquittances with all manner of police officials, including Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the Police Board in New York City. While working there, Riis learned what stories to publish and what stories to keep to himself, so his career and professional relationships would continue. In one instance, Riis was presented, in confidence, a story about an affair known only by Police Commissioner Matthews at the time, and nearly printed it. The Commissioner advised against telling anyone about the affair as it would do no good. Riis persisted about publishing it when Matthews changed the subject by offering Jacob the handles of an electric battery, which Matthews was using for medical reasons at the time. As Jacob said in his autobiography, “I took them, unsuspecting, and felt the current tingle in my finger-tips. The next instant it gripped me like a vice. I squirmed with pain. (Riis, 1901, p216)” This is one of many anecdotes that make up Jacob’s time with the Mulberry Police, as they were not always on his side.

On Jacob’s many trips down Mulberry Street and the lower east side of Manhattan, he came upon the degradation of the slums. As he puts it, ‘It was upon my midnight trips with the sanitary police that the wish kept cropping up in me that there were some way of putting before the people what I saw there. (Riis, 1901, p266)” So he decided to take to photography to record this horrible environment, because his sketches did not depict what he saw very well. While reading the newspaper, Jacob came upon an article that described a way to take photographs in dim lighting, “A way had been discovered, it ran, to take pictures by flashlight.” With this excitement, he sought out Dr. John Nagle, who was working with the Health Department as well as being an amateur photographer, to help him with this new pursuit to illuminate the tenements of the Bend, a particularly nasty part of Mulberry Street. Jacob pulled a group of amateur night photographers together with a few police officers to try and photograph the Bend, with little to no success. All the light cartridges were held in large revolvers, which, when carried around by several men after 12am, scared the daylights out of many of the tenants, who ran before any reasonable photo could be made. After this setback, Jacob hired his own photographer to help him. The photographer proved to be unreliable during the early hours and also sold any photos they took behind Jacob’s back. This compelled Jacob to learn how to photograph on his own, taking a camera with some plates to Potter’s Field, and, consequently, overexposing all the photos he took there. After nearly burning his house down, Riis refined his photography and made the ‘Blitzlicht – literally, flash light” work for him by having it work in a frying pan. Blitzlicht was possible by mixing magnesium and potassium chlorate to create a brief but powerful flash of light. This allowed him to begin work on his book, How the Other Half Live: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890).

Jacob Riis began documentation of the urban decay from Mulberry Bend and Five Points. Taking photos during the late hours, he would come upon unsuspecting dwellers with his flashbulb’s bright glare. This kind of photography is evident in his photo, “Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement — “Five Cents a Spot””, where six or possibly seven men are seen sleeping in a cramped apartment. In 1887, Jacob took a photo of a group of men with full brimmed hats, “…loitering in an alley known as ‘Bandits’ Roost’ (Johnson, 2019)” Riis continued his crusade through Five Points taking photographs in the late hours of the night using Blitzlicht. Soon after, Jacob had collected all the photos he believed he required and finished his book, publishing it 1890. Roosevelt, who read the book, stopped by Riis’ employer, The Evening Sun, and left a note for him stating simply, “come to help. (Riis, 1901, p328)” The two of them would begin to patrol the streets together at night. Roosevelt was looking over how the police were performing their duties, specifically whether they were conscious or not. The two of them did more than just watch over the patrols, “sometimes it was the tenements we went inspecting when the tenants slept.”

Overcrowding was a crime at the time and the police were in a situation where they were responsible for dealing with slums and the underbelly of Five Points. The police, however, had the very same issue with their station’s lodging, where homeless men could stay for a night. Police lodging had severe health concerns ranging from Typhus, which broke out in 1891, and damp dirty planks used as beds. Riis took photos of these lodgings and brought the negatives to the Academy of Medicine, “…doctors knew the real extent of the peril we were then facing. (Riis, 1901, p256)” With Teddy Roosevelt, Jacob went to each of the lodgings and inspected them. Roosevelt brought swift reform to the New York City police lodgings, despite how it made him look, “the yellow newspapers…printed cartoons of homeless men shivering at a barred door ‘closed by order of T. Roosevelt’ (Riis, 1901, p259)” Five years after the Typhus outbreak, the police lodging rooms closed for good.

Jacob faced opposition at every turn when he first began his search for the reform of Mulberry Bend and Five Points. Politician’s from Tammany Hall, department heads at the Mulberry Police Department, and members of yellow journalism made life for Jacob more difficult, further tempering his resolve to pursue photography and document the living situation in New York City. Following his publications and work with Theodore Roosevelt, the Five Points became the Mulberry Bend Park. With the invention of Blitzlicht, Jacobs became a pioneer of flash photography, “but no one would have predicted that its very first mainstream use would come in the form of a crusade against urban poverty”.   

Works Cited

1. Johnson, C. (2019). Bandits’ Roost: The Photography of Jacob Riis. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/lens/bandits-roost-the-photography-of-jacob-riis.html
2. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. (2018). Jacob A. Riis Papers. Cornell University Library.
3. PBS. (2003). New York: A Documentary Film - Episode 3. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/episode3.html
4. Riis, J. A. (1890). How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
5. Riis, J. A. (1901). The Making of an American. The Macmillan Company.
6. Rosenfeld, S. (1997). American Labor and the Indiscreet Camera: The ‘Slum’ Photography of Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine. The Journal of American History, 84(2), 609–633.
7. Schlereth, T. J. (1986). From Exhibition to Exposition: Public Display and Popular Recreation in Nineteenth-Century America. Smithsonian Institution Press.
8. Smith, A. (1998). Riis, Jacob August (1849-1914). In J. Garraty & M. C. Carnes (Eds.), American National Biography (Vol. 18, pp. 499-501). Oxford University Press.
9. Solow, B. L. (1984). Jacob A. Riis: Photographer and Citizen. American Quarterly, 36(1), 56–73.
10. Tchen, J. K., & Ye, J. (2013). Shaping America: The Remarkable Legacy of the Chinese “Gold Rush” in the Lone Star State. University of Texas Press.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.

I have outwalked the further city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat.

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

-Robert Frost

Gertrude Stein summarized the psychological complexities of the post-World War II expatriate generation by calling them "lost." While the 1920s seemed to be a time for decadence and reckless celebration, Stein's statement reveals the sad truth of the era. The war was a distinct turning point for all corners of society, from lifestyle to fashion to intellect. Unfortunately, however, the war veteran's mental and physical composure remained the most lasting casualty. Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is an excellent showcase of the war's widespread destruction. His young, American wanderers represent Gertrude Stein's "lost" ones, their moral maturity stunted by the horrors of world war.

Jake Barnes, in particular, suffers in a body rendered impotent and a mind void of emotion or vitality. As peacetime life greets Jake with a flow of people, parties, and travel, he struggles to retrieve his humanity from the clutches of war. Jake does not become Hemingway's "code hero" until he re-identifies with his manhood and his moral stability. Once he finds control, the essence of human nature, then he is not lost anymore.

Although Jake Barnes considers himself a "rotten Catholic," his quest to take control over his life is actually quite spiritual in that it concerns his moral growth. Particularly through his nighttime introspection, his evident moral impotence outshines the literal impotence of his wound. At the outset he cannot even keep straight in his mind the concept of morality and immorality: "That was morality; things that made you disgusted afterward. No, that must be immorality. What a lot of bilge I could think up at night."(149) Jake's struggle for a set of morals is key in his desire for control; pondering life itself, Jake thinks, "I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about."(148) In a sense, Jake's yearning for a plan to live life is a way for him to detour the world's complexities. Jake saw the world during the war; now a controlled path will keep him safe from harm and out of moral danger.

Jake's sexual impotence is the ultimate symbol of the war's destruction of his character. As a human male, Jake had possessed the height of control -- the ability to produce life. After the war, Jake is left hardly human in spirit and hardly male in body. Having lost the physical essence of his manhood, he develops a serious inferiority complex with respect to his manhood and his admiration of Lady Brett Ashley. This is blatantly obvious in his hostility towards homosexuals, particularly those acquainted with his charming, yet preoccupied love interest Brett: "I was very angry. Somehow they always made me angry. I know they are supposed to be amusing, and you should be tolerant, but I wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to shatter that superior, simpering composure."(20) The fact that Jake feels threatened by men who could never be sexually involved with Brett and senses from them an air of superiority simply because they are fertile exemplifies the height of his discontent.

Jake turns the psychological bend toward spiritual clarity at the same moment he begins to taste control in his life. On the trip with Bill to Burguete, Jake enjoys a relaxing conversation based around the controlled, ritualistic process of fishing. Bill sees Jake's situation as it is and puts him in his place, saying, "Fake European standards have ruined you ... You're an expatriate, see?"(115) This trip is the time where Jake begins to come to terms with aspects of himself. He speaks openly about his impotence with Bill and symbolically reinacts his own castration through the gutting of the fish, in a destruction of fertility. He also begins to separate himself from his reckless lifestyle with Brett through connecting the enjoyment of his day with the fact that "there was no word from Robert Cohn nor from Brett and Mike."(125)

The bull fighting chapters also represent Jake's struggle with the issue of his impotence, particularly concerning his lack of control in his relationship with Brett. The image of the steer being gored by the bull precisely depicts Jake's unconfident, inferior status under the shadow of Brett's overbearing control and manipulation. The reader can clearly identify the time when Jake is no longer the steer in the relationship and no longer morally impotent. In one of Jake's final thoughts at the end of the bull-fighting trip, he says, "The Norte station in Madrid is the end of the line."(240) From there, it seems doubtful that he and Brett can "go on anywhere."

Hemingway's symbolism in the last passage suggests heavily that control is what manifests itself in Jake's character, and thereby Jake Barnes' ultimate task is recovering himself from the depths of the war and its damage. To do this, he must find the control to recreate his moral character. During World War II, it is safe to say that Jake and his fellow veterans "looked down the saddest city lane," as Robert Frost would put it. At a ripe young age, and just ready to explore life's possibilities, Jake found himself head-on facing the epitome of the world's despair. This early disillusionment, of course, made his return to "reality" confusing and disheartening. Jake came out of the fighting and "dropped his eyes, unwilling to explain." In his mind, his wound had stripped him of his manhood. In the reader's eye, the war had stripped him of his humanity. Post-war, Jake was stuck suspended between life and death, refusing to meet either one eye to eye. When Jake gains control over his moral mentality, his relationship with Brett, his physical condition, he is finally able to reach the new spiritual clarity foreshadowed by Hemingway's title: The Sun Also Rises.

Though many have argued that Dickens used the character of James Harthouse to criticize Romanticism in his novel Hard Times, it is his utilitarianism that makes him such a danger. Harthouse himself notes early in the novel that there are many similarities between himself and the utilitarian Tom Gradgrind—for though Harthouse might in theory live his life for sensation, his disappointment in what he’s found has led him to look at things with a blandly unperturbed eye. “I have seen a little, here and there,” he says, “up and down: I have found it all to be very worthless…and I am going in for your respected father’s opinions—really because I have no choice of opinions, and may as well back them as anything else.” (100) Yet unlike the utilitarians, Harthouse cannot be redeemed by even the illusion of social purpose or responsibility. Dickens is able to illustrate this paucity of feeling by setting Harthouse, in his final scene, against the character of Sissy Jupe-- whose earnest modesty and goodwill, coupled with a more elastic kind of sense, brings his own lack of character into sharp relief. It is Sissy, not Harthouse, whom Dickens puts forward as a model worth following—and it is Harthouse, not Sissy, who proves that disingenuousness matters much more than the label (Romantic, Utilitarian, or otherwise) that it is given.

The emptiness of sentiment behind Harthouse’s speech is a first clue in this passage concerning his sincerity. When Sissy informs him that he is never to see Louisa again, his choice of words is Romantically dramatic—yet his actual reaction is one of rather speedy resignation.

“Well! If it should unhappily appear,” he said, “after due pains and duty on my part, that I am brought to a position so desolate as this banishment, I shall not become the lady’s persecutor.” (174)

A life without Louisa is for him apparently comparable to “banishment” or, as he says shortly before, an “exile” (174), and he insists that he considers any such state to be totally “desolate” (174). Yet even as Harthouse paints his pain so vividly, he dismisses it almost in the same breath by reverting to dull, dispassionate language. Any resistance on his part is considered to be nothing more that “due pains and duty,” evidently routine enough to be fulfilled by mere mention alone. His next thought—that he will “not become the lady’s persecutor”—is another example of how vapid powerful language becomes in his hands. The theatricality of the word “persecutor” could suggest that Harthouse feels the full weight of his punishment, and perhaps even more. But like the theater, Harthouse’s world is one of appearance alone, “a conscious polishing of but an ugly surface” (175). For even as he affects real dismay, he readily surrenders the girl he supposedly cares for.

It is important to note that though Harthouse is a shallow being, he—like the Utilitarians—is not actually evil. If it is too much to say that his intentions are good, one can at least argue that they are not consciously bad. “I beg to be allowed to assure you,” he says to Sissy, “that I have had no particularly evil intentions, but have glided on from one step to another” (175). His division of Louisa’s seduction into different “steps” signals a cool-headed perspective—almost as if to suggest that Harthouse moved from step to step in the seduction much as he would move from step to step in a mathematical problem. Though he is completely devoid of warm sentiment, he is likewise incapable of any real malevolence because he sees everything before him on the same placid plane. The fact that he was still able, in such a state, to very nearly ruin a woman’s life is proof of the idea that a lack of passion can be far more destructive than a wealth of it.

Sissy’s own earnestness serves as a forceful contrast here; “the fervor of this reproach” (174) that she gives completely disarms Harthouse, and at the same time it illustrates Dickens’ own idea of what a model citizen should be. When Harthouse asks Sissy what drove her to find him, she replies that her affection for Louisa motivated her: “I have only the commission of my love for her, and her love for me” (174). The rhythmic regularity of “my love for her, and her love for me” as well as the simplicity of the message itself comes as a soothing balm to Harthouse’s own worthless rhetoric. It is Sissy’s sense of human decency, her true compassion for others, that separates her from utilitarians like Gradgrind and alleged anti-utilitarians like Harthouse, who each view the world as a set of frigid observations.

Yet Sissy herself is not completely devoid of logic, which is crucial to Dickens’ idea that sentimentality must be tempered with practicality. In her justification to Harthouse Sissy moves steadily from emotion to fact—saying first that she loves Louisa, next that Louisa has given Sissy her trust, and lastly that “I know something of her character and her marriage” (174). Her love for Louisa is perhaps of utmost importance, but at the same time Sissy is driven by incontrovertible knowledge, knowledge based on observation and reflection. Like Harthouse, Sissy knows about the failure of Louisa’s marriage, and this information is powerful; yet, even as she admits its importance, Sissy does not depend on it entirely. She does not know everything about Louisa; Dickens is careful to say that she only knows “something.” To he and Sissy both, knowing something and feeling something is infinitely better than knowing everything and feeling nothing, like the Utilitarians, or knowing nothing and feeling everything, like the Romantics.

In short, Sissy embodies the best parts of two perilous extremities—emerging from the fray as an example for readers to follow. Harthouse, on the other hand, embodies the worst parts of each: He lacks a social conscience, like many a Romantic, but he’s completely unfeeling, like many a utilitarian. Left with more defects than he perhaps has a right to, he is ultimately left to his own idleness and lack of purpose, unable or unwilling to reform. It is interesting to note that though Harthouse remains unchanged, his utilitarian counterpart Gradgrind is transformed by the novel’s end into something to be admired—suggesting that, though both Harthouse and Gradgrind were initially cursed with an unfeeling perspective, Gradgrind was saved by a real desire to be useful. Harthouse, indifferent to the last, sails out of the novel as its greatest scoundrel--with only a vague sense of his own inadequacy and absolutely no inclination to do anything about it.

The case concerns the firing of Melissa Nelson, a former employee of James Knight, a dentist. Nelson was hired by Dr. Knight as a dental assistant about 10 years before the events took place and Knight admitted that she was a good dental assistant. A year and a half before Nelson was terminated, Knight began complaining to Nelson that her clothes were too tight and revealing. Around six months before her termination, Nelson and Knight began texting each other, concerning both personal and work related matters. Some texts between the two were suggestive and sexual but Nelson claims she saw Knight as a father figure/friend and didn’t take the texts seriously. Jeanne Knight (Dr. Knight’s wife) was also an employee of Dr. Knight’s practice and found out about the texting and confronted Knight, telling him to terminate Nelson.

The Knight’s consulted a pastor at their church who agreed with the decision to fire Nelson. On January 4, 2010, Knight called Nelson into his office after work and in the presence of a pastor, read from a prepared statement saying that their relationship had become bad for his family, and that it was in both of their best interests for them to stop working together. He then gave her a month’s severance pay and Nelson started crying. Knight met with Nelson’s husband later that evening to let him know that nothing was going on between them but he believed that an affair would result if he hadn’t fired Nelson. Knight replaced Nelson with another female dental assistant.

Nelson brought action against Dr. Knight in the Webster County District Court (Iowa) on the basis that Knight discriminated against her on the basis of sex (he wouldn’t have fired her if she was a male) but did not sexually harass her. Knight moved for summary judgment and the District Court sustained the motion in favor of Nelson’s employer, James Knight and she appealed to the Supreme Court of Iowa. The Supreme Court of Iowa affirmed the motion for summary judgment, as Knight’s actions did not amount to unlawful discrimination.

Melissa Nelson claimed that Knight unlawfully discriminated against her by terminating her employment because she was a woman and that he wouldn’t have fired her if she was a man. The issue is whether or not Knight unlawfully discriminated against Nelson. Looking at other cases and the case facts will help to understand the Supreme Court of Iowa’s ruling.

Unlawful discrimination is the main focus of the case as this is what Nelson specifically alleged that Knight did. Civil rights laws aim to have employees treated the same regardless of gender. The concurring opinion also addresses Employment at Will in that it can conflict with a sharper definition of discrimination because the ability for an employee to be terminated at any time without the employer having to prove a cause is still supported in our society.

Many of the cases mentioned help to differ Nelson’s situation as being completely lawful. Nelson’s responses to Knight’s position are that any discrimination because of the employer’s interest in the employee is discrimination, that there was no employee misconduct requirement, and that Knight shouldn’t be allowed to terminate an employee just because he thought he would sexually harass have an affair with her. Cases such as Bender v. Bellows & Bellows and Blackshear v. Interstate Brands Corp went against Nelson’s view that any termination based on a relationship would be unlawful because termination wouldn’t have happened if the employee was a different gender. Nelson also couldn’t prove unlawful discrimination because there was no pattern of this activity by Knight. Essentially, if Knight had fired multiple women before, it could be argued that he had something against women, but his wife’s objection to Nelson and Knight’s relationship made it clear that it was their relationship and not her gender that motivated the firing. Gender stereotypes are important and were a key factor in Lewis v. Heartland Inns of America where Lewis was fired from her motel desk job for not looking like a Midwestern girl. This case is based solely on stereotypes, which are not conducive to equal employment, and not a relationship between employer and employee. There is no stereotyping in Nelson v. Knight and the termination is based on the two’s relationship. Nelson’s third point is that Knight can’t fire her because he thought he might harass her in the future but her termination did not bring any of the hostility associated with sexual harassment and would not be considered unlawful even if it was unfair.

Nelson was in the wrong in this case because she couldn’t prove any of the normal features of unlawful discrimination. Even though her termination may have been unfair, it is still legal because Knight didn’t have any reason to fire her based on her gender. The termination was brought about by his wife’s objection to the relationship, not to Nelson’s gender. Nelson’s three responses to Knight’s position have many flaws demonstrated through other cases.