English Writing Garden

English 1108 July 19, 2018 Splash :   Mermaids and Monsters             Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “ Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” describes seven different views of monsters and how these views reflect society’s culture and fear. Cohen’s theses state that: monsters are symbols of the current culture; can never be killed or caught permanently; are neither human or a known animal; are considered not normal; often are warnings of some pending doom; demonstrate society’s or people’s hidden desires; and force us to look at our assumptions about other cultures. This essay examines the movie Splash (1984) in the context of Cohen’s seven theses. Splash is a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks as Allen, a man who cannot find a woman to love him.   And Daryl Hannah, plays Madison the mermaid. Allen runs a family produce business, and Madison comes to New York to be with him.   In the film, Allen does not know Madis...

Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo in their article “A Prisoner in the House” show how we are all capable of everyday heroism. They argued many heroes are like evildoers.   They acted that way because of the situation they were in.   They explain different way to show what is heroism; what makes a hero and how to nurture the heroic imagination. The prison and student-teacher experiments showed how a situation can change peoples’ behaviors, Thesis that some people believe is that people act “good” only because they have never been coerced or seduced to do “bad”. What about the observers of evil but who do nothing to stop it. We focus on the evil doers, and not on the silent majority who observe or who are aware of the evil. heroism could have the same theory. That it is the situation, and not the person, that creates the hero.   And like the silent majority to evil, there is a silent majority to heroism, since they assume oth...

Cycles of Fear in USA Immigration America is a land of immigrants. Every day , the news is filled with strong opinions on whether immigrants help or hurt America . Current opinions are strongest when it comes to illegal immigration. People fear that immigration has become a terminal disease in this country. The real question is how fear is used to change American immigration policy. Nick Sousanis, in his book Unflattening , encourages a multi-view perspective is what guides the government to make immigration policy decisions . Looking from multiple viewpoints of immigration fear, we see that changes to American immigration policy are a vicious cycle. Fear is the primary reason for these changes. Some of this fear was based on country of origin, some on religion, some on race, and some on ethnicity. Today, fear is also the driving force behind changes to current immigration policy, especially regarding immigrants from Latin America and Muslims. Patricia Smith provides ...