The Prices Set by Society Reading The Wife of Martin Guerre - Literature Essay Samples

Janet Lewis’ novella The Wife of Martin Guerre describes one woman’s quest for the truth, in the face of breaking her community’s traditional patriarchal and religious practices and beliefs. Set in a rigid 16th century society, which demands submissiveness and silence in exchange for stability, authority and security, Bertrande faces a dilemma: sacrifice her family and community’s happiness for her own cleared conscience, or sacrifice her conscience for her family. The heavy price society demands for stability, authority and security can be seen through stifling tradition, the choice between truth or lies, and the issue of identity. In The Wife of Martin Guerre, Martin rebels against the tradition in which he has been brought up in. This is a consequence of the inflexible justice he receives from paternal authority. The novella is set in the French village of Artigues, known for upholding â€Å"the feudal structure†. Every aspect of life was controlled by this structure and had been for more than 300 years, such as â€Å"the rubbing of garlic on the lips of Sanxi.† This repetition of tradition can be stifling and constraining. Martin rebels against the paternal authority, which society provides. The inflexible justice he receives from his father, the â€Å"accumulated authority of antiquity†, results in his departure. When Monsieur Guerre discovers the real reason for his son’s departure, he is shocked and disappointed mirroring society’s own reaction to disobedience. Lewis uses the character of Martin to explore how individuals in society may act under constraints and inflexib ility, and how such rebellion shapes them. Bertrande’s choice between truth or lies highlights how one’s own needs must be vanquished in the needs of the community. Bertrande, at the cost of her own downfall, goes against this unwritten social rule. When Bertrande initially reunites with her husband, she experiences â€Å"a suspicion†, which she hopes will pass. Instead, the suspicion grows stronger, to the point of endangering her physical health. When she reveals this to other â€Å"mesnie† members, she is told not to think of such things. After Martin is arrested, the village implores her to drop charges, to which Bertrande replies, â€Å"how can I deny the truth?† Martin’s youngest sister states that it is â€Å"only the truth for you†. This housekeeper wishes that Bertrande is â€Å"still deceived†¦we were all happy then.† The priest too tries to convince Bertrande if there was any evil, God would reveal it in due course. This is characteristic of the priest, a significant member of this society who is learned and experienced and whose word is law. This represents the pressure that society has on those that disobey, and the underlying pressure that everything should done for the sake of the community, a collective society with no individual. Since there is no individual in such a collective society, there is no individual identity. All individual identity is submerged into one communal identity. As the title suggests, Bertrande, as a woman, has no identity, she is merely â€Å"the wife of Martin Guerre†. Woman in the 16th century were considered to be subordinate to men and second-class citizens. Their only roles were that of wife and mother, and, in a village like Artigues, of farm labourer. All they did was for the good of the family, and generally, the community. During Arnaud’s reign and during the trial, Bertrande faces the dilemma of identity: is she the deceived wife of Martin or the adulterous wife of Arnaud? Both identities have invidious consequences and downfall in society. The choices that Bertrande faces and the decisions that Bertrande makes all reflect the price one pays for disobeying society’s rules and exploiting society’s offerings. Although Bertrande believes that what she is doing is for the good of the family, it goes against the good of society and therefore requires punishment. Both Arnaud and Bertrande are punished, Arnaud physically and Bertrande morally. The truth presents itself â€Å"coldly, inescapably† and all that’s left for Bertrande is her soul, which doesn’t last long, especially when consumed by â€Å"hate and love†. Arnaud, on the other hand, is hanged in front of the Guerre house and â€Å"mesnie†, a demeaning punishment for a demeaning man. Ultimately, the heavy price society demands for its offerings can lead to betrayal and disobedience, as seen through the characters of Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande de Rols. Martin rebels against the inflexible paternal authority of his father, resulting in his departure and Bertrande’s pursuit of the truth. For her part, Bertrandes own identity costs her family and her community of Artigues their happiness and their own security.

A Peaceful Parting Active Euthanasia Essay - 842 Words

A Peaceful Parting: Active Euthanasia Many of us have had family members that we have watched suffer during the end stages of their lives. Though it hurts us as a close relative to see someone we love suffer, the person suffering themselves probably feels much more sorrow than us. My grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer several years ago. We had home health come in to help care for him and my family was good to help as well. Though he was well cared for, I could not help but feel deep sorrow for him when I would look at him and see him suffering on the inside. I remember him falling out of bed in the middle of the nights and I would be called in the bedroom to help put him back in bed. I was happy to have my grandfather still there†¦show more content†¦Cancer is very painful and is a prolonged illness that can take away everything from a person’s normal lifestyle. AIDS also changes an entire lifestyle of a person and is not only terminal to the person that carries the disease, but could also be eas ily contracted by another and become terminal to them as well. With the option of active euthanasia, the pain and prolonged suffering from terminal illness could be brought to a complete halt by the person experiencing it. Every morning we all wake up and take a shower, get dressed in the privacy of our own home, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, and drive to work or school to begin our day. For some people, they are woken up at 5 am, showered in a public bathroom, dressed in whatever clothes are picked out for them whether they match or not, spoon fed breakfast, served whatever lunch is on the menu for the day, and sit for hours, and do nothing. When they need to use the restroom they ask for help and may need the helper to physically put them on the toilet and even wipe them. To us this is a major loss of dignity. We take for granted the things we get to do for ourselves on a daily basis. Many people may develop even bigger problems than they already have when their dignity lowers to a point that cannot be retained again. People don’t want to live a life where they are mentally competent and aware of their surroundings but are unable to help themselves and rely on others to do everything for them.

Developmente of Sexuality and Gender Identity - 642 Words

Most children and youth find that the development of sexuality and gender identity is an extremely challenging process. For intersex youth, this issue is even more complex. On top of the emotional, psychological, social and physical challenges of puberty, intersex children are often at the mercy of their physicians to provide thorough, honest information and to guide their decisions. Traditionally, doctors have treated intersex children with a â€Å"concealment-centered† approach—one that devalues the significance of this medical condition sometimes to the point of deceiving their patients. Socially, many people have a hard time being told that sex is not black and white. Young people need to be able to discuss these issues with an educated support network. As the physician, I would use a patient-centered approach, discuss all options, including psychological counseling and other non-surgical treatments or ways of coping. Surgery makes everyone involved more comfortable temporarily but is irreversible. When a baby is born with a disfigured yet mostly functional body part, we do not hastily replace it with a prosthetic that possibly works. Of all human anatomy, our reproductive organs play a major role in our mental state. A better preliminary step would involve psychological therapy. Counseling makes everyone more comfortable and is reversible. â€Å"Do no harm† can elicit various actions from physicians depending on the circumstance. Some think it means protection against

How Cell Phones and Other Inventions Affected the American Family free essay sample

How Cell Phones and other inventions affect the American family There are many new inventions that have helped to advance our society and had an affect on the American family. Since the invention of the cell phone people no longer have to rely on payphones, mail, or even traveling. Email has made it easier for people to send mail faster. Instead of writing or typing out a letter and waiting for the post to send it, now you just hop on your computer type it out, send it, and a few seconds later it has been delivered. Entertainment has also made an impact on the American family. Entertainment has become more accessible over time and at this point you don’t even have to leave your house to order a new movie On Demand or buy a new song or even a whole CD. The cause of cellphones, email, and advanced entertainment has a great effect on the American family by helping them become more efficient. We will write a custom essay sample on How Cell Phones and Other Inventions Affected the American Family or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The cell phone has become so depended on; most people can’t leave the house without them. They help you become more accessible to other people and more recently have more features than just calling. Texting also makes it easy to send quick messages to people if you don’t have time to have a conversation on the phone. For instance, if you are in a loud place, like a concert or a quiet place where you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, like a church service. They also have other features like games, and music. You can buy games and music right from your phone; you can even access the internet straight from your phone. These new parts of the cell phone help the American family to become more efficient and get in communication with other people faster. Email has become more and more popular since it was invented. Now that just about everyone has an email it is not necessary to mail as many cards or letters anymore. Since the postal system takes so much time most people prefer email simply because their information gets there faster and more efficiently. Adults can send emails to their work and co-workers, which allows them to work from home without even missing a meeting. They can email all of their paper work and they can call into meetings now. Even kids/students can take advantage of this by send emails to their teachers with their school work attached if they are sick or just have late work. The American family has been affected in a very positive way by using these new inventions. Entertainment has also taken a turn into a new direction. There are so many new ways to keep yourself entertained without even leaving your house. For example, already mentioned the cell phone has games and music installed into it that gives you the opportunity to buy new things to keep yourself entertained. Then there is also the television that you can watch movies on or shows that you like. There is even programs like On Demand where you can access it right through your TV and buy a new movie for about five bucks and watch it without even having to leave your couch. The way that entertainment has expanded has had such an impact on the American family. This might not be as positive as the speeded up communication devices since this might cause you to be more inefficient and lay around all day. However, when these entertainment devices are used appropriately you can get a good use out of them without letting them consume all of your time. The way that these new inventions have affected the American family is mostly positive, with very little negative effects. Since these inventions, there has been a more efficient way of communication through cell phones and email, which helps work get done faster. The cell phone has diminished the need to have filthy pay phones all over and email has crushed the need to send many things through the postal office, which isn’t as speedy and efficient as email. With all of these new ways of speeding up work, that leaves us with more time to ourselves, and so we got new ways to entertain ourselves without having to leave the house after a long stressful day at work. Over all the cause of the inventions of things like cell phones email, and entertainment has a positive effect on the American family.

The motivation behind the september 11th attacks Essays - Crime

The motivation behind the september 11th attacks 08528050 December 17, 2016 Sheafer Trenary Perspective of Homeland Security1000000 December 17, 2016 Sheafer Trenary Perspective of Homeland Security Terrorist attacks on American soil prior to 9/11 from another country was the first World Trade Center attack on February 26, 1993. This attack was not seen as a wakeup call to that time . The attack in 1993 was significant in terms of loss it had little impact on the United States of America. Previously, Middle Eastern terrorists had staged attacks against American interests in other parts of the world. In October 2000, al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the USS Cole In Aden Harbor, and Yemen. The terrorists approached the ship in a small boat and exploded a bomb once they were close to the ship. The explosion resulted in 17 sailors being killed and 39 others injured. On August 7,1998, al-Qaeda used car bombs to a ttack the U.S. embassies in Dares Salaam , Tanzania, and Kenya. Osama bin Laden took credit for the bombings, stating that they were a response to the American invasion of Somali (Wright 2006). The Deadliest terrorist attack on Americans prior to the attacks on 9/11 occurred in 1998 when terrorists planted explosives on Pan Am Flight 103 leaving London's airport destined for New York. The B oeing 747 crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland. All passengers on and crew on the flights were killed. The Attacks on 9/11 were prosecuted by an outside terrorist group that had international standing, support, funding, and history of attacking Americans. The 9/11 attacks resulted in new thinking at all levels of the government. President George W. Bush Immediately went to war and declared a "war on terrorism." The Bush administration pushed forward the idea that Sadaam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, was amassing weapons of mass destruction and would provide them terrorists to attack the United States. When the attacks on 9/11 occurred, America was not only vulnerable to attack, but was very unprepared to prevent it. In the Commission Report by referring to page147 of the report which says, "By his own Account, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's animus toward the united states stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." In an interview with Bin Laden in 1997 Bin Laden said, "we declared jihad against the U.S. government, because the U.S government is unjust, Criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq." The outline of the 9/11 plot, Staff statement no. 16, from the 9/11 commission: "Atta was chosen as the emir, or leader, of the mission. He met with Bin Ladin to discuss the targets: The World Trade Center, which represented the U.S. economy; the pentagon, a symbol of the U.S. military; and the U.S. Capitol, the perceived source of U.S. policy in support of Israel. Homeland Securtiy , Larry K Gaines and Victor E. Kappeler published 2012 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/9/244452/-

homework essays

homework essays Needless to say Providence on average assigns the most homework in CMS. Reasonable speaking how much homework should a high school student have? One hours worth, two? Or none at all? Granted we as students need some work outside of the classroom to reinforce what we have learned, but come when is enough, enough? From experience we all know that each teacher believes his or her class is the most important one at school, they believe each student has at least 45 minutes each night to work on assignments from their class. That fact alone sounds very reasonable but what teachers fail to realize is that with more than 200 other teachers at Providence believing the same way, it adds up. I, myself a rather efficient worker, have many nights where I have more than 2 Â ½ hours of work. Now is so much work really needed? Maybe if teachers used their 90 minutes every other day more effectively we would have less work to do at home. Dont get me wrong I am not an advocate for the abolition of homework, but the reduction of. Now for those who say, The more work the student receives the better he or she will do, just look at the test scores- dad. I beg to differ!. Now there is no reasonable correlation between the amount of homework assigned and student performance. For example, I have friends who attend other schools who make good grades but consistently report having no homework ever. One can not take that literally but can take it to mean that their work load is by far less than that of Providence students, or in other words average. I do agree that Providence annually has unsurpassed test scores, in CMS, there is no arguing that fact. But one needs only to look at Providences population pool. Research has shown that children perform better academically when they live with both parents, and in middle class or above homes. Now take some time to think about Providence an ...

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Sociology - Essay Example Luxuries, such as vacations and dining out, are out of reach for the minimum wage earner that earns the $6.55 per hour as prescribed by federal law (Compliance Assistance). In addition, the low wage earner is not able to save for emergencies or make any plans on financing the college education of their children. While raising the minimum wage does help reduce the hardship on the poorest workers, it is often met with political resistance that claims it costs business too much money and reduces the number of jobs available. Another practical way to raise the wages would be to increase the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This is money given to the working poor through a yearly tax credit. In addition to increasing this allowance, it could be disbursed on a monthly basis, which would help workers meet their budgetary and immediate needs. The current maximum amount that can be claimed is $4,824 with two or more qualifying children (Earned Income Tax Credit). This equates to approximately $93 per week, or an additional $2.32 per hour in a 40-hour workweek. Increasing this amount would help the low wage earner