...Specific Goal: To inform my audience about the myths and mysteries surrounding Superstitions and how they have transitioned through time. Thesis Statement: In this essay I will uncover the history and origin of superstitions, common superstitions and what their meaning, and religion superstitions in today's society. Introduction A. "Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to You. Happy Birthday Happy Birthday Happy Birthday to you. Okay blow out your candle and make a wish!" B. Now be honest how many of you today still make a wish on your birthday candle? Did you know that that tradition is actually a superstition? Just like picking a penny heads up for good luck and not walking under a latter in fear of getting bad luck. You ever wonder why the lady behind you just threw salt on you or why at baby showers they spin a needle of the belly of the mother to be to determine the baby's sex. You aren't the only one. In my speech I will inform you of the many different superstitions that are still practiced and why people do the crazy things they do. C. I am no expert on superstitions when it comes down to why people do such crazy things I am in the same boat you are. But I'll be the first to admit that Yes I am very superstitious. You will always find me making a cross symbol when a black cat crosses my path and if I break a mirror oh boy, I will cry. Seven years bad luck is a long time and it seems to accumulate for me. D. That's why in my speech I will enlighten you among...
Words: 337 - Pages: 2
...In Anne McWhir’s essay titled “Pollution and Redemption in Dracula” she examines the theme of the stark contrasts between pure and unclean. Pollution in the sense the writer was going for does not mean landfills and gas guzzlers, but when the unclean taints the pure. Going beyond the surface definition, the book Dracula has many instances of contrasting values surrounding the thoughts of purity. The ideas of good and evil, life and death, new and old, and civilization and savagery are examined throughout the novel. Dracula as a whole is a story of the characters quest to purify the world of the evil and uncleanliness that is Count Dracula. The novelty of Dracula is that often these lines can and have to be blurred in order for the characters to succeed. The book portrays the main three men of the novel as heroic hunters going out to find and kill Dracula. Is this heroism, or have they reverted back to an animalistic blood thirst, not unlike the animal they are hunting. The ideas of science and superstitious ritual also come into conflict throughout the novel. The further and further you read into the novel the more muddled these lines become, and the more the characters of the book must cross them in order to defeat Dracula. One big blurry area in the novel is the notion of blood. Blood in Dracula has multiple powers. It has the power to heal, or it can cause great pollution. It can be used to show undying love, or it can be used as the most violent attack. The removal...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory Join Search Browse Saved Papers Home Page » English and Literature “Do You Believe in Philippine Mythology and Folklore?” In: English and Literature “Do You Believe in Philippine Mythology and Folklore?” A POSITION PAPER IN PHILIPPINE LITERATURE “DO YOU BELIEVE IN PHILIPPINE MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE?” IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS IN COMMUNICATION SKILLS II SUBMITTED BY: ROWEL M. MOJECA PRESENTED TO: MRS. GRACE ARANDA DR.FELIMON C. AGUILAR MEMORIAL COLLEGE OF LAS PIÑAS MARCH 2O11 TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview 1 Definition of Terms 2 Introduction 4 Point of View 5 Evidences and Proofs 9 Conclusion 12 Works Cited 13 OVERVIEW Philippine mythology and folklore include a collection of tales and superstitions about magical creatures and entities. Some Filipinos, even though heavily westernized and Christianized, still believe in such entities. The prevalence of belief in the figures of Philippines mythology is strong in the provinces. The country has many islands and is inhabited by different ethnic groups, Philippine mythology and superstitions are very diverse. However, certain similarities exist among these groups, such as the belief in Heaven (kaluwalhatian, kalangitan, kamurawayan), Hell (impiyerno, kasamaan), and the...
Words: 310 - Pages: 2
......the day of the philosopher as isolated thinker--the talented amateur with an idiosyncratic message--is effectively gone. | ” | —Nicholas Rescher, "American Philosophy Today," 'Review of Metaphysics' 46 (4 | It is possible to believe at something which could or couldn’t be true. Atheism is an example of this something. Atheists claim that there is no God because the evidence they experience shows that God is not real; however, to have a static claim as strong as atheism is anti-scientific: because the belief itself lacks foundation associated with our ‘natural laws’ and thus, having a set belief that is static is counter scientific spirit which contradicts that base of atheistic claim. Thus, to be an atheist using scientific claims as basis is illogical; however, this doesn’t mean that a person cant be an atheist; but only that person who claims to be an atheist because of scientific reasoning is wrong in his assumptions. atheists say there is no God, but before you can deny something, you must first affirm its existence, as a rule... in saying there is NO God, you actually affirm there is one. Hence I must conclude that the answer to our openeng question is a simple and flat no. No, it is not necessary for a truly contemporary person to be an atheist or to disbelieve in the existence of God. And I find no arguments, no reasons, no evidence or facts, not in Bishop Robinson's writings, nor in Bishop Pike's, nor in the writings of Tillich, Bultmann, and Bonhoeffer, or in...
Words: 1920 - Pages: 8
...Shakespeare’s Macbeth 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare developed many stories into excellent dramatizations for the Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare knew how to entertain and involve an audience with fast-paced plots, creative imagery, and multi-faceted characters. Macbeth is an action-packed, psychological thriller that has not lost its impact in nearly four hundred years. The politically ambitious character of Macbeth is as timely today as he was to Shakespeare's audience. Mary McCarthy says in her essay about Macbeth, "It is a troubling thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare's characters, should seem the most 'modern,' the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a sport shirt and slacks." (Signet Classic Macbeth) Audiences today quickly become interested in the plot of a blindly ambitious general with a strong-willed wife who must try to cope with the guilt engendered by their murder of an innocent king in order to further their power. The elements of superstition, ghosts, and witchcraft, though more readily a part of everyday life for the Renaissance audience, remain intriguing to modern teenagers. The action-packed plot, elements of the occult, modern characterizations, and themes of import to today's world make Macbeth an excellent choice for teaching to high school students. This study guide offers ideas for presenting Macbeth to a high school class. The activities have been divided into sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. a brief literary overview, including a synopsis...
Words: 8499 - Pages: 34
...CONFLICTS BETWEEN TWO NOVELS A paper Presented to Professor Zuidema Liberty University Lynchburg, VA. ENG 102_B17 By Gordon C. Wilson June 4, 2012 Outline Introduction: The introduction would speak a little about how compare and contrast could have an impact on our understanding of the novels. My thesis would also go here and speak of tension and brutality as similarities and the outcome as the difference between the novels. Body 1: The paragraph after the thesis would describe how tension that a reader has deals with conflicts that are bound to happen. It would also describe the similarities the two novels have with tension. Body 2: How the two novels are similar dealing with brutality. This would describe the danger and harm put toward characters and objects. Body 3: This deals with the contrast of the two novels. Outcome: - losing a human -losing a home Conclusion: In the conclusion, I would sum everything up. Conflict: -Tension -Brutality -outcome of both novels Compare and contrast essay’s are when you emphasize similarities and differences between two sources. These essay’s give readers clear understanding of specific information that may have not been noticeable while reading the text.(Baack) These essay’s can also reveal the theme, irony, and...
Words: 987 - Pages: 4
...Candide Essay Assignment TA: Véronique Church-Duplessis Tutorial: 7-8 SS 2104 Sajid Borhan 998931036 Voltaire in his novella Candide portrays the adventures of a young man named Candide as he faces numerous difficulties after he is forced to leave his sheltered life of the court. Voltaire, in his satire, explores many themes. Voltaire being a critic of the Church does not show the religious institutions and the people associated with it in good light, as demonstrated by the various characters in Candide. There are few portrayals of religious characters in a positive tone. This essay will discuss and analyze Voltaire’s view on religion and how he expresses his discontent and negative impression. This essay will discuss the theme of religion as portrayed in the novel and will further reinforce Voltaire’s view on certain aspects with other primary and secondary sources. Religious intolerance was a subject Voltaire dealt with in many of his works, especially Candide. The part where Candide escapes from the Bulgarians and encounters a Protestant man and women who drive Candide away by throwing garbage on him shows religious intolerance and religious zeal, “The orator's wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full.... Oh, heavens! To what excess does religious zeal carry the ladies...” There are many characters present in Candide which are associated with religion; however Voltaire...
Words: 1537 - Pages: 7
...Essay Title: Analyse the language of the final chapter of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ to show what is revealed about characters and themes Huckleberry Finn is an American Novel written by Mark Twain which was published in 1885. It is one of the first books ever to be written in dialect. In this essay, I will be specifically focussing on the final chapter of the novel and will be showing how the language reveals key points about the characters and themes. Throughout the novel, Jim is constantly referred to as a ‘nigger’. However Huckleberry calls him by his real name, Jim. This shows how Huckleberry values Jim more as a person compared to other people. It shows how spending all this time together has made a special connection and bond between them. Jim has been a father figure to Huckleberry as well as a friend for the whole journey and it plays a powerful role in the novel. In the final chapter, it is very clear to see that Tom Sawyer is an imaginative individual who is adventurous, and is obsessed with wild plans taken from the plots of adventure novels. This is shown when Huck says “And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says le’s all three slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns…” The use of the adjective ‘howling’ when describing the adventures shows how wild Tom is as a person and a character in the novel. He wants to experience the extreme and nothing less. It is obvious to us that...
Words: 1156 - Pages: 5
...Theo Siggelakis Prof. T Dansdill February 20, 2012 Of Books Books either encompass my thinking or they stretch the limits of my imagination. Some of the most inspiring books are those which capture life, as I know it down to every specific detail. These books are similar to watching an HD TV; every detail is just so pronounced and accurate. Books that resemble this beautiful real life portrayal could be like J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye. Every emotion that Salinger delineates through his characterization of Holden Caulfield is so potent that those details resonate even more for someone dealing with a similar internal struggle. When I read the book at 15, every sensory detail that Salinger described helped better illuminate part of my own internal struggle. The over exaggeration of the resentment of society as being in genuine really captured my own internal resentment for molds that people contrive themselves to fit. The one scene with Caulfield sitting in the bathtub depressed after refusing sex from a hooker will always be infused into my constant sub consciousness. When I just feel worn out and pushed to my emotional limit, I see that image burned bright into my memory because that scene is the ultimate depiction of frustration and stress. Although, this style of writing may be beautiful, sometimes it is nice to escape the hyperrealism captured in a book like Catcher in The Rye, and instead read something that expands the mind’s imagination. The contrary to the...
Words: 1553 - Pages: 7
...Comparative Fiction Essay ENGL 102: Literature and Composition Spring 2014 B64 Kamia Washington L24871035 MLA Kamia Washington Professor Virginia Dow English 102 B64 3 February 2, 2014 Comparative Fiction Essay In many ways the most influential element of a work of literature can prove to be the characters that the author creates. In the instance of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” the characters are built and the story is wrapped around the individual characterizations. In both Jackson’s and Lawrence’s short stories the reader is allowed to assume any of the possible details to fill in the missing parts of the story. It is not until the end that the reader understands that the characters were giving away the ending the throughout the story. Along with the relationships established, the dialogue and simply executed actions of the main characters the story begins to unfold. The family and friends that are closest to the main character tends to make the story. In both cases of “The Lottery” and “ The Rocking Horse Winner” the extras of the short stories help to reveal the main characters real attitude, honest behavior, and their transparent emotions. In “The Lottery” it is evident that the characters closest to the main character can easily fall in line with the rest of society; in “The Rocking Horse Winner” family and friends can do all they can to help and still not be enough. In “The Lottery”, Jackson...
Words: 1780 - Pages: 8
...HUM 112 WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT 1 – ESSAY http://www.coursehomework.com/product/hum-112-week-4-assignment-1-essay/ Contact us at: +1 315-750-4434 help@coursehomework.com HUM 112 WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT 1 - ESSAY Choose one (1) of the three reading selections from the list of topic choices below. Read the selection in the textbook. Write a three to four (3-4) paragraph essay (250 words) which analyzes the “surprise ending” of the reading selection. Topic Choices: 1. Reading selection from Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (Part IV). Descartes begins with the problem of being able to prove his own existence but ends up with an argument proving the existence of God. Read more about the Discourse on the Method located at http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/authors/descartes.html. 2. Reading selection from Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Swift begins with offering the solution that the English could do things which might solve the problem of overpopulation and the mistreatment of citizens in Ireland. It ends by offering the solution that an internal change in the Irish government would best solve the problem of overpopulation and a populace victimized by its own government. Read more about A Modest Proposal located at http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/swift/modest.html. 3. Two reading selections from Voltaire’s Candide. The story begins by acknowledging the foolishness of the superstitious traditions held by the people in the city of Lisbon but ends by ...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Mark Twain, well acclaimed author, writes the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the attempt to satirize society's negligence towards race during the 1800’s. The plot follows a teenage boy, Huck Finn, along with an escaped slave, Jim, whom Huck helps in freeing. Throughout the novel Huck faces an inner conflict that objectifies the moral conditioning of society, while his father, Pap antagonizes the government for it’s unjustful decree to race. Twain satirizes the moral conditioning of society through a tongue and cheek approach where the use of satirical devices such as stereotypes and irony are employed. Huck, a white American being brought up through a time of racial impoverishment,...
Words: 771 - Pages: 4
...Tom and Huck essay In the story, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and Huck are alike and different in many ways. Here are some of the ways Tom and Huck are alike. Both of them don’t have a father and don’t really have mother either. Also both of them believe in superstitions. Huck and Tom take a dead cat and go to a graveyard at midnight to cure warts. In addition they also have the same character traits. Both of them think that they can find treasure in a haunted house or under a lone branch. They also are both kind of honest to each other and make a deal that they shouldn’t tell anybody about what they saw in the graveyard. Those are some of the similarities now here are the differences. Tom goes to church and Huck doesn’t. In the story Huck never goes to church until the end of the book and even then he still doesn’t like it. They also have different plans for the future. If Tom ever gets rich he wants to settle down and get married. On the other hand Huck thinks that is a waste of time and he want to eat pie and soda every day for the rest of his life. The last difference is that Tom is always going out with someone and Huck has never had a girlfriend in his entire life. Tom has been engaged to 2 different people in this story. Huck never even has wanted a girlfriend. Those are some of the similarities and differences between Huck and Tom. Ross Hoffman Hour...
Words: 269 - Pages: 2
...This era created ideas that shaped the political, economic and social institutions in the United States. Men in this era such as Thomas Paine, who was a politician and philosopher, Thomas Jefferson our third president as well as an apostle of agrarian, and Benjamin Franklin, author, scientist, philosopher, and statesman. All these men emphasize the importance of using reason and logic instead of superstition or ignorance. They focus on creating and writing, science, politics and other subjects in this era which influence decades to come (Age of Enlightenment, 2011). In today’s society these ideas have become relevant. Thomas Paine influences the Enlightenment politically and socially, because of his beliefs he was damned by many people in both America and England. Thomas Paine was born in England; he was a corset maker and excise officer in England, although showed interested in philosophy and science. He later in life then met up with Benjamin Franklin in London and soon after he sailed to Philadelphia. He found work in 1775 in the Pennsylvania Magazine writing articles and essays “on democracy, universal suffrage, and revolution, shaping the unheard of idea of democracy into the freedom the citizens of so many countries know today”. Unfortunately some of his writing landed him in jail to which at that time he wrote The Age of Reason which gives his opinion on Religion giving an insight that the Christian religion is corrupted and only wanting political power, and...
Words: 274 - Pages: 2
...Dara Murphy 112519063 Chinese Culture Essay: There are many different aspects to Chinese culture that make it so broad and interesting. I will be focusing mainly on the more modern features to the culture and how it has changed from the traditional culture. Chinese culture is one of the oldest cultures out there today. I personally find the culture as a whole very interesting and intriguing and I extremely enjoyed learning about the ancient culture that is still ever so prominent today. It consists of many old traditions that have been carried forward into the twenty- first century. Customs and traditions do vary as your travel through the many town villages and also through the twenty- two provinces. Some of the different aspects that make up the Chinese culture that I will be discussing in this paper are the Chinese Cuisine, The one child policy, Famous Chinese Festivals, Chinese Horoscopes, Superstitions, a little bit on the Chinese Arts and Music both traditional and modern. The one thing that everybody is very familiar with is Chinese food. Nearly every human being has experienced it. What I have personally realized that on a recent trip to China, the food couldn’t have been more different. Instead of the usual sweet and sour chicken I was presented with jellyfish and ducks feet. I experienced one of the four main types of Chinese cooking, Shandong Cuisine. It consists mainly of very rich proteins such as shark fin and white funguses. There are four main ways...
Words: 1790 - Pages: 8
