To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Essays - To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird: Prejudice Miss Harper Lee has chosen Scout as a first person narrator in this story. This narrative technique has many strengths and some weaknesses. Scout is a bright, sensitive and intelligent little girl. For all her intelligence, she is still a child and does not always fully understand the implications of the events she reports. This is sometimes amusing, as the time she thinks Miss Maudie's loud voice scares Miss Stephanie. Scout does her best to inform us of the happenings at the Tom Robinson trial. Yet, she is not certain what rape is, and is neither aware of the prejudice state surrounding her. Ultimately she represents the innocence within society. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout Finch, a little girl growing up in a small Southern town, tells the story of her childhood, when she witnessed the trial of a Negro falsely accused of raping a white woman. The Negro's lawyer is Scout's father, Atticus Finch. He defends the Negro vigorously, though he expects to lose the case. As well as being the story of childhood, it is also the story of the struggle for equality of the American Negro. To Kill A Mockingbird can be read as the story of a child's growth and maturation. Almost every incident in the novel contributes something to Scout's perception of the world. Through her experiences she grows more tolerant of others, learning how to " climb into another person's skin and walk around in it." On her first day of school she finds that there are both social and poor classes in society, some are respectable and others not. She also learns that her father is an extra-ordinary man, fighting for a Negro's rights in court. At the trial of Tom Robinson Scout learns about equality and inequality, about justice and injustice and finally about racial prejudice. Many times during the course of the novel the idea of the mockingbird comes to mind. We first hear of the bird when the children are given there first air rifles for Christmas, There father warns them to never shoot the songbird, saying to do so would be a sin. During the trial of Tom Robinson, it occurs to the reader that the Negro has many characteristics he shares with the mockingbird, He is a gentle man, who has never harmed anyone and only tried to help. His murder is as much a sin as the killing of any innocent creature. By the end of the novel we see that the hermit Boo Radley is also like the mockingbird. He is shy and gentle, living quietly and harming no one. Near the end of the novel, Boo saves the children from being killed. Scout realizes that bringing Boo into the limelight would only be like killing the songbird. Many themes and ideas are presented in this novel, the sympathy theme is one of the main ones. Throughout the novel, Atticus repeats to Scout an Jem the importance of seeing things from another point of view in order to understand what the other person is feeling. The theme of childhood is also another important one. The story takes place over a period of years, and the reader takes part in the adventure of the child growing up in a small Southern town. To Kill A Mockingbird is a fascinating story about a trial of a Negro man in a small Southern town. This novel is a must for every person to read because it not only displays the racial tensions in a small town and the effects it has on it's citizens, but it displays it through the eyes of a young innocent, six year old child.

Do Colleges Accept ACT Takers as Much as SAT Takers Is the ACT Disadvantaged

Do Colleges Accept ACT Takers as Much as SAT Takers Is the ACT Disadvantaged SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The ACT is rising rapidly in popularity, but students and parents have a good question do colleges accept ACT tests as much as they accept SAT tests? Do colleges mark you down for taking the ACT? The Straight Facts: More Students Take the ACT Now Parents of many students today may remember the SAT as being the only game in town. When I first took the test as a young student in the 1990s, everyone took the SAT. But in 2012, the ACT overtook the SAT as the top test. In fact, these days the ACT has about 10% more takers than the SAT, and this number is climbing every year. With this fact out of the way, the question still remains, is the ACT as legit as the SAT? Will the same universities accept the ACT as the SAT? And more subtely, are there disadvantages to taking the ACT? The ACT is Accepted In terms of pure acceptance, the ACT is accepted by all 4-year colleges. This was true as early as 2007. So you can rest easy knowing that if you take the ACT, you do not need to take the SAT to get into college. In terms of nominal legitimacy, the ACT is equal to or even above the SAT. Universities will accept ACT takers universally. Caveat: Mandatory ACT Takers One reason that the ACT has more takers than the SAT is that the ACT has been aggressive in pressuring states to use the ACT as statewide tests. That is, certain states like Kentucky require all students to take the ACT. Some of these "forced takers" won't be applying to colleges, or won't be applying to the level of colleges you're planning to. That means that the "real numbers" for the ACT may be a bit less than the official numbers. In my opinion though, this issue is not serious, but still one to take note of. Caveat: Acceptance Doesn't Mean Equal In many spheres of life, just because something is accepted on paper, doesn't mean it's equal in practice. For example, many colleges say the writing section is "optional but recommended" you should read this as "required" unless you're really exceptional. Colleges say the ACT is accepted, but is it equal in practice? In reality, since the ACT has been popular for a shorter period of time, admissions staff may not be as informed about what the scores mean. They may understand the SAT math-verbal split, but have a hard time grasping what it means to be strong in science but weak in math on the ACT. My belief, from speaking to many admissions committees directly and indirectly, is that this was more of a concern before 2010. These days almost all colleges have substantial experience with both tests. There is no substantial bias against the ACT anymore, certainly officially, but also in practice. Verdict: The ACT is every bit as accepted and legit as the SAT Other Articles to Read: Should you take the SAT or ACT? Class of 2017: Consider Skipping the new SAT for the ACT? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism Essay

Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism - Essay Example The resulting phenomenon is that the architectural features within the region are gaining new exploitations as tourist destinations and mediums of cultural preservation. For many cities in North America therefore, the culture of architecture is being exploited as a means of creating a brand synonymous with destination travel, themed cultural entertainment and tourism excursions. With more and more residents moving out of the cities and into the devolved suburban environments, the importance of landscape is becoming more glaring as it is essential in the creation of environments that the urban contemporary population deem preferable for habitation. The preferred surroundings of residence are a fusion of massive vegetation and built environments with minimal density and room for the utility of automobiles. As a result, landscape is a fundamental element in the development and maintenance of the multifaceted natural surroundings, the management of post-industrial locations and planning of communal infrastructure (Waldheim, 2002). Key Concepts in Environmental Planning and Landscape Urbanism In his article, ‘Terra Fluxus,’ James Corner metes out an in-depth analysis into some of the concepts of landscape urbanism. One of the concepts emphasized by Corner is that of the importance of processes compared to that of time in landscape urbanism. Corner states that â€Å"the processes of urbanization are more significant to the shaping of urban relationships than the spatial forms of urbanism† (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). Such processes include the protection of the physical environment, deregulation, the process of globalization, and the accumulation of capital. This concept dispels the impression that the process of socialization can be redesigned by the construction of new physical structures. This is not to say that the spatial element does not contribute to changes in urbanism; but rather to imply that the relationship between the spatial frame and urb an processes is one that entails urban processes streaming through the spatial frame in order to manipulate and protract it. This shift emphasizes the systems that acclimatize the dispersion and density of urban structures, rather than the material properties of space. This poses the greatest challenge to designers and planners (Waldheim, 2002). The implication of this development on the spatial planning of cities and their regions is that their structuring has to borrow more from a comprehension of the processes that urbanism involves as opposed to an insight into the concept of form; that is, an understanding of â€Å"how things work in space and time† (Waldheim, 2002, n.p.). According to Corner, in this respect landscape may act as a propellant for the formation of cities. A case in point is the development of the Olmsted Central Park in Manhattan, which was initially envisioned as a space that could provide a respite to the city residents from the unremitting nature of li fe in the city. The effect of the construction of the park however turned out to be more than just that, as it acted as a catalyst for massive real estate development within the region (Waldheim, 2002).