Expository Essay: The Murder on the Orient Express
From the beginning of human history, culture has been defined by the arts. The arts give people an understanding of culture at a given time, how people lived, and what their interests were. The Western Canon is a compilation of literature, art, and music that has the greatest influence on Western culture. This list contains only the best of the best in literature and any author that finds their book on this list is guaranteed to have had a great influence on western culture (“Classics and the Western Canon”). Due to the Western Canon being able to accurately recognize extraordinary literature from many texts, all members of the Canon are at the highest level of literature.
One book that deserves to be regarded as a member of the Western Canon is Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. The plot of this book is a murder mystery,
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This is a conversation that arises when reading Murder on the Orient Express. The debate about whether morality can rightfully trump the justice system and whether vigilante justice is an acceptable way of dealing with crime are controversial subjects of which many people are unsure how to respond to. Christie approaches this subject from the medium of a murder mystery novel (a genre that a wide-range of people enjoy) and includes a considerable amount of information about the specific case in the novel. Knowing all the information about the event, readers are able to decide for themselves whether or not the murder of Casetti was justified. This forces the reader to build a connection to the book, physically and mentally interacting with the author, who, when Poirot and his two sidekicks reveal that they support the murder and even lie to the Yugoslav police, covering up the murder, is shown to support vigilante justice (Christie
In the book “Killers of the Dream” by Lillian smith there are several ideas that are brought forward that really demonstrate that the author exaggerates the true situation and the state of affairs in the south. In the context of the book, the south was experiencing serious crisis when the whited propagated segregation against the blacks and other low class whites. The paper contains the author’s thesis and a summary of the author’s primary points. Additionally, the paper examines whether the authors account is incomplete, questionable or cases where the account does not make sense. The social profiling that resulted was regrettable and brought serious repercussions to the society in general.
No matter how hard one tries, a person cannot debate a proven fact. Often times, the use of facts in literature can create a strong, compelling argument. In “Rough Justice: A Caning in Singapore Stirs Up a Fierce Debate about Crime and Punishment” by Alejandro Reyes, the author uses statistics, logic, and facts to build his argument supporting Singapore’s justice system that focuses on “a sense of personal responsibility” (Reyes 182). Unlike “Rough Justice,” the editorial, “Time to Assert American Values,” lacks logic but still attempts to convince readers of going against Singapore’s caning policy. After carefully analyzing the two texts, the reader realizes that the article “Rough Justice” is the most relevant and sufficient argument because of the author’s use rhetorical appeals and
Levine argued, that the `bystander effect` is a gerneral principle and it can not be applied on every real-life emergency.(Byford,p.235) To find out what the reasons where, in the murder case of James Bulger, why the bystanders didn 't step in he did a discourse analysis, in which he analyzed the testemonies of the trial. He tried to understand the witnesses responses. by putting them in the social and historical context. (Byford,p.235) James Bulger was just three years old when he was abducted and killed by two ten year old boys, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.
In “The Murder Traveller” poet William Cullen Bryant employs a variety of literary devices such as juxtaposition, imagery, and tone to create an eerie atmosphere, with the continual thought being that life goes on with or without you. The poet begins by using imagery to create a cynical tone that makes the reader feel unimportant. By using strong imagery of how beautiful nature is even after a person has died, shows the death of the traveler didn 't affect anything around it. The nature continues to grow, people 's lives continue, and the world goes on. The contrast between the imagery of the beauty of nature with the bluntness of a dead traveler, creates this sense of unimportance, “And many a vernal blossom sprung, And nodded careless
Doe Zantamata, an American author, once said, “Good friends help you find the most important things when you have lost them... your smile, your hope, and your courage.” In Frank Darabont’s film The Shawshank Redemption, hope and friendship are a large part of the characters’ lives, as they are inmates in the Shawshank prison. Andy is a newcomer and intrigues Red, an inmate who has been in the prison for a long time. Although Red is not sure what to think of him at first, they soon become good friends.
In In Cold Blood, the issue over the death penalty is prominent. Did Perry and Dick deserve to die? Should the severity of one’s crime determine one’s fate? Although Truman Capote writes the novel in a straightforward, “from a distance” way, he conveys, through his characters, theme, and plot development, that the death penalty is an issue that should be looked at from all sides and that the legal system itself is the real issue at hand, and that the death penalty is used as a means to suppress the distress and indignation of the citizens surrounding the case, instead of suppressing the victim himself.
This essay tries to answer two philosophical points of view the Platonic which is more about living a good and just life or the Machiavellian which is summed up by; the means justify the ends. Both of these views have their own ethical way to bring about justice in the beholders eyes. The scene I’m going to use portrays the final part of the trial of Private Santiago's murder, Colonel Jessup is testifying and being cross examined by Lieutenant Kaffee, from the film A Few Good Men.
Moral Ambiguity and History within The Assault Harry Mulisch’s The Assault is a self-proclaimed “story of an incident” (3) wherein “the rest [of the events are] a postscript” (55). The incident in question is the murder of Anton Steenwijk’s parents, and the postscript refers to the future, where Anton uncovers details relating to the incident. Despite Mulisch’s definitive distinction between events, however, the incident itself is convoluted and its details shift over the span of the work. Through the development of major and supporting characters, Mulisch brings forth a diverse range of perspectives and reconstructs the history of the incident, thereby exploring the motif of moral ambiguity within The Assault.
“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man 's soul in his body long past the point when the body should have surrendered it” (Hillenbrand 189). In the novel Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini goes through several life-threatening experiences. After being a troublemaker as a child, and an Olympic athlete, Louie straps up his boots and becomes a bombardier for the Army Air Corps. After a traumatizing crash and a forty-six day survival at sea, Louie is taken captive by Japanese officials.
Witness for the Prosecution “The ultimate mystery is one’s own self” (Sammy Davis Jr.). Mysteries have an allure that keep audiences intrigued and engaged on what will happen next. “Witness for the prosecution”, originally written by Agatha Christie, is no different in the sense that both the short story and visual adaption keep the audience on the edge of their seat as the apprehensive story unfolds. Although the storyline for the short story and movie adaptions both follow the same repertoire, there are a vast number of significant differences that keep the audience entertained and in suspense of what is to come next.
The maze runner is a young adult, science fiction and post-apocalyptic book that has the purpose of introducing the reader into a fantasy world where things can get a little out of control and surviving remains the main focus. The story starts mysteriously with the title character named Thomas, a teenage boy, who wakes up with no memory after arriving with a moving box into a Glade surrounded by a Maze. The book explores different psychological stages of the characters and help up understand how it is like to live with no memory and surrounded by people you do not know. The author, a young man also, has a particular interest in adventure and survival plots due to their excitement upon readers. The author came with the idea of writing a novel involving a crowd of teenagers trapped into an unbreakable Maze filled with hideous creatures while he was dreaming.
In this day and age, more and more information is at our fingertips. Whether on our computers, tablets, or phones, we are able to access any information that we desire. With the advent of the Internet, this enabled people to choose which news they hear and create their own bubble. A side-effect of this is that people tend to not think for themselves anymore. This has lead many to ask, what is the point of the classics in this modern world?
Herbert Packer believed in a two-model form within the criminal justice system: crime control and due process. With the 1996 film, A Time to Kill, most of society watched this eye-opening and astonishing film and saw nothing but the conflict between races. As individuals studying for the future of criminal justice, it is imperative that we are able to analyze cases in movies and everyday life creating a second nature mindset of the rights and wrongs within cases. Packer explains and introduces to society in his article, Two Models of the Criminal Process, of the idea that crime control and due process are the key elements within the criminal justice system. Furthermore, the film A Time to Kill presents due process but little to no crime control through the court trial
DETECTIVE FICTION “ The term ‘Golden Age’ stands for a particular blessed era of crime writing” – Susan Rowland. Golden Age of Detective fiction is regarded as the period between World Wars I and II, an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s; however, classic novels had been written since 1911 and still, are being written. Most of the Golden Age writers are British, however, in America the genre of ‘Hard-Boiled’ fiction is dominant. In this age, the major theme is ‘whodunit’ or the ‘clue puzzles’ in which the reader solves the mystery of a codified game.
Tragedy can spread. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is the protagonist, however he not the only person in the play who’s story ends tragically. His view on life spreads to those close to him. Primarily, Willy teaches it to his children who look up to him while his wife simply attaches herself to him, rooting for him in blind support while really she should be waking him up to the cold and dark reality that is their life. Throughout the play, the Loman family evolves differently.