Summary: The Devil's Tower

Ayn Rand established her philosophy of objectivism in order to eliminate the traditions she experienced while she was growing up under collective governments, and to emphasize the importance of the individual over the collective group. It can be defined as a philosophy for living stating that man himself is the greatest power, and man must decide what is best for himself based on reason. The four basic tenets of objectivism are reality exists as an objective absolute, reason is man’s only method of interpreting his surroundings, man must exist as an individual in order to pursue his own interests, with the ultimate goal being happiness, and the economy of an objectivist society should be laissez-faire capitalism,

According to the article The Devil in Devolution, the “devolution revolution” is seen as, “The shift in government’s center of gravity away from Washington and toward the states…” which translate to the return of power from the federal government to the state government. In recent years, the author of the article (Donahue) believes that the states have been given too much power, and the power of the federal government has been declining.

When did people start getting accused of being witches and wizards from their neighbors, family members, or friends? Why would someone accuse others of being witches? All the questions are asked and examined by Emerson Baker. The author of The Devil in Great Island is Emerson W. Baker. Although, he goes by his nickname “Tad”. Baker went to Bate college as an undergraduate where he got introduces to his first history class about Northern New England by James Leamon. James is a mentor at Bate College and now is friends with Baker. He is a historian and archaeologists that teaches history at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts. The reason why Baker wrote this book was because he think that the past should be accessible to the public. Baker

The World fair was the engineering project of its time. It brought plenty of excitement and attention to itself, but it also brought crime. The problem is, even though everything seems fine with the fair, there were bad things still happening. Stealing, cheating, and in extreme cases even murder. Chicago was in charge of building the World’s fair, but ended up hosting a murderer in its walls. The Devil in the White City gives a unique glimpse into how there is both bad and good existing in the city. In my opinion the point of the book was to show how both good and bad coexist in one place. Sometimes with the knowledge of the other existing. The book was written by Erik Larson and published by first vintage books. Published almost 14 years ago the book is still relevant today and still has much to teach us. However, the most important thing it teaches is how good and bad exist together simultaneously.

In the woods of Pennsylvania 1744 five young boys were taking a walk through the forest. All of a sudden, the birds stopped chirping, and the woods went quiet. Four of the boys turned and ran in horror as they heard the roar of a panther from the bushes. The boy that stayed was myself, Daniel Boone, I calmly cocked my rifle and shot the panther in the heart just as it leapt for me.

The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea is the true story of 26 men who attempted to cross the Mexican border through the bleak Sonora Desert in May of 2001. Urrea describes the lives of the men who attempted to cross, what happened to them, and the response of the people working on the border and who encountered them. He explores the issue by describing both the personal experiences of people trying to emigrate from Mexico to the U.S., and of people working on the border. The story was made both realistic and compelling through the information gathered and research conducted for a full year prior to writing the story.

The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson contains many accounts of madness and

The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham. The book follows his struggle and work to put this huge fair together, and also make it a huge profiting attraction. He faces many obstacles and internal conflict while doing so. The second is H. H. Holmes, an insane serial killer who was active during the existence of the fair. He had different businesses and practices he would use to lure women, in order to kill them and sometimes the women in their families. The book takes place in Chicago during the early 1890s, as

Washington Irving wrote many wonderful romanticism stories. One of these stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, involves a man, making a deal with the Devil. It begins when the elderly man, Tom Walker, walks through a marsh one day instead of his usual route home through the town. He walked in the marsh until water seeped into his shoe, and he sat down to drain the water, and saw a black man, who he later found out was the Devil, sitting on a stump, looking at him. They talked for a while, until Tom asked the Devil, “‘The upshot of all which is, that, if I'm not mistake not,’ said Tom, sturdily, ‘you are he commonly called Old Scratch’. ‘The same at your service!’ replied the black man, with a half civil nod” (Irving 3). The Devil finally made it known that the marsh belonged to him, and came to Tom for a deal. Furthermore, after the Devil made himself known,

Erik Larson writes “Beneath the gore and smoke and loom, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging in the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow”(Larson xi). In the book The Devil and the White City, Erik Larson tells a story of 2 very determined men, Daniel Burnham and H. Holmes, using their talents and determination to create good results, but also bad results; one being a very successful and good spirited architect, the other being a witty evil serial killer. It reveals how in every good act or intention, there is some kind of evil, and also the other way around. Erik Larson explores the underlying difference between good and evil, while telling 2 tales of Daniel Burnham, and Henry H. Holmes

Every person in life is created with a strong sense of belonging. Whether the belonging is to a person, a place, or a moment in time, they still feel connected and influenced by it. Exile is an action that separates a person from this connected belonging, and can suffer great consequences, but can also enrich their lifestyle. In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the creature creaked by Victor Frankenstein is forced, from the very beginning of his existence, away from his creator and society as a whole. This type of exile turned the creature into what he is, shaping his ideas and mentalities.

Long ago in a far away land in the most ancient of times, there was a ferocious beast that resided in the great cedar forest as its guardian. Humbaba was an ancient, frightful monster with the features of many vicious animals: the head of a fire-breathing dragon, horns of a bull, the legs of a lion, talons of a flesh-eating vulture, a long, powerful tail, and a body covered in poisonous scaled plates. With seven impenetrable auras of mythical power and strength, Humbaba was virtually immortal. Even with the horrifying semblance, the beast was appointed by Enlil, the powerful Sumerian God of wind, to protect the sacred Cedar Forest of the Amanus. Humbaba was granted the Cedar Forest as his territorial domain; the fearful monster would protect

In A.S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest”, the author uses the elements of a short story to craft a dark, fairy tale. The title of the story, “The Thing in the Forest”, in the sense that it foreshadows the main idea of the story. The audience expects more than just a "thing", as listed in the title. Byatt emphasizes that the main characters are the two-main protagonist who were girls dealing with more than just a “thing” in the forest that affected them for the rest of their lives. this is the use of symbols that expresses a meaning to focus on the story. A.S. Byatt emphasizes more on the plot and setting, characters, theme and symbols.

In Edward Abbey writings he talks his descriptive encounters with nature in the deserts mostly about the snakes that he is watching. Abbey has a love for the deserts and this is why he writes about “The Serpents of Paradise”. In this story he used a lot of detail to make it feel like you know what is constantly going on, it almost felt like I was their and could imagine in my mind every moment I read. The way Abbey writes only makes me want to just keep reading. Abbey uses his senses to describe what he is seeing like the greasy wings of the ravens and what they sound like pretending to talk to him. Abbey is an animal lover and he described how two snakes were by his feet he had the opportunity to shoot them but decided against it. “ It is

Summary: My Side of the Mountain is about a boy named Sam Gribley. Sam lives in New York, but wants more than anything to live in the Catskill Mountains. His great-grandfather's land is up there, and Sam believes that he could live up there alone and survive. One day, Sam sets out. He goes into the woods and avoids other humans. He makes friends with the animals instead. He even finds and trains a falcon. He uses the most any skills he has to enable his survival.