Essay --

Set in the ever changing world of the Industrial Revolution, Charles two novelHard Timesbegins with a description of a utilitarian paradise, a world that follows a prescribed set of logically laid-out facts, created by the historied and eminently practical Mr. Gradgrind. However, one soon realizes that Gradgrinds utopia is only a simulacrum, belied by the devastation of lives devoid of elements that feed the heart and soul, as well as the mind. As the years fly by, the weaknesses of Gradgrinds carefully constructed system become painfully apparent, especially in the lives of his children Louisa and Tom, as well as in the poor workers employed by one Mr. Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy factory owner and a subscriber to Gradgrinds system. Dickens, through the shattering of Gradgrinds utilitarian world, tells us that no methods, not even eternal oppression and abuse, can defeat and overcome two basic needs of humans, our fundamental needs for emotion and imagination. Louisa, Mr. Gradgrind s favorite child, the paragon of his factual regime, leads a low-down and embittered life which ends in a showdown between the ideologies of facts and fancy. She is a prime example of a child filled to the brim with knowledge by her fathers strictly scientific education. Confused by her coldhearted upbringing, Louisa feels disconnected from her emotions and alienated from others, yet she yearns to experience more than the hard scientific facts she has absorbed all her life. While she mistily recognizes that her fathers system of education has deprived her childhood of all joy, she cannot avoid being coldly rational and emotionally blunted, unable to actively produce her emotions. She would have been a curious, passionate person who ... ...olution he believed in internal parity and the growth of the mind and the spirit. He demonstrated that the system that grinds down, but neer building up, will ultimately result in chaos and woe for all those subjected to it. Through Hard Times , Dickens argues that all humans have an unbeatable need for imagination, emotion, and love. He tells us that this need cannot be altered or thwarted by any method of education or economic oppression, no matter how strict and black it might be. Hard Times illustrates Dickens belief that it does not matter whether one is born in a nurturing or an abusive and neglectful surroundings. What matters is how an individuals true nature responds, changes, asserts itself and molds his or her environment. In the end, whether one remains thwarted or strives to fulfill and complete their lives determines who each person becomes.

Edward Norton ? Sinuous Talent, Unyielding Determination :: essays research papers

The son of a Carter Administration, federal prosecutor and an English teacher, as well as the grandson of famed developer pile Rouse, Edward Norton was born in Boston on August 18, 1969. He was raised in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, and from an early age was known as an passing bright and somewhat serious person. His interest in acting began at the age of five when his baby sitter, Betsy True (who went on to become an actress on make up and screen out), took him to a musical adaptation of Cinderella. Shortly after that, Norton enrolled at Orensteins Columbia School for Theatrical Arts, making his stage debut at the age of eighter in a local production of Annie Get Your Gun. Although young, Norton already exhibited an unusual amount of professionalism, and took his subsequent character references seriously. After high school, he studied astronomy, history, and Japanese at Yale, and was also active in the universitys theatrical productions. Edward attained almost instant stardom with his film debut in the 1996 Primal Fear. For his thoroughly chilling breakthrough feat as a Kentucky altar boy accused of murder, Norton was credited with saving an otherwise mediocre film, and further rewarded with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. Remarkably disconnected from altogether of the hype that is usually associated with fresh talent, Norton has gone on to further prove his worth in such films as American History X, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and combat Club. After earning a history degree, Norton spent a few months in Japan and then moved to New York, where he worked for the Enterprise Foundation, a concourse devoted to stopping urban decay. Again, Norton continued acting at every opportunity, and eventually decided to become a full-time actor. In 1994, he appeared in Edward Albees Fragments after deeply impressing the distinguished playwright during an audition. Norton then joined the New York Signature Theatre Company, which frequently premi eres Albees plays. With a number of off-Broadway credits to his name, Norton won his role in Primal Fear after being chosen out of 2,100 hopefuls. He nabbed the part after telling casting directors in a unflawed drawl that he was a native of eastern Kentucky, the same area where the character came from legend has it that the actor watched Coal Miners Daughter to learn the accent. The intensity of Nortons screen test readings stunned almost all who saw them, and the actor became something of a hot property even before the film was released.