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Connor P

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: The Grapes of Wrath - 0 views

  • The Joad women thus demonstrate that all of the suffering poor are their family, to be nurtured and sustained in the unending struggle for economic justice in an economically unjust America.
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    This quote shows that the economic system in America in unjust and provides poor condtions for the worker. The women of Grapes of Wrath are seen as symbols of the poor and demonstrate the theme of economic injustice
Connor P

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: The Grapes of Wrath - 1 views

  • Certainly, he paints the oppressive economic system in bleak colors. Many critics note, however, that Steinbeck was basically a reformer, not a revolutionary. He wanted to change the attitudes and behaviors of people — both migrants and economic barons — not overturn the private enterprise system.
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    The oppressive economic system is symbolic of the poor treatment of the workers by the nasty aristocrats. Steinbeck was in favor of changing the images of the migrants and economy and therefore he used the plight of the migrant workers.
Ellen L

Economic View: Does money buy happiness? - Business - International Herald Tribune - Th... - 0 views

  • hen inequality is high and growing rapidly, luxury purchases are sometimes as hard to ignore as a seven- foot sixth grader.
  • When "The Great Gatsby" was first published in 1925, income and wealth disparities were at record levels. It is thus no mystery that F. Scott Fitzgerald's saga of wealthy Americans during the Jazz Age became an instant best-seller.
  • But since then, it has again been rising sharply. Disparities today are once more at record levels, which may help explain the resurgence of interest in Gatsby.
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  • Researchers have identified other factors that affect happiness levels far more than income does. For example, happiness levels rise substantially with the number of close friends someone has. One of the most striking scenes in the novel is of Gatsby's funeral, which almost no one bothered to attend. In his single-minded pursuit of material success, he appears to have developed no real friendships at all.
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    This article discusses The Great Gatsby's revived popularity as an effect of the increasing economic inequality between the wealthy and the poor as well as reasons contributing to his unhappiness, such as his lack of real friends. 
Ellen L

The Future of Children - - 0 views

  • Goldthorpe posits three requirements for moving toward a less class-based society. First, the link between individuals' social origins and their schooling must increasingly reflect only their ability. Second, the link between their schooling and their eventual employment must be strengthened by qualifications acquired through education. And third, the link between schooling and employment must become constant for individuals of differing social origins.
  • But it seems clear that higher education does not promote social equality as effectively as it often claims to do and as it is popularly perceived to do.
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    This article discusses how while education is important in achieving social mobility and success; however, economic status and ethnicity prevent it from allowing one to completely overcome these obstacles. This relates to how although Malcolm X was a great student, it was highly unlikely he could enter the position of a lawyer.  
Ellen L

Black Community/Black America - 0 views

  • It is not easy for the Black America to empower itself when all the odds appear to be against the community. Many members of Black America find themselves being afraid to participate openly in the political and economic processes that might empower the Black Community. This fear has led many in Black America to believe that they must exhibit a racelessness persona in order to achieve vertical mobility in America.
  • Education is a tool that Black America must use for social change, to educate its youths, and to correct the mis-education of and about the Black Community.
  • lack educators and writers must commit themselves to helping Black America define itself. The capacity to untangle the complex racial, social and cultural human experiences in the United States of America, that helped to define Black Americans, seems to elude the Black Community. Educators are needed to help untangle the meaning of racial stratification and its impact on the Black identity (politically, socially, culturally, and economically). Thus the identity of the Black Community suffers.
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    This article discusses the course of action the author believes will most successfully mobilize the black community further.  Henry discusses the importance of education and identity in achieving social mobility.
Zaji Z

Economic leaders play games with our chips - The Nation - 0 views

  • In 2011 the world woke up once again to its naivety, this time for the misplaced trust in the infallibility of the Western democratic system.
  • that the crew of a ship will stop fighting over trivialities and work together once they realise the iceberg is ahead.
  • In 2011 they realised that this faith was misplaced.
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    Naivety is a lifelong struggle. Like IM, trust in the logical, loyal solution in accordance with the system is a major mistake that costs him much of his pride, integrity and identity. Despite the countless number of clues that hint people of their naivety and unwillingness to embrace more radical views, they refuse to see, and eventually learn their lesson, the hard way. This, too, is the struggle with the current system society dwells in. 
Ellen L

http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr2005/q1/section3c.pdf - 0 views

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    "Stereotype threat is a complex psychological phenomenon that occurs only when several related factors coincide. Research evidence shows that for people to be affected by it, they must be high performers-people who care about doing well, rather than people who have dissociated themselves from striving for high achievement" "They found that, after adjusting for initial differences in SAT scores, black students at Stanford University who took a challenging verbal test answered approximately 10 percent fewer questions correctly than whites did-but only if they believed that the test was a measure of their ability. If they were told that the test measured "psychological factors involved in solving verbal problems," the black-white test score difference was eliminated." This article discusses the negative effects stereotyping has on the sub-conscience and different triggers of invisibility.
Evan G

SparkNotes: The Grapes of Wrath: Themes, Motifs & Symbols - 3 views

  • Steinbeck consistently and woefully points to the fact that the migrants’ great suffering is caused not by bad weather or mere misfortune but by their fellow human beings. Historical, social, and economic circumstances separate people into rich and poor, landowner and tenant, and the people in the dominant roles struggle viciously to preserve their positions.
  • In order to protect themselves from such danger, the landowners create a system in which the migrants are treated like animals, shuffled from one filthy roadside camp to the next, denied livable wages, and forced to turn against their brethren simply to survive.
  • ” In the face of adversity, the livelihood of the migrants depends upon their union. As Tom eventually realizes, “his” people are all people.
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  • . Simple self-interest motivates the landowners and businessmen to sustain a system that sinks thousands of families into poverty.
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    Although Sparknotes is a very stereotypcial website on novels, it's still a very effective source of information. It makes blatantly clear the fact that the rich, aristocratic upper class is mainly responsible for the poverty and economic devastation in the country. The rich get richer at the cost of the destruction of the lower class. The workers are treated poorly in an effort to keep them desperate, which in turn keeps the rich people rich. Selfishness and greed, key themes in practically every novel read so far, is clarified and pointed out. The condition of the migrants is no accident, it's an intentional, deliberate plot to oppress them. Their only hope is through unity.
Connor P

Literary Reference Center - powered by EBSCOhost: You Want Fries with That? - 1 views

  • Meatpacking workers tend to be the most vulnerable of the vulnerable: mostly non-unionized, mostly poor white and Mexican, often undocumented, easy prey for a meatpacking industry that doesn't shy away from intimidation.
  • role in spreading beef-borne pathogens--particularly the deadly E. coli 0157:H7--and its attempts to skirt government oversight
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    This shows that the workers and consumers are at the dispense of the businesses as they dont have the power to overcome them. Due to their social and economic situations, the corporations can control their products and working conditions however they want
Zaji Z

WA Minimum Wage Soon to Top $9 an Hour - 0 views

  • The minimum wage in Washington state goes up 37 cents on Jan. 1, to $9.04 an hour. Washington is one of only 10 states that ensure by law that their minimum wage keeps up with inflation
  • For a full-time worker, the higher minimum wage will mean about $770 more dollars a year.
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    While many of modern society's economic talk, including Ehrenreich's experience, are of the injustice corporations and the government impose on the people with low wages that cannot even sustain a family for a month (or barely, at least)... they are overlooking the smarter state governments that do adjust their minimum wage policy to match inflation. Even if it may only be a few cents of a raise per hour, one can nearly earn a thousand, which definitely helps in sustaining a family. 
Evan G

The History of Women's Rights - 0 views

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    "the conditions in factories were hazardous, and their pay was lower than that of a man. In fact the husbands controlled their wives wages. At the same time the middle and upper class women were to stay idle and only to be decorative symbols of their husband's economic success." In the lower classes, women worked for low wages in dangerous conditions; in the higher classes, respectable women were not permitted to work, and were simply symbols of their husbands' success. Regardless of socioeconomic status, women were controlled, and had to be prim, proper, and feminine without appearing too independent or self-reliant.
Zaji Z

The Valley of Ashes: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Robert Moses by Roger Starr, City Journal ... - 0 views

  • That this narrow aperture should grow from a heap of ashes and refuse suggests that in the triumph of the industrialized, commercialized, and banalized world to come, the American dream of open horizons and limitless possibilities would be reduced to a burned-out, undifferentiated mass.
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    Today, the valley of ashes represents not only a section of New York, but rather, moving to the rest of the country, where reports of deserted homes and communities by factories are simply abandoned, despite a history of economic growth in the path, the dreams and lives that people created for themselves is now nothing but a pile of dust on the ground. 
Ellen L

Criminological theories - 0 views

  • The immediate social environment is primarily responsible for criminality in our society, e.g., broken families, poor parenting, low quality educational experiences, delinquent peer relations, poverty, lack of equal economic opportunity, inadequate socialization to the values implicit in the American culture, etc.
  • Crime occurs when the forces that bind people to society are weakened or broken. When the social bonds that individuals have to parents, peers, and important social institutions like the school or the workplace are strong, they fear that their criminal activity may jeopardize their relative position in society and refuse to run the risk of losing meaningful social relationships, careers, etc. Generally, adolescents have weaker bonds to conventional society than adults.
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    This site gives a comprehensive background of several criminology theories. These include sociological, physical and psychological factors that influence individuals to turn to crime. Both Dick and Perry show signs of the presence of these theories. Perry's home life fits into the social control theory, as does Dick's ability to purposely weaken any social bond he may have created
Sarah Sch

Harlem Renaissance - 0 views

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    "Southern blacks considered a move to the north as a step toward economic independence and a better life in a region of the country where they believed they might be treated more fairly."
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    This article provides historical background for the 1930's time period in which the novel, Invisible Man, takes place. The article provides additional insight into the society dictated position of blacks in American culture and racism throughout the society. This novel puts the book into greater historical context.
Zaji Z

The Modern Gap Between Blacks and Whites (by Region) - 0 views

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    "In 2000, in the Middle Atlantic and East North Central regions, black families' median income was especially low relative to that of whites." In IM, a running truth that kept IM going was that "white men only allowed black people to go as far as the whites wish it to be." In this 2000 statistic, we can see that this is still happening, that even though there is parity between whites and blacks in terms of graduation rates, the median incomes, the lifestyles of millions of blacks living in the North East Central region of the country were significantly less than of their white counterparts. We were also introduced to the whole concept that racism seemed to be a distant issue when IM finds his way up north, but instead, he eventually realizes that the north was waging a secret racism war on itself, where the racism was in truth, more intense than it was in the more modest, and "well-mannered' south.
Evan G

Black Men Can't Get Jobs | DarkOneSun's Blog - 0 views

  • 5-10 calls per day from interested job recruiters.  It’s all good until they hear my voice on the phone, and they can tell that I am a black man.  In spite of having a stellar resume, it all goes downhill from there.
  • I have had to watch as colleagues that I went to school with found jobs before I did with the same damn degree I had; and I graduated a year before they did!
  • People LAUGHED at the black man’s economic situation.  However, now that white America, and everyone else is feeling the sting, all of a sudden, they want to start a damn movement, and they expect US to join?
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  • As for the black people who are actually joining this Occupy Wall Street movement, and especially black men, I don’t even know why they are even bothering.  Black folks are ALWAYS trying to be a part of something; a part of something that doesn’t really give a damn about you.
  • I am seeing niggas out here trying to be martyrs in the Occupy movement.  These cats must be crazy.
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    Although this is a kind of ghetto site, it hit hard because it was a lot like Malcolm himself. In a protest to the blacks joining the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the author comments that he has been denied countless jobs, only because he is black. Despite having better credentials than many of his white friends, once employers discover his color, it's all over. Also, like the Nation of Islam and the Bro Hood, this guy talks about how the poor whites in the Occupy movements are only in it for themselves, and once they get what they want, they'll just forget about the black members. Unfortunately, this is modern, contemporary stuff that is going on now.
Sarah Sch

(5) Islam - 0 views

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    "All human beings are under the same obligation to obey the divine law ("Noblest among you is the most righteous" Qurʾan 49:13), and this equality is further expressed in the universality of the messages that God sends to His creatures throughout time and place, starting with Adam and concluding with Muhammad"
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    " Muslims and followers of other traditions are exhorted to cooperate in establishing a moral society and prohibiting evil and mischief."
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    "The Qurʾan exhibits a firmly actionalist system of ethics based on individual responsibility in the realization of the optimal social, economic, and political structure of the umma, the universal community of believers."
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    This article provides information on the Islamic religion. In Malcolm X, the Islamic religion is vital to Malcolm X's journey and ultimate realization. After Malcolm X participates in his pilgrimage, he realizes that he demonizes the white people throughout his life, although there are decent white people among the demons just like any group of individuals. This realizes causes Malcolm X to change his approach to the whole racial problem in America and open him to working with the whites. This article is beneficial to an essay discussing Malcolm X's journey.
Ben R

Black Nationalism - 0 views

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    Talks about t he major morals and ideas that Malcolm preached and what his organization stood for, including economic self-sufficiency and racial pride, giving the reader a gooid idea of where Malcolm stood on these ideas.
Emily S

Barn Burning by William Faulkner, 1938 - 0 views

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    or writers in the 1930s stories about the poor were seemingly mandatory, but "Faulkner presented his characters from a much larger perspective than did most fiction writers of the time. He placed them in a context that demanded that they be seen in a history and a locale, not merely as victims of a flawed economic system"
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    Unlike Grapes of Wrath, As I Lay Dying shifts the focus of the novel away from the Great Depression although it is still a significant part of the book. Many writers of the time period were expected to write about the depression, yet Faulkner's authorial purpose leaned heavily towards showing the satire in a family experiencing adversities.
Ellen L

Teens in the Workforce - Boston Fed - 0 views

  • 1998, Douglas Kruse and Douglas Mahony estimated that during an average week about 148,000 minors were working in violation of the law. They also found that youths in banned occupations were paid $1.38 less per hour than adults in the same job, saving employers about $155 million per year
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    This article describes the working conditions in modern America for teens, the corporation's complience (or lack thereof) of labor laws, and the evolution of these labor laws. The information in this article reflects the positions of the children in The Jungle and FFN, supplying concrete details about the safety risks presented to a younger workforce.
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