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This NYTimes article discusses how people cope with death through various means of art and communication--specifically writing. The authors interviewed in this article explained how this form of communication was the only way they could understand what happened, thus saving them from the insanity of being lost. The Bundren family copes with Addie's death in no communicative way. As this important outlet does not exist within the household, it may well explain the strewed psychological states of many of the characters. 

Barbara Ehrenreich wants to make clear that she is not a spoilsport. "No one can call me a sourpuss," she declared. "I have a big foot in the joy camp." She is the author of "Dancing in the Streets," a history of "collective joy," she notes, and a lot of fun at parties.

Wordd

The Joads are always optimistic, and they're even more impoverished than these people.

Capote discusses again about his new genre of writing that he pioneered. He talks about how to blur the lines of reality and fiction without sacrificing key facts.

Talks about the reasons behind Capotes desires to write about a murder case, actual information from an interview where he tells all... essentially. He makes it somewhat obvious that a large factor in his writing of the murder was that he was try to start and did somewhat a new wave of writing, "new journalism"

"The crime confronted the townsfolk of Holcomb with their own isolation. Neighborliness evaporated. The natural order seemed suspended. Chaos poised to rush in. They distrusted and came to suspect not terrible strangers, but themselves"

This source provides good examples and statements of the Gothic theme of isolation in the novel.

Discusses the Brotherhood's effects upon IM. Although supposedly designed to boost visibility and rights of black men, the party really only bends the thoughts, discipline, and lives of its followers to its own gain. Like Bledsoe, the Brotherhood bleeds the black men dry in order to keep them oppressed, while the top Brothers, white brothers, profit and thrive.

By Michael Eric DysonPublished: November 29, 1992 IN "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," the charismatic black religious nationalist recalls his momentous 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, a visit that would alter the course of his life and career.

This source talks about the theme of blindness in Malcolm X, especially in relation to his enlightenment on the trip to Mecca.

I live like a man who's already dead," Malcolm X said last Thursday in a two-hour interview in the Harlem office of his Organization for Afro-American Unity. "I'm a marked man," he said slowly as he fingered the horn-rimmed glasses he wore and leaned forward to give emphasis to his words.

This is a picture and a copy of the text of the article written in the New York Times about Malcolm X's assassination. It contains interesting quotes in which Malcolm knows he will soon be killed.

This article is from the NY times in the 50s where the author makes several comparisons between the experience that Ellison tells and hell. Helps give a good understanding of how badly conditions were for IM that outside bystandards can compare them to hellish.

This article displays the McDonald's ignorance when it comes to their workers. In this unfortunate case, a McDonald's employee was left to work long hours without rest, falling asleep on the wheel and colliding with another vehicle, claiming the employee's life. Should a worker at this fast food joint die because he was just working for minimum wage? 

Response to a Times article defending the changes brought upon by American writers. The original article stated "it is tyranny that has most often drawn writers into politics," this tyranny can be found in the Bosses from the Jungle, the plantation owners from GOW and the corporation owners in FFN.

"when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli ... or it's more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald's than to cook a healthy meal for them at home"

This is an interesting article proving that eating real food can actually be cheaper than fast food. This works well to explain how fast food has become a staple ingredient in many Americans weekly and even daily diet.

"...slamming the car into Michell and sending him to the hospital with a broken kneecap, a badly torn shoulder, and two herniated disks. Michell was so devoted to Wal-Mart that he somehow returned to work the next day, but a few weeks later... He was fired soon afterward,...to dismiss workers whose injuries run up Wal-Mart's workers' comp bills." This article shows a direct comparison to Fast Food Nation. Kenny Dobbins was also a loyal worker, and when injured on the job he was fired due to a request of compensation. Mike Mitchell caught 180 shoplifters in a two- year period, but when injured on the job, Wal-Mart did not have his back. The article shows the theme of profit over treatment of the worker. The article also has interesting facts/statistics about the middle and low class laborer of the modern day.

The site points out that Woolf points out that women were inhibited from success, and typically doomed to failure as a result of the restrictions placed upon them from society. They couldn't be financially independent, so they never had time to learn and experience the world, so they weren't intellectually free, etc.

The Times brings up an interesting point. Men struggled and still succeeded. Women struggled and got nowhere. Part of it must be the culture, where women often did not usually exert themselves to something ambitious, whereas men are expected to. For most of the women's rights movement, perhaps the goal wasn't to force the institution to create laws for equality, but in the bigger picture, sense that it was to show women had initiative, motivation and a purpose. 

This article discusses the acknowledgement of the social gap in fiction and the use of fiction to influence people's position on the gap. The Great Gatsby can be seen as an influence to bridge the social gap, as some feel bad for the class struggles preventing Gatsby from being with Daisy.

Nice quote

Wealth changes people to become reckless snobs looking to have a little fun with what they have... but the minute you set heart to something and forget the rest, you are incompatible with the wealthy peers.

Shows what percentage of men's salaries women make in certain industries.

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. 

"Fitzgerald in his life and writings epitomized "all the sad young men" of the post-war generation."

"With the skill of a reporter and ability of an artist he captured the essence of a period when flappers and gin and "the beautiful and the damned" were the symbols of the carefree madness of an age. "

The time period of which he reported was corrupt. He lived and experienced his own corruption within his life. The corruption at this time was not a made up concept. It is a true phenomenon.