The Lives of Dickens Characters :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

The Lives of Dickens' Characters Charles Dickens' literary works are comparable to one another in many ways; plot, setting, and even experiences. His novels remain captivating to his audiences and he draws them in to teach the readers lessons of life. Although each work exists separate from all of the rest, many similarities remain. Throughout the novels, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, the process of growing up, described by the author, includes the themes of the character's ability to alienate themselves, charity given to the characters and what the money does to their lives, and the differences of good and evil individuals and the effects of their influences. Collectively, these major novels overflow with orphans, adoptive parents, guardians, and failed parent-child relationships. Oliver, the main character in Oliver Twist, must forget about his "infantile past" (Marcus 182) in order to seek "the idyllic future" (Marcus 182). He gets hurled from orphanages to foster parents and so on until he finds himself a portion of the "wrong crowd." The pickpockets take him under their authority and attempt to show him the ropes of the embezzling operation. The orphan adapts well to the swindling lifestyle of Fagin and the boys, and through a series of mischievous choices, authorities apprehend him for stealing (although Dodger was the true felon), and Oliver must live with the consequences. Great Expectations also emphasizes the process of growing up through Pip, the main character. Pip's mother and father passed away while he was young, and he was forced to reside in the house of his older sister and her husband. The boy obtains many idealistic fat hers, including Joe, Magwitch, Jaggers and Pumblechook, but none of these men can give him what he needs from a predecessor. Dickens demonstrates to the reader the consequences that bad parenting has on children. Some children are warped by the "knottiest roots" (Lucas 141). Pip, Estella, and Magwitch are all examples of hurt children. The bitter children dwell on their past, or "what has been forgotten" (Marcus 182), and blame the parents for their sufferings. Other children such as Joe and Herbert survive bad parents and go on with their lives, not letting the history affect the outlook. Personalities in the novels became cut off physically or spiritually from human companionship. Oliver suffers from a sense of estrangement. He fears being abandoned by foster parents and friends, even though the relationships are not healthy for him.

Negative Impacts of Internet

The advent of the Internet has been one of the most exciting major events in the second half of the 20thtcentury. The ancient dream of â€Å"a scholar knows all things happening in the world without venturing outdoors† has finally become a reality. Since 1993, the Internet started to take off. At present, the Internet has spread to more than 180 countries and regions, connecting more than 600,000 domestic networks of various types, hooking up more than 20 million computers available to 120 million users (2% of the entire global population). However, due to its innate transnational, decentralized, open and unregulated nature, the Internet as a free, open and anarchic device has brought various countries great risks First of all, the internet has negatively influenced the countries politics because the Internet explicitly propagates and implicitly spreads western democratic values. These views are mainly spread through some governmental organizations or government-sponsored groups in the West. They select some typical stories that reflect western democracy and wrapped them up in attractive packages. Then they put these stories in visual and/or audio format and give them to people with great appeal and attractiveness. Most of those who have visited these websites come off praising the beauty of western democracy. The Internet can be also used as a tool to harm national sovereignty and interfere with other countries’ internal affairs. In some websites, when agencies and organizations of some foreign governments publish data, they treat areas such as Taiwan and Tibet as independent countries. The website of the U. S. National Geographic Society once published a map of Asia, which flagrantly excludes the South China Sea and Taiwan from our territories. Another example is that some websites have published views supporting Taiwanese and Tibetan independence and providing some so-called â€Å"historical evidence. † This has clearly interfered with Chinese internal affairs. The politically intended websites all have certain level of deceptiveness, influencing people to accept their views subconsciously, albeit with some doubt at first, thus shaking people’s firm stance of ideological correctness. Secondly, the internet causes cultural degradation because the Internet advocates western life-styles. These websites display various aspects of western society and life, and the overwhelming majority of them have positive portrayals of the western life-style. It makes people believe that the West seems to be countries of absolute freedom and paradise for individual achievement where private life is without obstacles and external inferences. Partial information such as this is particularly appealing to our youths whose life philosophy and worldview have yet to mature. Many of these youths aspire with great diligence to go abroad just to â€Å"change a way of living. † The Internet also poses a potential threat to information warfare. Some countries have applied the Internet into military operations, have conducted mock attacks against other countries’ networks, or have fabricated deceptive information harmful to other countries’ military forces. At a time when the information networks have become an important infrastructure of the nation and the military, the information warfare will be a war without the explosives, a war with a high invisibility, low cost, international, and multi-area (political, military, economic, social and material resources etc. approach. The high-tech nature and the unpredictability of combat intelligence in information warfare have made it extremely difficult to organize an information defense. The U. S. Department of Defense has specifically established an â€Å"Executive Committee on Information Warfare,† which is devoted to studying national policy for information warfare, and conducting war games on some websites. According to a report by the Sunday Thames of England, on 29 June (1998), experts from Great Britain and the United States conducted a secret military exercise in the destructive attacks on computers, with the objective of preventing a blitzkrieg in an information war. The result of the exercise indicates that just a few hackers can paralyze the stock market, military systems and airports, making the superpower, the United States, unable to move around. In a future information war, national financial transaction centers, stocks exchange centers, air traffic control centers, telecommunications control centers, railway control headquarters and various military networks, will inevitably become the main targets of information warfare. In conclusion, the internet is detrimental to a country’s culture, politics and security. Since it’s impossible to close the networks we must control and do our best to destroy its negative impacts when we can. Adapted from: http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2000_2003/pdfs/neg.pdf

Critique Of Thinking Fast And Slow - 955 Words

Critique of Thinking Fast and Slow After reading summaries, reviews, and excerpts from the 27 books we were given a list of to choose from, I decided to go with Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This book set itself apart from many of the other books because it was not about the physical environment. Instead, it focused on the psychological environment that is created by the way humans think. In addition to its uniqueness compared to the other books on the list, my research uncovered that it was by far the most popular and highly rated book from the lists. It received thousands of rave reviews and appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. Finally, I read the introduction of the book online and was captivated by the examples Kahneman used to illustrate his ideas. Not only did they greatly help in understanding in his complex thoughts, but they also were quite interesting. With this, the book immediately found its way into my Amazon shopping cart and accompanied me on my vacation to Florida. This book focused on the theory that the human mind has two â€Å"characters†, which Kaheman classifies as â€Å"System 1† and â€Å"System 2†. System 1 thinks fast, automatically, instinctively, and involuntarily. This is exemplified by things people do daily, such as interpreting facial expressions, driving somewhere familiar, or reading a clock. System 2 requires more thought, slower, concentration, and voluntary deliberate action. Examples of System 2 are difficult math problems,Show MoreRelatedThe At The Jacobs School Of Music Recital Hall989 Words   |  4 PagesFor my critique #2, I went to a recital that was performed at 5pm on October 30th, 2016 at the Jacobs School of Music Recital Hall. The name of the performer was Yuehan Wang. She is a graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music. 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