Is murder ever justifiable? In the two short stories "A Municipal Report", and "A Jury of Her Peers", that question is the driving force behind the theme of each story. Despite their similarities in basic plot, O. Henry's "A Municipal Report" contains little more than simple elements of entertainment while Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" attempts to reveal certain truths about life.
"A Municipal Report" fails to provide the reader with any developed characters. The lack of depth in characterization makes it impossible to draw any meaningful conclusion from the story. It also falsifies human life by avoiding the truthful emotions of the characters. The plot includes a number of unrealistic coincidences which take away from the story itself. One of the most evident examples of coincidence is the dollar bill's reappearance. "Azalea Adair opened a tiny, worn purse and drew out a dollar bill with the upper right-hand corner missing, torn in two pieces and pasted together again with a strip of blue tissue paper. It was the one I had given the Negro-there was no doubt of it." This statement from the narrator depicts the unbelievable coincidence of recognizing the same dollar bill. These and other coincidences throughout the story make it apparent that the story was written to entertain, not enlighten readers.
Unlike "A Municipal Report", Glaspell, in "A Jury of Her Peers", strives to communicate more then mere entertainment through round, believable characters. The reader can follow the plot and sympathize with the women in the story. "A Jury of Her Peers" is not only a simple murder mystery. It depicts human emotion and the struggle between what is right and wrong. In the story Mrs. Hale says, "If there had been years and years of - nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful - still - after the bird was still." Through this statement Mrs. Hale is admitting that she sympathizes with Mrs.
One possible theme of the Great Gatsby is falseness. Many of the key characters were false in some way or another and wore "false faces". ... She stated this because that was how she portrayed herself to be and then no one was the wiser to her true feelings. ... The party is full of falseness and vulgarness. ... Rumors that were not true were spread by Myrtle and her guests. ...
Many argue that there is no such thing as False Memory Syndrome. ... One day False Memory Syndrome will appear in the DSM. ... False memory syndrome involves a combination of mistaken perceptions and false beliefs. ... It is important to differentiate between true and false "recovered" memories. ... A study was done in 1997 by a psychologist, Stanley Friedman, in the journal of Psychotherapy that helped to uncover ways in which people can separate false memories from true ones. ...
Borges comments on the uselessness of attempting to determine that something is either true of false, when confronting it through writing. ... Borges" notion of false history reveals itself through these three storytellers. ... The cycle now continues with the infinite revising and rewriting of the same events, none of which being more true or untrue than any other. ... True or false does not matter, and the past does not define us. ...
Abstract The recollection of a memory that had never occurred is ordinarily accredited to be false memory. ... Using this paradigm, this study will attempt to induce false memories in participants using non-appearing, critical word lures, that are semantically related to the words the participant should be attempting to remember, amongst original words, that test true memory and semantically unrelated, distractor words. The purpose of this study is to find whether true recall differs from false recall. ... Further research in this area is needed and is valuable for the reason that given false...
Those who believe in the ability of psychotherapy to identify true repressed memories defend their viewpoint on the high frequency of known child abuse and sexual molestation. ... Many of those accused claim the memories are false and have sued therapists for their alleged role in creating false memories. ... Many of those accused claim the memories are false and have sued therapists for their alleged role in creating false memories (Ofshe, R. & Walters, E., 2000). Should such memories be taken at face value and accepted as true without any attempt to prove otherwise? ... Likewise, it is ...
The article "Creating False Memories" by Elizabeth F. ... False memories were actually implanted into many of the subjects" heads, and some of them were influenced so much that they were actually lead to believe that these events happened. ... Basically, the theory here is that the implantation of false or untrue events are created by combining actual memories with suggestions received from others. If a partially true fact is stated, and certain aspects of it are modified, the subject can be led to believe that that specific action actually happened. ...
This idea of false reality is explored in the film "The Matrix". ... Morpheus shows Neo the true history of mankind and the twist of fate that the progress in creating the artificial intelligence has brought upon human race. ... Which also relates to the same question as to whether it's better to live in false reality than in reality. ... The idea of false reality is presented in a similar movie, Fight Club. Even though the idea of false reality is of different angle in this movie it still deals with the surreal world. ...
In the essay entitled "Black Men and Public Space", author Brent Staples argues that he has been racially profiled on several occasions, and in doing so, has been falsely assumed to be a threat to the safety of those around him. ... However, by reading deeper into the text it becomes more and more clear that Staples, although referred to throughout the essay as something of a negative or fearful character, is, in turn the true victim. ... This statement is especially important because it, in his own words, demonstrates the true personality of Brent Staples. ... This single quote becomes a n...
Mischaracterization of True Nature Some methods of judging character can sometimes lead to a mischaracterization of true nature. ... Some people can cleverly disguise or misrepresent their true nature through deceptive means; thus, makeing character judgment without an in-depth look at the person a beaded path to mischaracterization of true nature. ... Like Joy, Pointer misrepresented his character to create a deception of his true self. ... Hulga created a false perception of her true nature, her inner self, to everyone around by dutifully misrepresented her true desires. ... Subsequent...
Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and opinions are said to be true or false. ... Forms of words or statements are also said to be true or false. ... Plato wanted to distinguish between true and false belief. His theory was based on intuitive recognition that true statements correspond to the facts, while false statements do not. ... William James defined the pragmatist theory of truth, as "an idea is "true" so long as to believe it manifestly false. ...