"The illusionist"

In the turn of the Twentieth Century, in Vienna, the teenager Eduard Abramovich is the son of a cabinetmaker that becomes fascinated with magic. While practicing some tricks on the streets, he meets the upper-class Sophie, they become friends and later they fall in love for each other. When they are separated by Sophie's family, the broken-hearted Eduard travels to the Far East and fifteen years later he returns to Vienna as a famous illusionist with a different name, Eisenheim. While performing a show in the presence of the ambitious and ruthless Crown Prince Leopold and the corrupt Inspector Uhl, Sophie volunteers for a trick on the stage and they immediately recognize each other. The flame of their passion bursts, but Sophie is engaged of Leopold, as part of his political game to be crowned king with the support of Hungary in a coup d'état against his father. Sophie and Eisenheim plan to runaway together, but when the drunken Leopold discloses their intention, he apparently kills Sophie. The grieving Eisenheim brings his Chinese acquaintances and performs an amazing show, where nothing is what it seems

"The Short,Happy Life of Francis Macomber"

The initially cowardly Francis Macomber and his symbolically castrating wife are being guided on a game hunt by a professional hunter Robert Wilson. Macomber repeatedly shows his cowardice and is chastised by his wife Margot, who sarcastically responds to his assertiveness late in the story with the line, "You've gotten awfully brave, awfully suddenly." Ironically, Macomber does, in fact, finally become truly fearless, as he demonstrates by standing his ground and firing at a charging buffalo, "shooting a touch high each time and hitting the heavy horns, splintering and chipping them like hitting a slate roof..." Margot grabs a gun, ostensibly to stop the still-charging buffalo, and shoots Macomber, killing him. Robert Wilson, having witnessed the profound change of character and self-confidence that had occurred within Macomber, tells Margot, "he would have left you too." Though Wilson says he will report Macomber's death as accidental, it is unclear whether his wife had shot him on purpose or by accident.

The Tell-Talle Heart

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of a genderless narrator who is taking care of an old man with a clouded eye. The narrator's paranoid symptoms lead to an irrational fear of the weird clouded eye. The narrator becomes so distressed by the eye a plot forms to murder the old man. For eight nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, a process which takes him a full hour, watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. However, the old man's eyes are shut, hiding the clouded eye, and the narrator loses the urge to kill. One night, though, the old man awakens as the narrator watches, revealing the eye, the narrator strikes, smothering the old man with his own mattress. The narrator proceeds to chop the body up, and hide the pieces under the floorboards. The narrator then cleans the place up to hide all signs of the crime. When the narrator reports that the police (whether a delusion or real is unclear) respond to a call placed by a neighbor who heard a distressful scream, the narrator invites them to look around, confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder. They sit around the old man's room, right on top of the very hiding place of the dead body, yet suspect nothing. The narrator, however, begins to hear a faint noise. As the noise grows louder, the narrator hallucinates that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. This paranoia increases as the officers seem to pay no attention to the sound, which is loud enough for the narrator to admit to having heard. Shocked by the constant beating of the heart and a feeling that the officers must be aware of the heartbeats, the narrator loses control and confesses to killing the old man and tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the body.

"The Necklace"

"The Necklace" tells the story of a nineteenth-century middle class French couple, Monsieur and Madame Mathilde Loisel. Monsieur Loisel is a clerk in the ministry of public information. Madame Loisel is a beautiful young lady, who might have been married to a richer man, if her family wasn't poor. Monsieur Loisel is invited to a distinguished party, and wishes to take his wife with him. Madame Loisel, however, is hesitant to attend, complaining that "there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women." In addition to acquiring a new dress, at her husband's suggestion she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier, and attends the party. She is the wonder of the night, and all the men wish to dance with her. Disastrously, Madame Loisel somehow loses the necklace during the evening.
Monsieur and Madame Loisel decide they must buy an identical diamond necklace from the 'Palais Royal' as a replacement for Madame Forestier. Unable to bear the shame of this, they do not inform Madame Forestier of the change and spend the next ten years of their lives paying off the debts, which costs them about thirty-six thousand francs, a fortune at the time. Both Monsieur and Madame Loisel are forced to take on extra jobs and live in abject poverty. At the end of the ten years, Madame Loisel, now older, tougher and less graceful from years of hard manual labor, has an opportunity to tell her old friend of the lost necklace. Madame Forestier is shocked and informs Madame Loisel that her original necklace was, in fact, an imitation "...worth at the very most five hundred francs!"

The Lottery

The story contrasts commonplace details of contemporary life with the barbarism of the ritualistic lottery. The setting is a small American town where the locals display a celebratory mood as they gather on June 27 for their annual lottery. After a person from each family draws a small piece of paper, one slip with a black spot indicates the Hutchinson family has been chosen. When each member of that family draws again to narrow the selection, the family's mother, Tessie Hutchinson, is the final choice. She is then stoned by everyone present, including her own family. The reader, though, does not know the true situation until the first stone strikes Tessie Hutchinson, although the tone becomes darker as her fate draws nearer and nearer.

Los Vendidos

In his play, "Los Vendidos," Luis Valdez addresses, through humor and stereotypes, the issues faced by Mexicans in America, throughout history. Although a "White Washed Mexican" woman is supposedly looking for a Mexican, what she is actually looking for is an American with darker skin. The key word here is American, as she is looking for someone who has denied his or her Mexican roots and become acculturated to the American way of life. As history repeats itself, this woman does not want a Mexican for any other reason than the fact that he is Mexican, and she has no respect for his heritage.

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus rex is the name of the king of Thebes the story being when the men of the city lament it loudly because, Thebes is suffering from a plague. Oedipus promises to save the city. Creon, brother-in-law to Oedipus, returns from the oracle at Delphi and declaims the words of the gods: Thebes is harboring the murderer of Laius, the previous king. It is the murderer who has brought the plague upon the city. Oedipus promises to discover the murderer and cast him out. He questions Tiresias, the soothsayer, who at first refuses to speak. Angered at this silence, Oedipus accuses him of being the murderer himself. Provoked, Tiresias speaks at last, stating that the murderer of the king is a king. Terrified, Oedipus then accuses Tiresias of being in league with Creon, who he believes covets the throne. With a flourish from the chorus, Jocasta appears and calms the dispute by telling all the oracles always lie. An oracle had predicted that Laius would die at his son's hand, when in fact he was murdered by bandits at the crossing of three roads. This frightens Oedipus further: he recalls killing an old man at a crossroads before coming to Thebes. A messenger arrives: King Polybus of Corinth, who Oedipus believes to be his father, has died. However, it is now revealed that Polybus was only the foster-father of Oedipus, who had been, in fact, a foundling. An ancient shepherd arrives: It was he who had found the child Oedipus in the mountains. Jocasta, realizing the truth, flees. At last, the messenger and shepherd state the truth openly: Oedipus is the child of Laius and Jocasta, killer of his father, husband of his mother. Shattered, Oedipus leaves. The messenger then reports the death of Jocasta: she has hanged herself in her chambers. Oedipus broke into her room and put out his eyes with her pin. Oedipus departs Thebes forever as the chorus at first vents their anger and then mourns the loss of a king they loved.

"300" Movie

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes lead a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and other Slave soldiers. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw left with no options he moved. The battle lasted for about 3 days and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected as a local shepherd named Ephialtes defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.

Fences

“Fences” is a story of the playwright August Wilson in this story Wilson is involving African-American experiences. Fences is about a black man (Troy) that cheating his wife with other woman. She gave born a child of Troy. Six months later, Rose receives a call from the hospital. Troy's baby was a girl, and Alberta has died in childbirth. When Troy comes home with the baby, Raynell, he asks Rose to act as the mother. She agrees to this for the sake of the child, but tells Troy that he is now a "womanless man." Cory returns after years later as a Marine. At first he refuses to come to Troy's funeral, but after Rose admonishes his rebellion and after he and Raynell sing an old song of Troy's, he concedes. Gabriel comes and tries to open the gates of heaven, by blowing on his horn. This fails, and the gates only open when Gabriel does a traditional African dance.

"The Story of an Hour"

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a story about a woman that have heath problem, in the other hands her husband past away. She is thinking that with this death of her husband she will be freedom to do whatever she wants. At the same time, she has a hearth attack, and died. At the end of the story, the doctor says that what very funny died because everybody that has hearth problems died for something sad and she died of happiness and ironic of life.

The White City

“The White City” a poem that related the cruel reality of how lived the people after Civil War in 1920, in this poem the author compares the heaven is some occasion is at the same time a hell, for black people at that time. Where blacks people fight for they rights.

Memory Unsettled

"Memory Unsettled” by Thom Gunn this poem is about a man that is very sick. He wants that when he died people remember him. On the poem his friend related one time when he go to visited him, with a very sick hothouse cough. And this bring memories how at that time his friend help him. In this piece Gunn wants that the readers live what he is living and feeling with the death of his best friend. This is a very good poem where you can appreciated the relationship between two men, and how the other feel the death of this other without help him.

“Spirit” in my opinion are speculations about such question involved the positing of belief in a supernatural being, who created and in one way or another governs the universe. Much of this, in my opinion is speculations, because until today the scientific community doesn’t have a truth prove of all this. I think spirit and Gods are created by religions to invite people to believe it. In addition, many of them suggest that humans was created by Gods, but until today no natural laws required that life or the particular human form of it would be an out come of at operation

"Homage to my Hips" by Lucille Clifton

"Homage to my Hips" by Lucille Clifton is a poem about how a man gyrate his live with a big hips. Clifton tried to say the form that change the life of a man with a big hip, don’t care where that going or what they wants to do. These hips are powerful hips that gave power to the body of the man transport him to a high level.

Community Services: "Carbon Footprint"

For my Community Services at school, I choose work with Glenda Phipps at Carbon Footprint, carbon footprints is a project that facilitate the measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. A group of students for professor Sinkoff class decide to be helpful to the environment for the global warming problem, and we decided to work together to learn and teach the community to help with this problem that affect everyone in the entire world. In our first meeting we learn how to plant, water and take care the plants. At the same day we plant a lot of plants like florida butter bean, egg plant, arugula plant, sasil, charolic purple, dill, and cabbage. To continues with our work to help the environment we first inform ourselves about how to reduced CO2 and for this we take some test on the webpage of us agency that is www.carbonfootprint.com. In addition all members of the Carbon Footprint are working we the plants, water then everyday and we are preparing a presentation for everyone that will be interesting in work with us learning about the environment and how to help the global warming.

Cited:

"Carbon Footprints." . March, 03 2007. RADsite.
20 Mar 2007 .

The House of Asterion

“The House of Asterium” by Jorge Luis Borges an amazing story about a prisoner that sees the prison as a castle and himself like Asterion a prince. Theseus the names that Borges give to this character is the reality of many prisoners today. In this essay he is writing a letter to Ariadne, by the form he refer to her in his letter we can assume that she is his love. Theseus in his infinity of letter to Ariadne related the way that he lived and see the life in jail. Borges tried to confuse the reader comparing the live of one prisoner in jail with a prince in a castle. Theseus in his desperation many time imagined the jail with female pomp or gallant court formality, but the reality is that does not have anything of this, because when he open her eyes he face with the reality. In this incredible story we can esteemed another story for this wonderful written that has been written infinity of beautiful story and poems.

Cited:
Book: Arguing Through Literature, by Judith Ferster
Title: “The House of Asterion” pages 99-101, by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)