The Secret Behind the Great American Dream - Literature Essay Samples

In Cold Blood begins with a death of the Clutters family, whose lives are ended with gunshots. The killers are 2 men with different backgrounds, characteristics, and reasons to kill. Capote first depicts the whole event in mystery and he exposes the truth when he feels comfortable. After months escape, Perry and Dick plead their guilty, so Capote provides a deeper analysis of both murderers psychological problems that are derived from their childhood. Although Perry and Dick finally receive punishment and execution, in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, both of Perry and Dick have a traumatic childhood memory. Through the use of symbolism and characterization, Capote illustrates the American Dream as an achievable goal for Perry and Dick because they have their own way to complete the dreams. Perry has a violent and tragic childhood. His father and mother were divorced, and his mother has issues with mental illness. People who know Perry always say, â€Å"Look at his family! Look at what had happened there! His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit†(175). Generally, Perry lives in a broken and fragmented family with a patient. Perry mentions that all his family members are gone and now he has no one that can depends on: â€Å"Jimmy a suicide. Fern out the window. My mother dead. Been dead eight years. Everybody gone but Dad and Barbara†(215). Items in Perry’s memorabilia are symbols to show his affection to things with meanings. The content in his memorabilia explains why he is being clingy towards Dick and anything he finds involving. When he arrives in Kansas, he carries a box labelled â€Å"Beware! Property of Perry E. Smith!† He collects items related with his life like old letters, photographs, and souvenirs. The mo st significant item is a letter called â€Å" A History of My Boy’s Life† â€Å"It was a document that Perry had read at least a hundred times, never with indifference†(197), Capote describes. Though carrying these belongings are heavy and clumsy, Perry still keeps it because he know these items represent his meaningful past. Through these memorable old items, Perry dreams about achieving his goal, which is to find good fortune in the discovery of buried treasure, however, Perry seems unwilling to work hard for what he wants. Nothing good comes easy. Unlike Dick, Perry does not see crime as the only method to achieve his dreams. Dick is a foil character of Perry, and he always considers himself as normal: â€Å"‘Deal me out, baby’,† Dick said. ‘I’m a normal.’And Dick meant what he said. He thought himself as balanced, as sane as anyone—maybe a bit smarter than the average fellow, that’s all†(171-172). Because there has no certain morality for a person, Dick thinks the things he has done are absolutely normal and feel no guilty at all. Due to Dick’s childhood, which is luckier and more arranged than Perry’s, he is a confident and enterprising person who seems to consider himself has masculinity. In order to be a better foil character, Dick has something similar with Perry: â€Å"There were those Dick claimed to love: three sons, a mother, a father, a brother—persons he hadn’t dared confide his plans to, or bid goodbye, though he never expected to see them again— not in this life†(169). Both of them lose their family members in their childhood. The family ofDick first gives him hope and happiness, then it abandons him cruelly. This sudden mental torture makes him become a crazy man who likes committing crimes. Such drastic shift of life environment pushes Dick become different from others. In Cold Blood contains so many American Dreams because all the characters have their own, however there are similarities and differences between theirs. In the beginning of the story, not only the Clutters, but the entire town seem like achieving their American Dream. The story begins with: â€Å"there to fore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors, found fantasy recreating them over and again†(21). Especially the family of Clutter, they are highly respected, and they are wealthy and nice. Everyone in the town was surrounded with this environment, but after the death of the Clutters, people lose their dream. The criminals, Perry and Dick, all have an incapability to obtain the American dream. Even though Dick works hard enough, being cripple and childhood nightmares can not be eliminated. Perry also has a terrible childhood and a broken family, and he just wants to earn enough money and flee to Mexico for treasure hunt. Either Perry or Dick dies not achieve the common American Dream, but they have achieved their own goals. They live in the life style they want to have, that mean at least they have finished their own goal. At the end of the story, the author points out that there is not a standard American Dream, so there is no failure on this dream. Capote utilizes symbolism of a memorabilia and characterization of Perry and Dick to points out that American Dream can be achieved in various ways. Perry and Dick have similar and different lifestyle when they are young, but they response differently on murdering the Clutters. Perry is afraid of killing them at first, but Dick even wants to torture them harder. The specific characterization illustrates different American Dreams from different personalities, which states that all dreams can be achieved in various means.

What I Would Do Differently Applying To College

HomeApplyWhat I Would Have Done Differently Applying To CollegeThis page may contain affiliate links.Oct 25, 2019Almost all my friends have decided where they will be going to college next year. So it’s time to pass on my bits of advice to juniors, who are just about to enter the whirlwind maze of the college process. When I was in your shoes last year, I wish a graduating senior had passed along some of this advice. There are so many adjectives to describe the college-admissions process. Time-consuming, stressful, mentally challenging, over-emphasized, and arbitrary are just a few that instantly come to mind when I consider this past year. As I wrap up my senior year of high school, I cannot help but wonder why I allowed myself to get so stressed over it all. Of course, writing applications can be nightmare-worthy, as one of my closest friends put it, yet it can also be an immensely rewarding, reflective, and worthwhile time in a students life. Here are a few tips I wish I had truly listened to before and while I was applying to colleges. 1. START EARLY ON COLLEGE APPLICATIONS I had heard this advice from countless of upperclassmen friends, and actually did try my best to start my applications during the summer before senior year. What I did not anticipate, though, was how long the essays would take to write and how many revisions I would need to iterate through before I would finally be happy with a version. Editing essays I had half-finished from the summer bled into the fall of my senior year, dramatically increasing my nightly homework and stress level. I know it sounds crazy, but I would honestly start brainstorming essays topics in the spring of junior year. Ideally, try and get a few of the bigger essays completed, especially the infamous common app essay, before school starts again. This will alleviate much stress in the fall, when you should be focused on keeping your grades up, finishing standardized testing and filling out applications. 2. DRAFT OUTLINES FOR YOUR COLLEGE ESSAYS BEFORE WRITING THEM One thing that really delayed my applications was that I had so many essay revisions to make. Im the type of person who likes to rush into things, so I would just begin my essays without necessarily thinking about the point that I wanted to make. Though I learned this by the end of my application season, I should have created outlines before each essay to have a clearer sense of what I wanted to get across and the experiences I wanted to write about to support my ideas. 3. APPLY EARLY TO ANY COLLEGE THAT ALLOWS IT Many schools offer either Early Decision 1 or 2, Early Action, or Early Action Restricted deadlines along with the standard Regular Decision deadline. For most schools, these early applications are due around November 1st, while regular ones are due around January 1st. I highly suggest applying to as many schools on your list with early deadlines as you can. Even if you apply â€Å"early decision† somewhere, if a school on your list offers â€Å"early action† than get your application in for that early deadline. Also, if a school makes decisions based on â€Å"rolling admissions†, submit your application as early as possible, as the longer you wait the availability of spots will decrease. Acceptance rates are much higher for these early deadlines, often doubl[ing]—even tripl[ing]—your [] chances of getting into a top college, states Forbes. 4. STAY AWAY FROM COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL This website is a black hole for comparing yourself to others and increasing stress. Once youve decided where youre applying, there is absolutely no need for you to scroll through endless statistics of students who have and have not gotten into schools youve applied to you will only give yourself more cause to worry. In general, try as much as possible to refrain from comparing yourself to peers applying to the same school as you. There are so many factors that go into college admissions, and if someone has 30 points higher than you on the SAT or one extra activity, that hardly means he/she is more likely to get in than you. 5. DONT FEEL OBLIGED TO TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOU ARE APPLYING I found, amongst my friends, a lot of anxiety over where my classmates and I were applying. Everyone wanted to know everything. After I told a few of my friends what my top schools were, this information seemed to get around to people I hardly knew. Do not feel obliged that you need to tell everyone where you are applying, even if all of your friends are. Let your own comfort dictate how much information you give out. 6. LET YOUR OWN PERSONALITY SHINE THROUGH IN YOUR APPLICATIONS There is such a thing as getting too much feedback on your applications. Teachers, parents, friends these are all great sources for advice, yet be weary of getting too much advice. If you can, have an English teacher look over your essays for grammar errors, yet choose carefully which of the other advice you follow, and make sure the voices of others do not overpower your own. 7. RELAX As much angst as there is surrounding college admissions, more and more of the discussion surrounding it suggests that what college you attend has little impact on your later career, salary, or happiness (as commented on in aNYTimes Op Ed Forbes article). Malcolm Gladwell even suggests that high achieving students may be better off at lower tier colleges, where they [will] have a greater chance of standing out. Remember that luck really does play a big role in determining who is admitted to certain colleges, and most students, likely including you, end up loving the school they attend, even if it was not their original first choice. Its hard to discern through all of the stress and hysteria, but everything truly does work out. I hope that these tidbits of advice help rising seniors. The college admissions process is no-doubt a stressful time in ones life, yet it can also be a beneficial and worthwhile time for self-reflection. This marks the first time a student is truly forced to reflect on ones own life and characterize his or her beliefs and passions. Take the challenges of application season as a growth opportunity, and no matter where you end up, you will surely be well off.