Assignment #2

Pearl symbolizes the fruit of the sin Hester committed with Dimmesdale. This can be seen when Hester Pryne dresses Pearl with a scarlet dress, the same color as the A in Hester's chest. Now, since the A in Hester's chest is there because of the sin she committed, and the dress of Pearl is the same color as the letter, she symbolizes the sin.

The Letter A represents unfair punishment towards Hester Pryne. This is due to how everybody in the Town had committed sins before. However, they are too afraid to deliberately expose themselves to the public just a Hester does. This in turn make the townspeople hypocrites, whereas it lionizes Hester because of the strength she portrays exposing her sin.

The Forest symbolizes a place where anyone can be whatever they want to be. Witches for example, meet in the forest and while witchcraft is unacceptable in the town the witches can perform witchcraft inside the forest. This is also a place where Hester can take off her letter and be the women she is because in town people do not see the extraordinary things about Hester they only see the scarlet letter that sits on her chest.

Assignment #3

 In life there are people who are egotists and other people who are selfless. In the book called The Fountainhead written by Ayn Rand there is a constant clash in between the selfless and egotist moral values. This moral values are represented in The Fountainhead by Howard Roark and Peter Keating; Howard Roark being the egotist and Peter Keating being the selfless person. In addition, this clash can also be seen on the destruction of the Cortlandt Homes. Furthermore, the destruction of the Cortlandt Homes was due to Howard Roark's moral and philosophical reasons.

Peter Keating was assigned the job of creating the housing project called the Cortlandt Homes. However, as he did with the majority of his other architectural projects, Peter requested Roark's help on drafting the Cotrlandt Homes project. Howard Roark decided on helping Peter design the Cortlandt Homes with the only condition that the Cortlandt Homes were going to be built as Howard designed them, no more, and no less. Thus, Roark wrote a contract for Peter to sign agreeing to Roark's terms. Nevertheless, the terms were not met and the Cortlandt Homes were not built as Roark had designed them. Hence, the destroyed the Houses.

Howard Roark, had moral reasons to destroy the housing project. The contract Roark signed with Keating would be the first of the reasons. Keating went against what the contract stated; he did what he was not supposed to do, and built a project that was remarkably different than what Roark had designed. Moreover, not only did Roark draft the whole project but he was not going to get any credit for drafting the project. Roark being egotistical just wanted the satisfaction of creating such a masterpiece as the Cortlandt Homes, and did not want the credit for it. Now, being as helpful as Roark could be Keating still did not take advantage of his one in a lifetime opportunity. In addition, this same attitude can be seen with the woman he loved from the beginning of the book to the end of the book called Catherine Halsey. He had the chance to marry her yet he went and married Dominique who he knew did not love him. Keating being selfless wanted the credit of being the creator of the Cortlandt Homes because he craved for what the people had to say about him. Keating was not at his best moment as an architect and knew that with the help of Roark he would turn into what he was before; a great though selfless architect. Another moral reason was how Keating knew that what the contract written by Roark stated was going to be hard to accomplish. Yet, as mentioned before he needed to be himself once more; an “admirable” architect.

Howard Roark also had his philosophical reasons for the destruction of the Cortlandt Homes. The main reason is to maintain his ego intact. His ego was symbolized by the design of the housing project. Now, Keating was responsible for maintaining the design as Roark had designed it. However, Ellsworth Toohey added more architects into the project Keating alone was supposed to built. Hence, Keating;s task of leaving Roark's ego intact became quite more difficult. Moreover, the day that Howard first saw the built housing project he was dissapointed because the building he saw was different from the one he designed. Roark was a modern architect, modern architects do not add unnecessary structures into a building. His design of the Cortlandt Homes was a perfect example of this ideal. However, the housing project he saw had structures that in his opinion ruined his designed, thus ruining his ego. Another reason, is that it would not have mattered if the building Roark had designed had been once built and then redesigned; but in this case his design was never built. The time when the Stoddard Temple was built, his actual design of the building was built and then redesigned by Keating and other architects. This did not bother Roark because his design as mentioned was built before the building was redesigned; his ego was intact. However, it was a different story with the Cortlandt Homes; his design was never built, what was built was a redesigned version of his design.

Howard Roark destroyed the Cortlandt Homes for both moral and philosophical reasons. The two moral reasons are that Roark wrote a contract the Keating was supposed to follow but he did not and Keating knew since the beginning how hard it would be to accomplish the contract's statement. The philosophical reasons were that Roark wanted to keep his ego intact and that he would no have destroyed the housing project if his design had been built and then redesigned like the stoddard temple. In the end Roark proved that he was innocent and was cleared of any charges.  

Assingnment #1

Asignment #1,
1) Malcolm X real name is Malcolm Little
2) Malcolm X was involved in drug dealing, steering prostitutes, gambling, racketeering, and robbery
3) Malcolm X was once charged with larceny and breaking and entering, and eventually sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison
4) The 'X' in Malcolm X symbolized the true African name that he never could know
5)Malcolm X was alowed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca