Ray Bradbury :: essays research papers

Ray Bradbury has written over more then five hundred published works and continues to keep writing. He is known as one of the best science fiction novelists and has won many awards and accommodations for it. After publishing his adult novel Fahrenheit 451, it was soon considered one of his best works. There is a question to be asked, Where does he get his inspiration and imagination to write wild stories of great fantasy? He stated that "When people ask me where I get my imagination, I simply lament, God, here and there, makes madness a calling" (Bradbury I). 	American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois on August 22, 1920, the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. In the fall of 1926 Ray Bradbury's family moved from Waukegan, Illinois to Tucson, Arizona, only to return to Waukegan again in May 1927. By 1931 he began writing his own stories on butcher paper. His childhood was very important to him because it was a constant source of intense sensations, feelings, and images that generate great stories. As a child he was first inspired by seeing "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". "His childhood was that of a pleasant memory of a half-forgotten dream" (Person I). In 1932, after his father was laid off his job as a electrical lineman, the Bradbury family again moved to Tucson and again returned to Waukegan the following year. In 1934 the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles, California. Bradbury graduated from a Los Angeles High School in 1938. His formal education ended there, but he furthered it by himself -- at night in the library and by day at his typewriter. He sold newspapers on Los Angeles street corners from 1938 to 1942. Bradbury's first story publication was "Hollerbochen's Dilemma," printed in 1938 in Imagination!, an amateur fan magazine. In 1939, 11Bradbury published four issues of "Futuria Fantasia", his own fan magazine, contributing much of the published material himself. Bradbury's first paid publication was "Pendulum" in 1941 to"Super Science Stories." In 1942 Bradbury wrote "The Lake," the story in which he discovered his distinctive writing style. By 1943 he had given up his job selling newspapers and began writing full-time, contributing numerous short stories to magazines such as "Black Mask", "Amazing Stories" and "Weird Tales." In 1945 his short story "The B ig Black and White Game" was selected for Best American Short Stories.

To Kill A Mockingbird: Childhood Experience Essay

A kid or a teenager who has experienced maybe a family death or witnessed a terrible event might become more mature because their experience made them more mature. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem and Scout grow and mature through experiences. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Lee Harper, Scout and Jem grow and mature through experiences with Boo Radley. When she passed the Radley house for school, Scout felt sorry for Boo. â€Å"I sometimes felt a twinge of remorse when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been a sheer torment to Arthur Radley† (Lee 324.) Scout had matured enough to know what they had done to try and communicate with Boo, had quite possibly been torment. She felt almost ashamed of their antics. After Bob Ewell had attacked Scout walked Boo back to the Radley house. â€Å"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a person until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough† (374.) Scout had always wondered what kept Boo in the house, and now that she had walked around in his shoes a little bit she started to understand more. Jem took the verdict of the trail hard, and Scout struggled to understand. â€Å"Naw, Jem, I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m started to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time. It’s because he wants to† (304.) A part of growing up is realizing that the world’s not a pretty place and not everyone’s a nice person. Jem realized this with the outcome of the trial, he knew the verdict was unjust and Tom was convicted guilty simply because of people’s racial prejudice. Jem wonders why and how they could have done it. He thinks about it and instead of using a silly child’s story as to why Boo stays in the house, he starts to think that maybe this injustice in the world is the reason why Boo stays in the house. He thinks that maybe Boo wants to stay in the house because he also thinks the prejudice and unjust views of society are unfair and discriminatory. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem and Scout grow and mature through experiences with Tom Robinson’s trial. After the verdict of the trial, Jem is angry at the injustice. †It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. â€Å"It ain’t right† he muttered† (284.) Jem knew that Tom was innocent, he also knew that everyone else knew he was innocent, yet because of their racial prejudice, Tom was convicted guilty. Jem see’s this injustice and is greatly upset by it. Jem had matured enough to know it’s not right when the majority of the adults there didn’t and Scout just brushed it off. The trial led to Jem maturing and knowing people aren’t always good people. Scout, Miss Maudie, and Aunt Alexandra were given the news about Tom’s death while Aunt Alexandra was hosting a tea party. â€Å"After all if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I† (370.) Instead of throwing a temper tantrum or pouting and crying, like a kid her age might, Scout decides to act with maturity and dignity, just like Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie and return to the tea party. After the Bob Ewell attack, Atticus talks to Scout about what happened. â€Å"Scout,† He said. â€Å"Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?† . . . â€Å"Yes sir, I understand,† I reassured him. â€Å"Mr. Tate was right.† Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Well, It’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird wouldn’t it?† (370.) Scout, still a young child, was mature enough to understand the situation and reassure Atticus, who was probably under a lot of strain and stress that night. Also by using the analogy â€Å"it’s sort of like shootin’ a Mockingbird† Scout shows she paid attention to Atticus and Maudie when they to ld her that shooting mockingbirds is a sin. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem grows and matures through life experiences. Scout tried to fight Walter because he made her start off on the wrong foot at school. â€Å"Come on home to dinner with us Walter† he [Jem] said â€Å"We’d be glad to have you† (30.) Scout angry at getting in trouble, childishly tried to fight Walter. When Jem got her off of him, Jem invited Walter to eat lunch at their house with them. Jem understood why Walter couldn’t afford lunch and wanted to help him. After the trial Dill, Jem, and Scout visit Miss. Maudie. â€Å"There should have three little ones. It was not like Miss. Maudie to forget Dill, and we must have shown it. But we understood when she cut from the big cake and gave a slice to Jem. (288.) The trial is when Jem lost his innocence of childhood, his â€Å"coming of age† in a sense. In a way, he â€Å"killed a Mockingbird† because mockingbirds are innocent, and the trial â€Å"killed† Jem’s childhood innocence. Miss. Maudie knows this, hence why Jem gets a slice from the big cake, the â€Å"adult cake.† He had matured past, his own little cake, unlike Scout and Dill. Scout finds Dill under her bed after he ran away from his parents in Meridian. â€Å"Jem was standing in a corner of the room looking like the traitor he was. â€Å"Dill I had to tell him,† he said. â€Å"You can’t run three hundred miles off without your mother knowin’.†(188.) While Scout would have kept it quiet, and kept her friends secret, Jem was mature enough to know that nobody knowing where Dill was was dangerous and scary. He knew it was irresponsible of Dill and that he should tell Atticus and did. Jem didn’t do it to tattle he did it for Dill’s safety, like a mature adult. Scout and Jem grew and became more mature through the things they experienced, they used possibly bad experienced and learned how to act maturely from it. A part of growing up and â€Å"coming of age.†

The Art and Architecture in Islam - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1430 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/10/10 Category Religion Essay Tags: Islam Essay Did you like this example? The architecture and art of the Islamic world is crucial to understanding Islam. The art of the Islamic world is restricted by the prevailing religion of the time Islam. Despite these restrictions art was still created. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Art and Architecture in Islam" essay for you Create order An example of art is pottery and Charles Wilkinson’s essay goes over pottery. One of the other practicalities to apply art is architecture. The geometric patterns among the architecture are unique to this time period in their number. The applications of architecture can be seen in mosques, the Dome of Rock and Topkapi Palace. Mosques are sourced from the textbook written by Rebold Benton. Islam has an article on the Dome of Rock and Wanda Reif wrote a brief on the Topkapi Palace. Mosques often had a rectangular floor-plan (Benton 222 Figure 6.2) which was adopted due to it being easier to produce mosques en mass this way. The mosque would have a minaret, a type of tower that is usually built in these structures or in their walls (Benton 221). A muezzin was the person who climbed the spiral staircase of minaret to direct prayer (Benton 221). Inside the mosque, the mihrab, which is a small room with a part outside the mosque’s walls. This room is designed to face Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad (Benton 221). The mihrab entrance does not contain a door (Benton Figure 6.2). Based on that, we can assume this room is always open. The columns are numerous, you can’t walk three feet straight without walking into one or passing it by (Benton 221 Figure 6.3). If a mosque has a court which contains a fountain within its center. The fountain was used for purification and for special events (Benton 221). Some mosques are surrounded by a forest like the mos que of Sultan Sula(e)yman, Istanbul. (Benton 223 Figure 6.4). The forest area was likely chosen perhaps for the prayers to be conducted in peace, away from the noise of the city. One example of a mosque is the Mosque of Cordova in Spain which has arches that are painted as orange and tan stripes (Benton 222 Figure 6.3). Arches were created by voussoirs which are defined as â€Å"wedge-shaped stones that make up the arches† (Benton 222). The mosque was started in 786 and has been enlarged four times since (Benton 221 Figure 6.2). This is testament to the Islamic world’s beliefs that usability is prioritized before historical significance is taken into account. The mosque also contains multiple halls and arcades (Benton 221). Islamic inspired architecture is not limited to religious buildings. One of their greatest non-religious buildings is known as the Alhambra Palace. The palace was constructed in Granada, Spain between the years of 1354 C.E. and 1391 C.E. (Benton 225). The palace was created during the Nasirid dynasty, the last Islamic leadership to rule southern Spain (Benton 225). Because it was built on a mountaintop, this resulted in a lower temperature. (Benton 225). This palace is known for breaking the established norms of Islamic architecture by creating sculptures, like the Court of Lions. Statues and sculptures were condemned by the Qur’an as work of the Devil (Benton 226). A possible reason why these statues were constructed is that it was the will of a political ruler and the location is far away from the center of Islam’s influence. The Topkapi Palace is another non-religious building like the Alhambra Palace. The palace was large, at its peak it had around 4000 people (Benton 226). The palace included people loosely related to the ruler in order to have a high number. This was unlike the Alhambra Palace which only included the immediate family of the ruler. As Reif explains, â€Å"This sprawling complex of low-rise buildings and gardens served as the residence† (261). This quote implies the reason for this could be that mosques want to be seen from afar and were to be used to attract possible converts.However political buildings would not want to be seen in the midst of war as they would be heavily targeted by enemies. The leader, Mehmed II, hired only Muslims and â€Å"sponsored the realm’s pre-eminent artists and craftsmen as full-time residents of the Palace.† (Reif 261). Mehmed II’s political status allowed him to obtain artist who would create art that would have been considered forbidden. The Dome of Rock is a one of the most famous structures in Jerusalem. This building is not considered a mosque however it is still used for religious purposes. The building has a different floor plan than most mosques. The floor plan is octagonal rather than rectangular (Islam 110 Fig I). As its name suggests the Dome of Rock has a large dome on the top of the structure (Islam 110 Fig I). It got the name due to the building containing a rock which is sacred to the three Abrahamic religions (Islam 109). The rock is at the center (Islam 110 Fig I). Islam’s paper investigates reasons why the Dome of Rock may have been created. One of these reasons mentioned is it was a structure used to complete with the Christian churches at the time (Islam 113). Due to the mosques being simpler in design, the Muslims wanted to create a grander structure. In fact, the Bosra Cathedral was almost like the Dome of Rock’s floor plan (Islam 115 Figure 5). The paper also says that, â€Å"signi ficant aspect of similarity between the design of the Dome of Rock and those of the Roman/Byzantine building suggested as having influenced its design is in the area of the rotunda† (Islam 116). The rotunda is what they call the columns supporting the dome. However, while the Dome of Rock does have some similarities to other buildings, there was some aspects original to this building. Some key differences, as pointed out by Islam, are, â€Å"unusual height of the central cylinder†¦the perimeter wall†¦heavy interior structural elements supporting the drum/dome†¦the absence of a single main entrance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Islam 117). The structural integrity of the walls is an important part of Islamic architecture. Its grander may be the reason for its immense fame. The absence of a main entrance is common in the design of mosques where the goal is to get people in and out as quickly as possible. This was a similarity between a mosque and the Dome of Rock, possibly for the same purpose. Art may have been restricted in Islamic society but was often presented â€Å"private† or â€Å"personal† goods that served a function such as pottery due to it being less restricted. Pottery was freed of the restriction of not being able to depict animals or people as condemned by Muhammad (Benton 226). Wilkinson stated that â€Å"By the addition of copper it was tinted a clear green; from chrome and antimony two different hue of yellow could be produced, and a third, more brownish color, could be achieved from iron. Blacks were obtained from manganese†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wilkinson 100). The range of color in pottery was therefore quite large. The relationship between the color and design is said to be, â€Å"†¦if one is well acquainted with this pottery to know the color even if one is only shown a black and white photograph† (Wilkinson 100). Pottery makers and their types of pottery may have been more easily recognizable due to this fact. Today there is a cop yright system for most types of arts but during this period, in Persia there was no such thing. There was, â€Å" (an) absence of ‘borrowing’ by a group of potters who made one ware from a group making another ware†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wilkinson 100) despite the lack of rules and regulations relating to copying other’s works. The geometric patterns of the pottery were shared with the ones on Islamic architecture. (Wilkinson 100-101 Figure 1 Figure 2). In conclusion, Islamic architecture even with the limits imposed was diverse and bountiful. Public art in Islamic society was rarely created however private art was very popular amongst the people of Islam. The influence of Islamic art and architecture can be seen in modern buildings such as the dome on the Capitol building seeming to take inspiration from the Dome of Rock. Their influence should not to be underestimated because of how far the religion and culture have spread. Works Cited â€Å"Islamic Civilization.† Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities, by Janetta Rebold Benton and Robert DiYanni, Prentice Hall, 2012, pp. 215–239. Islam, M. A., Al-Hamad, Z. F. (2007). The Dome of the Rock: Origin of its Octagonal Plan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 139(2), 109-128. doi:10.1179/003103207194145 Web. November 5, 2018 Charles K. Wilkinson. â€Å"Fashion and Technique in Persian Pottery.† The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, no. 3, 1947, p. 99-104. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/3257274. Web. November 2, 2018 Reif, Wanda. â€Å"The Magnificence of the Topkapi Palace.† Lancet, vol. 356, no. 9225, July 2000, p. 261. EBSCOhost. Web. November 25, 2018