literary essay joy luck club :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Joy Luck Club   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Amy Tan’s novel â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† there are many themes and imagery throughout the book, but one theme that is relevant and stands out is the issue, â€Å"Cruel men? Weak men? Fair portrayal of men?† The novel is based on women in the Chinese traditional families, but does not discuss the men. What role do they play in their lives? Were they the people that made there lives unbearable? The men that will be looked upon are associated to the Jong, The Hsu, and the St. Clair family. Although many people would believe that the men in â€Å"The Joy Luck Club† were vindictive, they have shown that they not only are they feeble but that the weak men over power the cruel, and through their actions this statement will be apparent to all.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Jong Family have two key males that fit the description of cruel and or weak men. The first was Tyan-Yu, Linda Jong’s first husband. Lindo and Tyan-Yu’s wedding was arranged marriage. Lindo’s parents were forced to depart their home leaving Lindo behind. Even though she was only twelve years old, Lindo belonged to the family of her betrothed. The Huangs, the family of Tyan-yu, were very wealthy and took little interest in Lindo which lead to the first impression that Tyan-yu was a cruel man by the way he acted. He and his family made her stay in their servants’ quarters and made her perform physical tasks, such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, and embroidering clothes. Tyan-yu would make her sleep on the couch lying to his mother so that he would not get himself into trouble which was a sign of weakness on Tyan-yu’s part. Lindo proves this by saying â€Å"That’s when I could see what was underneath Tyan-yu. He was scared.†. (58) Lindo’s marriage was miserable, for there was no love in it. Tyan-yu, feeling no emotion for his wife, would not touch her. Matters were made worse when everyone wondered why Lindo did not become pregnant and for this came trouble. Tyan-yu was to much of a coward to make any moves and left it all for Lindo to do herself. Lindo found out that â€Å"it was his fear that made Lindo think he had no desire for any woman. He was like a little boy that had never grown up†. (58) Lindo totally changed her view of Tyan-yu from once being terrified of him, to feeling as if she was playing the role of an older sibling.

Psychological and Presentational Realism in Moll Flanders by Daniel Def

Psychological and Presentational Realism in Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe The Eighteenth-century literature is popular for its peculiar style of writing that gives the readers an insider’s view in the novel. By combining the two aspects such as Psychological and Presentational Realism, authors have created works of pure masterpiece such as Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Defoe illustrates Moll, the protagonist’s psyche by writing the narrative in the first person to imply it as an autobiography. This allows psychological realism to work at its finest since the readers can feel a personal relationship to the character. The two important instances that occur with this type of realism are when Moll realizes that she is married to her own brother and her meeting with Humphrey, her son. In addition, Defoe also uses Presentational Realism to describe Moll’s initial career as thief with her first episode at the apothecary’s shop and later stealing a gold necklace from a child. The manner in which the setting is described gives the reade rs a sense of feeling of being there and at the same time experiencing her escape from the scene. Amongst Moll’s several relationships, she is married to a plantation owner, who owns property and has mother and a sister in America. The couple decides to move to Virginia to be with the family (Defoe 77). Moll’s describes that she lives in marital bliss and also enjoys the company of her mother-in-law. She exclaims â€Å"†¦I thought of myself the happiest creature alive†¦Ã¢â‚¬  until her world is shattered as she portrays herself being â€Å"†¦most uncomfortable in the world† (78). As she is listening to the story of her mother-in-law being a transported felon to Virginia from Newgate prison in London and sudden... ...hough she may not have kept in touch with her son. She is overjoyed by meeting him, which gives the reader a sense of hope that the story will end on a positive note. On the other hand, presentational realism is shown through Moll’s darker side when she turns into a thief to support herself and live lavishly. Her description of her deeds and exact account of what she acquires amazes the readers. The reader can connect to her by being a thief and at the same time passing moral judgments upon her. Some may congratulate her on being slick enough to steal from an apothecary shop while others may criticize her for robbing a little innocent child. Regardless of various opinions, Defoe’s narrative style involves the reader in the story, which makes it interesting to read. Works Cited Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. New York: Signet Classic Penguin Books USA Inc, 1996.

The Peach Tree Essay -- Observation Essay, Descriptive Essay

The Peach Tree When I reminisce about my childhood, the fondest memories I have revolve around food. We often went on picnics to the beach. There at the water's edge, my father would struggle to light the charcoal in the wind that kept both the hot dogs and the kids cold. My mothers' anise-sweetened bread was the perfect match for ham every Easter morning, afternoon, and the days that followed. On my birthday we always had gnocchi, fluffy pillows of pasta that melted in our mouths, tossed with an ethereal tomato sauce. In August we had peaches and not just any peaches, peaches from our peach tree. I loved our peach tree. I love the memory of that tree. In retrospect, the peach tree was an integral part of my childhood. I cannot recall when we first got the peach tree. It seems as if it was always there in the backyard. I do know that it was a gift from my aunt and uncle who worked at Del Monte's Agricultural Research Facility. Whether it was a rare or special breed, I wonder. The fruit was so sweet that I can't imagine Del Monte choosing such a fine specimen only to douse it in heavy simple syrup. Whatever its parentage, it was our good fortune to receive such a tree; it produced the sweetest, most succulent peaches I've ever eaten. The peach tree was special to us. It was, in fact, the only tree in our small yard. We grew through the seasons with it. Every February the first bits of pink showed through the tightly closed flower buds. By March, it was covered in pink, like overgrown cotton candy. In April, little flecks of green accented the pink blossoms and slowly pushed out the pink until a fresh, vibrant green blanketed the crown of the tree. During this transition, the lawn became a carpet of pink. Then slowly th... ... the old tree was producing only a few runt-sized fruit. One winter my parents cut down the tree. It left a scar on the lawn and a barren space in the yard. I hadn't thought much about that old tree for some time. It was the peach tree, after all, along with my grandparents' vegetable garden that planted the seed, so to speak, of my passion for the garden. The first fruit trees I planted in my own backyard were peaches. When I told my sisters that I was writing about the peach tree, they both smiled a familiar smile. For a moment, they were transported to another place and time. And I knew that it wasn't simply nostalgia seen through the nearsighted eyes of memory, it was real. In the years that have followed I have never found a peach as large, juicy and luscious as the ones from our tree. It may have been Del Monte's secret special breed, but I think it was more.

What is meant in psychology by the term attachment?

The psychological explanation for the term ‘attachment’ is where you form an emotional bond to another person or object both physically and mentally. And to feel secure. John Bowlby (1969) described it as a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings. He also stated that early experiences In childhood have an important influence on development & behavior on the individual’s life. Attachment behavior is essentially a survival strategy from evolution for protecting infants from predators. Question 2 According to Bowlby, what harm is caused to an individual if he or she is deprived of an attachment bond in early childhood? If the process of ‘attachment’ is ‘interrupted’, the individual may develop mental issues such as depression, behavioural issues, find it hard to make relationships, even goes as far as psychiatric disorders, dwarfism, acute distress or possibly death if the attachment bond is interrupted. From the 1940’s – 1970’s it was determined that a child must have a secure mother-child relationship if the infant was not to suffer any long term problems. Bowlby did a case study on 44 Juvenile thieves and to his amazement discovered that a majority of them had suffered some sort of separation from their mothers, possibly more than 6 months or more in the first critical 5 years of their lives. This was actually proven to be of a biased nature as Bowlby did find that most of them had suffered some form of separation from their mothers and he presumed that this was the case of their delinquency. He also found that a small number of the juvenile thieves were unable to make â€Å"true† affection bonds. But these findings could be thrown out as Bowlby never had results from a â€Å"controlled group† to compare his findings. Harlow did an experiment with this in mind with rhesus monkeys – â€Å"wire mother experiment†. It was conducted in 1960 to show the devastating effects deprivation. His experiments were classed as unethical and cruel, but they uncovered truths which have had a heavy influence on our understanding of child development. Question 3 What factors appear to be necessary to bring about attachment? Time and attention as well as the factor to attend to an infant immediately will bring out partial attachment. Sight is also an important factor as well. Jean Piaget proved that theory when he did a case study on infants aged between the age 8/9 months, by covering a toy with cloth to see if they would â€Å"look or search† for the object when it had disappeared out of sight. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) noted that not only do infants form a solid attachment to their mother (or mother figures), but that a substantial amount of infants also made a close attachment to their fathers and older siblings. Mary Ainsworth () had distinguished between infants who had successfully managed to make secure and insecure attachments. The results showed that it was how the mother (or mother figure) showed sensitivity, i.e. detecting her infants signals, managing to interpret them and how the mother (or mother figure would react and respond appropriately). Question 4 Describe and evaluate the evidence which has found that children can develop normally despite maternal separation? Chibuccs & Kail (1981), found that there were 3 factors. It was as follows:- 1) how playful he was towards the baby 2) how much contact the have with the baby 3) Reads a baby signals They noted that a mother would hold, smile, show more affection towards a child as well as routine physical care. The father would play more but it was more physical and that they would interact more with boys both physically and mentally than they did girls. Kohen-Raz (1968), did a study on the kibbutz. It was noted that kibbutz children were equal in physical & mental skills to Israeli children, who were raised in private homes BUT were superior to Israeli children raised in orphanages. Rabkin & Rabkin (1969) and Nahir & Yussen (1977) found that the kibbutz children could demonstrate several advanced characteristics than children raised at home, and that they also could show signs of recognition in how other children felt from an early age. Question 5 Why do same people argue that animals should not be used in psychology experiments? It has been noted that its acceptable perform experiments on animals especially primates as they are the closest relation to humans. Where preforming experiments on human kind is would be considered as outrageous and unethical. It’s obvious that the experiments involving animals for psychological and behavioural experiments cause suffering but they shall be forth coming as it’s funded by tax payer’s money World Wide. The experiments are aimed to help understand mental disorders and attachment disorders. Cahann only obtain results by watching human behaviour closely not under experimental circumstances. Question 6 Describe and evaluate one study of visual perception in human infants. Gibson & Walk – 1960 (visual cliff) This was an experiment which consisted to measure depth perception where they attempted to get infants to walkover a glass plate suspended over a drop. Gibson & Walk wanted to find out whether 6 to 14 month old infants could perceive depth. Babies have a natural sense of danger so the experiment was designed to see if they can see it’s perfectly safe. Case studies were placed each time in the middle of a table, where 1 side was replaced by glass to expose the â€Å"danger†. Their mothers would then try to tempt the infant over both sides. The results showed that if the case study (infant) had no depth perception then the glass drop wouldn’t seem scary and they would just walk all over the table. Those that didn’t have depth perception and could see the drop, they would automatically avoid it.

Novel: 19 Minutes Essay

As kids grow up, they go through several stages to find out who they truly are. Some kids are very social and have many friends, when others are shy and not considered the coolest kids around. Jodi Picoult demonstrates isolation impeccably in her novel Nineteen Minutes by delving beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in today’s society. She shows how one can lose a friend, how people make someone feel bad; in order to feel good about themselves, and how isolation can lead to death related situations. Teenagers and kids in general, as they grow up they tend to change their friends multiple times. In the novel, Peter Houghton and Josie Cormier are very close friends since their childhood. Josie, unlike Peter, stands up for herself and even Peter sometimes, since he is mostly picked on. One day, when Josie and Peter are young, he decides to show her his father’s shotgun, which he uses to hunt with. Alex, Josie’s mothers, catche s them, and was furious saying â€Å"My daughter has been coming over to your house for how long, and you’ve got guns lying around† (Picoult 81)? The mothers from this day on stop being friends, which leads the kids to stop going to each other’s houses, although they still manage to play at school. Josie did not want to isolate Peter, because they are really good friends. Another thing that occurs in the novel, is that when a new girl joined Peter and Josie’s class, she is not very noticed. One day Peter â€Å"notice[s] that [she is] sitting in the middle of an ink stain† (Picoult 158). After Peter realizes that this is not an ink stain and the girl has actually got her period, he screams out: â€Å"Dolores has her period† (Picoult 158)! And then the whole class joins and starts laughing, including Josie. Peter, for a while, enjoys not being the one made fun of for once, but once they kids start teasing her, Peter decides to put a â€Å"sto p†(Picoult 159) to it. After this incident, Josie along with the popular kids continue†¦

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Designing Effective Projects: Thinking Skills Frameworks Bloom’s Taxonomy: A New Look at an Old Standby Traditional Hierarchy of Thinking Processes In 1956, Benjamin Bloom wrote Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain, and his six-level description of thinking has been widely adapted and used in countless contexts ever since. His list of cognitive processes is organized from the most simple, the recall of knowledge, to the most complex, making judgments about the value and worth of an idea. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Traditional) Skill Knowledge DefinitionRecall information Comprehension Understand the meaning, paraphrase a concept Use the information or concept in a new situation Break information or concepts into parts to understand it more fully Put ideas together to form something new Make judgments about value Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Key Words Identify, describe, name, label, recognize, reproduce, follow Summarize, co nvert, defend, paraphrase, interpret, give examples Build, make, construct, model, predict, prepare Compare/contrast, break down, distinguish, select, separate Categorize, generalize, reconstructAppraise, critique, judge, justify, argue, support Today’s world is a different place, however, than the one Bloom’s Taxonomy reflected in 1956. Educators have learned a great deal more about how students learn and teachers teach and now recognize that teaching and learning encompasses more than just thinking. It also involves the feelings and beliefs of students and teachers as well as the social and cultural environment of the classroom. Several cognitive psychologists have worked to make the basic concept of a taxonomy of thinking skills more relevant and accurate.In developing his own taxonomy of educational objectives, Marzano (2000) points out one criticism of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The very structure of the Taxonomy, moving from the simplest level of knowledge to the m ost difficult level of evaluation, is not supported by research. A hierarchical taxonomy implies that each higher skill is composed of the skills beneath it; comprehension requires knowledge; application requires comprehension and knowledge, and so on. This, according to Marzano, is simply not true of the cognitive processes in Bloom’s Taxonomy.The originators of the original six thinking processes assumed that complex projects could be labeled as requiring one of the processes more than the others. A task was primarily an â€Å"analysis† or an â€Å"evaluation† task. This has been proven not to be true which may account for the difficulty that educators have classifying challenging learning activities using the Taxonomy. Anderson (2000) argues that nearly all complex learning activities require the use of several different cognitive skills. Like any theoretical model, Bloom’s Taxonomy has its strengths and weaknesses.Its greatest strength is that it has taken the very important topic of thinking and placed a structure around it that is usable by practitioners. Those teachers who keep a list of question prompts relating to the various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy undoubtedly do a better job of encouraging higher-order thinking in their students than those who have no such tool. On the other hand, as anyone who has worked with a group of educators to classify a group of questions and learning activities according to the Taxonomy can attest, there is little consensus about what seemingly self-evident erms like â€Å"analysis,† or â€Å"evaluation† mean. In addition, so many worthwhile activities, such as authentic problems and projects, cannot be mapped to the Taxonomy, and trying to do that would diminish their potential as learning opportunities. Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy In 1999, Dr. Lorin Anderson, a fromer student of Bloom's, and his colleagues published an updated version of Bloom’s Taxonomy that takes into account a broader range of factors that have an impact on teaching and learning. This revised taxonomy attempts to correct some of the problems with the original taxonomy.Unlike the 1956 version, the revised taxonomy differentiates between â€Å"knowing what,† the content of thinking, and â€Å"knowing how,† the procedures used in solving problems. The Knowledge Dimension is the â€Å"knowing what. † It has four categories: factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. Factual knowledge includes isolated bits of information, such as vocabulary definitions and knowledge about specific details. Conceptual knowledge consists of systems of information, such as classifications and categories.Procedural knowledge includes algorithms, heuristics or rules of thumb, techniques, and methods as well as knowledge about when to use these procedures. Metacognitive knowledge refers to knowledge of thinking processes and information about how to manipulate thes e processes effectively. The Cognitive Process Dimension of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy like the original version has six skills. They are, from simplest to most complex: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. Remembering Remembering consists of recognizing and recalling relevant information from long-term memory.Understanding Understanding is the ability to make your own meaning from educational material such as reading and teacher explanations. The subskills for this process include interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. Applying The third process, applying, refers to using a learned procedure either in a familiar or new situation. Analysis The next process is analysis, which consists of breaking knowledge down into its parts and thinking about how the parts relate to its overall structure.Students analyze by differentiating, organizing, and attributing. Evaluation Evaluation, which is at the top of the original taxonomy, is the fifth of the six processes in the revised version. It includes checking and critiquing. Creating Creating, a process not included in the earlier taxonomy, is the highest component of the new version. This skill involves putting things together to make something new. To accomplish creating tasks, learners generate, plan, and produce.According to this taxonomy, each level of knowledge can correspond to each level of cognitive process, so a student can remember factual or procedural knowledge, understand conceptual or metacognitive knowledge, or analyze metacognitive or factual knowledge. According to Anderson and his colleagues, â€Å"Meaningful learning provides students with the knowledge and cognitive processes they need for successful problem solving†. The following charts list examples of each skill of the Cognitive and Knowledge Dimensions. Cognitive Processes Dimensions Cognitive ProcessesExamples Remembering—Produce the right informa tion from memory Recognizing †¢ Identify frogs in a diagram of different kinds of amphibians. †¢ Find an isosceles triangle in your neighborhood. †¢ Answer any true-false or multiple-choice questions. Recalling †¢ Name three 19th-century women English authors. †¢ Write the multiplication facts. †¢ Reproduce the chemical formula for carbon tetrachloride. Understanding—Make meaning from educational materials or experiences Interpreting †¢ Translate a story problem into an algebraic equation. †¢ Draw a diagram of the digestive system. Paraphrase Jawaharlal Nehru's tryst with destiny speech. Exemplifying †¢ Draw a parallelogram. †¢ Find an example of stream-of-consciousness style of writing. †¢ Name a mammal that lives in our area. Classifying †¢ Label numbers odd or even. †¢ List the events of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. †¢ Group native animals into their proper species. Summarizing †¢ Make up a title for a short passage. †¢ List the key points related to capital punishment that the Web site promotes. Inferring †¢ Read a passage of dialogue between two characters and make conclusions about their past relationship. Figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar term from the context. †¢ Look at a series of numbers and predict what the next number will be. Comparing †¢ Explain how the heart is like a pump. †¢ Compare Mahatma Gandhi to a present day leader. †¢ Use a Venn diagram to demonstrate how two books by Charles Dickens are similar and different. Explaining †¢ Draw a diagram explaining how air pressure affects the weather. †¢ Provide details that justify why the French Revolution happened when and how it did. †¢ Describe how interest rates affect the economy. Applying—Use a procedure Executing Add a column of two-digit numbers. †¢ Orally read a passage in a foreign language. †¢ Have a student open house discussion. Implementing †¢ Design an experiment to see how plants grow in different kinds of soil. †¢ Proofread a piece of writing. †¢ Create a budget. Analyzing—Break a concept down into its parts and describe how the parts relate to the whole Differentiating †¢ List the important information in a mathematical word problem and cross out the unimportant information. †¢ Draw a diagram showing the major and minor characters in a novel. Organizing †¢ Place the books in the classroom library into categories. Make a chart of often-used figurative devices and explain their effect. †¢ Make a diagram showing the ways plants and animals in your neighborhood interact with each other. Attributing †¢ Read letters to the editor to determine the authors’ points of view about a local issue. †¢ Determine a character’s motivation in a novel or short story. †¢ Look at brochures of political candidates and hypothesize about their perspectives on issues. Evaluating—Make judgments based on criteria and syllabus guidelines Checking †¢ Participate in a writing group, giving peers feedback on organization and logic of arguments. Listen to a political speech and make a list of any contradictions within the speech. †¢ Review a project plan to see if all the necessary steps are included. Critiquing †¢ Judge how well a project meets the criteria of a rubric. †¢ Choose the best method for solving a complex mathematical problem. †¢ Judge the validity of arguments for and against astrology. Creating—Put pieces together to form something new or recognize components of a new structure. Generating †¢ Given a list of criteria, list some options for improving race relations in the school. †¢ Generate several scientific hypotheses to explain why plants need sunshine. Propose a set of alternatives for reducing dependence on fossil fuels that address both economic and environmental concerns. †¢ Com e up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria. Planning †¢ Make a storyboard for a multimedia presentation on insects. †¢ Outline a research paper on Mark Twain’s views on religion. †¢ Design a scientific study to test the effect of different kinds of music on hens’ egg production. Producing †¢ Write a journal from the point of view of mountaineer. †¢ Build a habitat for pigeons. †¢ Put on a play based on a chapter from a novel you’re reading. The Knowledge DimensionFactual Knowledge—Basic information Knowledge of terminology Vocabulary terms, mathematical symbols, musical notation, alphabet Knowledge of specific details and Components of the Food Pyramid, names of elements congressional representatives, major battles of WWII Conceptual Knowledge—The relationships among pieces of a larger structure that make them function together Knowledge of classifications and Species of animals, different kinds of arguments, c ategories geological eras Knowledge of principles and Types of conflict in literature, Newton’s Laws of Motion, generalizations principles of democracyKnowledge of theories, models, and Theory of evolution, economic theories, DNA models structures Procedural Knowledge—How to do something Knowledge of subject-specific skills Procedure for solving quadratic equations, mixing colors and algorithms for oil painting, serving a volleyball Knowledge of subject-specific Literary criticism, analysis of historical documents, techniques and methods mathematical problem-solving methods Knowledge of criteria for Methods appropriate for different kinds of experiments, determining when to use statistical analysis procedures used for different ppropriate procedures situations, syllabus guidelines for different genres of writing Metacognitive Knowledge—Knowledge of thinking in general and your thinking in particular Strategic knowledge Ways of memorizing facts, reading comprehen sion strategies, methods of planning a Web site Knowledge about cognitive tasks, Different reading demands of textbooks and novels; including appropriate contextual thinking ahead when using an electronic database; and conditional knowledge differences between writing emails and writing business letters Self-knowledge Need for a diagram or chart to understand complex rocesses, better comprehension in quiet environments, need to discuss ideas with someone before writing an essay References Anderson, L. W. & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing. New York: Longman. Bloom, B. S. , (Ed. ). 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York: Longman. Costa, A. L. (Ed. ). (2000). Developing minds: A resource book for teaching thinking. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Marzano, R. J. (2000). Designing a new taxonomy of educational objectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Analyzing the Central Theme of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain Essay

Cold Mountain is a tragic yet a very profound story of love, searching, and intuition which happens in an environment terrorized by war in 1864 (Buchanan). The story is set on the troubled plains and mountains of nineteenth century America where Inman, the main character, decided to leave the battlefield as he yearned and searched for his lover. In a nutshell, the story basically revolves around a tale of love which bound two people together amidst distance, chaos, and isolation. This debut novel of Charles Frazier has definitely redefined love in ways, portrayed as a powerful force which enables people to overcome dangers and even life threatening situations just to reunite with a loved one. In several ways, the novel reflects the importance of faith as well as love despite isolation, distress, and confusion that an individual faces. Central Theme of the Novel The main feature of the novel which an average reader may notice would be the war of the 19th century America. It tells the story of how distressing and miserable life during war is and how hopeless it gets most of the time. Inman, identified as the main protagonist of the story, was a part of the confederate army before he went on to his venture of coming back to his long lost lover, Ada. His life in the confederate army made him realize that it is indeed a lot worse to lose something a person already has than fail to get what that person currently wants. The war made the character feel all the isolation and alienation any person would never want to experience. Through this isolation, Inman felt the need to come back home. However, amidst the distress and pains brought by the war, Inman’s spirit was kept alive by his love and yearning for Ada. The epic describes how more painful Inman’s longing is for Ada compared to the pains he felt because of his wounds. The author illustrated Inman’s longing as miserable as if, â€Å"his wounds gave hi, just reason to doubt that he would ever heal up and feel whole of a piece again† (Frazier 25). Although the epic was largely about battles, what Inman felt because of his separation from Ada gave the story a soft, emotional, and sentimental effect. This aspect of the story depicts a reality that no matter how harsh a person’s environment may seem, there will always be some spark of compassion and love inside his or her heart to encourage him or her to live. The story also illustrates that compassion and love will always be strong forces that will bind two people regardless of how far they are from each other and irrespective of how tough and immovable the barricade between them may be. Ada’s love, on the other hand, is illustrated in her patience and faith in Inman. Despite their distance, she never stopped waiting for Inman and believing in him. Her faith and belief that everything between them will be alright is reflected in her notes as a response to Inman’s letter which said: â€Å"This you must know: that despite your long absence, such is the light in which I view the happy relation existing between us, that I will never conceal a single thought from you† (Frazier27). The story was basically split between Inman and Ada’s life events which proved that beyond borders, their love will always unite and hold them together. Incorporating such a sentimental theme in a distressing genre such as war was an amazing feat that Frazier was able o successfully portray in his novel. However, upon further analysis of the novel, one may realize that it is from these painful and trying times that the need for love and compassion emerges, since this is the time when people are more likely to feel alienated and lost. It is also from these hard times when the need for someone to love and to be loved back is stronger. Thus, it may appear understandable and explicable why Inman had such a strong desire to come back home and turn his back from the grueling and miserable face of war. Nevertheless, Frazier was also able to present the realities of war in a very compelling manner. The alienation which Inman felt was also very believable which made it possible for the readers to empathize with the main character. Conclusion Cold Mountain is a realistic and compelling epic of a warrior who did not only fight for his state but also for him to come home to the one he loved. In this novel, Frazier was able to blend well the very different concepts of hostility, isolation, alienation, faith, and love. Yet, the author was able to present these ideas in a very realistic manner through the characters of the story. The epic can be considered as a good representation of how powerful love can be inside a person’s heart in times of desolation and loneliness. As reflected in the story, it can indeed be the driving force which can help a person to survive the harsh elements in his environments just to come home to the arms of his or her lover. Similarly, the story also portrays well the impacts of alienation and isolation to an individual and what alterations these impacts can cause to a person’s life and points of view. Thus, if there is anything that this epic would send the readers as a message, it would be that, amidst isolation, distress, and chaos, faith and love can help a person survive the odds and the tough challenges. Works Cited Buchanan, Catherine. â€Å"Cold Mountain: Context. † Spark Notes. 2009. 15 Apr. 2009. . Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: Grove Pres