as the world turns

In a recent study, citizens who had $1 million or more in assets were asked if they considered themselves wealthy. Of 4,450 participants, only 60% considered themselves wealthy which means a whopping 1,780 citizens did not consider themselves wealthy. Although 60% is the majority, it made me curious as to why the rest opted to answer no. The words “well off” and “wealthy” are commonly associated with one another as synonyms. To me, however, these words differ significantly. To be well off in present society means to have a vast amount of money in order to live a decent life. So you might be wondering: what exactly does wealth mean then?  Wealth means the exact opposite: having a decent amount of money in order to live an extravagant and fulfilled life. Having a great amount of money does not necessarily equate to happiness as the lifelong saying says; “money can’t buy happiness.” But this is the exact opposite of the notion that citizens of the 1920s had set in their minds. E...

The extensive use Nazi propaganda had an extreme influence on the opinions of thousands of Germans. These posters glorified the Germans and advertised their higher power over the Jews in a way that seemed nonviolent and rational. The Jews were portrayed as dirty, fat, and greedy animals to manipulate the Germans into thinking that the Jews were associated with the enemies. However, this was clearly not the case as presented in Maus . Art Spiegelman, in a way, mocks these forms of persuasion by altering the way the posters were depicted to unveil the realities and the harshness of Nazi control.   For example, as seen by the chapter cover for Chapter 2 in Maus and a form of Nazi propaganda above, both portray people looking at the swastika. However, the underlying meaning of these images differ to a great extent. In the second image, a “German student” (translation of the words on the poster) is shown to be honoring the Nazi flag which demonstrates the biased way of pers...

At a swim meet a few days ago, my coach pressured me into beating a girl swimming in the lane next to me. I immediately checked her times and thought: how am I going to beat her? I am nowhere close to her time. I was nervous and knew I couldn’t rely on luck to beat her. My teammates kept comforting me and said, “Good luck!” which I knew wouldn’t help me. My coach later talked to me and said he has faith in me because I’ve been working hard at practice. I knew that I’d been working hard and finally had confidence in my abilities. In the end, it wasn’t the luck that made me push through and beat her, but my hard work and dedication to the sport. Each and every day, people in society dedicate their achievements and losses to the ever-present theory called luck. However, there is a misinterpretation with this theory. Luck is defined as “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions” ( dictionary.com ). If luck is present every single day, and all ...

On page 108 of Maus by Art Spiegelman, the Germans are shown killing a great deal of Jews in Auschwitz, especially children only 2-3 years old. They were “swing[ing] them by the legs against a wall” (Spiegelman 108) while the children were screaming and crying violently. This large number of Jews killed in just this one scene amounted to a total of 1,000 people. This overwhelming number was a struggle to depict in the comic for Spiegelman because of his strong emotional ties to the war through his father. Because of this, the way he communicated this detail through both illustrations and words is one of great importance. In the second to last box on this page, the focus is on the long white curve which depicts the motion of the swinging rather than the child being murdered. His father states that “the children never anymore screamed” (Spiegelman 108) rather than simply stating that they were dead. By doing this, he gets his point across both clearly and strongly while leaving out ...

Society is grounded on the basis of inequality, even today. The gender roles present today prevent many unique women from developing to their full potential. However, these gender roles are extremely resistant to change for the sole reason that they are matters of deeply entrenched tradition. Now, I am not here to explain the problems of the gender divisions in society and how they affect us, but rather to inform you on how the world can diminish its gender-biased way of thinking. So think about it: how many papers and TED talks and lectures have you heard about standing up for women’s rights and defying the status quo? Many, right? Then why is it that no change is being seen and the bias continues to exist? Maybe the solution lies within the women themselves. Many young girls are taught to avoid risk and failure, while boys on the other hand are taught to take risks and be confident. The underlying problem is that girls are taught to be perfect, while boys are taught to be brave. In a...