After Various Writings By Rich :: essays research papers

After various writings by Richard Rodriguez and Octavio Paz, I have come across several realizations. Who am I? Should I be a part of a nation and a â€Å"system† that does not value me, or should I be a part of a nation that does not acknowledge my existence? The United States as a nation does not value me, and Mà ©xico does not even know that I exist. These are difficult matters to discuss. We are all in search of our own identity. However, some of us are placed in a situation that makes it very difficult and confusing to know or understand. I have always asked myself, â€Å"Who am I?† I should put it in more crude words, â€Å"Where do I belong?† After this specific question is asked, I begin to realize that I have problems coming up with a response. My parents were born in Mà ©xico, and thus, they are Mexican. Sometimes I feel I belong here in the United States, but other times I feel more attached to Mà ©xico. I am a Mexican-American. However, I feel that I am denying in some way my heritage and my culture by saying that I am. I am denying my parents. I say that I’m Mexican because in a sense I am. I am also an American. I am a Mexican-American. What do these terms put together imply? They should imply that the person is Mexican and American. The term â€Å"Mexican-American† is the very reason why I find myself confused about who I really am. I need to search for my own identity, which leads me to the purpose of this essay. Rodriguez and Paz have discussed this particular problem of identity. All three have different viewpoints. Some of their ideas are similar but mostly contradictory, especially in the case of Rodriguez and Paz. As I was reading, I was able to relate to what they had to say, and in a much bigger sense, I was able to understand and know who I am. I was able to find my self.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to Paz, self-discovery is most than anything realizing that we are alone. Paz argues that our being or our identity becomes a problem and a question. It becomes a problem because of several reasons. We just don’t simply wake up one day and realize that we don’t know who we are. There are individuals who are placed in difficult situations that allow for these questions to arise.

Engineering the Impossible

Cities Inside a City Engineering the Impossible focused on three incredible, yet physically possible, engineering projects: the 170-story Millennium Tower, the nine mile (14 km)-long Gibraltar Bridge, and the 4000+-foot-long Freedom Ship. Millenium Tower Imagine a skyscraper almost twice the size of the Empire State Building. This colossus would be a city within a city, hosting its own hospitals, schools, and a range of entertainment and retail options large enough to attract and keep the traffic necessary for the financial success of such an endeavor. Stats:Height: 2,755 feet, 170 stories Resident Population: 52,000 Elevator Traffic: 100,000 people per day Location: Hong Kong Harbor Closest Living Relative: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lampur (1,483 feet, 88 stories) Construction Duration: Approximately 10 years Cost: $10 billion Beyond the physical challenges of building the tallest skyscraper in the world, it will only be successful if it attracts residents, tourists and offices. The Mi llennium Tower needs to offer many choices to make it a destination of choice. Residents can go to not just one grocery store, but many.Office workers can browse a few clothing stores on their level or the same amount 30 floors up. Tourists can find the movie they want in at least one of the many theaters available. Designers say Millennium Tower will house as many options as you'd find in several city blocks. Construction of the Millennium Tower will include traditional building techniques, that, in this case, will put ironworkers thousands of feet in the air to place 5-ton girders with a minimum of safety gear. But engineers are planning to also use a new technology — building by computer.The Self-Rising Factory is a set of computerized cranes and lifts surrounded by a weatherproof enclosure. According to a precise schedule, the steel beams are essentially handed to the machinery which then places them for workers to bolt together. Once the beams and concrete panels for eac h floor are complete, the machinery hoists the entire structure and the process starts over. Gibraltar Bridge A bridge spanning 9 miles over the Straits of Gibraltar at the entryway to the Mediterranean would be the longest and tallest ever built.It would connect cultures of Christianity and Islam and potentially increase ties between the economies of Europe and Africa. Stats: Location: Strait of Gibraltar. Links Spain and Morocco. Length: 9 miles, Two spans of 4 1/2 miles each Height: Each tower is 3,000 feet tall (twice as high as the world's tallest skyscraper) Width: 5 traffic lanes, 2 breakdown lanes in each direction Road Deck Material: Fiberglass Length of Wire Cables: 1,000,000 miles (Enough to circle the Earth almost 30 times) Closest living relative: Akashi bridge in Japan, world's longest suspension bridge at 12,828 feet.Cost: $15 billion Dangers: Wind speeds of 80 mph at tops of towers, ship collision, ocean currents, traffic, Sahara Desert dust storms Building a bridge the size and configuration of Gibraltar Bridge is usually protected by artificial islands so that ships run aground before they can do any damage to the structure. But building an artificial island in the ocean isn't an option. Instead designers envision a ring of underwater bumpers to withstand ship collisions. This could be impossible to span a 9-mile bridge but actually, they can.When determining the exact size of the bridge, designers had to choose between a shallow area that spanned 20 miles, which would have meant many piers in a busy shipping zone, and a narrow portion that's 2,700 feet deep. But designers lucked out. After closer inspection of the narrow portion revealed an underwater â€Å"mountain† in the center that could hold the center piers, dividing the bridge into to spans of 4 1/2 miles each. 5 lanes of traffic in either direction will flow over a roadbed made of spun glass.Fiberglass materials of this sort are rated 5 times stronger than concrete, and any cr acks or other damage could be isolated due to its web-like internal structure. Engineers say fiberglass bridge materials can last up to 100 years. They're also easier to install. A concrete roadway on the Gibraltar Bridge would take 3 months to pour as opposed to a few days or weeks with fiberglass. Freedom Ship Freedom Ship's designers originally planned to create an island community to provide Hong Kong-based businesses a place to relocate if the handover of that city to China were to make life difficult for them.When they applied the same model to a moving sea platform, they ended up with what would be the largest ocean-going vessel ever constructed — the minimum requirement for a city at sea. Stats: Length: Approximately 1 mile Width: 3 city blocks (4,320 feet) Height: 25 stories Weight: 3 million tons Volume: Titanic, Queen Mary, USS Nimitz and super-tanker Jahre Viking would all fit comfortably inside. Population: 50,000 residents, 15,000 workers, 20,000 visitors/day Co nstruction: Hull composed of 600 120'x100†² steel cells bolted together.Location: Circles globe every two years Closest Living Relative: Japan's Megafloat Airport, Tokyo Bay (1km long, 70 meters wide, 20 meters depth) (Series of interlocking pressurized steel boxes) Power: 100 electric podded propulsers at 3500 horsepower each. Cost: $9 billion Freedom Ship's designers say it will be able to handle tidal waves and large-scale hurricanes by steering out of their way to avoid them altogether. If a confrontation is unavoidable, they'll turn all of the ship's 100 propellers, pointing towards the center of the ship for stability.The ship's hull is composed of 600 huge air-tight steel boxes. A significant number of these would have to be punctured before residents noticed anything amiss. Freedom Ship's designers call it a floating sea platform. In simliar design, Japan's MegaFloat airport id built out of steel boxes bolted together to form a surface on the water. Whereas the airport is moored to keep it from drifting, Freedom Ship would be mobile. A structure this size couldn't be built in a traditional manner at a shipbuilding facility and subsequently be lauched into the sea.The construction on this project would instead take place in the water, with large pieces floated out to be attached on the site. Freedom Ship's designers aim to create a new lifestyle. Residents will have a homelife while constantly traveling. The ship would be like a â€Å"Disneyland† offshore, entertaining tourists with the amenities of a resort while residents enjoy daytrips in each port. If successfully built The Freedom Ship will be the largest ocean going vessel in history, it will become a luxury city afloat travelling the world.

Edgar Allan Poe s `` The Cask Of Amontillado `` And `` A...

Readers Response Edgar Allan Poe is an American writer who is famous for his tales and poems of horror, and mystery. Mr. Poe s short stories and poems captured the imagination and interest of readers around the world. His creative talents led to the beginning of different literary genres earning him the nickname Father of the Detective Story among other distinctions. His life however, has become a bit of a mystery itself, and the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since his death. By 1845 Poe became a literary sensation due to the publication of the poem The Raven. It is considered a great American literary work and one of the best of Poe s career. In the work, Poe examined his own methodology and writing in general in several short stories including, The Cask of Amontillado, and A Tell Tale Heart. In the story A Tell Tale Heart Poe writes the story in first person. Throughout this story Poe is trying to catch an audience s attention who is interested in the workings o f the human mind. As you read this story you will see the breakdown of the human mind and how paranoia and insanity go hand in hand. The narrator sees the eyes of the old man as that of a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold.( Page 922). Because of the old man s eye the narrators paranoia makes him feel that he must kill the old man to rid myself of the eye forever ( Page 922). Insanity is anotherShow MoreRelatedAn Analysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Tell Tale Heart 1015 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Insane in the Membrane† Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most acclaimed short story writers of all time and is considered the father of the psychological thriller. He has achieved ever-lasting fame for his work in various fields of literature, from prose to verse. However, it is his Gothic narrative, in the short story realm he is greatest known for and is regarded as one of the foremost masters of horror that the United States has ever fashioned. The crucial component to these horror stories isRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe Revlutionized Literature in the 19th Century665 Words   |  3 PagesEdgar Allan Poe revolutionized the literary world of the nineteenth century. Poe is a well-known author from the early 1800’s, who was part of the dark romanticism movement. While later in life he was a brilliant writer, Edgar Allan Poe faced many problems in his early life. Although Poe experienced death within his family at a young age, the hardships he encountered are thought to have influenced his dark writing sty le. These death inspired elements within Poe’s writing were ahead of their timeRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe s The Tell Tale Heart1538 Words   |  7 PagesPotentially Mad, Potentially Genius: Edgar Allan Poe’s Style â€Å"True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?† Poe wrote this line in his â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart,† and he very well could have been speaking about himself. Many generations have debated on whether or not Edgar Allen Poe was a mad. Reviewers and readers have looked at Poe’s work for nearly two centuries, trying to pick it apart and see if it’s the ramblings of a mad man or well piecedRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe s The Cask Of Amontillado1232 Words   |  5 Pagesabout the text â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe, some sources will be used to support the thesis statement, which is â€Å"The author uses irony in the text to illustrate the murder of Fortunado by Montresor, who seeks salvation through death†. Also, there is going to be an analysis on the irony found in the text in relation with the story. To support this thesis, I am going to use some examples from some sources such as â€Å"Literary analysis: Irony in The Cask of Amontillado by Amelia TibbettRead MoreThe Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe by Roger Francis 1732 Words   |  7 PagesEdgar Allan Poe is regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the nineteenth-century. Poe’s short stories posses the recurring themes of death, murder and his narrators often show signs of mental instability, like the old man in â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† and Montressor in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†. Since tragedy was prominent throughout Poe’s life, his work reflects the darkness ingrained by continuously being faced with adversity. Poe’s mental stability also comes into question whenRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe s Three Techniques For Dark Writing999 Words   |  4 PagesEdgar Allan Poe s Three Techniques for Dark Writing Edgar Allan Poe is a poet who makes his poetry very strong, dark and suspenseful; to do this Poe uses imagery, mood and tone. These three techniques help create a feeling of horror. â€Å"The Cask of the Amontillado†, â€Å" The Raven†, and â€Å"The Tale Tell Heart† are the three stories that show these techniques clearly. Imagery is represented to help the atmosphere have horror and it helps the reader see what s going on in the story. In â€Å"The Cask ofRead MoreThe Tell Tale Heart And The Cask Of Amontillado1153 Words   |  5 Pagesstories: The Tell-Tale Heart and the Cask of Amontillado, both by Edgar Allan Poe. I am going to compare and contrast these 2 stories by showing you how different yet similar they are. I believe that if you dig down deep enough you will find that even if you didn t know that they were both written by Edgar Allan Poe, you would have been able to guess it. He has a distinct style of writing. Many, if not all, of his short stories have unwelcoming endings and a sort of dark glamour. Edgar Allan Poe was bornRead MoreThe Cask Of Amontillado Character Analysis3502 Words   |  15 PagesRevenge in Edgar Allan Poe s The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe s short story The Cask of Amontillado was first published in an 1846 issue of Godey s Lady s Book, a popular women s magazine in America (Nagy). Poe s tale of premeditated murder is narrated by a smug Montresor, who feels vindicated after disposing of his enemy by walling him up in the catacombs. Yet, it is not only the premeditated murder that makes this tale horrifying. Part of the terror of The Cask of Amontillado occursRead MoreAnalysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s Writing1561 Words   |  7 PagesHumberto Orozco Mahoney 1102 MW 10:50 11/22/2015 E.A.P Edgar Allan Poe is famous for writing short stories that are themed particularly around death and the macabre. His writing includes horrific scenes with gruesome deaths and murders. Poe’s style of writing is very much on a podium of its own. He was a brilliant writer for his time period. His wicked works continue to grab the attention of readers with his dark and scary form of writing. His short stories are typical of describing the twistedRead MoreThe Father Of American Detective1923 Words   |  8 PagesShort Story-Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe is far more than a poet and short story writer of the early 19th century. Poe is, in many ways, the most crucial writer of the period. The inventor of the detective story, and the creator of Gothic horror stories. He continues to capture the imagination and inspire literature more than one hundred and fifty years after his death. In examining his life, the critical reaction to his work, and his short story masterpiece â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado,† it has been