Juvenile Delinquency :: essays research papers

BOOT CAMPS ARE A BAD ALTERNATIVE Boot Camps For Children are A Failure According To Substantial Media Research. Wilderness Therapy Treatment - A non-profit consumer protection information, health, safety, referral & education site. More Information: www.Wilderness-Therapy.Org E-mail: info@Wilderness-Therapy.Org Peter S. Canellos, Contributing Roporter, BOSTON GLOBE, April 30, 1989, PAGE: 29 SHERIFFS, LAWMAKERS EXPLORE ALTERNATIVES TO JAIL //acs-VT2000 At least one former supporter of boot camp has turned into a skeptic, however. Larry R. Meachum, who opened the first prisoner boot camp in the nation while serving as commissioner of corrections in Oklahoma, opposed such a proposal when it came up in Connecticut, where he now serves as corrections commissioner. Meachum, a one-time acting corrections commissioner in Massachusetts, cited three potential pitfalls in the program, said Connecticut corrections spokesman William Flower. - The"widening-net syndrome."Judges, seeing the boot camp as a positive alternative for jail inmates, will sentence to jail young delinquents who would otherwise be placed on probation, adding to the corrections population rather than reducing it. - Limited effectiveness."That 'scared straight' philosophy doesn't work for everyone,"Flower said."Some of the street toughs like it. They like the violence of it." - Brutality."It can lead to training instructors going into excess,"Flower said. Instructors have a hard time taming the street kids, he said, and respond, as in the military, by demanding more and more physical exercise. "He started the first one in the country in Oklahoma,"Flower said of Meachum."What he discovered is the support systems for the program have to be in place before you do a boot camp. It's not the simple solution that it appears to be. It's not the panacea that people think it is." AMERICA'S FOREMOST EXPERT ON BOOT CAMPS SAYS THEY DO NOT REDUCE RECIDIVISM -- THEY FAIL GARY MARX, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 12, 1994, From: NewsHound@sjmercury.com HARD TIME: BOOT CAMPS FORCE OFFENDERS TO SHAPE UP? \ acs-VT2000 ''The simplistic view that military and physical training will work (in reducing recidivism) is wrong,"says Doris MacKenzie, a University of Maryland criminologist who is the nation's foremost expert on boot camps. ''Many boot camps Use punishment for punishment's sake. They try to make it look tough for the public, but they are not doing what really works." BOOT CAMPS ARE NOT WORKING GARY MARX, Chicago Tribune, Oct. 12, 1994, From: NewsHound@sjmercury.com HARD TIME: BOOT CAMPS FORCE OFFENDERS TO SHAPE UP? \ acs-VT2000 There's only one problem: boot camps aren't working, or at least not as well as politicians and other proponents said they would.

King of the Bingo Game: An analysis

â€Å"King of the Bingo game† by Ralph Ellison is about a man, in desperate need of money, cheating at a bingo game.   More importantly, the story revolves around a desperate man seeking sanity and solution in a world he cannot control.   This desperate and futile search for answers is what ultimately leads him to his demise.The backdrop of the story is during World War II.   This time was particularly chaotic as the war is pulling on the economic resources of everyone.   It is more chaotic for the Bingo King as his wife is sick and he needs money for her care.   He cannot work in the factories, as he has no birth certificate.   The last chance he has is a Bingo game being held in a movie theater.   This is the place where his life will end.   This is the place where the contradictions of freedom and slavery, wealth and poverty, Sanity and madness will all meet.A big factor of this story in the race of the main character.   He is a black man living from the s outh.   This is the 1940’s; hence slavery has been abolished for some time.   Yet, The Bingo King is still a slave to something else.   He has an inability to make money, yet is in desperate need of it.   He cannot work in the factories; hence he is â€Å"useless† to society.   There is a promise of money from a game; hence he places all his hopes into it.   The slavery in this story is slavery to capitalism.   There is this illusion that one can make it rich on one’s own merits.   Yet, as Bingo King himself say’s in reference to the Wheel, â€Å"This is God†.This is the contradiction to the standard idea of equal rights and freedom that America is commonly personified.   The idea that all men are created equal and are free to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   This is all dashed apart by the wheel, which flippantly controls the ebb and flow of life and fortune.The Bingo King, upon realizing this, realizes tha t his only hope for sanity and fortune is through this wheel, which he now believes controls all things.   An idea like freedom or equality seems laughable in the face of this machine, which deals out fortune or loss on a whim.   Upon seeing this, the Bingo King realizes that only through the constant spinning of the wheel will his life have any meaning.   This is the failure of sanity, which leads him to his death.In a way, the journey that the Bingo king undertakes is parallel to that of the Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s classic play.   Faustus is a noble and proud man of science.   One notable characteristic about Faust is that he has a deep thirst for knowledge and understanding.   This is a noble and proud endeavor, not one that would be considered wrong or sick by any standards.   The problem comes with the methods that he uses to gain that knowledge.   In his thirst, he signs his soul over to the demon Mephistopheles so that he may be granted powers not meant for mortal man.   Over the course of the story, Faustus takes a journey that leads him into arrogance and madness.   The story comes to an end with a vision of Faustus being dragged kicking and screaming into hellfire.There is a definite Faustian theme that prevails throughout â€Å"King of the Bingo Game†.   Like Faust, the Bingo King starts on this journey for a noble endeavor.   He wishes for the means to take care of his wife Laura.   His motives are pure and honorable, and he seeks no more than the money needed to take care of his sick wife.   As he reaches the bingo wheel, he sees the power that it holds over his own life.   He sees that life is simply a matter of fate, controlled by chance and whim of luck.   The Bingo King sees this â€Å"whim of luck† as God.   So by his reasoning, if he controls the wheel, he becomes God.   It is then that he becomes mad with a sense of false power.We see this from his thoughts he has concerning the crowd in the theater.   As they heckle and jeer him from his resistance to leave the stage, the Bingo King becomes more and more inwardly hostile towards them:They had been playing the bingo game day in and night out for years, trying to win rent money or hamburger change.   But not one of those wise guys had discovered this wonderful thing†¦.Now he faced the raging crowd with defiance†¦ He was running the show, by God!   They had to react to him, for he was their luck.   This is me, he thought.   Let the bastards yell.Ralph Ellison, King of the Bingo GameHe looks at the crowd and he sees them as fools.   He does this because he thinks that he has found the answer.   This is far from the truth, as he has simply gone mad.   Like Faust, he believes that he is in possession of all the answers.   This is far from the truth.   He sees the glamour of the Bingo wheel as the power over the universe.   Others see it as just an opportunity for fun and a lit tle money.These are the two separate worlds that the wheel inhabits.   There is the world of reality, where the wheel is just a game.   Then there is the world that the Bingo King sees from his point of view.   The world where he can become a god from winning this game and controlling this wheel.   This is a world he came to out of desperation and madness, struggling to get money and a job and not being able to find a place within the world of the story.This brings up the theme of Alienation.   The Bingo King is living in a world that has no place for him.   He has no birth certificate.   Hence, he does not exist.   And seeing the fact that he does not exist, the world has no use for him anywhere.   He cannot gain work in a factory for this reason or gain work anywhere else.   To the world, he is obsolete.   For that reason, other people tend to ignore him.Examples of this are the people in the theater who do not even acknowledge that he exists until the Bingo Game.   One woman is eating peanuts right in front of him.   He recalls his time in his hometown where he could simply ask someone for a few peanuts and they would gladly give it to him.   He realizes that the situation is different here.   This is the big city.   No one cares if he exists or not.   This is the big city.   If he asks the woman for peanuts in this theater, she’ll ignore him, or tell him to get his own bag.This Alienation is not due to the color of his skin.   It is not because his descendents were of an â€Å"inferior race† or because of any preconceived stereotypes about his people.   This alienation comes simply from the world he is living in now.   Everyone is separate from each other.   Everyone in the theater is separate.   No one knows each other or has any real concern for each other.   Their only concern is themselves and their own lives.   All that is needed is to sate their own hungers or wants or needs.   There i s never a concern for their fellow man or giving to others simply out of the joy of giving.   All is meant for one’s self.The joke of the Jackpot, however, is how small the jackpot really is.   The Jackpot of 36.90, even for the forties, is a small amount.   The Bingo king really has no hope of saving his wife through this game, nor does he have any hope of getting out of the poverty that he is currently suffering.   Yet the game is giving him this false hope that it is possible.   This is once again going to the theme of desperation that is cast over him through his alienation.   Bingo King has become so desperate, that he thinks he sees fortune where there is none.This is the overarching theme of the story.   That society alienates itself from others an as a result, the people of that society sees little hope.   In seeing little hope, they give their lives for a cause that may not seem entirely valiant.   Sadly, in the end, this is the fate of the Bingo Ki ng.BibliographyMarlowe, Christopher. The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus. Oxford, England:Oxford University Press, 1998.Ellison, Ralph. â€Å"King of the Bingo Game.† The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction.By Richard Bausch. New York: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc., 2005.

Things Fall Apart - 1679 Words

In this paper I argue the many reasons Okonkwo had to commit suicide, the first argument being that Okonkwo was born to a failure. â€Å"He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.† (pg.4) Unoka, Okonkwo’s father was not the type of man that he wanted as a father. â€Å"He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father.† (pg.4) Okonkwo knew he was lucky a man wasn’t judged by the worth of his father, and he worked hard so that he would never turn out to be like his father. Not only was he ashamed of the lifestyle his father lived but also the way he died. Unoka died in such a way†¦show more content†¦This crime was also considered a female crime because it was done on accident. Not only did he commit this horribly embarrassing crime Okonkwo couldn’t return to his clan for s even years. Okonkwo knows of the white men but he doesn’t yet know that they have traveled into his village. â€Å"They had built their church there, won a handful of converts and were already sending evangelist to the surrounding towns and villages.†(pg.143) When Okonkwo received this news from his friend Obierika he couldn’t do anything, he was still exiled. No matter what happen and how much his clan needed him he couldn’t return. The white man was not only taking over Okonkwo’s village they had his son. â€Å"But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son.†(pg.147) Nwoye no longer considered Okonkwo his father he was a part of Christianity. Okonkwo is slowly losing everything, and the only thing he has control over is his wives and daughters. â€Å"This was a womanly clan, he thought. Such a thing could never happen in his fatherland, Umuofia.† (pg.159) In Mbanta, his mother land the elders decided not to go to war like Okonkwo wanted but only to ostracize the Christians. I believed this caused a lot of Okonkwo’s stress he was a part of this village for almost seven years and it would be viewed as womanly. He was disgusted withShow MoreRelatedThings Fall Apart910 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿Okonkwo Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel about a man in West Africa. It tells about his triumphs and trial ultimately leading to his demise. It explains how the â€Å"white man† came into his country and took over. It show you how the â€Å"white man† mad things fall apart. Okonkwo was a very large and tall man. He had big bushy eyebrows and a huge nose. As stated in Things Fall Apart, â€Å"He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look (3-4).† He was extremelyRead MoreThings fall apart1057 Words   |  5 Pages Reflection on the novel Things Fall Apart The Idea of Culture in Things Fall Apart The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plantRead MoreThings Fall Apart875 Words   |  4 PagesOkonkwo is a tragic hero in Things Fall Apart Question ( 2 ): Discuss Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe s â€Å"Things Fall Apart† is a tragic hero. Answer: In Chinua Achebe’s novel â€Å"Things Fall Apart† Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw ‘hamartia’ and experiences a dramatic reversal ‘peripeteia’, as well as an intense moment of recognition ‘anagnorisis’. Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo communityRead MoreThings Fall Apart977 Words   |  4 Pagesdifferently by two different readers? Things Fall Apart Language and Literature Things fall apart is a novel written by Chinua Achebe. It is set during the late 19th, early 20th century in a small village named Umuofia situated in Nigeria. This time period is important because it was a period in colonial history when the British were increasing their influence economic, cultural, and political influence in Africa. The novel deals with the rise and fall of Okonkwo, a man from the village ofRead MoreThings Fall Apart818 Words   |  4 PagesEnglish oral presentation Cultural strengths of the Ibo society before the invasion of the colons. The novel Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe describes the social and cultural traits of a culture based on the principles of labor and masculinity, conformity and kinship and finally on solid juridical system. The worth of a man was measured by his strength and the amount of work he could accomplish and how efficiently feed his family, the concepts of masculinity is strictly related withRead MoreThings Fall Apart2539 Words   |  11 PagesSociety (Things Fall Apart) Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart mayRead More Things Fall Apart Essay763 Words   |  4 PagesChinua Achebes Things Fall Apart shows an odd similarity between the cultures of Ancient Greece and the Lower Niger. Despite the fact that two societies can exist during different periods of time and have conflicting cultural values, their stories and behavior can have surprising overlaps. Things Fall Apart is structured like a Greek Tragedy in its use of a chorus and in the presence of a tragic hero whose actions ultimately lead to his downfall. The Egwugwu from Things Fall Apart act like the chorusRead More Things Fall Apart Essay714 Words   |  3 PagesThings Fall Apart Opposites do not Attract In Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Mr. Brown, the first missionary in Umuofia, was a kind and respectful man. Not to say that Reverend James Smith was not, but his degree of kindness and respect were present in a whole different level. They both wanted to convert the lost, all those in Umuofia that were not in the church. Mr. Brown made friends with the clan and â€Å"trod softly on his faith,† (pg.178) while Mr. Smith told them how thingsRead MoreSummary Of Things Fall Apart 716 Words   |  3 PagesJory Alkhudair Mr. Meister English 10th 26 October 2017 Things Fall Apart I am writing about Ekwefi , Okonkwo’s second wife, and who was once the village beauty. Ekwefi is also the mother of Ezinma , Okonkwo’s only daughter . Ezinma is her only surviving child, her other nine died in infancy. Ekwefi constantly fears that she will lose Ezinma too. The festival was only three days away. We were scrubbing the walls and the huts with red earthRead MoreColonialism In Things Fall Apart1824 Words   |  8 Pageswritten by Chinua Achebe which shows the main theme of the novel Things Fall Apart, and even represents the theme within the article, â€Å"The Benefits of British Rule†. There are many cultures with different values or practices that might seem obscure to one group but normal to another, therefore no one can determine what culture is wrong or right, but it s up to society to determine the best way of life. The novel Things Fall Apart and the article â€Å"The Benefits of British Rule† examine two different