By James Aitchison Courage in a society controlled by secret police was a rare commodity. In Nazi Germany, the party controlled the news media, police, armed forces, judiciary, travel, and all levels of education from kindergarten to university. Indoctrination started…
By: James Aitchison On 21 September 1914, a seven-stanza poem appeared in The Times of London. The First World War had begun in July that year as a glorious Boys’ Own adventure, a chance for every young lad to see the…
The essay that follows reflects my understanding of these extraordinary stories through the lens of a literary reading, i.e., setting down the baggage that comes from reading the texts as sacred and instead engaging with them as literature, as suggested by the literary critic Harold Bloom in his “The Book of J.”
By: James Aitchison The debate rages in scholarly circles: what language did the ancient inhabitants of Scotland speak? Did the Picts possess a lost language, was it an Indo-European dialect, or was it simply Celtic? Our first clues can be…
By: Caleb Park Music is a noun. Here’s what Google says about music: “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.” So obviously, it doesn’t really…
By: Idoko Jennifer Uloma What if we become more realistic? What if we put pretence to stop? What if we dispose of our masks and become our true selves? What if we become carefree and unapologetically ourselves? What if we…
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” promotes compassion to counteract racism, as illustrated by Atticus Finch’s advice to his daughter Scout. Research from Stanford and the University of Texas reinforces the importance of compassion and self-compassion for psychological and social well-being. Kindness and compassion also have contagious effects that benefit society. However, global happiness is declining, a phenomenon that can be remedied by fostering compassion, which is crucial for a content and connected society.
By: James Aitchison “The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” And she was not exaggerating. Dorothy Parker (1893 — 1967) was famed as an American poet, writer, critic, and screenwriter. Most…
By: Sashie The American dream is based on a concept that anyone can obtain success, regardless of their upbringing or socio-economic status. Gatsby’s life is the epitome of the American dream. He chooses to live his life dangerously in order…
By: Jodi Nathanson I am a High School English teacher who has been teaching grade 9 English for more than 20 years. One of my favourite parts of the job is teaching the Shakespeare unit to young students, many of…