Theodore Dreiser Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser was born August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana. The younger brother of Paul Dresser, a well-known songwriter, Theodore was a famous novelist known for his outstanding American writing of naturalism. He was also a leading figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the unflinching presentation of real-life subject matter. Even though a majority of his works were about his life experiences, he also wrote about new social problems that had risen in American at the time as well as things sexual in nature. Dreiser was born the ninth of ten surviving children in a family that was stricken with life-long poverty. His father was a German immigrant that was mostly an unemployed mill worker with a strict attitude because of his narrow Roman Catholic belief. His mother had a Czech Mennonite background and she was a fair lady that was always compassionate to her son. Because of the family’s severe degree of poverty, they moved frequently between small Indiana towns and Chicago in search of a better cost of living. Dreiser did not have much of an education in his lifetime. He attended parochial and public schools including a year at Indiana University in 1889-1890 throughout his academic years. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago in 1892 before working his way to the East Coast. While living on the East Coast in 1894, Dreiser found a job working for a Pittsburgh newspaper. In the same year, he move to New York City and started working for several newspapers and magazines. Dreiser would soon meet a woman named Sara White and they would get married in 1898. The marriage did not last that long due to his roving affections and resulting infidelities causing their divorce in 1912. Dreiser began writing his first novel, Sister Carrie, in 1899 at the suggestion of a newspaper colleague. Doubleday, Page and Company published the novel the following year, than ks in part to the great enthusiasm of the firm’s novelist, Frank Norris. The story line of the novel was about a young kept woman whose "immortality" goes unpunished. The publisher was not fond of the story line and decided to limit the book’s advertising. Because of the limited advertising, the book sold only 465 copies and Dreiser made less than $100 dollars on the deal. In 1890, the dis... ...erty level. He always spoke and wrote of his mother being affectionate and caring at all times. Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute and lived in Indiana until the age of eighteen. He was born into a family that was stricken with poverty and he had little hope of making it big in the real world. Dreiser did not have much of an education nor any experience in writing. Through hard work and dedication, he ended getting a job in Chicago for a newspaper and then moving to New York a few years later. In New York, Dreiser also got many jobs for magazines and newspapers. While living in the city, he wrote a majority of his famous works. Dreiser’s most famous works were Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. In 1938, he moved to Los Angeles with his mistress, Helen Richardson. Dreiser continued on writing literary works until his death in 1945. Theodore Dreiser was a well-known novelist and a great man as well as a historic member of the Terre Haute area. Bibliography Bibliography Gerber, Phillip. Theodore Dreiser, Chicago, Woodford Publishing., 1986, pp. 34-75 Warren, Robert Penn. Homage to Theodore Dreiser: His World and His Novels, New York, Coleman Publishing., 1975, pp. 82-140

Research on Pulau Ubin in Singapore

HH2001 Singapore: The Making of A Cosmopolitan City-State Research Paper Ong Wei Xiu Janine U1230453D Introduction The purpose of this essay is to find out how Pulau Ubin played a significant role in the development of Singapore since the late 1800s until today. I shall begin by giving a brief introduction of Pulau Ubin and go on to elaborate about how the island played a significant role in helping Singapore’s development in various aspects. This topic shall be investigated according to two main categories – granite quarrying and adventure island.I will then conclude the essay by commenting about whether Pulau Ubin will continue to play a significant role in Singapore’s development in the near future. Brief Introduction On Pulau Ubin Shaped like a boomerang, Pulau Ubin is the second largest offshore island of Singapore. Measuring a distance of about 7 kilometres across and about 2 kilometres at its breadth with area of around 10 square kilometres, the island lie s towards the northeast of the city-state in the Straits of Johor.It is a stone island mainly â€Å"composed of igneous rocks of granite that are believed to be more than 200 million years old. † Since the founding of Singapore by the British, the island has been known for its vast resource of granite. The first two lighthouses of the country were built with granite from Pulau Ubin. Subsequently, granite was fashioned for various purposes throughout the city-state’s history, including the building of the iconic HDB flats on mainland Singapore.The exposure to sea, abandoned quarry lakes and secondary forests make Pulau Ubin a â€Å"natural choice for training†. The trend of adventure training on the island took flight when the Outward Bound School set up its first site on the island while answering the government’s call for the creation of a â€Å"rugged society† that could withstand the rigours of sudden nationhood in 1967. Other adventure campsite s and facilities were later developed around the island to cater to the needs of outdoor adventure enthusiasts. Granite QuarryingAfter the British founded Singapore, vast amounts of granite were found on Pulau Ubin. Works began in 1848 to extract the granite for building Singapore’s first lighthouse located in Pedra Branca, a small island 56 kilometres to the east of mainland Singapore. Captain James Horsburgh, a hydrographer who surveyed and chartered seaways and large bodies of water, realised that as Pedra Branca was a small rocky island that was not easily recognizable from a distance and it made the island a hazard for ships passing by.Hence, John Turnbull Thomson, a British civil engineer, built the Horsburgh Lighthouse (named after Captain James Horsburgh) in 1847 using bricks and mortar. However, it was not strong enough and could not last. Thomson then turned his eyes onto the granite stones of Pulau Ubin and had it fashioned in 1848 by stonebreakers and cutters to b e used for the construction of the lighthouse. This helped Singapore to also claim ownership of the island that was often disputed for by the surrounding region.Subsequently, a second lighthouse located in Pulau Satumu, the Raffles Lighthouse, was also built using granite from Pulau Ubin to mark the southernmost tip of Singapore’s territory. It proved to be of huge importance as it served as a safety marker for â€Å"one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes† in the â€Å"narrowest section of the Singapore Strait. Apart from these two lighthouses that helped to mark out significant territorial points of Singapore, the granite from Pulau Ubin was also used for the construction of the Causeway between Singapore and Malaysia over a pan of 5 years from 1919. With more quarrying works to be done because of the large amount of granite needed by the British to build infrastructure on mainland Singapore, population started to rise on Pulau Ubin. Soon, the island became a major supplier of granite for the building industry. The local Malays also tapped onto the resources and started â€Å"selling polished granite slabs, stone tombs and granite grinders. † The British constantly saw the need for an in-depth study about the vast amounts of granite that could be extracted for construction and roadworks.They eventually came up with a â€Å"[r]eport on the availability of granite on Singapore and the surrounding islands† in 1950 to find out exactly where and how much granite could be extracted on the various parts of Singapore (of which, more than twice the number of areas identified were from Pulau Ubin). There are a total of five granite quarries on Pulau Ubin. Despite having quarries like Aik Hwa Granite Quarry which produced about 160 to 180 tonnes of granite per month and support up to 40 percent of what was needed for the construction works in Singapore, there was a shortage in granite supply in the early 1990s.This caused the grani te suppliers to think of ways to increase their productivity. Resources Development Corportation (RDC), one of the quarries on Pulau Ubin, even looked into installing a new crusher plant. Eventually, all the quarries on Pulau Ubin and mainland Singapore was made to close down by the Public Works Department (PWD) in order to protect the natural environment as well as to free up the land â€Å"for better economic use. † Adventure IslandIn 1967, Dr Goh Keng Swee, the then-Minister for Defence and Interior asked for the setting up of an Outward Bound School (OBS) to build a â€Å"rugged society† in light of the challenges faced by a young nation that was just denied of being a part of a large domestic market. By putting participants through trainings on land and at sea, OBS hoped to train and help them to realize the value in themselves and others, as well as discover their strengths in order to be free from fear and self-doubt.The ‘rugged nature’ of the wild terrains on Pulau Ubin was a natural choice for it to become an optimal site for OBS. Having the capacity to train 23,000 people (comprising children, youths and adults) a year and having been â€Å"pivotal in the training of young Singaporeans to meet the changing needs of society†, OBS has made an impact in the nation of Singapore through running its range of programmes on its two Pulau Ubin campsites.Apart from bringing out the best in the people of Singapore, the experience of training in OBS was also vital in training budding leaders of the country. Singapore’s current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong (the son of the then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew), had much to testify for when he spoke of his fond memories of how he blended in with everyone else, realized that he could â€Å"push himself to the limit, and do things [he] never thought he could do† during an OBS’ course back in 1967.He went on to praise the OBS for being â€Å"one of the best Outwar d Bound centres in the world†. All these could not have been possible, if not for the initial efforts of volunteers who passionately set up the logistics and ran the courses ceaselessly on Pulau Ubin. The Ministry of Education (MOE) also realized how Pulau Ubin was an ideal location to place two major campsites for promoting a rugged lifestyle in training student cadets from National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC).Dr Tay Eng Soon, the Senior Minister of State (Education) then, announced the plans to build these two sites back in 1990, citing that the reason for doing so was to get children â€Å"out of their flats and come closer into contact with nature, as Singapore is now highly urbanised. † The government had plans of developing Pulau Ubin as an â€Å"Adventure Island† since 1990. The island was suitable in supporting an array of outdoor activities, residential amenities and adventure facilities while putting disturbance to the natur al environment to the minimum.Singaporeans have also demonstrated an interest towards a life of adventure on the island of Pulau Ubin, creating a kind of ‘top of mind awareness’ about the island being the iconic site for adventure-enthusiasts currently and in the future. Conclusion Having put down its status as one of the major granite suppliers for Singapore since the 1990s, Pulau Ubin has transformed its image from being an island that churns out tonnes of granite for construction on the mainland to being an ideal sanctuary away from the bustling city with a holistic variety of adventure activities waiting to engage the city dwellers of all ages.Whether it is the experience of being a part of the nation-building process during the heydays of granite quarrying or the memories forged by having attended various camps and outdoor activities conducted on the island, Pulau Ubin seems to have played a significant role in the development and progress of Singapore as a nation, as well as in the hearts and minds of Singaporeans in general. However, the future of Pulau Ubin may not be anything like its past.In the government’s concept plan presented in the parliament, there seems to be plans of linking Pulau Ubin to the mainland through MRT line extensions as well as developing the island in light of the situation of land scarcity on mainland Singapore. Though these were just some of the hints gathered from a book by the Government’s Concept Plan back in the 1990s, one cannot deny that Pulau Ubin has always maintained an important status in the minds of the state’s planners, and will probably always be, in the years to come. Reference: The Causeway, A Great Engineering Work Completed.. † The Straits Times, June 27, 1924. Alexander, FES. Report on the availability of granite on Singapore and the surrounding islands. Singapore: Government Publications Bureau, 1950. Chua, Ee Kiam. Pulau Ubin: Ours to Treasure. Singapore: Simply Gree n, 2000. Boonzaier, Jonathan. â€Å"Raffles remains beacon of light in Singapore Strait. † Trade Winds, April 13, 2013. Yum, Shoen Liang. â€Å"Govt should study further its plan for Ubin and Tekong. † The Straits Times, The Sunday Times edition, sec.Forum, March 02, 1991. â€Å"Granite quarry owners seek to resume blasting. † The Business Times, June 18, 1990. â€Å"Granite suppliers step up production to meet demand.. † The Business Times, , sec. Business Times Singapore, September 13, 1990. â€Å"Keep Ubin as it is, says Chok Tong after touring ‘Adventure Island'. † The Straits Times, The Sunday Times edition, October 09, 1990. â€Å"Long-term development plans for Tekong and Ubin revealed. † The Straits Times, The Sunday Times edition, sec. Home, February 25, 1991. Of Courage and Character.Outward Bound Singapore: The first 40 years. Singapore: People's Association, 2007. â€Å"Two big campsites to promote the rugged life on the c ards. † The Straits Times, The Sunday Times edition, sec. Home, June 01, 1990. Waller, Edmund. Landscape planning in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2001. http://books. google. com. sg/books? id=L5kLBHwUwfEC;pg=PA48;lpg=PA48;dq=hdb quarry;source=bl;ots=EEUo_IR_5h;sig=twpNwCT89Xnc30TpJrtKsk3zxxI;hl=en;sa=X;ei=d8dqUbvvMu-ViQeC8oD4DA

Economic Factors That Affect Population Growth - 1676 Words

A Discussion of the Economic Factors that Affect Population Growth in Dubai This essay forms a discussion about the economic factors that affect population growth, in Dubai. According to McGinley (2013), there are two factors that contribute to population growth: high birth rates and immigration into a country. Births add more people to the country’s total population, thus increasing the total population. Deaths, on the other hand, reduce the population size, thus decreasing the total population. Further, immigration adds to the population, but emigration reduces the total population. This essay proceeds as follows. First, I outline the levels of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) and the factors that affect the birth and death rates. Second, I consider methods that other country’s (namely Germany and New Zealand) have established to control their total population. Third, I devote attention to the status of Dubai’s economy and how it has contributed to population growth. Finally, I draw this essay to a conclusion, summing the discuss ion within. A nation can experience a series of fluctuations in its total population. According to Barker et al. (2008), the DTM is composed of five stages (the high fluctuating, early expanding, late expanding, and low fluctuating and decline stage). The DTM model explains how birth and death rate changes over time; these changes are entirely dependent upon economic development. For instance, death rates drop rapidly as a country begins toShow MoreRelatedDemand Side Factors For The House Prices1493 Words   |  6 Pages Discuss the extent to which demand side factors as well as supply side factors are likely to influence house prices. Lauren Gurnaud Student Number: 3500136 MSc Real Estate – Real Estate Economics and Finance Module Contents Page 1. 1 Introduction 1. Introduction The housing market affects both consumers and economic stability, as it is a key component to the economy. 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