A Time of Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Time of Reflection - Essay Example Military tension was culpable between the two world powers, and they even engaged in proxy wars as they tried to outdo each other. The tension created by the Cold war affected day to day lives of Americans. Between 1946 and 1964, it is estimated that some 20 million babies were born in the US. This is the generation that grew up during the tension filled years of the Cold War. It is also the generation that witnessed the Civil Movement. I am a proud member of this generation which is commonly referred to as the Baby Boomers. I grew up during a time when the politics of the United States seemed almost uncertain. There was the ever threatening return-to-war feeling among the general populace. The never-ending tug-of-war between the US and USSR created a fear among citizens. This generated into a phenomenon that came to be known as Duck and Cover as people were afraid that the enemy (that is, the USSR) would drop a nuclear bomb on any part of the country and we had to be ready to duck a nd find cover if and when that happened. This kind of tension was particularly unnerving for the young generation born after the war. I think the older generations were able to deal with the situation since they had experienced the Second World War and were used to such tension. In my understanding at that time, they were too afraid to speak out of the effects that war was having on the common citizens. But I was not. I felt that it was my right to speak out what I thought should be spoken out. If I thought that something was wrong and it needed to be corrected I was bold enough to say it. My outspokenness was a behavior I had picked up from my grandmother since when I was a child. The Civil Rights Movement In 1961 I joined college and like many other young people at the time, I had great expectations for my future. I knew I wanted a good life for myself and I understood that a college education would at least guarantee me a good job with good pay, of course. The 60s were tumultuous years, especially in regards to the Civil rights Movements and the conflicts that came with it. I had heard stories told of how Rosa Parks had defied the high and mighty to secure herself a seat in bus seat that was reserved for whites only. I grew up admiring her courage to face up to people whom she knew could do anything to her if they wanted to. The first time I heard her story, I went home and during dinner asked my mother why people hated parks so much that they did not want her to sit in a set that she had paid for in a bus. My mother tried to explain that people did not hate her, that it was just that people like her could only seat at a designated place in the bus. I was too young to understand the concept of discrimination, but something at the back of my head told me that the treatment Rosa Parks had received was not fare. I think that was the first time I really was able to develop an anti-status quo attitude which I would carry on later into my adulthood. We had an Afr ican housekeeper at home whose son, Jeremy was more or less the same age as me. We were quite good friends and even though we attended different schools (I was in an all-white school while he was in an all black one), we did our school work together. I found him to be brighter than some of the students at my own school. He practically taught me everything I needed to know in all my science subjects. After high school we both went to different colleges but we remained good friends until he

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Paris - Gertrude Stein's Salon - Essay Example Her greatest and lasting influence though was perhaps in her role as a collector of post-modernist art, and through the artistic salon she maintained in her Parisian home ( A and E Television 2010) . Together with her brother until 1913 when they separated, she played host to many writers from many different countries. Her artistic purchases helped to establish and to support now well-known artists such as Picasso and Matisse in their early years. The walls of her French home were almost invisible under the number of artistic efforts that covered them. Stein tried to bring the principles of Cubism and prose into her writing, which resulted in works which were not understandable to even intelligent readers, but at least she attempted to experiment, and so moved on literature from its Victorian state, and demonstrated that experimentation was at least possible. Her home was also open to various Americans visiting Paris such as F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Lewis points out ( 2012) her influence on literature by others , far outweighed the influence of her own output. Ernest Hemingway for instance received encouragement and tuition from her. Stein is perhaps remembered today more for her long relationship with Alice B. Toklas, but her art purchases are celebrated today. It is through these that from the 21st century we can look back to see what a huge change Modernism was for the artistic world. In 2011 her collection, now dispersed, was brought back together in San Francisco, more than 150 pieces, but not the work of unknowns as they were when first purchased. Stein helped these great artists to be recognized, and so helped to establish Cubism, Fauvism and Surrealism and for that she should be