The Life and Literature of Willa Cather Essay -- Authors

â€Å"The great characters in literature are born out of love, often out of some beautiful experience of the writer† (Brown 1). A number of novelists draw much of their inspiration for writing from stories they hear, places they have lived and visited, their childhood, and people they know and hear of in their lives. Willa Cather is no exception. The setting and places in Cather’s novels are derived from her travels, and where she lived. Cather’s earliest life experiences were also integrated into her writing. The characters in Cather’s novels are based on people in and around her life. Willa Cather’s journeys, and residences; childhood, and the people around her permeate in her novels The Professor’s House, and A Lost Lady. The first locale where Cather crafted her scenery after was her home town of Red Cloud, Nebraska. Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia; she and her family moved to Nebraska four years later. Within A Lost Lady, the home of Captain Daniel Forrester, and wife Marian is described by the narrator as â€Å"[standing] on a low round hill†, and â€Å"[standing] close to a fine cottonwood grove that threw sheltering arms to left and right†. Cather paints a picturesque view of the mansion belonging to then governor Silas and Lyra Garber, his wife. Sweet Water, the town in which A Lost Lady takes place closely resembles Red Cloud. In comparison, Susan Rosowski, renowned Cather scholar describes the home of the Garber’s having â€Å"a cottonwood grove, the shade of the fast growing trees made the place a favorite for picnics and other social affairs for the people in the town, including young Willa Cather† (Rosowski and Ronning 194). The Forresterâ₠¬â„¢s house decided to incorporate in A Lost Lady was, surely a place of solace a... ... Lady, Willa Cather Scholarly Edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. 190-201. Print. Skaggs, Merrill Maguire. After the World Broke in Two: The Later Novels of Willa Cather. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990. Print. "The Professor's House." Cyclopedia Of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition. 1998. 1-2. Literary Resource Center. Web. 26 April 2012. Van Ghent, Dorothy. "Willa Cather." Willa Cather: Modern Critical Views. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 71-73. Print. Wilson, Anna. "Canonical Relations: Willa Cather, America, and The Professor's House." Texas Studies in Literature and Language (2005): 61-74. Literature Reference Center. Web. Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. University of Nebraska Press, 1987. Print. —. Willa Cather: Her Life and Art. New York: Pegasus, 1970. Print.

Deception Point Page 15

Finally, Rachel spotted the hazy outline of land. But it was not what she had expected. Looming out of the ocean before the plane was an enormous snowcapped mountain range. â€Å"Mountains?† Rachel asked, confused. â€Å"There are mountains north of Greenland?† â€Å"Apparently,† the pilot said, sounding equally surprised. As the nose of the F-14 tipped downward, Rachel felt an eerie weightlessness. Through the ringing in her ears she could hear a repeated electronic ping in the cockpit. The pilot had apparently locked on to some kind of directional beacon and was following it in. As they passed below three thousand feet, Rachel stared out at the dramatic moonlit terrain beneath them. At the base of the mountains, an expansive, snowy plain swept wide. The plateau spread gracefully seaward about ten miles until it ended abruptly at a sheer cliff of solid ice that dropped vertically into the ocean. It was then that Rachel saw it. A sight like nothing she had ever seen anywhere on earth. At first she thought the moonlight must be playing tricks on her. She squinted down at the snowfields, unable to comprehend what she was looking at. The lower the plane descended, the clearer the image became. What in the name of God? The plateau beneath them was striped†¦ as if someone had painted the snow with three huge striations of silver paint. The glistening strips ran parallel to the coastal cliff. Not until the plane dropped past five hundred feet did the optical illusion reveal itself. The three silver stripes were deep troughs, each one over thirty yards wide. The troughs had filled with water and frozen into broad, silvery channels that stretched in parallel across the plateau. The white berms between them were mounded dikes of snow. As they dropped toward the plateau, the plane started bucking and bouncing in heavy turbulence. Rachel heard the landing gear engage with a heavy clunk, but she still saw no landing strip. As the pilot struggled to keep the plane under control, Rachel peered out and spotted two lines of blinking strobes straddling the outermost ice trough. She realized to her horror what the pilot was about to do. â€Å"We're landing on ice?† she demanded. The pilot did not respond. He was concentrating on the buffeting wind. Rachel felt a drag in her gut as the craft decelerated and dropped toward the ice channel. High snow berms rose on either side of the aircraft, and Rachel held her breath, knowing the slightest miscalculation in the narrow channel would mean certain death. The wavering plane dropped lower between the berms, and the turbulence suddenly disappeared. Sheltered there from the wind, the plane touched down perfectly on the ice. The Tomcat's rear thrusters roared, slowing the plane. Rachel exhaled. The jet taxied about a hundred yards farther and rolled to a stop at a red line spray-painted boldly across the ice. The view to the right was nothing but a wall of snow in the moonlight-the side of an ice berm. The view on the left was identical. Only through the windshield ahead of them did Rachel have any visibility†¦ an endless expanse of ice. She felt like she had landed on a dead planet. Aside from the line on the ice, there were no signs of life. Then Rachel heard it. In the distance, another engine was approaching. Higher pitched. The sound grew louder until a machine came into view. It was a large, multitreaded snow tractor churning toward them up the ice trough. Tall and spindly, it looked like a towering futuristic insect grinding toward them on voracious spinning feet. Mounted high on the chassis was an enclosed Plexiglas cabin with a rack of floodlights illuminating its way. The machine shuddered to a halt directly beside the F-14. The door on the Plexiglas cabin opened, and a figure climbed down a ladder onto the ice. He was bundled from head to foot in a puffy white jumpsuit that gave the impression he had been inflated. Mad Max meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Rachel thought, relieved at least to see this strange planet was inhabited. The man signaled for the F-14 pilot to pop the hatch. The pilot obeyed. When the cockpit opened, the gust of air that tore through Rachel's body chilled her instantly to the core. Close the damn lid! â€Å"Ms. Sexton?† the figure called up to her. His accent was American. â€Å"On behalf of NASA, I welcome you.† Rachel was shivering. Thanks a million. â€Å"Please unhook your flight harness, leave your helmet in the craft, and deplane by using the fuselage toe-holds. Do you have any questions?† â€Å"Yes,† Rachel shouted back. â€Å"Where the hell am I?† 17 Marjorie Tench-senior adviser to the President-was a loping skeleton of a creature. Her gaunt six-foot frame resembled an Erector Set construction of joints and limbs. Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes. At fifty-one, she looked seventy. Tench was revered in Washington as a goddess in the political arena. She was said to possess analytical skills that bordered on the clairvoyant. Her decade running the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research had helped hone a lethally sharp, critical mind. Unfortunately, accompanying Tench's political savvy came an icy temperament that few could endure for more than a few minutes. Marjorie Tench had been blessed with all the brains of a supercomputer-and the warmth of one, too. Nonetheless, President Zach Herney had little trouble tolerating the woman's idiosyncrasies; her intellect and hard work were almost single-handedly responsible for putting Herney in office in the first place. â€Å"Marjorie,† the President said, standing to welcome her into the Oval Office. â€Å"What can I do for you?† He did not offer her a seat. The typical social graces did not apply to women like Marjorie Tench. If Tench wanted a seat, she would damn well take one. â€Å"I see you set the staff briefing for four o'clock this afternoon.† Her voice was raspy from cigarettes. â€Å"Excellent.† Tench paced a moment, and Herney sensed the intricate cogs of her mind turning over and over. He was grateful. Marjorie Tench was one of the select few on the President's staff who was fully aware of the NASA discovery, and her political savvy was helping the President plan his strategy. â€Å"This CNN debate today at one o'clock,† Tench said, coughing. â€Å"Who are we sending to spar with Sexton?† Herney smiled. â€Å"A junior campaign spokesperson.† The political tactic of frustrating the â€Å"hunter† by never sending him any big game was as old as debates themselves. â€Å"I have a better idea,† Tench said, her barren eyes finding his. â€Å"Let me take the spot myself.† Zach Herney's head shot up. â€Å"You?† What the hell is she thinking? â€Å"Marjorie, you don't do media spots. Besides, it's a midday cable show. If I send my senior adviser, what kind of message does that send? It makes us look like we're panicking.† â€Å"Exactly.† Herney studied her. Whatever convoluted scheme Tench was hatching, there was no way in hell Herney would permit her to appear on CNN. Anyone who had ever laid eyes on Marjorie Tench knew there was a reason she worked behind the scenes. Tench was a frightful-looking woman-not the kind of face a President wanted delivering the White House message. â€Å"I am taking this CNN debate,† she repeated. This time she was not asking. â€Å"Marjorie,† the President maneuvered, feeling uneasy now, â€Å"Sexton's campaign will obviously claim your presence on CNN is proof the White House is running scared. Sending out our big guns early makes us look desperate.† The woman gave a quiet nod and lit a cigarette. â€Å"The more desperate we look, the better.†

Essay on Quantitative Research Critique - 828 Words

Quantitative Research Critique Cathleen Atkins Grand Canyon University NRS 433V Linda Permoda March 24, 2013 Quantitative Research Critique Title of Article The title of the article being critiqued is â€Å"The impact of workload on hygiene compliance in nursing†, which was published in the British Journal of Nursing (Knoll, Lautenschlaeger, amp; Borneff-Lipp, 2010). Authors There are three authors for this quantitative research study. Martin Knoll is the HTW of Saarland, Clinical Nursing Research and Evaluation, Saarbruecken, Germany. Christine Lautenschlaeger, Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Biometry and Medical Informatics, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany is the second author. And last, Marianne†¦show more content†¦Informed consent was obtained by nursing staff when subsequent interviews were undertaken after notice of failure to comply with the guidelines and they did so voluntarily (Knoll, Lautenschlaeger, amp; Borneff-Lipp, 2010). Benefits of participation were not addressed by the researchers. Data Collection Major variables for this study were identified. The independent variable identified by the researchers is the nursing staff with the dependent variable being data collected from the interviews. Data was collected for this study during a 12 month time period, from June 2007 to May 2008. Data collection was divided into six observation trial periods that included June, September, and November of 2007 and January, March, and May of 2008. Nursing staff from ten departments were observed for research. Those departments included four surgery units, four internal medicine units, and two interdisciplinary intensive care units. Data was collected by observations and interviews. A researcher observed nurses for hand disinfection, when a nurse failed to do so the researcher introduced themself to the nurse and immediately initiated a narrative interview (Knoll, Lautenschlaeger, amp; Borneff-Lipp, 2010). Rationale for using the previously described collection methods was so the study could employ the Hawthorne effect. (Stroebe, 2003). The Hawthorne effect exercises influence on the nurse through teaching that is intended to motivate behavioral change (Knoll,Show MoreRelatedA Critique Of A Quantitative Research Article1289 Words   |  6 PagesThe following is a critique of a quantitative research article with a qualitative component. Elements of a research article will be discussed, as well as what each component is supposed to include and the essentials to writing a good research article. The critiquing is based on what was learned in class. Introduction The title of a research article should deliver key information that shares the research variables in quantitative studies according to Polit and Beck (2014). This title includes allRead MoreCritique: Quantitative Research and Black Males980 Words   |  4 PagesCritique #1 Goffman, A. (2009). On the run: Wanted men in a Philadelphia Ghetto. American Sociological Association, 74(3), 339-357. After reading the article, it was clear that it was written to give insight on what really happens in black neighborhoods and how daily lives are affected. Goffman’s (2009) purpose is to show that, â€Å"Although recent increases in imprisonment are concentrated in poor Black communities, we know little about how daily life within these neighborhoods is affected† (pRead MoreQuantitative Research Publication Critique. The Perceptions1587 Words   |  7 PagesQuantitative Research Publication Critique The perceptions of being restrained for some intensive care unit (ICU) patients, may not be memorable, but for others, the experience can be traumatic (Clukey, Weyant, Roberts, Henderson, 2014). Historically, patients were primarily restrained as a safety precaution or to prevent inadvertent tube and device removals (Zun, 2005). Hevener, Rickabaugh, and Marsh (2016) conducted a quantitative study centered on reducing the use of restraints by incorporatingRead MoreResearch Critique Part 2 Quantitative Study845 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of a Quantitative Study Introduction Research analyzing is a process in which a research undergoes a careful examination for its strength and weakness. Analyzing a research gives the nurse a chance to know the credibility of the study, its findings to see the evidence base for practice or utilization or application of the findings into the care practice. This paper is about analysis of a research conducted in relation to wound care in primary health care. This research took place inRead MoreQuantitative Research Critique1540 Words   |  7 PagesThis critique reviewed a quantitative study based upon palliative care and how it met emotional or spiritual needs of the families of patients with serious illnesses. The critique used eight criteria to analyze the quantitative study. The criteria include the identification of the problem, the determination of the purpose of the study, the review of the literature, the selection of the sample size and the research design, methods for collecting the data, the analysis of the d ata, study findings asRead MoreA Critique Of The Quantitative Research1909 Words   |  8 Pages Quantitative Research Article Critique The purpose of this paper is to provide a critique of the quantitative research study titled â€Å"The relationships among anxiety, anger, and blood pressure in children† (Howell, Rice, Carmon, Hauber, 2007). Research Problem and Purpose Logically placed, the research problem is clearly and concisely stated within the first paragraph of the article. Citing statistical information from the American Heart Association which noted over 50 million AmericansRead MoreQuantitative Research Critique571 Words   |  2 Pagesrelationship between the variables as being previously determined by research literature as â€Å"marginal at best† (Spurlock Hunt, 2008). The stated primary purposes for the research by Spurlock and Hunt (2008) were to examine if HESI Exit Exam scores had the ability to predict NCLEX-RN outcomes, and to explain the inconsistencies between predictions of HESI Exit Exam scores and actual NCLEX-RN results. The article indicates that the research is significant in nursing due to the weight of importance placedRead MoreQuantitative Research Critique Nursing2020 Words   |  9 Pages Quantitative Research Critique Student’s Name Here â€Æ' Title For the research critique I will be taking nursing research paper with title- A quantitative study of the attitude, knowledge and experience of staff nurses on prioritizing comfort measures in care of the dying patient in an acute hospital setting. As per the title, the variables included in it were nurse staff and dying patients (Bachelor of Nursing Studies, 2011). The population was not mentioned particularly in the title but wasRead MoreResearch Critique, Part 2: Critique of Quantitative Research Article1077 Words   |  5 PagesRunning head: RESEARCH CRITIQUE, PART 2: CRITIQUE OF QUANTITATIVE Research Critique, Part 2: Critique of Quantitative Research Article Debra Benton Grand Canyon University Introduction to Nursing Research NRS 433V August 26, 2012 Research Critique, Part 2: Critique of Quantitative Research Article The population who are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) often experience daytime drowsiness and are at risk for ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias, hypertension, and other vascularRead MoreQuantitative Research Design Critique Template899 Words   |  4 Pages NU310_Unit 5 Quantitative Research Design Critique Template â€Å"Quantitative studies usually focus on concepts that are fairly well developed, about which there is an existing body of evidence, and for which there are reliable methods of measurement† (Polit and Beck, 2012). I chose the Quantitative method of data collection for my research, because I want to determine the effective of regular instruction, face-to-face training, and follow-up on inhalation techniques in increasing treatment adherence