House Of Cards

Corruption in the United States government takes the power away from the people and puts it into the hands of elite groups and politicians. This corruption is prevalent in the film “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”. The film has a strong message about corruption in the government, and places an innocent and naïve character, Mr. Smith in the middle of the corruption. In Washington, Mr. Smith discovers the corruption that has overtaken the capitol, but does not let it falter his integrity. Although Mr. Smith is surrounded by corruption, he is able to fight the system and bring some integrity back to Washington.

People started to buy houses that they couldn’t afford and then they were left behind leaving. The economy is falling and so are the communities. Insects, graffiti, dirty pools are left behind since people are evicted and people don’t have were to go.

The book Plunkitt of Tammany Hall can leave readers with mixed feelings about politics from Plunkitt’s perspective. Plunkitt, himself, used some questionable tactics while he was a politician and defends what he did; such as the difference between honest graft and dishonest graft. Plunkitt lived in the world of politics for forty plus years and thrived in the middle of it all with his political machine, Tammany Hall. The views Plunkitt held differ from those of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

From the rousing introduction, Chris Mathews' Hardball presents itself as a godsend to young aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Pompously self-assured, Mathews discusses his reasoning to sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players in "Hardball". However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin's writing style. In the first section of Mathews' self-proclaimed "classic" and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics through a series of informative--if not redundant--phrases, historical examples, and his own experience in Washington.

During this time period, people such as JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and JD Rockefeller were more powerful than the president. This led to widespread corruption within politics. Joseph Keppler’s cartoon portrays the amount of corruption that was present in the political system by claiming the big business tycoons control the Senate rather than people as shown in Document 4. In the cartoon, Keppler portrayed the Senate in which the senators are working while the big business tycoons were looking down as if they were in control. This goes to show that the Senate was completely in the pockets of

Hardball by Chris Matthews is an interpretation of what many know as “hard-politics”. The book describes the skill of playing the game in Washington and how to be successful at it. The book is a guide that teaches a series of maxims that would be in favor of politicians to learn in order to be successful. The different tactics provided in the book hold a lot of knowledge that would make the life of anyone following these strategies much easier when trying to get ahead in life. Matthews describes a countless number of examples of successful politicians that rose to the top. Those politicians are the ones who learned how to play hardball in Washington.

In his book Hardball, Chris Matthews discusses the useful strategies for getting ahead in politics that he observed during his time working in Washington, D.C. He breaks up his observations into chapters with different lessons. Three of the most important lessons are “It's Not Who You Know; It's Who You Get to Know,” (Chapter 1) “All Politics is Local,” (Chapter 2) and “Dance With the One That Brung Ya.” (Chapter 4). These chapters illustrate how important making and keeping connections and relationships is in Washington. The “game of politics” is played by using these relationships to gain favors, votes, support, etc. According to Matthews, the people who get ahead are the ones who make and keep these important connections and relationships with other politicians and the public.

William Butler Yeats a writer and irish poet once said, “The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” In the book, “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J. D. Salinger, a boy named “Holden” is dealing with the consequences of growing up and losing innocence. The story details the importance of being a kid and going through maturity. It also shares the knowledge of learning from mistakes and growing up. Holden experiences all of these elements through loneliness and innocence throughout the book.

Science plays a major role in the story line of NBC’s police-procedural drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; more specifically, forensic science. From beginning to end, the characters depend on the use and their understanding of forensic science to uncover the mysteries of each examined case. The advancements in technology along with the psychological approach used by detectives to solve each case make the serious and critical role that science plays more than evident to the audience.

J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is widely recognized as one of the most self-destructive novels ever written. The novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield is known for his anti-social behavior and his self-loathing, self-isolating character in the book. Holden’s traits could widely be compared to Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite directed by Jared Hess. Napoleon is characterized by his clichéd “school nerd” behavior and of course his own self-isolating habit just like Holden. Like Holden, Napoleon tries to put down people to isolate him from others. But even though Holden and Napoleon are alike on how they assume the traits of the people they meet,

The political game is a dog eat dog world, there are several factors that determined weather a politician will be successful or not. Having alliances, enemies, and deals is all part of it. In the book “Hardball: How Politics is Played” written by Chris Mathews explains what it takes to get ahead in politics and how to avoid disasters techniques previously used by others.

In Profiles in Courage, Kennedy writes short biographies of bravery and integrity displayed by eight U.S. senators in the history of American Senate. In his view, these individuals defied the opinions of their parties and those of their constituents to take the direction they deemed right. Consequently, these senators had to bear the brunt of their actions such as severe criticism and loss of popularity. Kennedy wrote the book, while he was recuperating in hospital after surgery during his reign as the Senator of Massachusetts. John Quincy Adams, Thomas Benton, and Sam Houston are some of politicians whom this book explores. Tied to these profiles were issues of party loyalty, favoring the compromise of 1850, and voting against party opinions. In this way, the book contains stories of men who recognized what needed to be done and did it (Kennedy 27). As the title suggests, Kennedy’s text explains how influential figures sacrificed their personal influence for their conscience despite severe rebuttals from their parties and alliances.

The Walking Dead is a televised American drama series about a group of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse developed by Frank Darabont. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma after the world yields to a zombie plague (Griffiths, 2011). Dazed and confused from months in the hospital he wanders out to figure out why he cannot find anyone alive. He makes his way home only to find his wife and son missing. He sets out to locate his family and finds many other survivors on his journey (Tucker, 2010). The Walking Dead coordinates with many social themes such as

“Is The Catcher in the Rye, as a work of literature still relevant for today’s youth?”

House is a reflection of typical American skepticism about various issues of life. Where today's average American is doubtful about what is going on around him and whether those around him are trust worthy or not, Dr. House is not different than others. Although he is a genius in his own field which makes him self-righteous about his opinions. However he believes that he has been provided with the right to exploit those around him and has been given a complete liberty to overrule their opinions. However, it is true that in many cases, he has been proven right which adds another feather to his hat.