Flowers For Algernon And Other Stories Essays - Brill, Algernon

Flowers For Algernon And Other Stories The most obvious contrast between Flowers for Algernon and other short stories, such as "A & P" and "Miss Brill" is the length. But length is not the topic for this short essay. The predominant difference, besides length, is the number of fully realized characters in the story. In "A & P" and "Miss Brill" the only fully developed characters are Sammy in "A & P" and Miss Brill in "Miss Brill." In the short story "A & P" by John Updike, there is a character, Sammy, who is shown experiencing about 15 minutes (maybe less) of life in a market. Besides Sammy, the rest of the people in the story are basically cardboard characters that create conflict for Sammy. The reader never really gets to know the store manager or the girls because they are all looked at through the eyes of Sammy. In a longer story, other characters might have been fleshed out and given more complex and real personalities instead of acting as catalysts for the plot. In the short story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield, there is a character, Miss Brill who is a completely developed character. The other characters in the story?the people in the park and the two teenagers on the bench next to her?only help to develop Miss Brill further. The reader never knows any of the supporting characters (if they can even be called supporting). Just as in "A & P" they are nothing more than catalysts. In the long short story "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon is, indeed, the main character. In this story however, he is not the only character. The other characters in the story are not just things to move the plot along and develop Charlie as a character, but are full characters themselves. Alice, Charlie's "love interest" cares for Charlie even before the operation. She is conflicted in the way that she wants Charlie to be smarter, but is not so sure of the operation. Her feelings come out pretty obviously in the last scene when Charlie (after his high IQ has dwindled back to where he was, or even less) goes back to class. When she sees him back in the class for people with learning problems, she runs out crying because of what has happened to Charlie. We understand why she does what she does, and also can relate to her feelings and emotions. The difference between stories like "A & P," "Miss Brill," and "Flowers for Algernon" is that short stories present an opportunity to focus on the personality of a single character while longer stories can have a more developed supporting characters. Focusing on only one character does not make a story of any less worth than a story with fifty developed characters. It is just a different style of writing.

Rulers and Reaction Times essays

Rulers and Reaction Times essays The reaction time of ten subjects was measured. The subjects were asked to catch a ruler ten times under five different conditions. The first condition measured the subject's simple reaction time. Each further condition added an additional stimulus and the reaction times were measured. There was a clear increase in reaction time with the addition of further stimulus, however the expected result of a steady increase in response time with the addition of each condition did not occur. The third condition displayed the highest response time where as the final condition displayed the second lowest (after condition 1). Assuming that no design problems in the experiment affected the results, it cannot be concluded that cognitive processes occur in separate order and do not overlap. Given the average reaction time of condition five was lower than condition three, some cognitive adaption may have occurred to lower the response time of the subjects or another reason may exist. One asp ect not covered by the experiment, but important to the results was the error factor. Pre-guessing the experimenter caused a high rate of error, however it lowered the overall results. As the world moves forward with technology, increasing pressure is placed upon humans to be quicker, be smarter and to operate more efficiently. As the population increases systems are being put in place to reduce incidences and accidents occurring. An example of this is a study conducted by Cameron, 1995 examining the influence of specific light colors, motor vehicle braking and the reaction time of the drivers to these specific clouds and conditions to avoid rear end collisions. Donders subtractive method holds that reaction times can be obtained by subtracting the simple reaction time; or subtracting type A from type B etc. (Cameron, 1995). Given this, it stands that the more stimulus provided (or thought processes required), the longer the response time of the subj...