Self-imposed Isolation Essay -- Literary Analysis, Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prolific writer, weaving some of the best-known stories in American literature. While Hawthorne’s works tend to focus around the Puritan themes of sin, he was usually critical of Puritan ideals. Some of Hawthorne’s works (â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil†, and The Scarlet Letter) have characters living life outside of their Puritan communities and can be classified as outsider narratives. Young Goodman Brown, Reverend Hooper, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Hester Prynne are all outsiders in their communities, but what makes the characters unique is that they chose to be outsiders. The Scarlet Letter, perhaps Hawthorne’s most famous work, is also an excellent example of an outsider narrative: most major characters introduced in the book can be labeled as outsiders. The most obvious examples of outsiders in the book are Hester and Dimmesdale, though Dimmesdale’s isolation is subtler in the eyes of his community. Stromberg argues that Hawthorne uses these outsider figures as stand-ins for the Devil (275). While Hester and Dimmesdale are quite obviously outsiders, it seems odd to say that they are representative of the Devil since Chillingworth seems to transform into an unsavory character throughout the book. However, Stromberg does express the core reason why Hester and Dimmesdale can be considered outsiders in the eyes of the Puritan community: The mark of the [Devil], which both Hester and Dimmesdale war in their different ways, is the sign of disassociation from community, the sin which they committed in violating the laws of their society, and which they commit again in the desire to make themselves happy at the expense of everyone around them. (275) Happiness, a force that usually brings ... ... coined. Though Hawthorne’s characters had a choice, they always took the choice that led them away from their community. However, it seems that Hawthorne did not see this as a terrible option: when his characters turn away from their society, their life becomes more enlightened. Enlightenment, it seems, is more importantly that belonging in Hawthorne’s opinion. For the two ministers, Dimmesdale and Hooper, the departure from society is quite effective in their professional careers as the new outlook on life makes them more powerful preachers. With Hester and Brown, though there is some doubt on how their lives benefitted from their exit from community. Still, if the characters are viewed through a philosophical lens, their egress is of great benefit to them. By exiting the community Hawthorne’s characters find what they have all been searching for: enlightenment. Self-imposed Isolation Essay -- Literary Analysis, Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prolific writer, weaving some of the best-known stories in American literature. While Hawthorne’s works tend to focus around the Puritan themes of sin, he was usually critical of Puritan ideals. Some of Hawthorne’s works (â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil†, and The Scarlet Letter) have characters living life outside of their Puritan communities and can be classified as outsider narratives. Young Goodman Brown, Reverend Hooper, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Hester Prynne are all outsiders in their communities, but what makes the characters unique is that they chose to be outsiders. The Scarlet Letter, perhaps Hawthorne’s most famous work, is also an excellent example of an outsider narrative: most major characters introduced in the book can be labeled as outsiders. The most obvious examples of outsiders in the book are Hester and Dimmesdale, though Dimmesdale’s isolation is subtler in the eyes of his community. Stromberg argues that Hawthorne uses these outsider figures as stand-ins for the Devil (275). While Hester and Dimmesdale are quite obviously outsiders, it seems odd to say that they are representative of the Devil since Chillingworth seems to transform into an unsavory character throughout the book. However, Stromberg does express the core reason why Hester and Dimmesdale can be considered outsiders in the eyes of the Puritan community: The mark of the [Devil], which both Hester and Dimmesdale war in their different ways, is the sign of disassociation from community, the sin which they committed in violating the laws of their society, and which they commit again in the desire to make themselves happy at the expense of everyone around them. (275) Happiness, a force that usually brings ... ... coined. Though Hawthorne’s characters had a choice, they always took the choice that led them away from their community. However, it seems that Hawthorne did not see this as a terrible option: when his characters turn away from their society, their life becomes more enlightened. Enlightenment, it seems, is more importantly that belonging in Hawthorne’s opinion. For the two ministers, Dimmesdale and Hooper, the departure from society is quite effective in their professional careers as the new outlook on life makes them more powerful preachers. With Hester and Brown, though there is some doubt on how their lives benefitted from their exit from community. Still, if the characters are viewed through a philosophical lens, their egress is of great benefit to them. By exiting the community Hawthorne’s characters find what they have all been searching for: enlightenment.

International Copyright Circumvention Essay -- Technology Copyright Es

International Copyright Circumvention A little under three years ago, I heard about a case where a programmer had been arrested for a program that bypassed the copy protection mechanisms in one of Adobe's products1. People who have published information on or performed security circumvention in the past, even when done in a non-destructive manner have faced some legal problems. Specifically, it reminded by of the Kevin Mitnick case2 a few years earlier. In that case, a hacker was detained for two years, without bail, pending a trial, for gaining access to (but not damaging) several corporate networks. This new case however had an different twist - the security circumvention was done only to let people access documents that they already had a right to have, and it was done outside the United States. That raises issues regarding the United States having any right to do what they did, and even if they did have the right, was a wrong even committed. This case is an example of something which a decade earlier would never have even been considered to be illegal. But, it falls into in of the heavily opposed section 12013 of the new Digital Millenium Copyright Act which tries to halt circumvention of anti-piracy measures. There was opposition before the law passed, but it became stronger when the DVD CAA tried to oppress distribution of the DeCSS - code that could bypass the encryption used on DVDs.4 (this was before the Abode case) The intended purpose of DeCSS was to facilitate the development of an open-source DVD player. There were no DVD players for Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, or any of the other operating systems that now have DVD players thanks to the DeCSS code. However, if the DVD can be decrypted and decompressed, it can also be re-compressed and re-distributed in another medium more practical for bootleggers, such as VideoCDs. (Which could also be done simply by playing the DVD in a normal DVD player, recording the output, just not producing as high quality results.) At the time no such re-encoding tools were available, and such behavior would be protected under traditional fair use for personal backups. Furthermore, the code was released anonymously by someone outside the United States. This lead to an initial attack using trade secret laws (The DMCA's anti-circumvention aren't protected by international treaties on copyright such as the Berne c... ...umvention tools is and has been illegal anyway. And trying to aggressively impose the views of our companies on our countries is certainly uncalled for. Works Cited "Fallout From Def Con: Ebook Hacker Arrested by FBI", Slashdot. July 2001 http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/17/130226&mode=thread&tid=93 (for more from Slashdot on the case: http://yro.slashdot.org/search.pl?query=Sklyarov) "Free Kevin Mitnick" http://www.freekevin.com/ "Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA", Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/unintended_consequences.php "CSS and DeCSS", DeCSS Central, http://www.lemuria.org/DeCSS/decss.html "Berne Covention for the Protection of Literary and Scientific Works" http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html "Enforcement of DMCA Criminal Penalties Suffers Setback", Copright Corner. March 2003. http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/Copy-corner53.htm Locke, John. "Two Treatise of Government" Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1967. http://www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/locke/government.pdf "Constitution for the United States of America" September, 1787. http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm