A Yellow Bruise Over His Heart Symbolism in Crime and Punishment - Literature Essay Samples

Fyodor Dostoevskys novel Crime and Punishment is one of the most memorable and substantial literary works in history. It deals with the psychological, emotional, mental, and physical struggles of several residents of nineteenth-century St. Petersburg. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, on whom the novel is centered, commits a heinous double ax murder in order to justify a theory he has hypothesized, but he later realizes how wrong his actions were and that he must confess and seek redemption for his transgressions. Certain people are also placed into his life-people who are wrestling with different problems, but all share a need to be extricated from their lives of sin. Carefully chosen symbols interwoven throughout the novel reflect and magnify the sin and need for redemption in the lives of Raskolnikov and his acquaintances. Dostoevskys masterful and generous use of symbolism-most notably with the color yellow, water, and insects-emphasizes the themes of Crime and Punishment and the st ruggles of its characters. Numerous references are made to the color yellow, a hue which symbolizes the moral, physical, and mental decay of those in its presence. It is introduced quite early in the work, where it is noted that the yellowish dusty wall-paper peeling off the walls gave it a wretchedly shabby appearance (Dostoevsky 23). This setting creates a tone which matches Raskolnikovs mood that morning-bilious, peevish, and irritable (23). It also hints at the decay that Raskolnikov is already experiencing. His landladys servant, Nastasya, notes this when she brings him some tea and then exclaims that he will waste away if he does not drink it (23). She is, of course, simply addressing a physical type of decay (at least consciously); however, Raskolnikovs deterioration is of a much broader scope. It begins even before he decides to commit the murder of Alyona Ivanovna, the disagreeable pawnbroker, and her sister Lizaveta. The murder itself, however, causes him to fall into a de lirium that intensifies his decay, exhibited by his inability to maintain composure when summoned to the police station (on the completely unrelated charge that he owes back rent). His tension builds throughout his stay in the police office, and he finally faints. When he comes to, someone offers him a dirty tumbler filled with yellowish water (Dostoevsky 89). The presence of the color yellow, again, signifies the presence of decay; and Raskolnikovs fainting episode shows that he is beginning to lose his grip on sanity. However, Raskolnikov is not the only character suffering from decay. Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, an acquaintance whom Raskolnikov met in a bar, struggles with an alcohol addiction. He tells Raskolnikov that he drinks in order to multiply his sufferings (12), which he, like many other Russians of his day, believes will lead him to salvation. His lack of understanding in how true salvation is found demonstrates moral decay. Later, when Marmeladov lies dying after b eing accidentally run over by a horse and carriage, a yellow bruise-left by the horses hoof crushing him, forms over his heart. Here again is a blatant sign of his moral and spiritual decay. In addition, Marmeladovs daughter Sonya suffers from the effects of her fathers spiritual decay. His drinking habit has left his family destitute, and the only manner in which Sonya can provide for her consumptive stepmother and three young stepsiblings is through prostitution. In that time, all prostitutes had to register with the state and carried a yellow card as a form of identification. Sonyas yellow card represents her physical degradation. Decay also touches Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigaylov, an acquaintance of Raskolnikovs who engages in a lifestyle of debauchery and self-indulgence. When he checks into a hotel-the night before he commits suicide, unable to bear the reality of his hopeless life any longer-he notices that the wall-paper was dirty and fadedalthough its original color (yellow) could still be guessed at, it was quite impossible to make out its pattern (Dostoevsky 426). The yellow wallpaper surrounding Svidrigaylov mirrors his spiritual death and indeed the physical death that will soon surround him. Dostoevsky also includes numerous other, more subtle appearances of the color yellow, which show decay in the lives of more minor characters. Peter Petrovich Luzhin, for example, is attempting to marry Raskolnikovs younger sister-simply because he knows that she will be grateful to him for sharing his money with her and her destitute family and will thus serve him hand and foot. During the funeral dinner that Marmeladovs wife throw in her husbands honor, Sonya notices that Luzhin is wearing a thick, heavy, and very beautiful gold ring with a yellow stone on the middle finger of that [left] hand (315). The fact that this symbol of death and decay pervades the novel shows that nearly every character is trapped in some destructive vice. The characters in Crime and Punishment who refuse redemption also shy away from its symbol, water; however, those who desire to be redeemed are fascinated by it.Water holds the terror of death for the corrupt Svidrigaylov, who confirms his depravity by thinking, Never in my life could I stand water, not even on a landscape painting. Water, instead of being an instrument of life, becomes for him a hateful, avenging menace during the last hours of his life (Gibian 529). Svidrigaylovs aversion to water is severe and truly excessive, and in fact he feels cold at the mere thought of the river Neva (Gibian 529). It is thus extremely ironic that he chooses a cold, stormy evening as the night in which he will take his life. As he walks, looking for a suitable place to shoot himself (and indeed walking toward the little Neva), a thick milky mist covers the city (Dostoevsky 432). For Svidrigaylov, water is instead of being a positive forcethe appropriate setting for the taking of his own life (Gibian 530). Raskolnikov , in contrast, seemed to be drawn to water==as he was later drawn to confession and redemption. Even before the murder, he has a daydream in which he is in an oasis in Egypt, drinking water from a stream which flowed babbling beside him, clear and cool, running marvelously bright and blue over the colored stones (Dostoevsky 58). This shows that Raskolnikov is feeling the need for redemption even before he commits the transgression (also hinted by his emphatic renunciation of his plans after a dream in which an old mare was brutally beaten and killed). After the murder, Raskolnikov is tormented with a dream in which Ilya Petrovich (the head police clerk) is beating his landlady. This dream symbolizes his fear of being caught-and immediately after he awakens, he asks Nastasya for a drink. She returns with a white earthenware mug full of water (99). The presence of water immediately after his premonition of being caught signifies his desperate need to confess before he is found. Raskol nikov later contemplates suicide by drowning after watching a woman attempt to drown herself in the river Neva; however, he then decides that its disgustingwaterno good (145). The fact that he spurns the water at this moment reveals that he also spurns the idea of confession and redemption at this time. The battle is not lost with Raskolnikov, however (Gibian 530). In the final scene of the novel, Raskolnikov is working at the riverbank where they calcined gypsum (Dostoevsky 462), and he gazes across the river at the nomads, longing for their freedom. In this instance water symbolizes liberation-and when Sonya later visits him\, his heart holds endless springs of life for her (463). Water is now an unabashedly positive symbol for Raskolnikov, because he has sought and received redemption. The impoverished flats in which many of St. Petersburgs residents live are often infested with trapped flies, spiders, and other insects-and Dostoevsky uses these insects as tiny symbols of the mor al and spiritual traps into which Raskolnikov and others have fallen. During his third dream, Raskolnikov attempts to beat Alyona; however, instead of dying, she simply grows smaller and smaller, all the while laughing at him. Meanwhile, a fly is buzzing plaintively at the window (235). The confined fly is a reflection of Raskolnikov, who is trapped in several ways. He is ensnared in his Extraordinary Man theory (which stipulates that some extraordinary men are born with the right to overstep legal boundaries if it is for the general good of mankind) which has failed abysmally-represented by his failure to kill Alyona-and also by his terror at being caught. Svidrigaylov is another character whose perverse actions have trapped him-so much so that he envisions the afterlife as only one little room, something like a bath-house in the countrywith spiders in every corner, and that is the whole of eternity (245). He sees no way to release himself except by suicide-and the morning that he kills himself, he wakes up to see newly awakened flies clustered on the untouched veal (431), an obvious allusion to his own feelings of entrapment. Raskolnikov later compares himself to a spider as well, saying that he lurked in the corner like a spider (352) and that like a spider, [I] spent the rest of my life catching everybody in my web and sucking the life-blood out of them (Dostoevsky 354). This comparison is ironic, since Svidrigaylov has already described his spidery eternity (Matlaw 608). Raskolnikovs use of the spider image, then, indicates again, and justifies Svidrigaylovs claim, that there is something in common between us' (608). Indeed, both these characters feel trapped in their sinful lives of moral decay. The difference between them, of course, is how they attempt to extricate themselves-Raskolnikov chooses to confess his sin, and Svidrigaylov chooses to end his life. Through the images of spiders and flies, Dostoevsky links these two characters together and shows how they have both been trapped by the choices they have made. The many objects used as symbols in Crime and Punishment lead readers to a greater understanding of both the growth of the characters and the themes presented throughout the work. [Dostoevskys] deft use of symbolism gives his novel added power and effectiveness (Gibian 543), because it unites various characters and links them with the themes of moral decay, suffering, entrapment in ones sins, and redemption through confession. These symbols are most important in that they connect Raskolnikov with other characters that mirror parts of his personality and parts of his psychological struggles. These images and connections reinforce the many characters and themes in the minds of readers, making Crime and Punishment among the most stimulating and unforgettable works of literature today. BibliographyDostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Nortons Critical Edition. Ed. George Gibian. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.Gibian, Geo rge. Traditional Symbolism in Crime and Punishment. Crime and Punishment. Nortons Critical Edition. Ed. George Gibian. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1989, 526-543. Matlaw, Ralph E.. Recurrent Imagery in Crime and Punishment. Crime and Punishment. Nortons Critical Edition. Ed. George Gibian. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1989, 606-609.

Philosophy Tutor Crafting the Claim

Patience you must have, young Jedi. The blank page you must respect. In my last post I commented on the distinctive blend of scientific and humanistic ideals that inform good philosophical writing. I also recommended copying out passages from the great philosophical stylists as a way of getting a feel for it. But we cannot learn by imitation alone. So in this post I’d like to discuss some general principles for writing a good philosophical essay. The point of the vast majority of philosophical essays today is to make one claim of some philosophical significance and to provide rigorous argumentation for it. So the first step in writing the essay is to decide what the primary claim will be. While seemingly straightforward, this approach is usefully contrasted with other, not so good ways to approach writing a philosophy paper. Such approaches include: wanting to write a paper on the general topic of X (where X is one’s philosophical hobby horse of the moment); needing to write a paper of some specified length and trying to figure out how to meet the length requirement; aspiring to write a paper that shows how all of one’s deep, secret philosophical convictions fit together into one great picture of reality. The first step is also harder than one might expect. As a philosophy tutor, my students are consistently tempted to try to fit what are actually multiple distinct claims into one â€Å"big† one. After years of working at it, I continue to find the same temptation in myself. I think the temptation stems from fear of triviality or from the desire to say something as informative as possible. Such desires are necessary in social, communicative beings like ourselves. But, as I’ve emphasized previously, the philosophical enterprise values precision, clarity, and rigor of reasoning in a way that obviates the usual weight of such concerns. In philosophy, an issue clarified, or an old thesis argued in a novel way that avoids old objections trumps concerns about triviality. So a claim as simple and straightforward sounding as â€Å"the standard definitions of knowledge are wrong† can be the basis for a much better philosophy paper than something seemingly more profound sou nding like: â€Å"knowledge is both more and less important than fundamentally conceived of by the entire Western tradition†. (In fact, the former is the basic claim of one of the most influential philosophy papers of the last 50 years, available here). Now, I was careful above to use the language of â€Å"claims†, which I think of as generally having larger scope than â€Å"thesis†. Not every good piece of philosophical writing needs to advance a â€Å"thesis† in the sense of taking up a position on a controversial philosophical problem. One can â€Å"simply† raise new philosophical problems or argue that a current debate is not making progress because a crucial distinction is not being made. One’s â€Å"claim†, then, can be that a previously unrecognized philosophical puzzle exists or that there exists a conceptual distinction that might be potentially very useful. Nelson Goodman’s raising of â€Å"the new riddle of induction† in his classic Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, was far more influential than his own offered solution (no doubt, in my opinion, because of his greater clarity and strength of argumentation with regard to raising the riddle than with trying to solve it). So identifying and formulating a main claim is the key to getting a philosophy paper started. It will determine how one approaches the next essential piece of good philosophical writing, the argumentation. The nature of one’s main claim will determine what kind of argument is best, how long the argument needs to be, and so on. And the formulation of the claim will determine how one situates the argument within the existing literature, i.e., what kinds of comparisons and clarifications need to be made. There is much to be said about good guidelines for approaching these aspects of philosophical writing. While you are all busy formulating claims for your next great philosophical pieces, I’ll be preparing thoughts for you on how to develop and present arguments for them.

Stress and Accent Marks in Spanish

Knowing how letters are pronounced is only one aspect of learning Spanish pronunciation. Another key aspect is knowing which syllable should be stressed, that is, the one that gets the most vocal emphasis. Fortunately, Spanish has only three basic rules of stress, and there are very few exceptions. Rules for Spanish Stress and Accent Marks Spanish uses the acute accent mark (one that rises from left to right) to indicate stress in certain words. The grave and circumflex accent marks are not used. Essentially, the accent mark is used if following the first two rules below dont correctly indicate which syllable is getting the stress: If a word without an accent mark ends in a vowel, n, or s, the stress is on the penultimate (next to last) syllable. For example, toro, computadora, joven. and zapatos all have their accent on the next-to-last syllable. Most words fit this category.A word without an accent mark that ends in other letters has the stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, matador, and virtud all have the accent on the final syllable.If a word isnt pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example, comà ºn, là ¡piz, mà ©dico, inglà ©s, and ojalà ¡ all have the stress on the indicated syllable. The only exceptions to the above are some words of foreign origin, generally, words adopted from English, that retain their original spelling and often their pronunciation. For example, sandwich is usually spelled without an accent over the initial a, even though the stress is as in English. Similarly, personal names and place names of foreign origin usually are written without accents (unless accents are used in the originating language). Note also that some publications and signs do not use accent marks over capital letters, although for clarity it is better to use them when possible. How Making a Word Plural Can Change the Accent Mark Because words ending in s or n have an accent on the next-to-last syllable, and an -es sometimes is used to make singular words plural, making a word singular or plural can affect the accent mark. This can affect both nouns and adjectives. If a word with two or more syllables and without an accent mark ends in an n, adding -es to the word will require an accent mark to be added. (Nouns and adjective ending in an unstressed vowel followed by s have identical singular and plural forms.) Words in this category are infrequent. joven (singular, youth or young), jà ³venes (plural)crimen (singular, crime), crà ­menes (plural)canon (singular, rule), canà ³nes (rules)aborigen (singular, indigenous), aborà ­genes (plural) More common are singular words that end in n or s and have an accent on the final syllable. When such words or two or more syllables are made plural by adding -es, the accent mark is no longer needed. almacà ©n (singular, warehouse), almacenes (plural)talismà ¡n (singular, lucky charm), talismanes (plural)afiliacià ³n (singular, affiliation), afiliciones (plural)comà ºn (singular, common), comunes (plural) Orthographic Accent Marks Sometimes accent marks are used only to distinguish two similar words, and they dont affect pronunciation because the marks are already on a syllable that is being stressed. For example, el (the) and à ©l (he) are both pronounced the same way, even though they have quite different meanings. Similarly, some words, quien or quià ©n, use accent marks when they appear in questions, but usually not otherwise. Accents that dont affect pronunciation are known as orthographic accents. Here are some of the common words that are affected by an orthographic accent: aun (including), aà ºn (still, yet)como (as, I eat), cà ³mo (how)de (of), dà © (form of dar)que (that), quà © (what)se (reflexive pronoun), sà © (form of saber)si (if), sà ­ (yes) Key Takeaways Spanish words without written accent marks have the stress on the last syllable unless the word ends in s or n, in which case the accent goes on the next-to-last syllable.An accent mark is used to indicate that the stress goes on that syllable where the pattern above isnt followed.Sometimes, an accent mark is used to distinguish meanings between two words that are otherwise spelled alike.

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Calvin Klein Essay - 1410 Words

Neera Bann Professor Hamilton FSHD 1311 October, 7th 2012 Calvin Klein An American Designer By Neera Bann Calvin Richard Klein was born and raised in New York Citys borough of the Bronx. He decided he wanted to be a fashion designer at an early age, most probably as a result of the influence of his grandmother. Leo and Flora Klein were his parents. They both worked in the grocery business. Flora’s mother, Molly Stern was an accomplished seamstress. She operated a notions shop and tailoring business where Calvin spent a lot of time as a child. (Marsh) Calvin attended P.S 80, a public school that a lot of other famous people attended including Penny and Gary Marshall and Ralph Lauren. (Marsh) At P.S 80 he excelled in art†¦show more content†¦(Gaines) Kleins design philosophy is rooted in minimalism. This is what he is known for. He typically uses neutral colors or earth tones and designs separates that work in many different ensembles, from day to night and season to season. At the same time his advertising for jeans and fragrances was being criticized, Calvin Klein clothing was receiving critical acclaim for its clean, modern lines. (Gaines) Time magazine named Klein one of the twenty-five most influential Americans in 1996. Klein won the prestigious Coty Award three times in a row (1973–1975), becoming the youngest designer to ever have that honor. In 1982, 1983, and 1986 he also captured the Council of Fashion Designers of America Award. In addition Klein built a financially strong company with the continued advice and help of partner Barry Schwartz, who guided the company through tough financial times in the late 1980s. Few designers have rivaled his worldwide empire. (Gaines) In late 2002, Calvin Klein, Inc. caught the eye of Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), a company looking to acquire a major brand. As the largest shirt maker in the United States, PVH owned the Van Heusen, IZOD, and G.H Bass brands and had licensing agreements with Geoffrey Beene, Arrow, DKNY, and Kenneth Cole. Under the leadership of CEO Bruce Klatsky, PVH made a play for Calvin Klein and eventually won the battle. Under the terms of the deal, KleinShow MoreRelatedCalvin Klein1056 Words   |  5 PagesCalvin Klein Assignment When people think of Calvin Klein majority will probably have an automatic image of a half-naked chiseled male model with his jeans unbuttoned. This â€Å"natural response,† so to speak, is due to CK’s great effort in connecting sex appeal with its product. CK took a bold, marketing chance with sex appeal and benefited from selling it to the point of controversy. 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That’s a real nice body. You work out? I can tell.† No, it’s not straight out of a steamy romance novel, though it could be. This is just one example of how provocative Calvin Klein’s advertisements have been. Although the ads boosted sales for the Calvin Klein empireRead MoreCk vs Warnaco Essay752 Words   |  4 PagesAlexa Tondi Professor Trachtenberg FM324 Section 75A 17 November 2011 Case Study Assignment: Calvin Klein vs. Warnaco Group Inc. On May 30, 2000 The Calvin Klein family filed a lawsuit against Warnaco Group Inc for eighteen counts of trademark infringement, trademark dilution and intentional misrepresentation. 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In the early 1980’s Calvin Klein was a growing corporation that had been around for over a decade. With the ever growing market of fashion, Calvin Klein has been known for provocative advertising. However risquà © Calvin Klein ads were in the past, his ads today in the 21st century continue to push boundariesRead MoreAdvertisements Are Reflective Of Culture1391 Words   |  6 Pagesinformatively states â€Å"[the] intent of all advertising is to persuade specific audiences† (Hirschberg, p. 291). In the Spring 2017 Calvin Klein advertisement, the company uses the Aristotelian elements â€Å"pathos,† â€Å"logos,† and â€Å"ethos,† and rhetorical strategies by Stuart Hirschberg and William Lutz to drive to now only buy their clothing, but that the purchase of Calvin Klein clothes will lead to a happier life. In the clothing giant’s advertisement there is a couple, a man and a women standing on the

Essay about Using Positive Peer Pressure - 1839 Words

I sat in calculus class waiting impatiently for the teacher to pass back my exam. I look at the grade and then instinctively look behind me. My best friend, Sam, looked rather pleased; she understood this math lesson, and her grade reflected it. ‘One down one to go,’ I thought as I looked to my back left. My other best friend, Lettie, looked confused. I asked her what she got and she said a grade that was lower than mine. I grabbed her paper in disbelief. I compared the grades, and my grade was in fact a point higher. Lettie tried to shrug it off. She said that she just didn’t get it, or that she didn’t care about this little exam, because there were far more important assignments in her life at the time. The excuses were always†¦show more content†¦The story starts off when the men, Sam, George and Rameck, are young boys who live in the ghetto. Each child is surrounded by violence and crime that seems unavoidable. Sam and George become friends in the seventh grade. They meet Rameck when they are all in ninth grade. Together, the three men make a pact to accomplish their dreams together. Although Sam and Rameck had minor brushes with the law, they managed to stay on task and become doctors. George was not influenced easily by negative peer pressure, therefore the only obstacle standing between him and his dream of dentistry was his environment. Sam, George, and Rameck make a pact to do well in school. They used positive peer pressure to persuade each other to do well in all of the assignments that they were given. None of them wanted to negatively stand out in the group, so they used peer pressure to succeed in similar ways. Their pact is similar to my high school experience, except my pact was an unspoken agreement. When I checked my class rank for the first time in ninth grade I was shocked. I was always told that I was such a smart girl, but my student ID number appeared next to the number 71. All of my friends gloated over their accomplishments while I tried to hide my rank. I blamed the sudden GPA drop in marching band and a science teacher that had a very unusual teaching style. While I was in ninth grade, those excuses seemed to work out just fine, but afterShow MoreRelatedAngels And Demons Inside Of Peer Pressure1083 Words   |  5 Pages Angels and Demons Inside of Peer Pressure One day, I asked myself a question: Who I am and how I become who I am? I take art class, instrument class, basketball class afterschool even though I never like them; I skip class in the university to go shopping with my roommate; I am on a strict diet through the whole semester to lose 30 pounds; I study hard to become one of the top student; I stay humble and helpful both inside and outside of the classroom; I join student council and many student clubsRead MoreWho I Am My Life?1077 Words   |  5 Pagesit anyway to please my peers, gain their acceptance, and maintain my popularity. After so many years, these things have become part of me and shaped who I am at some point. We as human beings live in the society through interactions with peers, and peer pressure has a great impact on us, negatively or positively. Peer pressure refers to the social pressure by members of one’s peer group to take a certain action, adopt a certain value, in order to fit in with a certain peer group. Consequently, itRead MorePeer Pressure : Positive Or Negative?947 Words   |  4 PagesDon’t be peer pressured into being less than you are† (Steve Maraboli). This quote means that negative peer pressure can result in an individual acting out and behaving in a manner that is a downgrade from the person that is true to society. Often time, the community imagines peer pressure as teens influencing one another to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sexual intercourse. But really all peer pressure is, is the encouragement of changing values and behaviors of an individual. Peer pressure canRead MoreA Standard Multiple Regression Was Performed Investigating The Effect Of Age710 Words   |  3 Pagesperceived peer pressure about environmentally conscious behaviour, and selfishness on participation in e nvironmentally conscious behaviour. Preliminary results indicated that higher scores on peer pressure were associated with higher scores on behaviour. Results also indicated that there were no significant relationships between scores on age, gender or selfishness, and scores on behaviour. Results indicated that higher scores on selfishness were associated with higher scores on peer pressure. HoweverRead MorePeer Pressure1468 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Peer pressure is a social influence exerted on an individual by others in order to get that person to act or believe in a similar way. It is used by a social group, often with the implication that everybodys doing it. 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Research Instrument A self-designed instrument titled â€Å"Social values and Sexual Morality Questionnaire† was used for the study and data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as Percentage Scores, Mean, Standard Deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test. The instrument contained 25 items which sought information on the level of university

Why Creativity is Important free essay sample

Although some would argue that the education system we have today is sufficient, evidence and experts retort that notion and assert instead the necessity of taking a creatively driven approach to education in order for students to obtain future success. Sir Ken Robinson’s article referring to creativity as the most crucial 21st century skill and his Ted talk about the ballerina that became a multimillionaire after being allowed to express her creativity, both highlight the necessity of permitting students to explore their creative sides and allowing them to build a future with it, leading to success in the long-term. In order for kids to be personally invested in their education, schools need to find ways to invigorate and impassion them. According to Robinson, the United States has a 30 percent high school dropout rate, and it gets even worse in minority communities where dropout rates are as high as 80 percent. Clearly, there is something wrong with the education system for the numbers to be that high. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Creativity is Important or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page We are not stimulating them but rather alienating them from their own talents. If we are not appealing to their creativity then students gradually lose interest and what we are left with is a generation of potentially very talented individuals who were taught that their original ideas are not as important as the quadratic formula. Without the flow of innovative ideas, there would be less technological advancement, fewer jobs, and an even higher high school dropout rate. Thus, it is crucial that we encourage the usage of creativity now to increase the flow of innovative ideas and grant students success in the long-term. In his Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson refers to a famous dancer that, as a child, was sent to the doctor by her mother for having a short attention span that caused her to do poorly in school. However, she was gifted in a way that the school and her mother had failed to see. Upon seeing her dance, the doctor had declared that there was nothing wrong with her, she’s merely a dancer and he insisted that she register at a dance school. If she had gone to any other doctor, she might not have been as successful in life as she is now. By reinforcing her love of dance, her creative ability, the doctor had allowed her to explore her own talents instead of doing what the  school had tried to do, which was to systematically teach her something that didn’t interest her and suck the love of dance out of her. People perform better when they’re in touch with things that inspire them; therefore establishing a system based upon creativity will engross students and cause them to be more involved in school while being connected to their passions and yield future success. The school system we have today is not serving its purpose to its fullest. It is far too often crushing original ideas and trying to replace it with words in textbooks and formulas, and although words in textbooks and formulas are important in their own way, creativity is no less as important and its time people stop pretending it is. Through that evidence provided by Sir Ken Robinson and the success of the ballerina who was given the opportunity to scrutinize her creative capacity, it is clear that schools need to reorganize and approach education in a creative way now in order to provide students with success in the future.