*****Wings of Rand*****

The Fountainhead engages the reader to question the long established standard moral integrity in a world openly fueled by the machine of progress. In other words "Greed is Good" with this simple key the core essential to Rand's "The Fountainhead" comes into full perspective for the reader.

#2 ******Wings of Hawthorne*******

The Symbols of a Scrupulous Mind: Roses from the Rosebush

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a true writer of distinction in his most acclaimed work of fiction The Scarlet Letter. The story satisfies a keen study of the metaphysical state of human nature, society, and religion in which the author fashions the grim parable of Hester Prynne, her struggle in a harsh Puritanical society as the chagrined outcast condemned the walking exemplified sin. Indeed the “Parable of Hester Prynne” as it is the issue of morality The Scarlet Letter ensues to inflame in its audience. In this manner the shear artistry of Hawthorne comes into full effect in the form of symbols to typify the internal turmoil conflicting in the thoughts and feelings of the characters and the atmosphere of their situation. Symbols throughout the story are infused so perfectly and timely that they resonate the profound statement that Hawthorne reflects in his novel.  Passion and Death are the symbols that Hawthorne most explicitly utilizes in different forms to achieve this statement: With the idea of God came the dogma of divinity or the symbol of “holiness” on earth, with this came a price, to now judge a human upon a pedestal of divine province gave the multitude of humanity the wallows upon the mud of inferiority, and evidently the impulse came for those sons and daughters of the mud to surround the few, the unorthodox, the passionate and burn them alive, rip them to pieces, and fling them to the sea (figuratively, but at early movements in our history, yes, very much so were the persecutions waged by religious beliefs bloody and violent).

The character of Hester is one such symbol of this statement. Her situation in itself typifies the social complex of the Puritanical society where conduct was largely based on a rigid religious decorum. The entirety of her life from the point of dying on the scaffold a woman of reverence and dignity to the rebirth as a starkly scarlet sinner in the eyes of the people, the crude mud people, illustrates the act of mentally displacing this woman to a position outside the limits of orthodox. Hester symbolizes the scared sinner thrown to a roaring sea without the security of a society to take her and keep her. But instead she grows as a wild rose in the midst of the sea. For her life symbolized the strength of a woman set against all odds and prejudice of her past. She became the true independent woman to show what it means to stand up against a society’s norms, not as a statement of blind rebellion, but fidelity and a will to live beyond herself. This symbol, that of which means more to us now than ever, is of love. For upon which occasion would someone sacrifice themselves to an agony worse than death, the constant tremor of a living death, a social death? Her life was a testament of her will to survive the hardship of living with a constant reminder of a “sin” all around her.

The Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was the complete opposite of Hester in the eyes of the public. To them never could there live such a perfect man, a pure soul, a pinnacle of holiness on God’s green Earth. But he was not so in his own heart, he shared the “sin” of love with Hester, but could not publically denounce himself to the people of his society for fear of the disillusion he might create of his followers. In this instance Hawthorne has created a landscape of the two tortured souls, living in this same society and bearing the same sin, yet under the circumstances of the public eye are in completely different levels of reverence. Hester is the unorthodox, the one in the sea, and in the story she gives her time to helping the weak and less fortunate and displays the greatest acts of sympathy and courage of all the townspeople. Yet she is the one offered the least respect and caring by all around her, she is given insults and weary glances as she moves through the town like a ghost thanks to them, but she does not bend to this provocation and chooses to walk the path of good intentions instead of loathe for her punishers. While Mr. Dimmesdale is on the highest grounds of society, his heart is in the same position as Hester’s. Evidently the torment kills him, but it was the manner in which both took it that gives greatest insight into the morality symbolized by their struggle. The juxtaposition of their lives intertwines to symbolize the ultimate conflict in the novel, the two paths, Dimmesdale and Hester, the one in shadows to give off day, and the one in sunlight to give some shade. Hawthorne wrote this novel and gave it a lasting symbol of honor, to where it lies, in the highest peaks of man’s knowledge to echo in the mind’s collective, or in the lowest places closest to the Earth where man is suffering from day to day.

#1******Wings of Tony******

      Tony Kushner is an American playwright of great distinction. One of his most provocative works is a two part controversial study of homosexuality through the effects of society on homosexuals. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes is composed of many scenes throughout the lives of memorable characters as they discover themselves and the horrors and beauties of humanity entangled in their lives not because of what they are but because they are.
        Most of Tony Kushner's work is characterized by a departure from realism incorporating spectacular displays of fantasy and vivid ideas through the use of carefully placed moments of action and reaction. This style of his acts as a way to capture and hold the audience to attention in order to open their minds to social and political problems in our world today. In this way Tony Kushner is a very influential voice of America's modern fears and sorrows of homosexuality but most importantly a pledge to the incredible ability of words.