Theses - Honors College
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2104/8111
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Browsing Theses - Honors College by Subject "9/11."
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Item The Death of Heroism: Revenge and Fate in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut and Jonathan Safran Foer(2014-04-29) Gillie, Ashtyn; Dell, Elizabeth; English.; Baylor University.; Honors College.The concept of heroism is a pervasive idea in literature. Figures such as Odysseus, Oedipus and Hamlet have shaped our perception of what it means to be a hero in the midst of hardship and tragedy; namely, these characters seek revenge in reaction to the overwhelming power of divine fate in the lives of humanity. However, in the postmodern age, brought on by the unprecedented widescale destruction of 20th century warfare, many writers have expressed the idea that traditional heroism is incompatible with the problems faced by a postmodern society. In this thesis, I explore the ways in which the theme of heroism is portrayed in three postmodern novels; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, as well as Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, which are all connected by their exploration of the most influential and destructive events of the 20th and 21st centuries-the Holocaust, the bombing of Dresden, and the terrorist attacks of September 11. I seek to illustrate that with these novels, the authors utilize traditional characteristics of heroism in order to demonstrate the ways in which they fail to provide meaning and validation for these intense acts of violence and devastation.Item "Terrorist Threat," Punitive Public Policy, and the Intersectionality of Racial and Religious Prejudice(2018-05-21) Story, Cassidy; Park, Jerry Z.; Sociology.; Honors College.Following the events of September 11, 2001, the concept of “terrorist threat” intensified and the demand for public policy protecting American citizens from subsequent attacks accompanied more overt prejudicial attitudes and discrimination towards Muslim Americans and/or those of Middle Eastern descent. The intersectionality of race and religion is especially prevalent and dangerous, since individuals are clustered together based on demographic characteristics associated with terrorist groups, regardless of obvious differences in religious ideology or race/ethnicity. This study examines stereotypes and perceived threat for three groups: Muslim Americans, Arab immigrants, and Middle Eastern refugees. After administering a survey and analyzing the data of over 1,400 Amazon Mechanical Turk respondents, I find that all three groups are viewed as equivalent in stereotyping and level of perceived threat. Furthermore, such perceived threat results in the support for punitive public policies targeting all three groups, regardless of differences in race/ethnicity and religion.