Free Essays on Soldiers Home

Soldier's Home Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingway's stories are ironic, and can be read on a number of levels; Soldier's Home is no exception. Our first impression, having read the title only, is that this story will be about a old soldier living out the remainder of his life in an institution where veterans go to die. We soon find out that the story has nothing to do with the elderly, or institutions; rather, it tells the story of a young man, Harold Krebs, only recently returned from World War I, who has moved back into his parents' house while he figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet our first impression lingers, and with good reason; despite the fact that his parents' comfortable, middle-class lifestyle used to feel like home to Harold Krebs, it no longer does. Harold is not home; he has no home at all. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people (such as college students) returning into the womb of their childhood again. But with Harold,! the situation is more dramatic because he has not only lived on his own, but has dealt with and been traumatized by life-and-death situations his parents could not possibly understand. Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last person in his home town to return home from the war; according to the Kansas City Star, Hemingway himself "left Kansas City in the spring of 1918 and did not return for 10 years, [becoming] 'the first of 132 former Star employees to be wounded in World War I,' according to a Star article at the time of his death" (Kansas City Star, hem6.htm). Wherever he was in the intervening time, by the time Harold gets home, the novelty of the returning soldier has long since worn off. All the other former soldiers have found a niche for themselves in the community, but Harold needs a while longer to get his bearings; he plays pool, "practiced on his clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed" (Hemingway, 146... Free Essays on Soldier's Home Free Essays on Soldier's Home Soldier's Home Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingway's stories are ironic, and can be read on a number of levels; Soldier's Home is no exception. Our first impression, having read the title only, is that this story will be about a old soldier living out the remainder of his life in an institution where veterans go to die. We soon find out that the story has nothing to do with the elderly, or institutions; rather, it tells the story of a young man, Harold Krebs, only recently returned from World War I, who has moved back into his parents' house while he figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet our first impression lingers, and with good reason; despite the fact that his parents' comfortable, middle-class lifestyle used to feel like home to Harold Krebs, it no longer does. Harold is not home; he has no home at all. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people (such as college students) returning into the womb of their childhood again. But with Harold,! the situation is more dramatic because he has not only lived on his own, but has dealt with and been traumatized by life-and-death situations his parents could not possibly understand. Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last person in his home town to return home from the war; according to the Kansas City Star, Hemingway himself "left Kansas City in the spring of 1918 and did not return for 10 years, [becoming] 'the first of 132 former Star employees to be wounded in World War I,' according to a Star article at the time of his death" (Kansas City Star, hem6.htm). Wherever he was in the intervening time, by the time Harold gets home, the novelty of the returning soldier has long since worn off. All the other former soldiers have found a niche for themselves in the community, but Harold needs a while longer to get his bearings; he plays pool, "practiced on his clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed" (Hemingway, 146...

Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian Mathematician

Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian Mathematician Sofia Kovalevskayas father, Vasily Korvin-Krukovsky, was a general in the Russian Army and was part of Russian nobility. Her mother,   Yelizaveta Shubert,  was from a German family with many scholars; her maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were both mathematicians. She was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1850. Background Known for: first woman to hold a university chair in modern Europefirst woman on the editorial staff of a mathematical journal Dates:  January 15, 1850 - February 10, 1891 Occupation:  novelist,  mathematician Also known as:  Also known as: Sonya Kovalevskaya, Sofya Kovalevskaya, Sophia Kovalevskaia, Sonia Kovelevskaya, Sonya Korvin-Krukovsky Learning Mathematics As a young child Sofia Kovalevskaya was fascinated with the unusual wallpaper on the wall of a room on the family estate: the lecture notes of Mikhail Ostrogradsky on differential and integral calculus. Although her father provided her with private tutoring- including calculus at age 15- he would not allow her to study abroad for further education, and Russian universities would not then admit women. But Sofia Kovalevskaya wanted to continue her studies in mathematics, so she found a solution: an amenable young student of paleontology, Vladimir Kovalensky, who entered into a marriage of convenience with her. This allowed her to escape the control of her father. In 1869, they left Russia with her sister, Anyuta. Sonja went to Heidelberg, Germany, Sofia Kovalensky went to Vienna, Austria, and Anyuta went to Paris, France. University Study In Heidelberg, Sofia Kovalevskaya obtained permission of the mathematics professors to allow her to study at the University of Heidelberg. After two years she went to Berlin to study with Karl Weierstrass. She had to study privately with him, as the university in Berlin would not allow any women to attend class sessions, and Weierstrass was unable to get the university to change the rule. With Weierstrass support Sofia Kovalevskaya pursued a degree in mathematics elsewhere, and her work earned her a doctorate sum cumma laude from the University of Gà ¶ttingen in 1874. Her doctoral dissertation on partial differential equations is today called the Cauch-Kovelevskaya Theorem. It so impressed the faculty that they awarded Sofia  Kovalevskaya the doctorate without examination and without her having attended any classes at the university. Looking for Work Sofia Kovalevskaya and her husband returned to Russia after she earned her doctorate. They were unable to find the academic positions they desired. They pursued commercial ventures and produced a daughter as well. Sofia Kovalevskaya began writing fiction, including a novella Vera Barantzova which won sufficient acclaim to be translated into several languages. Vladimir Kovalensky, immersed in a financial scandal for which he was about to be prosecuted, committed suicide in 1883. Sofia Kovalevskaya had already returned to Berlin and mathematics, taking their daughter with her. Teaching and Publishing She became a privatdozent at Stockholm University, paid by her students rather than the university. In 1888 Sofia Kovalevskaya won the Prix Bordin from the French Academie Royale des Sciences for research now called the Kovelevskaya top. This research examined how Saturns rings rotated. She also won a prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1889, and that same year was appointed to a chair at the university- the first woman appointed to a chair at a modern European university. She was also elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences as a member that same year. She only published ten papers before her death from influenza in 1891, after a trip to Paris to see Maxim Kovalensky, a relative of her late husband with whom she was having a love affair. A lunar crater on the far side of the moon from Earth and an asteroid were both named in her honor. Sources Ann Hibner Koblitz. A Convergence of Lives: Sofia Kovalevskaia: Scientist, Writer, Revolutionary. 1993 reprint.Roger Cooke. The Mathematics of Sonya Kovalevskaya. 1984.Linda Keene, editor. The Legacy of Sonya Kovalevskaya: Proceedings of a Symposium. 1987.