An American Tragedy vs A Place in the Sun Essay Example

An American Tragedy vs A Place in the Sun Essay Example An American Tragedy vs A Place in the Sun Paper An American Tragedy vs A Place in the Sun Paper Often, movie adaptations of novels will have many variances. These inconsistencies can change major themes in the story. Such differences appear between Theodore Dressers An American Tragedy and its film adaptation, A Place in the Sun. The films title has a light-hearted and paradisiacal implication, in contrast to the novels title, which suggests hopelessness and suffering. These titles mirror the overall thematic difference in the two versions. The novel blatantly exposes the reality of American society to illustrate how the American dream is an illusion, whereas the film focuses on the consequences that result from foolishness. In An American Tragedy, Cycles downfall is caused by tragic flaws deeply ingrained in American Society. Dresser includes characters from every spectrum of social class and exposes their faults. Both Hornets Briggs and Sandra Finley feign interest in Clyde for their own benefit. Hornets is a lower class Kansas City girl who manipulates Clyde in search of material possessions. Sandra, a wealthy and beautiful woman, shows interest in Clyde to irritate Gilbert Griffith. Dresser introduces many other characters with this same self-centered attitude, such as Orville Mason, the district attorney. It looks to be the biggest and most important case in all my term in office, and if we can only clean it up satisfactorily and quickly, before things break here this fall, it made do us all some good, eh? (532). Orville does not see Cycles case as a fight for Justice, but an easy win for his political standing. Dresser includes these details to highlight the harsh intentions and motivations of Americans. This consistency in motive emphasizes the theme that Americans have a toxic obsession with personal gain that drives many individuals, regardless of class. Clyde is manipulated and his mind is irrupted by people trying to achieve what they think is the American dream, when in reality there is no such thing. Clyde becomes obsessed with being on top both economically and socially, driving him to commit the murder that ultimately leads to his death. In A Place in the Sun, George (Clyde) is led to committing murder not by his obsession with obtaining the American dream, but by his infatuation with Angela (Sandra). The movie focuses less on society and more on the individual. Georges intention to murder Alice (Roberta) to be with Angela exposes his own selfishness, UT his actions are Justified by love. The film skips the first part of the novel, which expands on why Clyde desires to achieve the American Dream. Because of this omission, the theme of the story is changed. Instead of being pulled to the top by greed, the film suggests that George is motivated by love. Georges foolishness in dealing with his two relationships results in Lices accidental drowning. This presents the theme that love can lead to good as well as evil. George is not corrupted by society, (as in the novel), but wrapped up in a situation caused by his own, individual folly. The title of the film suggests this same theme. George is introduced to this place in the sun of luxury, wealth and beautiful women, but his mistakes lead him in another direction. The differing themes between the novel and the film are the novels idea of the tragedy of American society and the films focus on individual mistakes. Dresser portrays characters as greedy and manipulative, while the film portrays them as foolishly in love. The reasons behind this inconsistency may more light-hearted because its purpose is more to entertain, while the novel may be meant to be intellectually profound.

Allelic Drift - Definition

Genetic Drift / Allelic Drift - Definition Definition: Genetic drift is defined as the changing of the number of available alleles in a population by chance events. Also called allelic drift, this phenomenon is usually due to a very small gene pool or population size. Unlike natural selection, it is a random, chance event that causes genetic drift and it depends solely on statistical chance instead of desirable traits being passed down to offspring. Unless the population size increases through more immigration, the number of available alleles gets smaller with every generation. Genetic drift happens by chance and can make an allele disappear completely from a gene pool, even if it was a desirable trait that should have been passed down to offspring. The random sampling style of genetic drift shrinks the gene pool and therefore alters the frequency the alleles are found in the population. Some alleles are completely lost within a generation due to genetic drift. This random change in the gene pool can affect the speed of evolution of a species. Instead of taking several generations to see a change in allele frequency, genetic drift can cause the same affect within a single generation or two. The smaller the population size, the greater the chance of genetic drift occurring. Larger populations tend to function through natural selection much more than genetic drift due to the sheer number of alleles that are available for natural selection to work on as compared to smaller populations. The Hardy-Weinberg equation cannot be used on small populations where genetic drift is the main contributor to diversity of alleles. Bottleneck Effect One specific cause of genetic drift is the bottleneck effect, or population bottleneck. The bottleneck effect occurs when a larger population shrinks significantly in size in a short amount of time. Usually, this decrease in population size is generally due to a random environmental affect like a natural disaster or spread of disease. This rapid loss of alleles makes the gene pool much smaller and some alleles are completely eliminated from the population. Out of necessity, populations that have experienced population bottleneck increase the instances of inbreeding to build the numbers back up to an acceptable level. However, inbreeding does not increase diversity or numbers of possible alleles and instead just increases the numbers of the same types of alleles. Inbreeding can also increase the chances of random mutations within DNA. While this may increase the number of alleles available to be passed down to offspring, many times these mutations express undesirable traits such as disease or reduced mental capacity. Founders Effect Another cause of genetic drift is called founders effect. The root cause of founders effect is also due to an unusually small population. However, instead of a chance environmental effect reducing the numbers of available breeding individuals, the founders effect is seen in populations who have chosen to stay small and do not allow breeding outside of that population. Often, these populations are specific religious sects or offshoots of a particular religion. The mate choice is significantly reduced and is mandated to be someone within the same population. Without immigration or gene flow, the number of alleles is limited to only that population and often the undesirable traits become the most frequently passed down alleles. Â   Examples: An example of founders effect happened in a certain population of Amish people in Pennsylvania. Since two of the founding members were carriers for Ellis van Creveld Syndrome, the disease was seen much more often in that colony of Amish people than the general population of the United States. After several generations of isolation and inbreeding within the Amish colony, the majority of the population became either carriers or suffered from Ellis van Creveld Syndrome.