A Gathering Of Old Men

Ernest J. Gaines' novel, â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† employs experimental narrative techniques in order to probe themes of racism and classicism, as well as to examine the nature of storytelling in humanity's past and also for humanity's future.By employing no less than fifteen separate narrators   in this novel, Gaines is able to penetrate deeply into the subjective experiences of a a number of men — together whom comprise a social microcosm of African American history and experience.Through the diverse range of voices at his disposal, Gaines probes a wide range of grievances and also exaltations among his characters and demonstrates the strength of communal unity. The diverse range of narrators used in the novel expresses the novel's theme of strength-through-diversity adn unity-through-intimacy.A careful reading of the novel reveals the deep motivations of its characters, each of which reveals the novel's theme of redemption and social renewal. Because of the â⠂¬Å"tribal† nature of the diversity of narrators, the reader is able to feel as though they are a direct participant in the action, as though reading the novel is an initiation rite of sorts.The novel's central intrigue: the murder of   Beau Baton, also forwards the initiation or ritualistic them: the novel is meant to show the growth (or initiation) not only of chronologically grown men into — long delayed – manhood, but to redefine standards of black masculinity altogether for the characters in the novel itself and also for the novel's readers.In the novel, the fifteen separate narrators are drawn out of their ordinary lives and into a civic, almost mythic role. Gaines signals that the unfolding of events is meant to have this mythic, ritualistic overtone when the old men gathering proclaim that things seem new again, that they feel good about what they are doing.Wallace sees the water of the river â€Å"as if it were still a mystery,† while   Mat ad mits that he is happy that they   â€Å"and all the rest are doing something different, for the first time† ( Gathering, 40).There is also the symbolic/ritualistic firing of guns, urged by Clatoo who tells the men â€Å"Let them down there hear you† ( Gathering, 48) and contrasted with the brutality of combined experience among the novel's protagonists, this symbolic gunfire demonstrates controlled violence and anger: emotions turned to ritualistic healing.There can be no doubt that these feelings of race-based anger contributed to the murder. When asked, Uncle Billy admits that he killed Beau out of a longing for revenge:What they did my boy†¦. The way they beat him. They beat him till they beat him   crazy and we had to send him to Jackson (the state mental facility). He don't even know me and his mama no more. We take him candy, we take him cake, he eat it like a hog eating corn†¦.The ritual-based and initiation based theme of the novel is meant to tra nsform the violence of the murder into a healing process,where each of the novel's narrators â€Å"confesses† their anger and need for revenge and then each learns something through the experience of participating after-the-fact in a murder that only a single man committed.Later, for example, Gable reveals his son is killed for the false accusation for rape on a   white woman and Coot talks about his war experiences.The man who could break horses, Yank, relishes his role without at first realizing it makes him subservient to whites. But there is also a shadow of environmental awareness tied to the ritual murder: that the renewal of black masculinity is directly tied to the renewal of nature.Johnny Paul explains the murder on behalf of the flowers: â€Å"That's why I kilt him, that's why†¦.To protect them little flowers. But they ain't here no more. And how come?† (Gathering, 92).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gaines' intention is to tie subjective individual renewal with the renewal of both community and environment and he portrays the murder an consequent ruse in symbolically charged terms.Killing Beau might revive the river: â€Å"That river†¦. Where the people went all these years. Where they fished, where they washed they clothes, where they was baptized. St. Charles River. Done gived us food, done cleaned us clothes, done cleaned us soul. St. Charles River — no more, though. No more.They took it. † (Gathering, 107). Because the novel relies on complex themes, it is dangerous to assume that racial issues are any more dominant than issues of community preservation and environmental preservation.The key theme in the novel, as m,mentioned, is the reviving of masculinity: the renewal of masculine energy which is seen to extend beyond race and into the elements of the earth and nature themselves.Mathu's discovery of his community is the most starkly profoundly as portrayed in â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men.† When he says â₠¬Å"I been changed†¦.I been changed. Not by that white man's God. I don't believe in that white man's God. I been changed by y'all.Rooster, Clabber, Dirty Red, Coot — you changed this hardhearted old man.† (Gathering, 182 ); he as admitting that even his previous contempt and mistrust of white people has been challenged by his new-found notions of community.While it is relatively easy to spot the racial themes of â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† the communal themes and the themes of renewal through nature may be a bit more difficult for the casual reader to understand.When the various themes of the novel are begun to be regarded as a whole, the picture which emerges is not a picture of â€Å"black† anger of African American bitterness or even of racism or classicism, but issues of humanism.The reclaiming of masculinity by the men in the novel can be regarded, symbolically, as the renewal of any person or any group which seeks to finally reaffirm its power after a period, perhaps even a protracted period, of suppression and duress.Rather than portray this accumulated anger and resentment as exploding in, say, a violent — if even localized — revolution, Gaines views the kind of fusion of bitterness, anger, and resentment, to a call to awareness of and an identification and re-claiming of communal ties and environmental awareness.Taken this way, the subjective stories presented by the various narrators of â€Å"A Gathering of Old Men† can be seen to transform into universal voices of awareness, and cathartic change.This transformation is heralded by community and the liberation of private anger and private experience as culturally accepted, in fat culturally imperative information.The novel's experimental narrative techniques weld the ancient oral tradition of tribal cultures with the scathingly sharp awareness of modern political and psychological realities.

Ferrero Rocher Essay

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided byn For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www. emeraldinsight. com/authors for more information. About Emerald www. emeraldinsight. com With over forty years’ experience, Emerald Group Service managers are challenged to effectively shape work environments so that customer-contact employees willingly deliver outstanding customer service. Retail and service firms attempt to â€Å"control† customer-contact employees by monitoring and rewarding input processes, job processes, and by shaping the desired outcomes (Babin and Boles, 1996; Lusch and Jaworski, 1991; Jaworski, 1988). The amount and types of training received by a customercontact employee represent input controls. Process controls include managers’ everyday prioritization, or commitment to excellent service quality. Output controls generally include attempts at shaping behavior through extrinsic rewards, including pay, and by producing a more empathetic work environment. The research described in this paper explores the mechanisms shaping service employee performance. First, the relative effectiveness that different control processes have in shaping quality service performance is examined. In doing so, two key prosocial employee behaviors represent performance: role-prescribed and extra-role performance (Brief and Motowildo, 1986; Organ, 1988; Katz and Kahn, 1978). Role-prescribed behavior refers to normal activities associated with fulfilling customer requests and handling service failures. Extra-role performance refers to unprompted or unsolicited acts performed over and above the normal procedures called for to create customer The research register for this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/researchregisters Abstract Which type of managerial control makes bank contact employees more likely to perform so called prosocial behavior toward their customers (i. e. ehaviors which contribute to the bank’s positive image, perceived good service and customers’ satisfaction)? Four types of formal controls are considered here: training, behavioral control, pay administration and managerial orientation. An empirical study performed in six branches of a charter bank shows that pay management has the strongest effect on service employee prosocial behavior. Training also affects prosocial behavior significantly, but not a s strongly as does perceived pay fairness. In addition it is shown that pay is the primary contributor to these employees’ perceived workplace fairness. satisfaction. Second, the mechanism by which these control processes affect these behaviors is explored. Specifically, the roles played by customer-contact employees’ perceptions of training, specific process controls and their pay are explored in relation to their perceptions of workplace equity and their eventual role-prescribed and extra-role behaviors. The results contribute by providing insight into the relative effectiveness of various controls in shaping desirable employee attitudes and behaviors. For instance, the efficacy of control through pay management is examined relative to more eloquent control approaches.

The Impact of Energy Drinks on the Army Research Proposal

The Impact of Energy Drinks on the Army - Research Proposal Example Nearly 118 years ago, the U.S Army made its initial efforts to nurture and use an organized physical training program. One of the main facts acting as a driver is the program development and all later enhancements which remain unaltered. From the initial years, the preponderance of new entrants to the U.S. Army does not have the adequate physical fitness levels for carrying out their duties more efficiently in a combat. Since the birth of U.S. Army in 1775, this has been the case and at the end of the Civil War, this was more apparent. For preparing its soldiers for combat, the U.S. Army has recurrently fine-tuned its fitness regimen. FM 21-20 Physical training has been the unique source of physical training perused by U.S. army since 1941. The outdated FM 21-20 physical training was replaced by Army Physical Readiness Training in March 2010. United States Army doctrine considers the effect of physical fitness as a significant factor which has the direct impact on mission preparednes s. U.S army learned hard lessons from Korean War as the deployment of 540, not well-trained soldiers were routed by the North Korean army. As per U.S. Department of Army, an army’s unit physical training program should be footed upon the unit’s most physically demanding skills, the program should include activities like foot marching for shorter distances like 3 to 5 miles under fighting load, loading and lifting equipment, organizing for impediment course negotiation and movement strategies for individuals.

Advice to student about buying a house Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Advice to student about buying a house - Article Example According to Mr. Buffetts principle, the more people fear home ownership, the closer the investment comes to perfection. Although around 30% to 50% of current mortgages have sunk in the recent years in the U.S. market, recent weeks have seen good terms of investment which means that the market is not extremely on the negative side. Besides, housing prices have been on the rise tremendously with Case-Shiller Index rising by 2.2% in more than 20 urban cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis. This increase has been on the rising trend which makes renting not a better alternative. Buy a house when you are fully prepared to settle down in one place. The housing market is very volatile. Prices rise and fall within few years or even months. Buying a house when you have not decided to stay for long exposes one to transactions of buying and selling and thus the risk of losing more money during reselling. Another problem is capital gain tax which will be required of you if you sell the house at a profit. This indicates that either way, it is a loss-loss situation. Buying a house is feared by many people because of mortgage charges. However, proper analysis of renting a house reveals other underlying costs in renting a house as opposed to buying a house. Buying a house is a good investment when done

Dunkle v. State, 2006 Okla. Crim. 29, 139 P.3d 228, 2006 Okla. Crim Assignment

Dunkle v. State, 2006 Okla. Crim. 29, 139 P.3d 228, 2006 Okla. Crim. App. Lexis 29 (2006), - Assignment Example Character evidence was used in the court for the purpose of proving action and computer-generated crime scene re-enactments were used to persuade the jury that the state’s version were consistent with evidence at the scene and the defendant’s was not. Based on this, Dunkle was convicted of first degree murder. Dunkle has now appealed for her sentence and conviction. The issue is whether, by using improper character evidence, the appellant was denied of a fair trial. It is to be seen if character evidence provided is relevant and admissible in the court of law. Another issue is whether the computer-generated re-enactments are actual images of the crime or a set of possibilities. Previously, the Court had convicted Dunkle of first degree murder, but the decision has now been reversed and the case has been remanded for a new trial. It was found that there were reversible errors in admitting of computer-generated reconstructions and, irrelevant and inappropriate character evidence. The previous court had decided that the character evidence showcased and the evidence from computer-generated re-enactments were sufficient to prove that Dunkle had committed the crime and hence was convicted of first degree murder. But this court is of the opinion that evidence is insufficient to justify the decision. The court came to this conclusion as most of the arguments of the State were directed towards establishing that Dunkle had a bad character and a person who would kill someone but there was no attempt made to establish an apparent motive for the crime. The majority of the character evidence presented was irrelevant to the murder charge. And with respect to computer-generated re-enactments, the evidence only proves that defendant’s version is not consistent with the evidence at the scene but in no way proves the claim of the state that the

Career Path Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Career Path Analysis - Essay Example 1). To be applicable in this discourse, the career path analysis for students who are currently enrolled at the London College of Communication (LLC) would be structured by initially presenting: (1) where one has been, (2) what activities are currently undertaken and the reasons for engaging in them, and (3) where one envisions oneself in the future. Where One Has Been The current author of this career path analysis have had a challenging personal background being raised and trained to become a responsible person with commitment and dedication to the adherence of ethical and moral codes of conduct. The value and respect for other cultures have been ingrained in one’s upbringing consistent with Sumner’s (1960) contention that each culture must be seen in its own terms, and the worth of a custom can be judged only by the contribution it makes to the culture to which it is a part. The values, beliefs and preferences learned from the family and from one’s national cu lture have continued to be manifested in the way one interrelates with other from diverse cultural orientations. Socio-cultural values have played important roles in one’s view of motivation and behavior. The family, particularly one’s parents, is the most influential force and reason to achieve. One has acknowledged that certain motives come about as a result of the cultural environment in which a person lives. School administrators and faculty members, as well as academic colleagues, should understand that these are some of the motives that the author brings along the academe. Such motives will affect how one would view tasks and responsibilities and how important it is personally perceived. A remuneration of one’s motives recognized parallelism with McClelland’s (1961) more important motives, to wit: the achievement motive, the affiliation motive and the power motive. The desire to achieve and accomplish is gauged to be high with an intense drive to su cceed. One works had and take calculated risks. There is a personal responsibility for getting an academic requirement well done. Concrete feedback is appreciated to determine how well one is doing. Accomplishment is important for one’s own sake, not for the rewards that follow it. Activities Currently Engaged Being part of the LLC is an instrumental move toward the accomplishment of personal and professional goals defined according to the personal motives that drive one’s thrust. People have a variety of needs; and needs manifest themselves in many forms. The theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clearly depict that satisfaction of lower level needs cease to act as motivators (Maslow, 1954). From one culture to another, the same needs may exist but in different intensities and in a different hierarchy. One’s culture exemplifies a strong sense of belonging. Despite realization that enrolling at LLC would be a personal sacrifice to live away from oneâ€⠄¢s family, the strong desire for achievement and looking beyond the academic pursuit is seen as a more intense need which would eventually lead to self-actualization. Further, interest in the realm of media, advertising and marketing provided the impetus to be an active part of LLC.

Summary of chapter 28-emergence of the us-american history Term Paper

Summary of chapter 28-emergence of the us-american history - Term Paper Example He chose to eliminate the â€Å"missile gap† and to regain the lost communism ground. Yet even after all the efforts the result was not so good and the tension of Cold War was heightened. After John Kennedy, Johnson took the position and continued the work on two main issues: completion of New Frontier and struggle against communism. He worked on the domestic agenda especially in areas of reducing poverty, increasing support towards education, initiating welfare programs and a system development for health care of aged, yet after 1965 the effectiveness of this was reduced due to unfulfilled expectation. Angry voices were raised against all this and a decade ended with diminished expectations. The 1960s election campaign was between John F. Kennedy, a youthful, rigorous senator from Massachusetts and Richard M. Nixon. Both vowed towards improving the quality of life, supported civil right and to stand against communist threats. But Kennedy lacked experience which was one of the major drawbacks for him but still he won the election. Kennedy in his inaugural speech pledged to march against the common problem and did not highlight any specific plans. Moreover, he believed that society is willing to change and technology can help eliminate the problem therefore, he appointed those people for cabinet who had better know how in their fields. He wanted to take the nation on totally new path but it was difficult to achieve this as Congress members might not agree to it. By 1963 some of the demands were approved by Congress yet the issues such as civil rights, national health coverage, etc. were still in pipeline. The idea of New Frontier was during that period was only linked with growing economy and flights to moon and nothing more to it. But people were still hopeful and the blacks started believing that the fights in favor of civil rights need to begin on grass root level due to

The Communist Manifesto Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Communist Manifesto - Essay Example This is because the framework of our society has been modeled by the elite groups who have structured the financial markets in a way that they achieve the maximum financial gains and keep on becoming richer whereas the working class does not gain much benefit. Thus, the rich individuals keep on becoming richer whereas the working class still struggles owing to their financial crisis. The existence of classes in the society is due to the persistence of capitalism where all the profits and the gains go in private hands and are not distributed evenly. Thus, the wealth remains in the hands of few and the working class keeps on struggling for financial benefits. A change is needed in the society so that equal opportunities of achieving success are created for all the members of the society. The working class and the elite groups are both reliant on each other and one cannot function properly without the other one. This can be understood as the upper class invests and it is the working cla ss that works to reap the investment and provide for profits. When the functioning of both the classes runs hand in hand, the success should also be equally shared rather than the bounties only being granted to the upper class. The maximum share of the benefits is only gained by the elite class and thus they keep on becoming richer and this leads to an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Essay

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Essay Example Arthur dent, the main character of this book has one lucky instance happening to him on a bad day. As he wakes up in the morning with a drunken hangover, Arthur finds a bulldozer outside preparing to demolish his house for making a new by-pass. While he thinks this day to be his worst, his alien friend Ford Prefect comes with the news that earth is being demolished by a Vogon construction fleet that is orbiting the earth to construct a new galactic bypass in the space. Arthur is lucky, as he along with Ford hitchhikes a lift aboard a Vogon spaceship. However, the good luck ends there as they find themselves in torturous condition, while they are finally thrown out into the open space debris. They are not perishing, as a spaceship piloted by the galaxy president Zaphod Beeblebrox along with his co-pilot Trillion spots them and picks them up into their ship. All the four along with a mentally unstable robot Marvin are now on a long search to find the lost planet, Magrathea. The meaningful chapter of the book stats next, when Arthur comes to know, in Magrathea, that the planet Earth had a purpose, to solve the riddle of life and universe. Accordingly, Earth served as a gigantic super computer, meant to find answers to these questions. As per the set calculations, the life of Earth was ten million years. However, the vogon construction fleet destroyed it 5 minutes before this. Since Arthur has survived as the only earthling, he gets a proposal to being a part of project to be named as â€Å"Earth Mark-II†. Arthur is not keen to join this research, as it requires the extraction of his brain. The question remains, as the novel has posed, about the existence of life and universe. Looking at the different adaptations of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the question does not get the serious attention that it deserves. Instead, the audience seems to laugh it away, taking the sudden destruction of Earth as a dream only. However, Author’s

Dimensional Analysis Lab Essay Example for Free

Dimensional Analysis Lab Essay In this Lab the students were required to do several tests and measurements and then convert these units into other units. There were five tests in all. The first test was measuring the average of three broad jumps in centimeters then find out how many jumps it would take to travel one mile. The second test involved measuring a candy bar (for my group we used a snickers bar) then finding out how many snickers bars end to end it would take to wrap around the equator of the earth. For the third measurement we had to find out how many tootsie rolls were equivalent to a five pound tootsie roll. For the next test we had to find how long it took in hours to get to the center of a tootsie pop. For the final test we had to calculate our speed in mph then find out how many days it would take to get from Indianapolis to Chicago if you only walked five hours a day. The materials we used were a gram scale, tootsie roll, tootsie pop, snickers bar, and a meter stick. Materials 1. gram scale 2. tootsie roll 3. tootsie pop 4. snickers bar 5.

Shylock ways of Expressing Conflicts

Shylock ways of Expressing Conflicts The Merchant of Venice has an Italian setting and marriage plot; this is very typical of Shakespeare whose love for Italy is evident in most of his play. In Merchant of Venice Shakespeares remarkable rogue Shylock raises this play to a new level. The play was written in 1598 and reflects religious activities in the 16th century. This play defines two main settings, Venice, a city of trade where many businessmen are located, a place filled with unfortunate and unpleasant individuals; the other setting is Belmont, a city where rich, happy and stylish society of beautiful people is housed. Belmont is an enchanted world occupied with love, music and happiness. In Act 1 Scene 3, the audience expects Antonio and Shylock to immediately odium each other before they meet in the play. This is because in the Elizabethan era Jews were commonly disliked by Christian nations throughout the 16th century, as Christians believed that in biblical history Jews were the people that killed Jesus Christ (Christian messiah). Jews suffered harsh persecution over the centuries, including torture, loss of property, and forced conversion to Christianity. England expelled all Jews about 300 years earlier to William Shakespeares time, much of what remained of them were tales filled with anti-Semitic response ranging from exaggeration to complete lies, which portrayed them as vile, evil and despicable. Jews in Elizabethan times were not viewed as citizens. Instead, they were viewed as outsiders, and were often banned from many occupations because of their religion. This helped the audience understand the conflict that exists between Shylock and Antonio. Jews were l eft with few means of earning a living as only Christians could belong to professional relations as well as own land . Christians, however, could not lend money with interest, and many Jews earned a profitable living as usurers. We know Shylock is a Jew since the narration specifies that hes a Jew Enter Bassanio with Shylock the Jew. Shakespeare puts an emphasis on Shylock the Jew since he doesnt state the religion of the other characters. The audience are introduced to Shylock as a greedy man because the first thing he said was about money Three thousand ducats, well. Shylock describes Antonio as a good man, even though some people might think it means Antonio is kind and generous but to Shylock this means that Antonio has enough money to repay him. It is made clear from the way Shylock is introduced that he is hatching a cunning plan from the start because Shakespeare specifies that Shylock is a Jew but for the other characters he doesnt state their religion. The audience begin to think Shylock is devious and has something up his sleeves. and then there is the perils of the waters, winds and rocks. The man is notwithstanding sufficient. I think I might take this bond. Even though Shylock knows that Antonios ships will be destroyed (all Antonios money is invested in his ships) he still goes ahead to lend him the money. Bassanio invites Shylock to dine with them If it please you to dine with me, Shylock denies saying I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. This indicates that even though Shylock will do business with Antonio and Bassanio he will not eat, drink or pray with the. It also shows the religious differences that set Shylock apart from the Christian Venetians. Shakespeare presents Shylock this way so that the audiences hatred would be focused in the direction of Shylock. Shakespeare, while describing the Jewish moneylender Shylock according to stereotypes, fills Shylock with humanity and produces sympathy for the troubles of the Jews. On the other hand, an Elizabethan audience wont show sympathy towards Shylock as they are anti-Semitic to Jews. Just before Shylock speaks to Antonio, he lets the audience know in aside that he hates Antonio I hate him for he is a Christian. This phrase said by Shylock is based on the beliefs of other Jews on other Christians; it helps the audience to know the conflict that exists between Shylock and Antonio. The phrase also shows how stereotypical Shylock is since he doesnt really know Antonio, but because Shylock has heard of Jew-hating Christians he thinks that he too should hate Christians since all of them hate Jews. Shylock distastes Antonio because he lends out money gratis free of interest, so reducing the interest rates for people who make live as moneylenders such as Shylock and for having disgraced him in public by spitting on him and calling him names such as dog and cutthroat Jew. For humiliation as well as the persecution that the Jews have long suffered at the hands of the Christians, Shylock tells the audience that he hopes to exact vengeance on Antonio. If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.He hates our sacred nation . . . Cursd be my tribe if I forgive him! Shylock reveals to the audience that hes prejudice against Christians and he also explains to the audience how Shylock himself has experienced anti-Semitic discrimination. Both Shylock and Antonios ideas are connected around the ideas of business. Antonio the Christian believes that usury is wrong so should not be practiced, whereas Shylock the Jew who is forbidden to try any other profession decided to use usury (lending money for interest) as a way to make a living and identify themselves in the Venetian society. If I forgive him!Shylocks quote in Act 1 Scene 3 line 36-47 tells the audience that Shylock is as concerned with money as religion, and possibly even more so. Shylock uses his money to get back at Antonio so he can feed his personal grudge against him. He views the lending as an opportunity to stick it to Christians for all the troubles and sufferings they have caused the Jews. The money lending is a battle between the two men as well as their religions. Shylock and Antonio can be considered substitute for their religious issues. But money is their way of throwing in personal accusations while fighting the religious fight. Shylock is told by Antonio that normally he wouldnt take part in a deal involving interest but because his friend is in need of the money he will break his custom. Their greeting has made an ironic suggestion to the audience, which was Shylocks hateful opinion towards Antonio I hate him for he is a Christian. Shylock decides to loan Bassanio the money he needs. Shylock recites the Biblical story of Jacob to defend his practice of charging interest. Shylock shows the personal and religious differences between his religion and Christianity by reciting the Book of Genesis. As it is unnatural to gain/make money from money Christians believe usury is dissolute. But Shylocks defends his use of usury by interpreting and stating the Bible saying that him charging interest for the money he lends is not very different from Jacobs breeding of the animals in the bible. Jacobs breeding by the Christian law is believed to be natural. The Hebrew will turn Christian; he grows kind. As Antonio thinks that Jews arent kind and cant be kind unless theyre Christians. He witnesses Shylock, the Hebrew, become kind by lending him money and so believes thats impossible. Since Shylock is being generous by lending Antonio money, Antonio takes it as Shylock being Christianised as hes being nice. This quotation tells the audience how Antonio considers his religion superior to Judaism. The previous quotation I hate him for he is Christian illustrated how Shylock was stereotypical about Christians. There are similar beliefs in the religions of both characters. The exchange in words between Shylock and Antonio prepares the audience for what is going to happen next. Antonio has publicly abused Shylock many times on different occasions and even spat on upon Shylocks clothing spit upon my Jewish gabardine Shylocks asks Antonio why he should lend him money as he would a friend when all he has done nothing but insult and humiliate him. Angry with fury Antonio insults Shylock again. Shylock doesnt want to pretend he is friends with Antonio so he says If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not as to thy friends But lend it rather to thine enemy. Shylock then unexpectedly suggests an unusual deal. He informs Antonio that this time he will lend money without charging interest. Nevertheless, Shylock will be allowed to cut off one pound of Antonios flesh from any part of his body if Antonio is unable to pay Shylock. The bond Shylock makes is a very confusing and unexpected one so it makes it complicated for the audience to understand his reason(s) for suggesting such a bond. Shylock is adopting the Christians stated business and directing them towards an a trocious end by trading flesh instead of making money breed by usury; this mocks the principles of Christianity. Antonio is told by Shylock that he wants to be companions with him and will settle the bond for a pound of flesh as a merry sport. Antonio agrees Yes Shylock, I will seal unto this bond to Shylocks bond despite Bassanios nervousness You shall not seal to such a bond for me about binding his friend to such a dangerous bond. Bassanio shows some sense of right and wrong about putting his greed before his friend, for the first time as he realises that by being greedy he has caused his friend to agree to put a price on his pound of flesh, this leads Antonio right into Shylocks trap. By signing the contract Antonio agrees to be bond. Act 1 Scene 3 is an important scene because it completes the description of the two different and main plot lines of the play: Antonio agreeing to Shylocks bond which is the three thousand ducats Antonio wants to lend for the pound of flesh that Shylock wants instead of charging Antonio interest; and second, and more dramatically, this scene introduces Shylock the Jew. In this scene, Shakespeare gives as an insight to why and how Shylock seems to be the most powerful character in the play. Even though Shylock and Antonio both have different manners and capabilities both characters are successful businessmen in Venice. When Antonio is asking Shylock for the loan he says, Within these two months, thats a month before this bond expires, I do expect, return of thrice times the value of this bond.. Shylock being a selfish businessman asks for three times the value of the loan. Antonio being a risk taker lends his good name to Bassanio to woo Portia. Antonio thinks things will be always go right for him, his business and his success will endure, this is revealed when he accepts a dangerous bond and the high interest rate if the money isnt received. Shylock is a wicked man who wants a pound of Antonios flesh if his money is not paid back, whereas, Antonio is prepared to risk his life for his friend who happens to be in love with the wealthy, intelligent and beautiful Portia- Antonios sacrifice for his friend shows how different he is from Shylock. The Jewish old testaments states an eye for an eye which means that if someone wrongs you, seek revenge, on the other hand the Christians New Testament gives us Jesus message of peace, love and forgiveness forgive and forget. The play shows how Christians and Jews used to treat each in the 16th century. We dont deal with the same issues like greed, prejudice, hatred and revenge Jews and Christians showed towards each other because in todays society everyone is equal. I feel that the scene is a very complicated scene as it explains how Christians and Jews acted towards each other in Shakespearean time as well as how Shylock tricked Antonio into accepting a dangerous bond. I feel that both views of Jews and Christians are wrong since Im sure not all Jews and Christians acted how Antonio and Shylock did in Shakespeare time. I think the play is somewhat related to the persecution of Jews in World War as well as the killings of the genocide. Even though Shylock was represented as such an extremist by Elizabethan audience/Shakespeare, he wouldnt be represented as such by a modern audience.

Free Essays - Animal Farm :: Animal Farm

Having so much power is not always a good thing. In George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm, this is proved to an almost scary extent where the characters are mainly animals, not people. In this novel, the animals speak to each other as humans would talk to other humans, making the novel very interesting to read. The point I am trying to make here as it is proven time and time again in history, as well as in this book, is that absolute power corrupts; and it corrupts absolutely. It all starts on The Manor Farm, where Old Major (the elder pig), makes an announcement. He includes in his speech that one day the animals will revolt against the humans taking charge of them, and treating them unjustly. He ends his speech with a song, called the Beasts of England that he taught the animals from his childhood. On the farm were two pigs who Mr. Jones (the owner of Manor Farm) was breeding up for sale. One was Snowball, the other, Napoleon. Snowball was more of a talker and Napoleon more likely to take action. The rest of the pigs were porkers and there was a little fat one that was well known to most of the animals on the farm and was very persuasive, he was called Squealer. There were also sheep, chickens, and horses, the only one worth mentioning is Boxer out of the lot. Boxer was the strongest animal and the hardest worker on the farm, and so, as you could imagine, was a great help to it. As time passed, so did Old Major, and Mr. Jones was treating the animals unfairly. One night, he got drunk and didn’t come back for a whole day and even when he did, the animals were not fed. As a result the animals had enough and took a stand, they chased Mr. Jones and his men off the farm as they called it their own. Celebrations followed and life was good for the animals, they even changed the name of the farm, and got rid of anything that reminded them of humans or Mr. Jones. A few months passed and the pigs revealed that they could now read and write. As a result of this, Snowball set up the "Seven Commandments" that every animal must follow with no exceptions, but the main idea was that all animals are equal.

La Grotte Cosquer :: Pre-Historic Art Essays

La Grotte Cosquer Not too long ago Henri Cosquer was swimming, 110 ft. below sea level, through a long, narrow, and treacherous entry passage, the warm Mediterranean waters closing in all around him. The darkness was so thick he could almost feel it. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Henri pulled himself out of the murky waters and onto the rough, dry floor of what seemed to be a large cave. After his eyes focused and his breathing had settled back to its normal rhythm, Cosquer beheld a sight not seen by human eyes in over 12,000 years: an unmolested, unspoiled cavern last occupied by the mysterious Cro-Magnons who painted the spectacular designs on the soft stone walls of what would later be known as La Grotte Cosquer. Cosquer cave was first discovered in 1985. Professional deep-sea diver Henri Cosquer discovered the 175-meter tunnel below Cabo Morgiou near Marseilles, France (â€Å"The Cosquer Cave†). It was not until 1991, when Cosquer returned to the grotto, that he noticed a single hand print silhouette that lead to the discovery of several dozen prehistoric paintings and engravings (â€Å"Grotto Cosquer†). As soon as the cave was reported to authorities at the French Ministry of Culture, Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin were sent to oversee the research of this incredible find. Jean Clottes currently serves as General Conservator of the National Heritage and Advisor on Prehistoric Art to the French Ministry of Culture and the French Community. Jeans Courtin was previously in charge of antiquities in the Provence region of France and Co-Director of Research for the National Center for Scientific Research (â€Å"The Cave Beneath the Sea†). Under Clottes and Courtin many facts about the origin of these paintings have been uncovered. Apparently the creators of these prehistoric works of art used a pallet of colors consisting of hematite or ochre for the red mineral pigment, and manganese dioxide for the charcoal black pigment. Only about one third of the total artwork in Cosquer is done using paint; the others are engravings done in the cave’s soft limestone walls (â€Å"Grotto Cosquer†).

Drug Education Essay -- Addictions Teaching Essays

Drug Education (1) There is much controversy regarding the war on drugs in America today. It has become a growing concern for parents, educators, politicians, etc. There is no question that education can play a major role in decreasing the drug problem. But there is some disagreement over whether schools or parents are more effective in steering children away from drugs. (2) Some experts believe the schools’ anti-drug programs are effective. Two popular programs are Drug Abuse Resistance Education (Dare), and the School Program to Educate and Control Drug Abuse (SPECA). The project Dare and SPECA programs use uniformed police officers to inform students in 5th, 6th and 7th grade about the risks of drugs, and how to avoid negative peer pressure (DeJong 109). William DeJong ,who is an analyst for the Education Development Center, has prepared this study for the National Institute of Justice (Bernards 108). (3) DeJong based his studies on surveys conducted by Evaluation and Training Institute in Los Angeles. He found that students who participated in the Dare programs had improved knowledge, attitudes and self-esteem as compared to students who did not participate in the program. DeJong also conducted a study for the National Institute of Justice, which compared the effectiveness of the Dare drug program to a control group of students that did not participate in the drug program. The study followed students from sixth grade to seventh grade .He reports that students who participated in the Dare programs reported significantly lower incidences of drug use. Students also stated that they would refuse drugs using the strategies learned from the anti-drug programs. The Criminal Justice Center of the John Jay Co... ...s to me that if we could resolve the issue, we would have more agreement about -- and be more effective at -- directing limited financial resources: Should the government's money (i.e.,our money) be used to fund school programs, or to educate and help parents? Resolution might also either absolve schools of the responsibility, thereby placing more social pressure on parents to handle their children, or absolve the parents. This information could have been presented in the introductory paragraph, in a background paragraph right after the introduction, or in the conclusion. Here again, however, I need to take into consideration the circumstances of the assignment. Ms. Yoder did not choose to read or write about the drug war-- that was part of the assignment. She may not be particularly interested in the topic. That circumstance changes, of course, in Major Paper # 5.

Haldiram’s Operations: Business and Marketing Essay

Haldiram’s began as a tiny shop in Bikaner. In1982,it has set up a shop in Delhi Presently, $4million brand and is a familiar sight not only in India, but also on shelves across USA, UK, and the Middle-East. Positioning * Healthy and tasty ready to eat packaged food * Different varieties for South, North , east and west * Varying packet size ranging from 100g to 1Kg Marketing Mix Product Haldiram offers a various products as per customers requirement such as sweets, dairyproducts, snack sets. PRICE: Competitive price to penetrate the unorganized markets. Prices varies according to weights & type of Namkeens & rawmaterials. PLACE: Where customers can purchase the product is also an important factor in determining sales. It is available at Railway outlets & Retail Shops . It is also available in rural & urbanareas PROMOTION: High awareness among the customers . High brand loyalty for Haldiram products. POSITIONING: Haldiram offers ready to eat high quality readily available Indian snacks with excellent Packaging Target Group * Women – Namkeens * Takatak & whoopies – Kids * Sugar free sweets – diabetic and health conscious customers The Marketing Mix Products * Haldiram’s offered a wide range of products to its customers. The product range includednamkeens, sweets, sharbats, bakery items, dairy products, papad and ice-creams (See ExhibitI for details of product range). However, namkeens remained the main focus area for thegroup contributing close to 60% of its total revenues†¦ Pricing * Haldiram’s offered its products at competitive prices in order to penetrate the hugeunorganized market of namkeens and sweets. The company’s pricing strategy took intoconsideration the price conscious nature of consumers in India†¦ Place * Haldiram’s developed a strong distribution network to ensure the widest possible reach for its products in India as well as overseas. From the manufacturing unit, the company’s finishedgoods were passed on to carrying and forwarding (C&F) agents†¦ Promotion * Haldiram’s product promotion had been low key until competition intensified in the snack foods market. The company tied with ‘Profile Advertising’ for promoting its products.Consequently, attractive posters, brochures and mailers were designed to enhance thevisibility of the Haldiram’s brand.

Slaughter Houses

Mason, for years, pig production had been a big part of the slaughterhouses, but as time went on, the demand for pork went up. In 1975, pig production was at sixty-nine million a year; in 2004, pig production skyrocketed to one hundred three million pigs. The increase in pigs caused environmental problems because the average adult pig produces four times as much waste as an adult human. With the amount of pigs in each farm (for example, a farm in Nebraska has over forty-eight thousand pigs), and their waste leaking into nearby bodies of water, many fish and other animals were killed.Pigs like to move around and explore their environment in the wild which they are unable to do that in captivity because of how cramped the pens are. On one farm in Nebraska, there are over forty-eight thousand pigs in only twenty-four barns (Mason and Singer 339). The video â€Å"Torture Inside Slaughterhouses Suffering Untold (The Ugliest Methods of Torture) Not for Weak Lyons 2 Hearts† shows tha t this environment causes pigs to develop open sores. When a pig is pregnant, it is kept in a gestational crate which is barely bigger than their body.Following birth, the babies are immediately castrated and have their tails cut if without anesthesia. To make the pigs move, the workers kick, hit, and yell at them. Many of the pigs die from mutilation. If the pig is sick, injured, or has not been growing as fast as the other pigs, it is killed. Pigs tend to live for only five to six months. The most popular ways to kill the pigs include throwing the pigs into bins and painfully gassing them with carbon dioxide, slamming their head on the floor, and being hung on a forklift and suffocated (â€Å"Torture†).With chickens used to produce eggs, directly after birth, the males and females are separated and the males are killed because they don't lay eggs. To kill them, they are either thrown into giant grinding machines or thrown into trash bags and suffocated. With the females, to avoid pecking in overcrowded pens, the tips of their beaks are cut off which causes acute and chronic pain. When they are grown to a certain size, they are moved to even more overcrowded cages and lay eggs for their whole life. Workers abuse the hens by stepping on them, throwing them in garbage cans, and mangling their spines to break their neck.After their egg production is too slow, they are plucked from their cages and put into carts where they are suffocated tit carbon dioxide (â€Å"Torture†). Poultry that is used for meat are stuffed in overcrowded sheds. Genetically, chicken and turkeys have grown so big, they become crippled, have chronic joint pain, and heart attacks. Poultry that are sick or injured are clubbed to death or have their neck broken. When finally in the slaughterhouse, the workers handle the poultry very violently leaving injuries and bruises.The workers hang the poultry upside down by their feet in shackles and dragged through an electric vat Lyons 3 of water to paralyze them. To kill them, they are pulled against a blade that outs through their neck and if that doesn't work, there is a worker that cuts their neck (â€Å"Torture†). On cow farms, cows are fed BEST, bovine commiseration, a genetically engineered growth hormone strictly used in the USA because Canada and England fear the side effects on the cows health. Along with BEST, cows are fed antibiotics in their meals.Their meals, that should contain forage, actually contains corn and left over cow meat (Mason and Singer 349). Calves on dairy farms are dragged away from their mother and either made for veal or, if they're strong enough, are kept for beef. Cows are kept confined n stalls on concrete flooring. Workers torture the cows by cutting off their tails and burning their skull to get their horns out without pain killers. When a cow becomes too sick or injured to stand, called downers, they are left alone too slowly and painfully die. Cows used for beef are cas trated then branded with a hot iron.Beef cows are contained in overcrowded feedlots which is covered with their waste. To kill a cow, the workers tend to cut their throat (â€Å"Torture†). Wild cows' life expectancy is about twenty years, where a confined cows' life expectancy is five to seven years (Mason and Singer 350). There is one person that noticed how inhumane these factories are, mainly for cattle, named Temple Grinding. From a small article â€Å"Temple Grinding Biography,† she was born on August 29, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was diagnosed with Autism at the age of four and didn't learn how to talk until the age of four.To get her to talk, she went through extensive speech therapy with her mom. She also had a hypersensitivity to noise and other stimuli. According to the movie â€Å"Temple Grinding,† doctors said she should be institutionalized, but the mother refused. She went to a boarding school, here she still bullied. In this school, thoug h, she befriended a teacher who saw how she learned in pictures and helped her realize her true potential. Lyons 4 One summer she went to her Aunts farm which is where she got her interest in cows. Throughout her life, she liked to build things.She saw a machine she called a â€Å"hugging machine† and saw how much it helped to calm the cows. She built her own to calm her down saying she gets the same release a regular person gets from an actual hug from another person (â€Å"Temple†). For her masters degree in Animal Science, she went to Arizona State. As she would be in tours of different cattle farms and saw the cows being poked and prodded, she started to think about how she could make the farms more humane. She saw how the ways used at that time made the cows scared and how some of them were killed and wanted to fix it (â€Å"Temple†).She first wanted to do her thesis on mooing, and she concluded how the cows use different moos at different times. She figure d out that the cows are actually warning each other when something is going to happen. Her professors wouldn't sign off on her thesis. She switched her thesis to control yester and cattle and why some work better than others and how they can tell the difference. To see what the cows see, Temple Went through the chute cows go through and was able to figure out what scared them and makes them uncomfortable. She soon wrote many articles on her findings (â€Å"Temple').A farmer read her articles and liked her ideas and asked her to design a dip for his farm. The dip she designed starts with a chute that is curved so that the cows feel like they're going in circles, which calms them. They follow each other into a tunnel that makes them into one line and they go down a incorrect ramp that allows them to go into the dip at their own pace to keep tem relaxed. The day before it was going to be shown, a reporter witnessed it and called it brilliant. The day it showed though, the farmers chan ged it and had already killed three cows by the time Temple got there (â€Å"Temple†).Lyons 5 She tried to enter the Abbot Slaughterhouse to talk to the head and show him her plans for a more humane factory. They would not let her in. At the store though, Temple met a woman who helped her trough the automatic doors that Temple was afraid to go through. That woman turned out to be the wife f the head of Abbot Slaughterhouse who was able to get Temple in to see her husband. He accepted Temple's plans (â€Å"Tempe'). Temple went on to get her doctorate at the University of Illinois in Animal Science.She then became a professor at Colorado State University and lectures worldwide on autism and animal handling. In North America now, half of the cattle is handled by the systems made by Temple Grinding (â€Å"Temple†). Today, a lot Of Temple's beliefs are used. She believed that the correct stunning is extremely important, it leads to better meat. If the stunning is one incor rectly, bloodspots in meat and bone fractures can happen. She stated that an agitated steer can be very dangerous and shouldn't be tampered with. Also, an escaped cattle should never be chased.If you leave it alone, it will return. Lastly, stay away from the cattle's blind spot, if it can't see you, it might kick you. Temple has specific guidelines for livestock holding facilities. First, the animals should be moved in small groups. Also, the pens should never be overcrowded. They should be filled only halfway. Handlers should understand the basic concepts of flight zone and the point of balance on a owe. Ranches and facilities must have non-slip flooring. Lastly, workers should keep the animals calm, when the animals are calm, they move more easily.Temple said that at all different types of facilities, there should be proper unloading ramps so the trucks can unload properly. Larger facilities should have two or more ramps. The ramps should have a level dock before the ramp goes dow n so the animals have a level surface to walk Lyons 6 on when they exit the truck. Also, the ramp should not exceed twenty degrees, this will allow the cows to go down the ramp easier. If the ramp is incorrect, stair Steps should be there to provide better traction for the animals.

Poet Compare/contrast Essay

John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway were drawn to different aspect of life, which was shown in their writing as naturalistic and realistic, respectively. The similarities of these two writers were primarily surface similarities- not only did they live and write in the same time period, but both also won the Pulitzer Prize for literature ten years apart from each other. Although alike in many ways, Steinbeck and Hemingway had completely different approaches to their writing. John Steinbeck had youth on his side – the passion, the child eyes, and the heart of what a true writer looks for in his writing. Hemingway had the wisdom of mind. Though Hemingway was only three years older, Steinbeck did not begin writing until at least nine years after Hemingway published his first major novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929). Throughout Steinbeck?s life he looked at the world for his inspiration. During Steinbeck?s early adult years, the world was an ugly place for a writer. What good would a writer be in a Great Depression if no one could afford to buy his books? College was not an option for his future. Getting a job, and then keeping it, was something to be worked at. Even Ernest Hemingway knew this fact of life; and soon after high school he, too, began to search for a career. Hemingway?s immediate future, during World War I, Happened to include being an ambulance driver for the Red Cross and fighting for his county. After the war he continued to write and publish till his death of self-inflicted wounds. Personal experience was the basis for the writing of both Steinbeck and Hemingway. Writing was not for love or heroes, but for capturing the story of life on paper. Appealing to the people is what made John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway the role models set forth today, and what made them the pacesetters for writing.

Home Is Where by Ligaya Fruto

The girl sat tensely on the edge of the Consulate bench, her face carefully devoid of expression. The bird-of paradise pattern was gaudy on her aloha shirt, the thong sandals looked slovenly on her feet, and on her head, riding the loose curls, was perched a big hibiscus flower. Her hands were tightly fisted in the pockets of her old jeans as she listened to the older woman seated before the passport clerk’s desk. She looked at the woman, then at the clerk, with one eyebrow slightly raised. Too many movies, the clerk thought amusedly as he listened to the older woman talk. He smoothed the passport application that she handed him and read: Benita Medina Sales, born in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, in 1908. On the back, in the space for names of persons to accompany the passport applicant, he read: Lucille Sales, born in Wailoku, Maui, Territory of Hawaii, on June 14, 1931. ‘Your daughter is going to the Philippines with you, Mrs. Sales? † the clerk asked. â€Å"Of course she is going with me. † The woman said, turning to the girl on the bench. The girl looked back at her, and the two locked stares for a long moment while the clerked fidgeted with the papers. She gave these to the clerk and the latter leafed through them with some interest. He glanced quickly at the woman as a copy of divorce decree appeared in the batch. He checked the names on both documents, then studied the remaining papers. A frayed certificate showed the old Philippine Commonwealth seal, and next to this were two thick photo copies of the girl’s birth certificate. â€Å"You can see I was born here,† the girl spoke up. â€Å"I am an American citizen. I cannot go to the Philippines. I will not go! † â€Å"Oh yes you are going,† the mother’s voice shook a little. You are coming home with me. † â€Å"This is my home,† the girl said. â€Å"I am an American citizen. I will live here all my life. † â€Å"You are a Filipino,† the mother’s face flushed, then paled. â€Å"Your father and I are Filipinos. You and I are going back to our country. We are going home. † Home, the girl thought, and her hand moist inside her pockets. Where was it? For her it was here, where the roads wound between the mountains and the sea, where the breeze was cool while the sun was hot, where flowers grew by the roadside and never seemed to die, such ws the continuity of the earth’s ichness. The sea was gentle, the lawns were smooth, and the people . . . At the thought of her friends, the girl’s young face worked a little. She did not know what the Philippines looked like. She had no idea of the people. Her mother said that they were her own people, but she felt no kinship. â€Å"I will not go,† she thought desperately. â€Å"I will not go to the Philippines, I am an American citizen. The Philippines is so far away, and those who come from there have such terrible things to say about the war. I won’t go. My mother can’t make me go. The woman looked at the girl, and a dull ache began to throb in her temples. What an unnatural child, she thought sadly. She seemed to feel no love of home at all. She herself never stopped thinking of it: fields of rice glistening to the sun: tobacco plants maturing in the heat: nipa houses hidden in bamboo groves. The people talked her language. They are the same fresh fish from the creeks and cooked carabao meat in the animal’s blood. They worked in the fields. At night they gathered about the looms, the women weaving and listening to the talk of the men. That was home, where one could belong and not feel like a stranger who, just passing through, must leave a fee of toil and heartbreak, then pass over still more foreign roads. The clerk looked first at the mother, then at the daughter wondering idly what thoughts kept them silent. â€Å"How long have you been here? † he asked the woman. â€Å"Nineteen years,† she replied. â€Å"I came with my husband in 1928. He worked for an experimental station. † â€Å"Did you live in Maui just before Lucille was born, sixteen years ago? Why are you going back to the Philippines now? The clerk asked with some interest. The woman clasped her handbag. She glanced at her daughter, then turned to the clerk, her paler face flushing a little in embarrassment. â€Å"I have always wanted to go back,† she said softly. â€Å"And now that my husband and I . . . Besides, I have the money . . . † The clerk nodded understandingly. He took up the batch of papers before him and examined the divorce decree. Extreme mental cruelty, it said, and a smile almost escaped him. The phrase somehow seemed absurd. He looked at the woman with overt interest, wondering what type of a man she had married. Perhaps a man with some education, for it was plain that the woman had schooling. He noted the sureness of the handwriting on the application form. Her speech, too, was not the pidgin English that most plantation folk employed. â€Å"The women here. † The woman burst out, as though in spite of herself. â€Å"Ah the women here . . . † Her face showed her disdain. She remembered with acute suffering the young bride who had accompanied her husband to this land fo promise, and the almost unbearable homesickness which had made adjustment not only to a new husband but to new surroundings so pitifully difficult. She recalled to the loss of first one child and then another and at the coming of Lucille. Lucille was her last child, the only one who had lived. Staring at the divorce decree, she thought of her husband’s infidelities. She thought of them not too much as separate experiences but as haziness piled upon haziness in protective merging. Through many years of such unhappiness, she had clung to one bright hope –the hope of going home some day. It might take five years, she told herself then, or ten –even twenty. But eventually she would go home. And now here was this child frustrating her. This was a strangeling she had nourished in her bosom. She spoke a jargon which she, her mother, barely understood. She dressed like a boy, behaved like a hoyden. She chewed gum all day long, sang and danced without restraint, went to endless movies. And now she flaunted her American citizenship as though that were important. Her nose was short, her hair was black, and her skin was the clear brown of her mother’s and her father’s skin. The mere fact of birth in a strange place did not make her a citizen of that place. Or did it? This is not your country, she had told her again and again. You were only born here. I shall take you at last to the place to which you and I belong. A country like this and yet not quite like this. You will see, she had said, you will notice the difference when we get there. Sometimes she thought the girl was interested, but then something would happen –a glimpse of the sea beyond the park perhaps, or a plumeria tree in full bloom –and the girl’s jaw would set in stubborn resistance and she would say that here, in Hawaii, she had been born and here she would remain. This is my home,† she would repeat, â€Å"I am not going away. † The same resistance was in her daughter’s eyes now. The line of her jaw was hard, and her lips, carelessly rouged, were pressed together. â€Å"How long will it take before I get my passport? † the woman asked, turning to the clerk. â€Å"Oh, perhaps two hours,† the clerk replied, checking the papres. à ¢â‚¬Å"we need three copies of your pictures. Oh, here they are,† and he detached the pictures from the sheaf of papers. He smiled and looked at the girl. The fighting, stubborn expression had been caught accurately by the camera. â€Å"You still want your daughter included in your passport? † he asked the woman, more to tease the girl than to get an answer. â€Å"Of course, she is coming with me –if I have to drag her aboard ship! † â€Å"I won’t go,† said the girl, raising her voice, the line of her jaw taut. â€Å"You can’t make me go. I will go back to my father. He will not send me away and I. . . † She stopped as her mother rose from her seat and took a step toward her. Defiance hardened in the girl’s eyes as she stared up her mother, â€Å"I am an American Citizen, I tell you,† she said, breathing hard, flinging her words sharply against her mother’s anger. She opened her lips to say more when a slap, ringing swift, fell across her mouth. â€Å"You! † the woman cried, her face so pale it was frightening. â€Å"You, you. . . † she repeated, her lips trembling so that the words couldn’t take shape. She raised her hand once more, then dropped it, slowly crumpled in her chair, sobs suddenly and tearingly shaking her body. The girl stared at her mother aghast. She could not –she would never –understand all this.

Contemporary management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Contemporary management - Essay Example The G4S indicated that the outsourcing would have saved the three forces about 100 million pounds over the span of 10 years. The G4S declared that some elements of the police support services can best be managed by the private sector. The three PCCs secured an agreement in an earlier meeting with the three commissioners ending negotiations with the G4S. Originally, the three PCCs planned to secure an agreement with G4S for a 10 year outsourcing plan. This plan was established in order to manage a significant funding gap which would have impacted on about 1100 staff (BBC News, 2013). Following the initial outsourcing contract with G4S during the Olympics, significant failures were observed on how the G4S handled the security situation. The G4S was not able to deliver the contracted 10,400 security guards for the Olympics and this represented their failure as a private contractor. There is still however a possibility for discussions with the G4S on how police support can be secured and improved by outsourcing police support services to the private sector (BBC News, 2013). Most of the PCCs however have reconsidered the outsource plan and did not believe in the prospects of outsourcing for them. Nevertheless, outsourcing does present with major possibilities in relation to savings for the three PCCs in terms of their policing budget (BBC News, 2013). Based on the above article, the prospect of outsourcing in the UK is discussed, especially in the light of work backlog and funding deficits. The decision to outsource jobs and work often falls on the manager who is burdened with the establishment of efficient services while still maintaining the profitability of the company (McIvor, 2005). In the case of the UK, outsourcing would refer to the outsourcing of work to private companies. The need to outsource mostly comes from the shortage of personnel or the shortage of funds. In the above case, the work outsourced included joint IT and human resources (McIvor, 2005). Th e backlog for this work has been significant, but on closer inspection, these can be effectively relieved through outsourcing. This is the point of outsourcing – finding the least expensive way of efficiently managing myriad tasks which the current staff cannot accomplish (McIvor, 2005). In the end however, after much consideration, the outsourcing plan was abandoned by the three PCCs, this after they realized that the outsourcing plan may not be for them. Despite their refusal to proceed with the outsourcing plan, the potential benefits of outsourcing are still undeniable. Outsourcing has become one of the most financially-viable options for many businesses and corporations (Pyndt and Pedersen, 2006). In the UK, their public services are considered to be a major socio-economic and political force because it affects most citizens and it employs millions of these citizens while also raking in billions of pounds in profit. In recent years, the UK has been successful in outsourc ing various public services, mostly from private corporations in the hope of efficiently managing waste disposal, children’s homes, adult social services, education, border control, and prisons (Williams, 2012). The outsourcing of public services has now gained momentum in the UK with more and more counties considering the outsourcing of the police and security services. Outsourcing is based on contractual arrangements between customers and supplier/s for the

A DOLL'S HOUSE BY Henrik Ibsen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A DOLL'S HOUSE BY Henrik Ibsen - Essay Example You were a successful professional and a decent family man. You were a Man, who observed all the social rules and satisfied all the social expectations. But that was all. That evening I realized that you had no inner life, no identity other than your social one. Social rules and others’ opinion meant for you more than people around you. You thought of yourself through the eyes of others and you treated people according to their social roles. Those, who dared to break the rules you minded, who were inappropriate to the position you occupied, were to be isolated as immoral and dangerous. Your conventionality spread over your entire life, and even your attitudes to me. It was so pleasant (and so respectable) to have a young and beautiful wife, who was a triumph at all the parties, contributing to your firm position, and who entirely belonged to you! It aroused your desire, a desire of a lucky hunter. No, you did not love me. I was your trophy, your male toy. I existed merely to p erform tricks for you, Torvald. Do you remember what I told you that evening? Our marriage was a long-lasting performance; our home was a doll’s house. I was your doll-wife, and our children were my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. As you put it: The unutterable ugliness of it all! For shame! For shame! To feel a man you needed to hold me tight. My ‘womanly helplessness’, as you called it, gave me a double attractiveness in your eyes. I played the game you offered me. I had been taught this game since my childhood. And I liked it. It provided me with a well-known comfort. I knew, how painful and humiliating it would be for you, with your ‘manly independence’, to know that you owed me anything, that I was not that weak and brittle you wanted me to see! I realized that such knowledge would upset our mutual relations altogether and put the

Analysis of USA PATRIOT ACT Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis of USA PATRIOT ACT - Research Paper Example At the same time, it enables the federal authorities to identify and intercept communications made with malicious intentions (Henderson, 2001). The fourth amendment does not cloak information such as an individual’s bank and telephone records to and from an individual’s account. Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act of 1968 limits some of the authorities given by the patriotism act, while at the same time living a very narrow margin for electronic surveillance (Kraft & Furlong, 2013). The act certainly intended for a close, and symbiotic relation amongst foreign intelligence investigations, criminal investigators, much greater emphasis was in international terrorism cases. Due to this, it amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Initially to apply for FISA, an order to do some surveillance under FISA required one to certify that the reason for the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information. This lead to the defendants frequently questioning whether the FISA order was applied to them to avoid the predicate crime threshold. This led to the notion that there might be other reasons for the application of the FISA order. Criminal prosecution was in the spotlight, and it was required to end the surveillance or secure an order under Title III (Henderson, 2001). Even though, both foreign intelligence and criminal investigations are carried out in the US. A criminal investigation is after information about illegal activities whereas foreign intelligence is not restricted to hostile, criminal or governmental activities since what is important is it being foreign (Henderson, 2001). Though a complete ban on FISA Act is not present, the Supreme Court cleared the air by saying presidential authority to attain national security was not enough to excuse warrantless tapping of a suspect with no identifiable foreign connections

Pyschology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pyschology - Essay Example It emphasises on the importance of evolutionary origins as reasons for our behavioural and anthropological responses. There might not even be a difference between reason and instinct as early philosophers like Aquinas and Hume set out to prove. May be just maybe the terms are interchangeable. He goes on to explain how the phenomena of linking biology with psychology revists the five basic principles of psychology. 3. " your conscious experience can mislead you into thinking that our circuitry is simpler that it really is. Most problems that you experience as easy to solve are very difficult to solve -- they require very complicated neural circuitry" The author believes that these five principles are the " tools for thinking about psychology, which can be applied to any topic: sex and sexuality, how and why people cooperate, whether people are rational, how babies see the world, conformity, aggression, hearing, vision, sleeping, eating, hypnosis, schizophrenia and on and on." This for him this links many areas of study into one ,i.e. the study of evolutionary psychology. The author tries to bring in the views of Darwin who believed a lot in the evolutional psychology of mankind. He agrees with Darwin's views on "adaptation driven by natural selection" and "common descent". He also cites Dawkins and Williams in their support for the idea that "natural selection is the only component of the evolutionary process that can introduce complex functional organization in to a species' phenotype". He goes on to say that our "selections" for reproduction are natural and we are programmed to choose the best looking mate out there for procre ation. 4. Did the author address any contrary evidence or the opinions/work of others that run counter the author(s) claims He refers to the works of Aquinas and Hume saying that the position before the theory of Darwin came out was that there was a " a common view among philosophers and scientists that the human mind resembles a blank slate, virtually free of content until written on by the hand of experience." He quotes Aquinas as saying "there is

AB 109 and Institutional Corrections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

AB 109 and Institutional Corrections - Essay Example The bill provided guidelines to be used in decongesting the state prisons and at the same time increase capacity within county prisons. California has 33 state prisons which initially had exceeded its capacity by more than 100%. The main goal of the California department of corrections and rehabilitation was to ensure public safety by preventing crime and realizing social responsibilities (Misczynski, 2011). The adult department had three major departments which was the male department, female department and the parole department. The number of parole violators and recidivist prisoners was adding to the overgrowing population among prisoners. The population prevents effective service delivery and prevents effective healthcare delivery (Lofstrom et al. 2012). The increased population prompted the state prisons this release offenders before their time elapses. The county prisons had limited jurisdiction over felony offenders and parole violators. The assembly bill (AB 109), was enacted to expand the jurisdiction of county court to enable them deal with cases that were initially assigned to the state courts. This was an effort by the state of California to change the manner in which adult correctional facilities were managed. The decongestion programs aimed at reducing the number of inmate in state detention facilities and accommodate them in the country facilities. According to Lofstrom et al. (2012) the bill was a move by the California to decongest the 33 state prisons by approximately 137.5%. The bill was an effort of by a taskforce which recommended the decongestion. In 2011 the recommendations by the task force were implemented. The assembly bill also allowed low- felony offenders to serve their jail term in country prisons rather than the state prisons. The state prisons where to regulate the inmate population. No inmate was to be transferred to the county prisons upon the implementation of the bill. In that sense no prison would be released prior to his

Emeregency Management (Basic Quantitative Methods) Essay

Emeregency Management (Basic Quantitative Methods) - Essay Example Since health effects are included in the scope of consequences, then it may be said that as per ASME specifications, severity of injuries would have been included as part of the assessment of risk as early as the asset characterization stage. Other ASME literature makes further reference to severity, this time in direct relationship to fatality or injury, an illustrates with a table of â€Å"severity ranking†. In this ranking scale, S5 (â€Å"Very High†) specifies â€Å"offsite fatalities and multiple onsite fatalities†; S4 (â€Å"High†) is the â€Å"severity rank for the possibility of onsite fatalities as well as offsite injuries†; S3 (â€Å"Medium†) is allocated to the absence of â€Å"fatalities or injuries anticipated offsite, but with the possible widespread onsite serious injuries.† S2 (â€Å"Low†) is designated for â€Å"onsite injuries that are not widespread but only in the vicinity of the incident†; and S1 (â€Å"Very Low†) is associated with â€Å"possible minor injury onsite; no fatalities or injuries anticipated offsite† (ASME, 2006:28). Such a ranking would lead one to reason, therefore, that indeed RAMCAP would allow for the cons ideration of severity of injuries anticipated in a possible incident. Smith (2006, April), presenting the case for the U.S. Department of Homeland Securities, is inclined to agree with the ASME. On the other hand, a more careful reading of the Cox (2008) article, as already mentioned, specifically stated RAMCAP does not consider severity of injuries (p.1750), although it does allow for the â€Å"severity of possible adverse consequences† (p.1755). Cox argues that there are serious limitations of â€Å"severity† in the RAMCAP model, which essentially requires the estimation of all factors in quantitative terms. First limitation is that there is â€Å"no objective certainty-equivalent for uncertain

Reader's Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reader's Response - Essay Example Her new house is in a squalid neighborhood that she is embarrassed of. Because of her house, her race and culture are more defined and the more she is shameful of it. However, Esperanza realizes that her identity is her own doing. After being raped, she resolves to free herself from her house, but not completely enough to forget its role in shaping her identity. â€Å"Everyday Use† uses the quilt as a symbol of the interconnectedness of traditions through the people who believe in its validity through lived experiences. The quilt stands for rural tradition that only Maggie understands. Like the quilt, Maggie and Mama have not changed at all, and they are happy with their simple rural life. Dee rejects this everyday use of their cultural artifacts: â€Å"[Maggie] probably be backward enough to put [the quilts] to everyday use† (Walker). Mama believes that she knows better, when she gives the quilts to Maggie. To use it every day is what their traditions are. Traditions are meant to be experienced and not hidden in a museum. Nathaniel Hawthorne studies the loss of innocence in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† through the symbol of pink ribbons. These pink ribbons stand for the innocence of his wife and the purity of the church. Because of his dreams in the woods, the pink ribbons have turned into tools of deception. His dreams shook his faith and destroyed its pink ribbons that he once believed in. These symbols show how objects can be related to human issues and beliefs. A house can mean isolation and redemption. A pink ribbon reflects both innocence and delusion. A quilt stands for interconnection and traditions. Thus, these symbols acquire significance because these authors embedded meaning into their purposes and

Homemade Plastic Baggy Ice Cream Essay Example for Free

Homemade Plastic Baggy Ice Cream Essay Ever really want ice cream but did not feel like going out to get it? Now you can make it at home with no ice cream maker needed to make it. Ice cream is surprisingly easy to make yourself. It is also a fun yet quick process. There are only a few steps in creating this delicious, loved, cold treat. All you need is a few ingredients and to shake, shake, shake! The first thing you will need to do is gather all of the items that you need. To make plastic baggy ice cream you will need the following; sugar, half and half, salt; rock salt works best, vanilla, ice cubes; enough to fill half of the gallon size bag, one pint size Ziploc bag, and one gallon size Ziploc bag. After all of your items are gathered, the sugar, half and half, and salt will all have to be measured out. You will need two tablespoons of sugar, a half teaspoon of vanilla, one cup of half and half, and a half a cup of salt. Once everything is gathered, measured, and ready to go, it is time to get started adding everything together. The first thing you will want to do is open your small, pint size plastic baggy. Next you will want to combine your sugar with the half and half and vanilla all in the plastic bag. Once everything is in the baggy, make sure it is closed and sealed tight. Afterwards, you will need to get the gallon size bag ready. Open your gallon Ziploc bag and fill it about half full with ice. Once the ice is in the baggy, add the half cup of salt right into the gallon bag, over the ice. Before you close your bag, place the sealed, pint size bag in along with the salt and ice. When the pint size bag has been placed into the gallon size, seal the gallon size back tight. After everything is combined into the right baggies and they are sealed tight, it is time to shake. It should take about five minutes or so of continuous shaking to start seeing the difference of the liquid turning into the solid. You want to shake the gallon size bag really well until you can feel the mixture of things in the pint size bag starting to get ice cream textured. Immediately following the shaking of the bag and the pint size bag is starting to harden, carefully open the gallon size bag. Make sure to open the bag carefully because you do not want the ice falling out. Once you have opened the bag, pull the pint size bag out of the gallon size bag. Your ice cream is now ready to eat! You will usually have a single serve size or two serving sizes. In the end, you can add whatever mixings you want to; sugars, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, etcetera. Making ice cream at home is not hard at all and there are only a couple of supplies needed in order to do so! Furthermore, making plastic bag ice cream is a great activity to do especially with kids! It is a fun way to get your children and their friends involved with making their own ice cream and learning measurements. It is a very simple activity. It also gives you a free, all access pass to the delicious treat you love, as well as an easy clean up! All there is to do in the end is simple, dump the ice out of the gallon baggy and throw both bags out.

Free

Free Will and Schopenhauer Essay Free will is considered as having the ability to choose a course of action solely based on one’s character. Immanuel Kant argues that humans have free will and act accordingly, while Arthur Shopenhauer suggests that humans are delusional and desire to have free will, yet they are lead by laws of nature and motives only. Perceiving ourselves as acting with free will is just to satisfy the metaphysical requirement on being responsible for ones action. Free will is a phenomenon that does not exist; what is perceived to be free will is causes that we act upon and motives that drive us to do so. Every single action needs a cause to act upon. .Kant connects free will with morality and implies that morality lies within reason. He does not really explain free will but only refutes objections against it by stating that we are free by knowing we have duties. His argument suggests that even though we have morals we can always act immorally, by having the ability to act otherwise we have free will. Shopenhauer’s water example proves otherwise. â€Å"This is exactly as if water spoke to itself: â€Å"I can make high waves (yes in the sea during a storm), I can rush down hill (yes! in the river bed), I can plunge down foaming and gushing (yes! In the waterfall), I can rise freely as a stream of water in the air (yes! In the fountain) I can, finally, boil away and disappear (yes! At a certain temperature); but I am voluntarily remaining quiet and clear in the reflecting pond. † This example is deterministic and proves that in order for the water to do all those things, it needs a cause to act upon. Just as a man must have a cause that pushes him forward in order to act accordingly. The man needs a motive that will act as a cause. The causal determinism proposes that all future events are necessitated by past and present events combined by laws of nature. It is not a man’s free will that makes him act morally, but rather, it is the motives that make him act in any particular way. Kant would argue that acting morally has absolute worth because by acting morally, we engage in a higher order of existence. Schopenhauer gives the example of a man who gets out from work and evaluates his options which he thinks he can freely choose from. That man decides to go home to his wife. He thinks he made this choice freely but actually it is because the motive of going home was greater than the other options. If Schopenhauer was to challenge him to say ‘that was expected of you being the boring man that you are’, and he went to the theater with him instead, this would still not mean he has free will. It only means that his motives have changed because there is a different cause. Schopenhauer’s comment causes him to act defying manner. If this man had a more passive character, he might have still gone home to his wife. Causes would have affected him in different ways and he would have had different motives. Being responsible of our actions is demanded from us by the society; when we act accordingly it is because the society’s expectations cause us to act responsibly. Kant argues that as rational beings, we should consciously and freely choose the responsible thing to do because it is the laws we choose to obey that make us free. Schopenhauer would argue that the only reason we obey rules and act responsibly is because our motives drive us to that direction. If our motives were to conflict with the rules, we would stop being responsible. If men actually had free will that leads them to act responsibly, we would not be able to explain murder, theft or any illegal action that harms the society. When the murderer, the thief or the criminal perform their actions, it is because their motives are conflicting with the rules society set. Humans are subject to law of nature, without a cause, there is no effect; therefore we have no free will. According to Kant, one should act as if the maxim of one’s action were to become, a universal law of nature through one’s will. By stating that, Kant is actually making the law of nature subject to human free will, putting the effect before the cause. Schopenhauer presents an argument which explains why man are subject to law of nature: â€Å"For man, like all objects of experience, is a phenomenon in time and space, and since the law of causality holds for all such a priori and consequently without exception, he too must be a subject to it. † This suggests that we are experiencing the same causalities as every other being does, yet we are blind to see what is obvious. There are too many causes that affect men, which is why we get delusional while recognizing the causes. Both Kant and Schopenhauer use the billiard balls example to illustrate the relation between cause and effect. Kant states that we are not like billiard balls because we have the ability to make our own choices as rational beings. Whereas Schopenhauer suggests that we are like the more complex version of the billiard balls: we will only move if we are hit. We differ from billiard balls not because we have reason, but because we are so constantly hit that we stop perceiving the causes. Every single component in life cause our motives to shape in certain ways which is why it is so hard to recognize the causes we act upon. All our actions can be reduced to motives we have in order to satisfy our ultimate purpose: to live and to create life. Eventually we are ranned by simple motives such as maintaining our successive continuity of existence, reproduction or protection. Even a man who is about to commit suicide will pull his hand away if he accidentally touches a hot iron. His reflex will send faster signals to his brain before he can even acknowledge it. He would have no free will over that action; it would purely be him obeying the law of nature without even thinking about it. As subjects to law of nature, the decisions we make in our daily lives are mostly caused by the motives to find the best mate possible to create the best off spring. We do not necessarily recognize it, but even the most trivial choices we make, like the desire to drive a fancy car over a cheaper one, is not an act of free will. By doing so, just like a peacock showing his feathers, we are unconsciously lead by motives that push us into a certain direction which will make us more desirable as a mate. We want to be accepted by the society for the same reasons, being a part of a community provides a protection and opportunity to reproduce. The reason why a rich man would help the poor, or join a country club is not because he has free will that makes him morally responsible, or that he enjoys playing golf, but it is because that will make him more respected and better accepted by the society which he wants to belong. Our reflexes, hormones, neurons, our DNA and the causes that act on us condition the decisions we make. We choose to believe that we have free will because it makes us feel as if we have control on our life. As the biologist Lynn Margulis defines â€Å"Life is the strange fruit of individuals evolved by symbiosis. Swimming, conjugating, bargaining and dominating, bacteria living in intimate associations during the Proterozoic gave rise to myriad chimeras, mixed beings, of which we represent a tiny fraction of an expanding progeny. Through corporeal mergers disparate beings invented meiotic sex, programmed death, and complex multicellularity. Life is an extension of being into the next generation, the next species. † Nothing makes us any different than the bacteria, other than being more complex, that solely acted on their instincts. The only difference is the equation that determines our actions have many variables, whereas it was much fewer in prokaryotes. If we are able to understand that the simplest forms of life were acting upon the basic motives and no free will, we should be able to perceive that our actions are not different. The chemical distribution of our DNA will cause us to have an essence, which will determine our motives and actions under different circumstances. As the being gets more complex, the cause and effect relation will be harder to observe but still, there will not be free will.

Why the USA Lost the Vietnam War

Why the USA Lost the Vietnam War For the first time ever, the American army looked weak in front of its people and the world. In January of 1973, the United States of America agreed to withdraw all troops from Vietnamese ground. Many people at the time, considered withdrawing the army from enemy territory, losing the war, however, many Americans opposed American presence in the war and pushed their leaders towards withdrawing the troops.[1] Many things influenced the US to withdraw their troops, primarily the opposition to the war at home, but also the American army’s tactics and the American troops’ morale, which is strongly connected to the war’s opposition. The United States had a tough job in Vietnam, but also fought a war at home. A war against the war. Opposition to the war, in the United States, was extremely large. Civil rights movement all over the country, and anti-war protests pushed and pulled the government during the war days. In 1970, following President Nixon’s move into Cambodia, many universities had protests against the war. During one of these protests, in the university of Kent State, four students were shot dead by the National Guard. This incident only, sparked more protests throughout the country.[2] During the war there was a conscription movement, where people of conscription age who were not studying or working had to sign their names to be drawled. However many of the people who were conscripted were poor or African-American and never had the chance to study or work. Martin Luther King, a black preacher and a leader in the civil-rights movement, spoke up against conscription, or as it was called at the ti me, the ‘draft’; â€Å"They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1954—in 1945 rather—after a combined French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in China.†[3] John Kerry, a veteran of the Vietnam war, soon after his serving time joined and became the spokesman of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The current United States Secretary of State said; How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?[4] There were many people who opposed the war in Vietnam, including many soldiers. Due to the fact that lots of soldiers were in Vietnam against their will, many soldiers were against the war itself. This was one of the greatest influences on the soldiers’ morale, during the war. The soldiers deployed in Vietnam, in the beginning of the war, were among the best in history. However that changed as soldiers started to question the real reason to be fighting, the conscription also stirred many conflicts at home and inside the army. Due to discontent within the army, soldiers turned to drugs as a form of mental relief. The use of Heroin and Marijuana were common sight in an army suffering from boredom, lack of discipline and low self-esteem; more than 200 men died from drug abuse. ‘Fragging’ was another big issue within the army. Fragging is the act of murdering your commander, 42 soldiers and 15 marines died from fragging. [5] Many soldiers in Vietnam were fighting in the war against their own will, this was because of conscription. Conscription, o r the ‘draft’ as it was known, forced many people to join the army, and fight in Vietnam. Mostly poor people were drafted, therefore there were many black people in the army, since at the time Africa-American population didn’t have the chance to study or work to avoid the draft.[6] This created many racial tensions within troops and units. The ineffectiveness of the army’s tactics also frustrated many soldiers during Vietnam. Even though the United States had arguably the most well trained troops at the time, the tactics used by the US army were ineffective against the Viet Cong. The army had the most advanced technology, while the North Vietnamese only received guns and ammunition from China. However the North Vietnamese had the upper hand when it came to tactics. They knew the terrain and used guerilla tactics, small scale actions against a much larger and more powerful enemy. America fought a hi-tech war, many helicopters and tanks, as well as air strike, supported American soldiers.[7] Because the North Vietnamese used guerilla tactics they were able to avoid many of the United States’ attempts at attacking. Their bases were in jungles, invisible to aircrafts, and when they went on missions they stayed very close to the Americans so their enemy wasn’t able to call in airstrike. Vietcong and North Vietnamese commanders and higher positions, had the luxury of living underground. Although t unnels were small and uncomfortable, they were away from the battlefield assessing options. The United States’ main strategy at finding North Vietnamese bases, was search and destroy. Search and destroy is a counter-guerilla strategy where a unit is assigned the mission of searching and destroying enemy or enemy base, hence the name search and destroy.[8] However many North Vietnamese spies and officials hid within villages, this frustrated units and soldiers burned whole villages in order to tell commanders that the mission was successful. These events of burning villages were named zippo-raids, and led to many debates inside the US on whether what the army was doing in Vietnam, was unethical. In addition to controversy, the struggle of finding proper tactics also brought discontent to the army, resulting in poor morale. In the early 1970’s, many people questioned the true purpose of the war, soldiers struggled through their missions, and the army failed to have successful tactics against the poorly-trained North Vietnamese. This ultimately led to the end of the war, after there were many in-house movements against the war, racial tensions within the army and the country were never higher, soldiers suffered and struggled through missions, and US’ commanders failed to even grasp an effective strategy against the North Vietnamese and Vietcong powers. In January of 1973, the United States of America was no longer part of the Vietnamese conflict. Works Cited Brown, Robert. 2009. Guerilla Warfare. November 27. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/advanced/article/110197. Karnow, Stanley. 1983. Vietnam A History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Kerry, John. 1971. Anti-War Speech. April 22. Accessed November 11, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixdveuf0GQ. King, Martin. 1967. Martin Luthor King Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. 4 April 1967 Beyond Vietnam. New York, April 4. Michaels, Jim. 2013. In the 1970s, the U.S. military struggled with morale. July 04. Accessed November 10, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2013/07/03/afghanistan-advisers-george-lepre-haynes-vietnam-conrad-crane/2484665/. Schutts, Jeff. 2011. The Tet Offensive and the Media. Accessed November 10, 2014. http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1199250currentSection=1194544. Spector, Ronald. 2014. Vietnam War. Accessed November 05, 2014. http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/high/article/75317#. 2012. The War in Vietnam; Vietcong and American tactics. March 2. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/vietnam/thewarinvietnamrev1.shtml. [1] Spector, Ronald. 2014. Vietnam War. Accessed November 05, 2014. http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/high/article/75317#. [2] Karnow, Stanley. 1983. Vietnam A History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. [3] King, Martin. 1967. Martin Luthor King Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. 4 April 1967 Beyond Vietnam. New York, April 4. [4] Kerry, John. 1971. Anti-War Speech. April 22. Accessed November 11, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixdveuf0GQ. [5] Michaels, Jim. 2013. In the 1970s, the U.S. military struggled with morale. July 04. Accessed November 10, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2013/07/03/afghanistan-advisers-george-lepre-haynes-vietnam-conrad-crane/2484665/. [6] Karnow, Stanley. 1983. Vietnam A History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. [7] 2012. The War in Vietnam; Vietcong and American tactics. March 2. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/vietnam/thewarinvietnamrev1.shtml. [8] Brown, Robert. 2009. Guerilla Warfare. November 27. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/advanced/article/110197.