Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Traditional religion as well as religious beliefs and practices are important issues which are discussed in ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe. The major theme focuses on the conflict between the Igbo society and culture as well as the religion of the colonists. The Umuofia society is religious as it is characterized by the worship of Chuckwu the chief the god, spirits and the ancestors. It is clear that the religion practiced in Umuofia is animistic in nature similar to other  traditional religions in other parts of Africa.   The people of Umuofia believed that most of both the living and non living things had the ability of possessing souls and the spirits. For instance, members of the society believed that forests like the evil forests had sprits of  evil and that is why twins were abandoned there as they  were considered to carry bad luck. Further studies indicate  that it was possible for a man to buy a craving in the market and make it to be an object o f worship after invoking his spirit in it.   There were other spirits like the spirits of rivers, lakes, wells and the earth, to name just a few.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the Umuofia society, men and women were regarded differently as they did not hold the same positions. For instance, men were rulers as well as leaders while women were considered   Ã‚  as servants. Therefore, the spirits of women were inferior to the spirits of men although women were also allowed to carry out religious rituals since they could become priests. According to Achebe (pp. 30), the Umuofia community had a female deity who was known as ‘Ani’. In addition, there was also a male deity who was known as Agbala or the ‘Oracle of the Hills and the Caves’ (Achebe pp.30). According to Achebe, (pp. xxxv) ‘chi’  was a personal god for an  individual  which had the ability to  follow people throughout  their whole life.   One of the major characteristic of ‘chi’ was the fact that it was  capable of either  being  good or bad.   Such a characteristic was very important because  it  determined the success of an individual. Therefore, incase someone had a good ‘chi’, such a person ended up being successful while people with a bad chi were full of misfortunes. However, although ‘chi’ was powerful,  a person had the power of determining his destiny. In addition, medicine men could intervene and help someone with a bad ‘chi’  to become successful. The Umoufia society was powerful among its neighbors and was greatly feared. The neighbors considered going into war  with it as a last option, incase all the  other options  failed.   The priests and medicine men who were vey powerful contributed  greatly to  its  superiority.    Its source of the military power was the war medicine although the age of the same was not known.   The medicine  which was the source of  the strength was known as agadi-nwayi which meant an old  woman. Villagers  believed that an old woman with one leg was often seen by someone who passed by the shrine which was centrally placed in the evenings.   Since  the villagers believed that she was sacrificed when the village was being formed, that explains why she was capable of being powerful.   In addition, the villagers believed that performing religious practices and rituals made someone to be powerful. As a result, the woman could have derived  her power from the sacrifices  that took place during the formation of the village.Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Achebe, Chinua. Things fall apart. Oxford: Heinemann, 1996. Print.

7 Famous Quotes From American Writer Jack London

7 Famous Quotes From American Writer Jack London Jack London was an American writer, famous for The Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf, Before Adam, Iron Heel, and many other works. Many of his novels were based on his real-life experiences as an adventurer and sailor. Here Are a Few Quotes From Jack London I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.- Jack LondonPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned, did I wonder whence came the multitudes of pictures that thronged my dreams; for they were pictures the like of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life. They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a procession of nightmares and a little later convincing me that I was different from my kind, a creature unnatural and accursed.- Jack London, Before AdamThe soft summer wind stirs the redwoods, and Wild-Water ripples sweet cadences over its mossy stones. There are butterflies in the sunshine, and from everywhere arises the drowsy hum of bees. It is so quiet and peaceful, and I sit here, and ponder, and am restless. It is the quiet that makes me restless. It seems unreal. All the world is quiet, but it is the quiet before the storm. I strain my ears, and all my senses, for some betrayal of that impending storm. Oh, that it may not be premature! That it may not be premature!- Jack London, Iron Heel The one opened the door with a latch-key and went in, followed by a young fellow who awkwardly removed his cap. He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea, and he was manifestly out of place in the spacious hall in which he found himself. He did not know what to do with his cap, and was stuffing it into his coat pocket when the other took it from him. The act was done quietly and naturally, and the awkward young fellow appreciated it. He understands, was his thought. Hell see me through all right.- Jack London, Martin EdenBuck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs , with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.- Jack London, The Call of the Wild All my life I have had an awareness of other times and places. I have been aware of other persons in me. Oh, and trust me, so have you, my reader that is to be. Read back into your childhood, and this sense of awareness I speak of will be remembered as an experience of childhood. You were then not fixed, not crystallized. You were plastic, a soul in flux, a consciousness and an identity in the process of formingay, of forming and forgetting.- Jack London, The Star RoverDark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land.- Jack London, White Fang

Comparative article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Comparative article review - Essay Example omen in science, engineering and technology through a bias that sees these fields as essentially masculine by a stereotyping of the masculine image in the disciplines of science, engineering and technology. (1). On the other hand Robert Frith explores the concept of â€Å"cosmopolitan democracy† and its portents for the expansion of democracy beyond the borders of a state into transnational democracy as can be considered for Europe and the rights of women within such a democratic set up. (2). In her article Alison Phipps brings to the forefront the position of liberal-feminist politics since the 1970s encouraging women to be more conducive to going with the mainstream concept of what is suitable in science, engineering and technology. This is reflected in her words â€Å"changing women’s dispositions and perceptions in order that they might choose, and fit better into, SET†. This argument traces its origins to the position of Henwood (1998) that the equal opportunities politics for women in science, engineering and technology essentially attempted to have women participate in science, engineering and technology, without upsetting the gender bias that is against its equal participation. It is this argument that Alison Phipps tries to establish in her paper, which is replete with examples of the politics of women associated with the participation in science engineering and technology, tacitly accepts the dominance of the male gender in these disciplines and t he making of these disciplines as macho for the male gender. One of the examples she puts forth pertains the Associations for Women in Science and Engineering in the United Kingdom and the Association of Women in Science in the United sates of America and the opinion among its members that there â€Å"a lack of role models/lack of encouragement for girls in SET† and furthermore Set was given a macho image through the gendered childhood experiences, wherein there was reinforcement of the childhood concepts that

The History of the World in Six Glasses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The History of the World in Six Glasses - Essay Example â€Å"Factory workers had to function like parts in a well-oiled machine, and tea was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly.† (p.200) Tea-break or tea-time became part of the sports activities and entertainment programs. Solid trade connections were established with the tea-producing countries like India and China, by some of the western countries, prominent amongst them was UK. The author has linked the thirst of the human throat to the thirst for material progress. He has unveiled the hidden agenda behind these drinks that have taken the commercial world by storm! When one makes an analysis, what all factors contributed to the concept of ‘world is one family,’ tea will be one of the top-contenders. The prime necessity to quench thirst needs no elaboration, appreciation, or explanation. Many thousands of years ago humans made their habitation near the rivers and lakes, precisely for his reason—to get adequate fresh water! Drinks shaped human history and growth and continue to have impact on the modern civilization. Tea, soon after it was introduced in UK, became a global drink! But there was always a storm in the cup of tea of the imperialists. The British people saw great potential in the tea trade, and exploited the business opportunity to the maximum extent. â€Å"Tea drinking is not the cause, but the consequences of the distresses of the poor. The drink of queens had also become the drink of last resort†¦ Tea had reached around the world from the world’s oldest empire and planted itself at the heart of the newest.† (p. 196) Tea cures, as well as creates problems for the human constitution and aggravates certain conditions of diseases. Those suffering from neuralgia and blood pressure should not drink tea. If one takes tea on empty stomach, it affects digestion and its consumption at bed-time, causes sleepless nights. It stimulates the nervous system and the urine

How Did Men Deal with the Stress of World War II Essay Example for Free

How Did Men Deal with the Stress of World War II Essay The iconic â€Å"thousand-yard stare†, a far-off, unfocused gaze characteristic of soldiers who had succumbed to the trauma of war by dissociating from it, emerged with its name through the chilling photos of soldiers who were overtaken by these symptoms in the wake of World War II. It’s no surprise that war takes a toll on the psyche of all those affected by it. Given the brutality and scope of World War II, which began only 21 years after World War II (a war that had already ravaged the landscape and people of Europe leaving high estimates of the death toll at 65 million deaths), civilians and soldiers alike were engulfed in total war. As Hitler and the Nazis’ ideology was based on â€Å"A War of Extermination† fueled by a racial ideology that sought for the ethnic cleansing and complete reengineering of the social population of Europe, the massive amount of Soviet soldiers that perished as they were thrown wave after wave in order to slow the Nazi war machine, and the general cruelty that was apparent in this war, soldiers upon soldiers grew appalled by the nature of the war. As one soldier confesses in The Italian Job, â€Å"After three months, it was demoralizing†¦ it was every night, every night everybody was hunting Germans, everybody was out to kill anybody†¦ we was insane†¦ We did become like animals in the end†¦ Yes, just like rats†¦ It was far worse than the desert. You were stuck in the same place. You had nowhere to go. You didn’t get no rest, like in the desert. No sleep†¦ You never expected to see the end of it. You just forgot why you were there† (Addison 208). Often times, the amount of effort put into it and the lives sacrificed seemed to far outweigh the benefits reaped from both; Gottlob Herbert Bidderman, a German soldier that was present on the Eastern Front reflected on â€Å"the insignificance of twelve kilometers: twelve kilometers—in an endless land, where unbroken fields stretched to the horizon before us from sunrise to sunset. I wondered how many more twelve-kilometer battles lay ahead of us during our march away from the setting sun† (Bidderman 23). However, like anything that people are overexposed to, these men slowly grew accustomed to and desensitized to the trocities and horrors of the war. Human beings are naturally adaptive beings and history has shown time and time again that they do what is needed in order to survive. It would be simplistic to classify each of the nations and their armies as being uniform in their coping with the war – due to the specific nature of some of the problems and solutions that emerged from belonging to that particular nation (such as the Soviets reveling in their loyalty and the cult-like worship of Stalin and the Nazis racial ideology being one that ensured in their mind their victory), but many men, regardless of their affiliation, handled the war similarly. Some treated the time on these fronts as a long extended workday, disassociating from the acts they committed and the sights they witnessed as simply being a part of a job. Others turned to their families away from home – brothers and sisters, who through their common experiences, pains, and moments of hope, stood together in solidarity. Others turned to the bottom of a bottle to ease the pain; while others turned instead upwards to a higher power, or at the very least began to frequent religious services. Those who were not willing to look quite so loftily turned to their superiors and leaders for guidance and bravery; while in the case of the Soviet soldiers, glanced fearfully backwards as the higher-ups pushed them forward to their death. Far away from home and under harsh conditions, food and other chanced upon provisions and commodities would often serve as a best to moral. Due to the sheer breadth of stress embodied in being a soldier in any front during WWII, soldiers dealt with the immense strain in varying ways in order to keep intact their humanity, or at the very least, keep their sanity so that they could ensure their survival. There is a perception held by many idealistic, young men that war is a somewhat akin to a noble crusade. However, there is the reality is much more analogous, to as one German soldier put it â€Å"this is ten times worse than hell† (Grossman 151). A scene from the Italian Job details this hell: â€Å"some (too many, far too many) were carried in dying, with gross combinations of shattered limbs, protrusions of intestines and brain from great holes in their poor frames torn by 880millimetre shells, mortars and anti-personnel bombs. Some lay quiet and still, with legs drawn up – penetrating wounds of the abdomen. Some were carried in sitting up on the stretcher, gasping and coughing, shot through the lungs †¦ All were exhausted after being under continuous fire, and after lying in the mud for hours and days† (Addison 208). As a result, as these idealistic notions were lost, many turned to viewing the entire ordeal as a job. Having suffered through the war for some time, one soldier remarked, â€Å"You’re fighting for the skin in the line. When I was enlisted I was patriotic as hell. There’s no patriotism in the line. A boy up there 60 days in the line is in danger every minute. He ain’t fighting for patriotism† (Addison 210). Another soldier enjoyed fighting at dawn as he felt that it was almost as if he was heading off to work at the factory. Rather than consciously thinking of all of the horrors that they were witnessing on a daily basis and focusing on the fact that they could die at any moment, the concept of just doing a job provided a blanket under which these men sought to maintain control of their humanity by separating their psyches from the appalling state of being they were in. A man in an earlier war who was quoted in Addison’s book stated that â€Å"whatever its size a man’s world was his section—at most, his platoon; all that mattered to him was the one little boatload of castaways with whom he was marooned on a desert island making shift to keep off the weather and any sudden attacks by wild beast† (Addison 211). Away from their families and friends, immersed in a bloody war where hundreds upon thousands of people could die in a skirmish or battle, these soldiers could only count on each other to truly understand the situation they were currently in. Beaten and battered together, having lost many of the same friends, triumphed momentarily, or retreated hastily, this mutual understanding gave way to a support group – a family who soldiers could lean upon and secure their well being. Of this, Bidermann wrote, â€Å"Our thoughts were constantly occupied by the tenuous if not hopeless situation in which we found ourselves. We received solace only in our numbers and in being with comrades with whom we had shared so many experiences over the weeks, months, and years† (Bidermann 266). Repeatedly throughout the 3 readings, there is mention of men, whether they in the heat of battle or â€Å"relaxing† with company, being drunk. It’s no surprise as alcohol has been a means by which men have coped with their problems for thousands of years. If the problems won’t go away, the solution for some has been to drink until those problems do not register as problems anymore. As such, Holmes noted â€Å"headaches were almost universal in a theatre of war where wine and brandy were readily available† (Addison 212). Grossman ctually talks about how his battalion commander Kozlov, in the midst of battle, â€Å"withstood an attack of tanks. He was on great form and completely drunk. The tanks were thrown back in a dashing fashion† (Grossman 103). As religion has functioned as a form of comfort since the inception of civilization and the birth of religion, it was only natural for men living in depravity to come to it to relieve them of some of their burden. Subsequently, the men of the clergy were often instrumental to moral and aid. Furthermore, due to the looming possibility of death in war, the mortality of some became that much more apparent. In Bidermann’s account, he talks of a divisional chaplain named Satzger who had several times risked his life to recover wounded men. Resulting from men of the cloth like Satzger and with death looming, â€Å"many of the soldiers who had not been so inclined began to attend religious services †¦ For far too many [the chaplain] would offer the last voice of reassurance and the last vestige of comfort before they, too, succumbed to mortal wounds† (Bidermann 25). Another Catholic priest was dubbed â€Å"the rucksack priest† as he carried a field pack from which he provided troops on the front lines with simple food items that had in war become luxuries. While it may have been a spiritual solace that many received at the hands of these men of God, others attended for the sake of having a comforting and helping hand. It’s been told that leaders are supposed to lead by example. Caught in chaotic times, superior officers often functioned as beacons to rally around. In times past, great leaders such as George Washington, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan immersed themselves in battles, showing that the best commanders do not directing them from the rear, but rather leading them in the front. A commanding officer by the name of â€Å"Captain Kendall, turned a shaky company into a passably good one by public displays of sheer guts. ‘Look at me,’ he said quietly, walking from man to man under fire. ‘They can’t hit me. Look at me’† (Addison 210). Examples like this provided moral boosts to dreary men who needed something positive to cling to. Conversely, rather than inspiring by a guiding light of bravery and courage, the Soviets were incentivized onwards by the ever-present detachments behind the troops that would shoot deserters. Grossman describes this in further detail: â€Å"Stalin’s Order No. 27 – ‘Not One Step Back’ – included the instruction to each army command to organise ‘three to five well-armed [blocking] detachments (up to two hundred men each)’ to form a second line to ‘combat cowardices’ by shooti ng down any soldier who tried to run away† (Grossman 141). As many Soviet soldiers understood the likelihood of their death in squaring off against the Nazis, the desire to flee was understandable. Stalin believed that the presence of the troops would force the Soviet troops to fight even harder. Pushed forwards, the stark realization of soldiers was expressed by Grossman: â€Å"Once you are here, there is no way out. Either you will lose your head or your legs†¦ Everyone knows that those who turn and run would be shot on the spot. This was more terrifying than the Germans† (Grossman 146). Under the constant strain of needing to ration supplies and consistently cut off from supply lines, soldiers had to make do with their limited resources. Given the treacherous nature of the constant advancement and lack of luxuries, whenever there was time to enjoy the comfort brought by certain goods that had faded away from recent recollection to distant memories, the time was relished and the goods provided relief to the men. In fact, Bidermann specifically noted several instances where his regiment and he would partake in â€Å"luxuries† that were not available to them by enjoying the spoils of war. â€Å"Two August was marked by a break in the monotonous field rations, when we boiled freshly dug potatoes in an unnamed Ukrainian village. Obserschutze Fehr had already plucked a chicken, and together with the boiled hen and potatoes we ate peeled cucumbers† (Bidermann 24). In another instance, his crew discovered a still-intact collective farm and was able to enjoy hot coffee, schmalzbrot, and sleep in small thatched-roof huts. Though seemingly commonplace to us, moments such as these provided brief relief and respite from the horrors of daily life across the theatres, and allowed soldiers to momentarily reflect on how life used to be. Constantly under an onslaught of forces that, if mishandled, could cause a man to lose his mind, soldiers used some, if not all, of the aforementioned forms to provide relief or inspiration in persevering in their struggle. Under pressure, these men had to find whatever means by which to motivate themselves to return safely home, and more so than that, return home as much themselves as before.

Dragons Legacy :: essays research papers

Foreword In the days of the Ancients there was a race like no other, for they were blessed with a unique gift of being able to speak and understand Dragon Tongue. Rumors spread about these magical folk, penetrating right into the heart of the Evil Lord’s great fortress in the Dark Lands. Evil Lord Malus Dominus heard of this race, and he became worried. All knew that dragons were a superior race that could be only be defeated by immortals. They were the strongest creatures alive. If these folk were to forge an alliance with the dragons he would surely perish. Before dawn the next day, he had summoned his undead warriors. They had destroyed the race before daybreak †¦ well that’s what they thought. A few hours later some traders passed by the spot where the village had been and they heard a noise. When they went to investigate they found a child wrapped in a silk sheet just barely alive. So they took the child and raised it as one of there own never knowing its secret. Chapter 1 – The Truth Realized The merchant’s son Dazhrej was the finest archer in the Princedom of Vellant’im. His father Rovnir went to the inn every night and gloated. The bandit had slain the guards surrounding the treasury and made off with the loot. If Dazhrej had not had to fetch some more silk for his father he would not have seen the bandit making off with the Prince’s treasure covered in the blood of the Prince’s royal guards. Dazhrej yelled for the man to stop. The bandit obliged, turned around and went for his barbed throwing knife. Before he had a chance to throw it he had an arrow in his arm pinning it to a tree. Before the fellow had a chance to take in the damage he had another arrow right between his eyes. The Prince thanked Dazhrej for recovering his treasure and rewarded Dazhrej by offering to foster him until knighthood. Dazhrej gladly accepted†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Three years later Dazhrej now excelled in swordplay, knife fighting and magic. â€Å"Dazhrej, have the horses been readied?† asked Prince Ronan. â€Å"Yes, your highness,† Dazhrej replied. â€Å"We leave at sunrise,† the Prince said. â€Å"Ah, Prince Ronan, where are we going?† Dazhrej asked with curiosity. â€Å"The Grand Congregation of course,† replied Prince Ronan. â€Å"Every Prince is going to be there. It’s where we draw up the trade laws, permits and settle disputes between the Princedoms.† â€Å"Oh. Why did you not go last year or the year before?

“Broken Lives” By Estelle Blackburn Essay

The chapter â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† is a chapter from Estelle Blackburn’s expository text Broken Lives. This chapter focuses on one night of Eric Edgar Cooke’s murderous sprees where he steals a rifle and shoots a baby sitter, once again leaving the city of Perth in the hands of fear and danger. The purpose of this chapter is to fight for Cooke’s guilt. It shows that he had no fear of being caught and was a devious man when it came to him stealing, killing and the plans he came up with. Through particular aspects of its construction including point of view, structure, language, personality presentation and tone, our response to the ideas conveyed are able to be shaped and moulded to the ideas that are presented The point of view in â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† is from a third person omniscient view, looking in on the world surround Cooke. However the point of view is no ordinary third person point of view, it is in fact shifting, jumping from one character to the next so that we can get into the minds of all the characters and the emotions they are experiencing at the time of the ‘gunman’s rampage.† The point of view is shifting as to present the views of the many characters we come into contact with throughout the chapter. All people views on Cooke come to fruition and to our realisation. The fear that Cooke spread throughout Perth is exposed and our response to him and our feelings moulded. He shoots an innocent girl studying, through the point of view we can look in on his emotions and thoughts and the evil side of him. â€Å"†¦ He had a rifle and was in a killing mood †¦Ã¢â‚¬  This suggests that Cooke had been in this mood before when he has killed people previously and asks us the question, what sort of man is he if he gets in a killing mood. If Broken Lives was written from a first person point of view, we would not see the same emotions and feeling that we do from a third person omniscient view. The language goes hand in hand with the point of view. The sort of language that is used in â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† is one to convince people of Cooke’s guilt when it comes to these murders and shows how much of  a crazed killer he really was. It also proves how he enjoyed the fear of being caught and the fear that someone could see him. â€Å"†¦ He could see a short woman sitting in the lounge. He loved the risk†¦Ã¢â‚¬  What is this saying about Cooke? That he is a quiet, well-mannered, law abiding citicen? Or that he is a crazed madman that enjoyed the risks of robbing people and killing them without any remorse. The language even describes the look on Cooke’s face or the way in which his heart was beating. Even though some of this is fictionalized, it has been incorporated to shape our response towards Cooke so that we feel the same way in which Blackburn does about him. â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† is structured in such a way so that many points of view and characters are presented. The chapter jumps from one character to another, which results in many feelings and attitudes being presented. Through the numerous amounts of characters being presented we are able to see that it was not only a handful of residents of Perth that feared for their lives, but it was all people, ranging from the better off people to those that weren’t as well off. Through the way she has structured â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† Blackburn has successfully conveyed many ideas into one small section. By structuring the chapter in this way, Blackburn can also select the details that she wants to include, those that will support her view, and exclude other, those that will contradict her view. By selecting certain details from certain characters, Blackburn’s point can be made stronger without her need to fictionalise or fabricate some of the ‘facts’ that she is presenting to the reader. The way in which the characters are presented in â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† shapes our response and how we react when Cooke take the lives of people. When we are first introduced to Shirley Martha McLeod we are told of how she is a hard working science student at St Catherine’s College. She is presented in such a way that sets visual pictures in our  head of just what McLeod would have been like. â€Å"†¦ She had a satchel of books with her and told Dowd how she planned to work very hard for The rest of the university year†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This sets up an image of a young girl who concentrates on her school work and is well mannered and polite. â€Å"†¦ Dowd felt comfortable leaving baby Mitchell  in her care†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The way in which McLeod is presented sets up the fact that Cooke stole the lives of innocent, caring people that he did not know and had everything going for them. This proves that it was a case of wrong place, wrong time. By giving us this information, Blackburn can shape our response by playing on this. Blackburn can emphasise how much of a caring young lady McLeod was and ask us to question how Cooke could take the life of a person so innocent. Then there is also the way in which Blackburn portrays Cook’s personality. She describes him as a monster that was only out to kill and nothing else. â€Å"†¦ The feeling of power began to come over him as  ran his fingers along the barrel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is describing the feeling that Cooke got when he found the .22 rifle that would eventually lead to his demise. Through describing Cooke like this, Blackburn is reinforcing her previous opinion of Cooke’s personality. By doing this we are once again being shaped into responding in a particular manner. Does Blackburn know how Cooke felt or has she once again fictionalised sections to fight for the innocence of John Button? By putting a serious mood and tone to â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† Blackburn is setting up the fact that this was all real and it was not something she made up. Some sections of Broken Lives have a good-natured feel about them, especially when they are speaking of John Button. An example of this is â€Å"Life’s a Ball† where the tone is less serious as Blackburn is describing John Button and how he was a fine upstanding member of society. However by using a more serious mood and tone when speaking of Cooke, Blackburn is shaping our response to the ideas she presents. If â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† was presented in a lighter mood such as â€Å"Life’s a Ball† the chapter would not be as effective in proving Cooke’s guilt. Seeing as the purpose of Broken Lives is to assure us that Cooke was guilty and Button innocent, Blackburn would not go and put a humorous tone on something as serious as a young girl being murdered, especially when it was Cooke that murdered her, the one she is trying to prove guilty. â€Å"Another Gun, Another Unlocked Door† succeeds in it’s purpose of assuring us of Cooke’s guilt. Blackburn does this be presenting particular characters in particular aspects. Or including certain information that supports her argument or even just through the language she chooses. This chapter argues for Button’s guilt and just proves what type of a man Cooke really was. These particular aspects of narrative construction all shape the way in which we respond to the ideas the Blackburn is presenting.

Africa Hunger Essay

Today, i am happy to come here and tell you sth about Africa Hunger. First, i have a small question for you :† have you ever had nothing in your stomach for three days? Maybe none of you here have suffer it but in sub-saharan Africa, there are a lot of people died everyday due to starvation. In this presentation, i will tell you five things you may not know about hunger in Africa. Hunger in Africa has become a huge issue over the years. There are billions of adults and children starving. The first of five factors you may not know about Africa Hunger is Climate changes and bad weather significantly affect hunger in Africa. It push more and more people into hunger. According to Climate changes and Hunger, FAO, 2009; By 2050, climate change and bad weather will have pushed another 24 millions children into hunger. Almost half of these children will live in sub-saharan Africa. Why FAO can point out this conculsion, they have analized value of the number of hungry people from 2001-2009. this climate changes factor has create the following factor. Factor number 2 is rising food prices contributes to hunger in Africa. It is affected by climate changes and economic issue. However this problem can be solved since there are a lot of foundations for victims of starvation. However Factor number 3 showing that 2 factor above has crushed this part of the world is Africa accounts for 1 quater of the hungry population. From this chart you can see that there are 102 billion people in hunger all around the world and about 642 millions in Asia – Pacific. Sub- saharan Africa hvae reach 265 millions which mean 1 quarter of the world’s hungry population. The following factor will show us how terrible hunger is? Factor number 4: Hunger kills more people than AIDS in Africa. FAO has shown that 14,6 million African died because of AIDS but it is up to 42 million hungry deaths in the near East and North Africa. Factor number 5 relating to money have point out that it only take $0,25 to feed a child in Africa. You can provide a child with all of the vitamins and nutrients, he or she need to grow up healthy with only 5200 VN Ä  per day. Food is a humand right but there are more hungry people now than at any time in history. We can fix it. By this preresentation, i just want to send you a message â€Å" plz, don’t waste your food even a piece of bread†.

Structures Of Resisitance Essays - Land Management, Feudalism

Structures Of Resisitance Essays - Land Management, Feudalism Structures Of Resisitance The nature of interaction between traditional agrarian society and the modern world has remained a controversial debate amongst anthropologists, sociologists and political theorists. It remains contentious as to whether the dominance of modern values over traditional is desirable; whether the arrival of the market and modern commerce betters or worsens the conditions of rural society and its relationship with the metropol; whether such change is received with apprehension or optimism by the members of rural society. Joel Migdal, for example, puts forth certain arguments proposing the concept of culture contactthat exposure and contact are the causes of change. Migdal identifies three reasons suggesting why such change would be likely to occur: (1) The benefits of the modern far outweigh the benefits of the traditional. (2) The individual is free from severe institutional restraints which would prevent him from making an unimpeded decision. (3) Those individuals who select the new are rational and are optimisers, and those individuals who do not accept the modern fail to do so because of wrong or nonrational values. Most theorists, however, tend to agree that modern society, for good or bad, is clearly encroaching on traditional agrarian society and gradually moulding its values, economic systems and sociopolitical institutions into variants of the modern equivalent. However, this consensus fails to account for one extremely significant fact: that despite the overwhelming economic, political and cultural dominance of the modern world, traditional agrarian structures continue to persist in various forms: the feudal estates of Third World countries, plantations and latifundismos in Southern Italy and much of Latin America, and so on. The questions thus arise: why do such traditional social relations persist in spite of the modern impulse? Why do customs and rituals and social codes play such an important part in determining rural society? Why do inefficient labour-intensive technology and archaic labour organisation systems continue to determine the process of economic production? And why do state attempts at modernising rural production continually face defeat and fail to effect conclusive change? This paper attempts to answer these and other questions through an analysis of two similar anachronistic structures that exist in the contemporary world: the Italian latifondo and the Latin American latifundismo. Both structures are organised in a very similar manner, and an analysis of both presents a holistic picture of their social and economic organisation. The paper begins by describing the administrative structure of the latifondo, and then goes on to suggest that the socioeconomic peculiarities of the enterprise may be at least partially explained by the rational voluntarist behaviour of the landlord, who allows old structures to persist in light of their cultural peculiarity. In The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, Anton Blok describes the Sicilian latifondo as being in its main features involutionary. Blok invokes this term while alluding to a complex process in which certain structures undergo internalisation and fixity, as suggested by Clifford Geertz in Agricultural Involution. Involution, according to Geertz, refers to the overdriving of an established form in such a way that it becomes rigid through an inward elaboration of detail. Bloks study of the latifondo leads him to conclude that this agrarian enterprise underwent such a process at both the social and the economic level. Before further exploring this process, however, it is necessary to first understand the power structure and organisation of the Sicilian latifondo. According to Blok, the latifondo was typically leased out to a gabelloto, who in turn hired a number of permanent employees to manage the enterprise. These administrators generally comprised an overseer (soprastante) and a number of field guards (campieri). The overseer was the gabellotos man of confidence he dealt with the peasants set to work on the estates and took care of the general protection of the enterprise. The campieri assisted the overseer in his work, and constituted a kind of private police force which, in the absence of an efficient formal control apparatus, claimed to maintain law and order in the countryside. This hierarchical structure is replicated in Latin American latifundios, as described by Ernest Feder in Latifundios and Agricultural Labour. Feder further describes the Latin American latifundismo as being characterised by absentee landlordism. He asserts that for the rural worker almost every estate

To Go Haywire

To Go Haywire To Go Haywire To Go Haywire By Maeve Maddox A reader asks, What does the expression â€Å"to go haywire† mean? Applied to a system or contraption of any kind, â€Å"to go haywire† means â€Å"to go wrong.† Applied to a person, â€Å"to go haywire† means â€Å"to become mentally distracted.† Here are some examples of idiomatic usage: My new companys server went haywire right after I moved everything. After a couple of years of sewing on  my new Singer, something went haywire. [They got along] except for that time when  she went haywire  and tried to kill  him. I loved Harlan and treated him right, but somewhere  he went haywire. Haywire, also called â€Å"baling wire,† is thin wire used to bind bales of hay or straw. At least it used to be. The last bale of hay I bought from Lowe’s was bound with plastic strips. However, I once bought some chicken wire that was held together with short lengths of thin wire. When I managed to untwist the bits of wire holding the roll together, it sprang apart, jabbing me with a hundred pointy ends. The experience was similar to that described by H. L. Mencken in regard to haywire: No one who has ever opened a bale of hay with a hatchet and had the leaping wire whirl about him and its sharp ends poniard him, will ever have any doubt how â€Å"to go haywire† originated.- The American Language, Supplement 1 (1946). According to a writer at WorldwideWords, haywire was â€Å"the duct tape of its era.† It was used to repair hinges, mend fence holes, and replace lost or worn-out machine connections. Haywire was used in contexts other than farming. A footnote in a history of the Bohemian Lumber Company (1985) explains that â€Å"some loggers and millmen would sometimes wire their machinery in place with baling wire to keep it running, sans parts.† In the 1900s, the expression â€Å"hay-wire operation† referred to a shoddy, poorly equipped logging business. A line called a haywire plays an important (and dangerous) part in retrieving felled logs. In 2012 an inexperienced logger in Washington State was killed by a haywire during cable logging operations in Lewis County. A glossary of hobo terms defines â€Å"a haywire outfit† as â€Å"something that is all tied and patched together,† a term similar to â€Å"jerry-rigged.† The most common uses of â€Å"to go haywire† are those that refer to something that has stopped working properly or to someone who has become emotionally distraught. Related post: Jury-rigged vs Jerry-rigged Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Probable vs. Possible

Advanced Anesthetic Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Advanced Anesthetic Practice - Essay Example l of this reflection is to re-evaluate these two clinical experiences as an anaesthetic nurse and to establish that better knowledge and skills have been gained by this nurse from these experiences. The 9-year old girl, Cora (not her real name), was admitted due to pain in her lower abdomen, which started three hours prior to admission, with the pain radiating to her lower right abdomen by the time she was admitted. She also had a high-grade fever at 39.50C (103.10F) and vomited as soon as they arrived in the emergency room. Prior to the manifestation of her initial symptoms, she was running the tracks at a nearby park with her friends. In the emergency room, the attending ER internist physically assessed and examined Cora and determined that she had appendicitis and immediately recommended her for surgery. Her pain symptoms were escalating and were progressively becoming unbearable. Pain escalation, in this case, is attributed to peritoneal irritation (Craig 2014). Based on the above gathered data on the patient, I planned my next actions and decisions accordingly. I prepared the essential equipment appropriate for physiology of the child, specifically a T-piece Mapleson E valveless breathing system (Ramamani, Mohanty, and Suman Gupta 2008). This is a breathing system which supports spontaneous as well as controlled breathing. This system is attached to a 0.5 litre double-ended bag, providing the least resistance during expiration (Ramamani, Mohanty, and Suman Gupta 2008). I opted for an adjustable pressure limiting (APL) valve including a closed-ended bag or the Ayre’s T-piece to manage scavenging (Gregory and Andropoulos 2012). A paediatric circle breathing system was also set (Gregory and Andropoulos 2012). Dead space refers to the amount of alveolar gas breathed in, and the volume of such space is decreased through an infant paediatric mask used with an appropriate filter and port (Goonasekera, Goodwin, and Wang 2014. Goonasekera and colleagues (2014),

Buyer Behaviour Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Buyer Behaviour - Case Study Example The youth today is not lured by goods that are merely expensive. They want value for money and they purchase luxury goods for self-identity and well-being. Purchasing certain branded luxury goods help them to display their own tastes and values. For some it serves to fulfill the emotional needs where they see luxury as an indulgence of their senses. Luxury goods are premium goods with high quality products, aesthetic design supported by excellent service, purchased by people from the higher income bracket (Cheng, 2006). In the earlier days the term ‘luxury’ was applied to products that were rare and scarce and available to a small segment of the people. The luxury items were out of reach of the ordinary people and considered rare. Today the luxury product market has increased manifold. The young are spontaneously aware of the luxury brands with the men focusing on cars and motorbikes and women’s focus on beauty and food. These reflect the desires and fantasies tha t are conditioned by the social environment and associations with well-being.Interpretation of the word ‘luxury’ depends upon their socio-economic background. The youth greatly represent the hedonistic effect in their attitude towards luxury items. This implies that they are not influenced by group norms. On the other hand they purchase luxury goods that give them self-fulfillment. They look for exclusive benefits and if products create an emotional value for consumers it represents that the product has been beneficial. The emotional value that the youth look for include pleasure, excitement and aesthetic beauty. They indulge in luxury items as it gives them a sense of well-being and self-respect and would also go the extent of using their credit cards for them. They prefer these luxuries against bringing up a child while the elders indulged in luxury only after their basic responsibilities were fulfilled (Hamilton, 2004). The elders seek more than value when considerin g purchasing a luxury brand. They try to balance the product’s tangible and intangible value with price. They assess discretionary purchases as either dispensable or indispensable, based on more deeply held core values (Salzman, 2009). While the youth focus on increasing their influence, power and wealth, the elders seek new priorities driven the fundamentals of human development. The traditional materialistic values are less important for the elders. The elders look for self-actualization in the luxury brand which as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comes only after all the other needs have been satisfied. Culture has a strong impact on the purchasing decisions. The youth are well aware of the luxury brands in areas like perfumes, clothing, fashion, leather goods, accessories, costume jewelry but not so in tableware. However they are very conscious of the modern sports cars and other different models of cars that emerge everyday. The attitude of the youth towards cars has definitely undergone a sea change from the 1980s. Marketing communications used by car