The Rise Of The 19th Century Essay - 1442 Words

The 14th century Renaissance1 was a transformational period in European history during which society experienced a resurgence of classical beliefs which altered Europe’s literature, science, religion, politics, and especially art. The word Renaissance is defined as a revival or rebirth; the period before, known as the Middle Ages, was characterized by feudalism, power of the Catholic Church, and plague. However, as a result of the widespread loss of life caused by the Black Death, there was a rapid growth of commerce, invention, and scholarship. Both men and women returned to classical values and its humanist style of thinking, the appreciation of human capabilities as opposed to the divine or supernatural matters, and ultimately worked towards becoming a â€Å"Renaissance man or woman†. Those people who spent their lives expanding their horizons embodied the core values of the period and influenced much of modern day society. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest o f these Renaissance men; his principles and work- the Vitruvian man, cannons, the aerial screw, and the Mona Lisa- shaped the Renaissance in many ways: socially, politically, and theologically, and scientifically. His works not only represented the period, they affected the continuance of the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci2 was born on April 15th, 1452 to a Florentine notary and an unmarried peasant woman named Caterina out of wedlock in Anchiano, Tuscany. His mother considered him an illegitimate child; so atShow MoreRelatedThe Rise Of The 19th Century1441 Words   |  6 PagesThe 19th century contributed to Europe’s history in the form of ideologies. In contrast to the 20th century, there were no wars or acts of violence used to support these ideologies; instead the forces of capitalism drove the history of the 19th century. By this notion, the last time Europe had experienced extreme forms of violence was during the French Revolution, therefore the decades before the 20th century were relatively peaceful. In the summer of 1914, Europe crossed the point of no return withRead MoreThe Rise Of The 19th Century1210 Words   |  5 Pages France in the late 1700 s was based on a feudal system where they were divided into estates based on their birth. The king was at the top of the absolute monarchy and did not have to consult with anyone to pass a law. He had complete control over the country and could do things such as kill someone for no reason. This did not go well with most people and especially people of the Third Estate. Privileges were very common amongst the First Estate. One very famous privilege was being exempt for theRead MoreThe Rise Of The 19th Century951 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The 19th century had also witnessed a succession of military revolutions. At sea, steel had superseded wooden hulls and steam had superseded sail. HMS Dreadnought, launched by Britain in 1906 with turbine engines and 10 12-inch guns, made all existing battleships obsolete. â€Å" The military revolutions prior to the first world war came at a high cost, and to build these ships, artillery and weaponry, which would improve t he employment and government spending in the economy. This increase in governmentRead MoreThe Rise Of The 19th Century1875 Words   |  8 PagesThe 19th century was a time of great innovation and rapid industrialization. The industry of iron and steel was generating new construction materials, while railroads were being connected across the United States. But one of the most used resources in the world now was discovered, oil as a source of fuel. In 1901, a gigantic geyser of oil erupted from a drilling site at Spindletop Hill, Texas. The spout reached a height of more than 150 feet and produced close to 100,000 barrels a day. Read MoreRise of Industry in the Late 19th Century1045 Words   |  5 Pagesall the necessary materials and money. After the civil war, America embarked on a journey of economic expansion and unification for the nation. In the late 19th century, government policies, technological advancements and population changes contributed to the rise of industry in America. Many government policies were created in the 19th century to encourage expansion and growth for America. Three very influential policies were the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act and laissez-faire. The homesteadRead MoreThe Rise Of Japan During The 19th Century796 Words   |  4 Pagesbetween the two nations has been noted by many scholars that there is a noticeable affront that has been built between the youth of the Japanese and the youth of the Chinese, which began in the 19th century when Japan began its rise to power in East Asia (Westad, 2013). The rise of Japan during the 19th century was seen as a slap in the face to the Chinese, who believed that they should be in control of East Asia that they were supposed to be the chosen nation, the leader of East Asia. These ideologiesRead MoreThe Rise Of Feminism Of The 19th And 20th Centuries2037 Words   |  9 PagesThe rise of feminism in the 19th and 20th centuries brought along a deeper understanding of the inherent percep tions of masculine and feminine societal roles. Our interpretations of a text is highly influenced by our gender, and as a reader, it affects how the presentation of gender in fictional works either conforms, or diverges, from the societal gender expectations. As the target audience of fairy tales are often tailored towards young children, fairy tales are generally the very first kind ofRead MoreThe Rise Of The Middle 19th Century Germany846 Words   |  4 Pages In the middle 19th century Germany was going through difficult changes. Germany was going through a change of leadership and a change in the economy during this time (â€Å"History of Germany†). Many great men and women decided to make the great journey to a new nation to make a name for themselves and their families. Marianne Kim is my fourth great grandmother arrived from Germany in the 19th century to New Orleans, Louisiana with her family. To get to America they went from Baden, Germany to LeRead MoreEssay on The Rise of European Secularism in the 19th Century2007 Words   |  9 Pagesï » ¿ SP History 117 – Final Exam One May 23, 2013 The Rise of European Secularism During the Nineteenth Century Word Count: 2,152 In Europe, the long nineteenth century, (1789-1914) was a tumultuous era of political, economic, and social revolution which created an increasingly secular culture. Europeans of all races and classes looked outside the church to solve societal and familial issues. Gifted intellectuals proposed new philosophies on human thought and behavior, while innovativeRead MoreUntil Sometime Before 1500 A.D., European Civilizations1462 Words   |  6 PagesD., Western civilizations gained Eastern military technology and fitted it to push them ahead in warfare and in turn, modernity. A trend in modernity in European states is an advancement of war and the accompanying technology. In looking at the 19th century, those countries that are perceived as â€Å"modern† are far ahead in war technology than those countries perceived as â€Å"pre-modern†. An example of such modernity exists in Britain in their military might. Contrasting this with the war technology of

Nightmare - Creative Writing - 1117 Words

The howling of the wind brought my eyes to open. Where was I? Focusing in the dark of night, confusion washed over me as I came to realize I was in the desert. Distant landscapes of dry and worn rock surrounded me, and beneath my bare feet I felt the gritty sand caught between my toes. I was surrounded by those rocky hills and yet as I scanned the desolate desert it seemed never ending. The irony of the nighttime desert suddenly set into my body; that ghastly wind moving right through me and chilling my bones to that of splintering ice. The need to move started me forward though, and I felt a sharp ache all over, my body trying to fight against change. Was I lost? My heart began pounding fast in my chest, the blood pumping through my veins†¦show more content†¦I stared in horror – that wall was stained with gruesome blood stains. What the smell was became all too obvious and I felt the need to vomit†¦ that motion put away and forgotten in an instant when the shuf fling of feet rustled behind me. Panic. I turned around in a blur, my eyes huge and watering. My stomach stirred in the slightest. A lamp? Indeed, a tall standing lamp radiated a warm light only a few metres in front of me. Was it real or a figment of my abused mind? Curiosity would get the best of me, lending me a tiny spurt of energy to boost me on my feet. Teetering footsteps led me forward cautiously, random tremors reminding me of my weakness. The lamp was close enough to touch, its friendly warmth the only hope in the world to me. Basking in it for some slow seconds, I wondered, maybe there were more things in the room that hadn’t been revealed to the naked eye? Turning sharp on my heel, I let out a blood curdling screech as I came face to face with the most horrific thing I had ever seen. Huge fly-like eyes took in my paling complexion, and a lopsided smile of stinking razor sharp teeth mocked me. Rancid skin that looked like the algae layer that sat upon a swamp bubbl ed and oozed, trickling down a sharply shaped ‘face’. Flight or fight reaction chose the obvious option and I turned back again to run. Where, I did notShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book Carte Blanche Essay1479 Words   |  6 Pagesvariety of ‘creative elements’ to coalesce understanding, memory and imagination. To bring together the feelings and emotions of every mother’s worst nightmare, the death of a child. This critical commentary will reflect on the techniques used in creating, crafting and structuring this narrative. It will focus on the problems I encountered composing the storyline and deliberate on how I overcame these problems. Furthermore, this reflection will examine how ‘Life and Journal writing can have therapeuticRead MoreWhat Dreams Are Essay573 Words   |  3 Pagesfor something more (bigger and better) than we already have, or the way we hope things should and would be. Next there is the wish, this is when there is a strong desire for a specific thing, a longing for one particular thing. Then there is the nightmare. They are the dreams that are very disturbing, full of fear and horror. They are often a very scary event played out while one is asleep, although we do not know we are asleep. Dreams are a sequence of images etc. passing through a sleepingRead MoreSynopsis Of My Story Essay834 Words   |  4 Pagestheir need for it. Section three contrasts the character’s incessant recurring nightmares, which are hypothesised (but never confirmed) as the cause of hair loss, with them venturing out to buy a wig. 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Alexie was also in Granta Magazine:Read MoreThe Things I Know Nothing At All : A Little Thing From Experience1632 Words   |  7 Pages micro fiction, or creative non-fiction. It is inspired by Anne Carson’s Short Talks where she analyzes different subjects that are interconnected on a grander scheme. I used Janet Burroway’s Imaginative Writing: the Elements of Craft to create my creative non-fiction piece and to develop its subjects. The goal of my project is to offer a different perception on subjects that are deemed irrelevant, but present an insight that shows a collective meaning. The genre of creative nonfiction is evolvingRead MoreWhat Does Social Class Mean?875 Words   |  4 Pagesduring this essay. In my K-12 years, school was very straight-forward to me. My teachers always explained a lesson or assignment for about thirty minutes, then handed out our classwork/homework. The days I did not understand an assignment were my nightmares. 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Lamb The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 19 Free Essays

string(26) " reaction to my prodding\." Chapter 19 Another day spent wandering the city with the angel, another dream of the woman standing at the foot of my bed, and I awoke finally – after all these years – to understand what Joshua must have felt, at least at times, as the only one of his kind. I know he said again and again that he was the son of man, born of a woman, one of us, but it was the paternal part of his heritage that made him different. Now, since I’m fairly sure I am the only person walking the earth who was doing so two thousand years ago, I have an acute sense of what it is to be unique, to be the one and only. We will write a custom essay sample on Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 19 or any similar topic only for you Order Now It’s lonely. That’s why Joshua went into those mountains so often, and stayed so long in the company of the creature. Last night I dreamed that the angel was talking to someone in the room while I slept. In the dream I heard him say, â€Å"Maybe it would be best just to kill him when he finishes. Snap his neck, shove him into a storm sewer.† Strange, though, there wasn’t the least bit of malice in the angel’s voice. On the contrary, he sounded very forlorn. That’s how I know it was a dream. I never thought I’d be happy to get back to the monastery, but after trudging through the snow for half the day, the dank stone walls and dark hallways were as welcoming as a warmly lit hearth. Half of the rice we had collected as alms was immediately boiled, then packed into bamboo cylinders about a hand wide and as long as a man’s leg, then half of the root vegetables were stored away while the rest were packed into satchels along with some salt and more bamboo cylinders filled with cold tea. We had just enough time to chase the chill out of our limbs by the cook fires, then Gaspar had us take up the cylinders and the satchels and he led us out into the mountains. I had never noticed when the other monks left on the pilgrimage of secret meditation that they were carrying so much food. And with all this food, much more than we could eat in the four or five days we were gone, why had Joshua and I been training for this by fasting? Traveling higher into the mountains was actually easier for a while, as the snow had been blown off the trail. It was when we came to the high plateaus where the yak grazed and the snow drifted that the going became difficult. We took turns at the head of the line, plowing a trail through the snow. As we climbed, the air became so thin that even the highly conditioned monks had to stop frequently to catch their breaths. At the same time, the wind bit through our robes and leggings as if they weren’t there. That there was not enough air to breathe, yet the movement of the air would chill our bones, I suppose is ironic, yet I was having a hard time appreciating it even then. I said, â€Å"Why couldn’t you just go to the rabbis and learn to be the Messiah like everyone else? Do you remember any snow in the story of Moses? No. Did the Lord appear to Moses in the form of a snow bank? I don’t think so. Did Elijah ascend to heaven on a chariot of ice? Nope. Did Daniel come forth unharmed from a blizzard? No. Our people are about fire, Joshua, not ice. I don’t remember any snow in all of the Torah. The Lord probably doesn’t even go to places where it snows. This is a huge mistake, we never should have come, we should go home as soon as this is over, and in conclusion, I can’t feel my feet.† I was out of breath and wheezing. â€Å"Daniel didn’t come forth from the fire,† Joshua said calmly. â€Å"Well, who can blame him, it was probably warm in there.† â€Å"He came forth unharmed from the lion’s den,† said Josh. â€Å"Here,† said Gaspar, stopping any further discussion. He put down his parcels and sat down. â€Å"Where?† I said. We were under a low overhang, out of the wind, and mostly out of the snow, but it was hardly what you could call shelter. Still, the other monks, including Joshua, shed their packs and sat, affecting the meditation posture and holding their hands in the mudra of all-giving compassion (which, strangely enough, is the same hand gesture that modern people use for â€Å"okay.† Makes you think). â€Å"We can’t be here. There’s no here here,† I said. â€Å"Exactly,† said Gaspar. â€Å"Contemplate that.† So I sat. Joshua and the others seemed impervious to the cold and as frost formed on my eyelashes and clothing, the light dusting of ice crystals that covered the ground and rocks around each of them began to melt, as if there was a flame burning inside of them. Whenever the wind died, I noticed steam rising off of Gaspar as his damp robe gave up its moisture to the chill air. When Joshua and I first learned to meditate, we had been taught to be hyperaware of everything around us, connected, but the state that my fellow monks were in now was one of trance, of separation, of exclusion. They had each constructed some sort of mental shelter in which they were happily sitting, while I, quite literally, was freezing to death. â€Å"Joshua, I need a little help here,† I said, but my friend didn’t move a muscle. If it weren’t for the steady stream of his breath I would have thought him frozen himself. I tapped him on the shoulder, but received no response whatsoever. I tried to get the attention of each of the other four monks, but they too gave no reaction to my prodding. You read "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 19" in category "Essay examples" I even pushed Gaspar hard enough to knock him over, yet he stayed in the sitting position, looking like a statue of the Buddha that had tumbled from its pedestal. Still, as I touched each of my companions I could feel the heat coming off of him. Since it was obvious that I wasn’t going to learn how to reach this trance state in time to save my own life, my only alternative was to take advantage of theirs. At first I arranged the monks in a large pile, trying to keep the elbows and knees out of the eyes and yarbles, out of respect and in the spirit of the infinitely compassionate Buddha and stuff. Although the warmth coming off them was impressive, I found that I could only keep one side of me warm at a time. Soon, by arranging my friends in a circle facing outward, and sitting in the middle, I was able to construct an envelope of comfort that kept the chill at bay. Ideally, I could have used a couple of more monks to stretch over the top of my hut to block the wind, but as the Buddha said, life is suffering and all, so I suffered. After I heated some tea on Number Seven monk’s head and tucked one of the cylinders of rice under Gaspar’s arm until it was warm, I was able to enjoy a pleasant repast and dropped off to sleep with a full belly. I awoke to what sounded like the entire Roman army trying to slurp the anchovies out of the Mediterranean Sea. When I opened my eyes I saw the source of the noise and nearly tumbled over backward trying to back away. A huge, furry creature, half again as tall as any man I had ever seen was trying to slurp the tea out of one of the bamboo cylinders, but the tea had frozen to slush and the creature looked as if he might suck the top of his head in if he continued. Yes, he looked sort of like a man, except his entire body was covered with a long white fur. His eyes were as large as a cow’s, with crystal blue irises and pinpoint pupils. Thick black eyelashes knitted together when he blinked. He had long black nails on his hands, which were similar to a man’s except twice the size, and the only clothing he wore at all were some sort of boots that looked to be made of yak skin. The impressive array of tackle swinging between the creature’s legs tipped me off to his mal eness. I looked around at the circle of monks to see if anyone had noticed that our supplies were being raided by a woolly beast, but they were all deeply entranced. The creature slurped again from the cylinder, then pounded on the side of it with his hand, as if to dislodge the contents, then looked at me as if asking for help. Whatever terror I felt melted away the second I looked into the creature’s eyes. There wasn’t the hint of aggression there, not a glint of violence or threat. I picked up the cylinder of tea that I had heated on Number Three’s head. It sloshed in my hand, indicating that it hadn’t frozen during my nap, so I held it out to the creature. He reached over Joshua’s head and took the cylinder, pulled the cork from the end, and drank greedily. I took the moment to kick my friend in the kidney. â€Å"Josh, snap out of it. You need to see this.† I got no response, so I reached around and pinched my friend’s nostrils shut. To master meditation the student must first master his breath. The savior made a snorting sound and came out of his trance gasping and twisting in my grip. He was facing me when I finally let go. â€Å"What?† Josh said. I pointed behind him and Joshua turned around to witness the full glory of the big furry white guy. â€Å"Holy moly!† Big Furry jumped back cradling his tea like a threatened infant and made some vocalization which wasn’t quite language. (But if it had been, it would probably have translated as â€Å"Holy Moly,† as well.) It was nice to see Joshua’s masterful control slip to reveal a vulnerable underbelly of confusion. â€Å"What†¦I mean who†¦I mean, what is that?† â€Å"Not a Jew,† I said helpfully, pointing to about a yard of foreskin. â€Å"Well, I can see it’s not a Jew, but that doesn’t narrow it down much, does it?† Strangely, I seemed to be enjoying this much more than my two semi-terrified cohorts. â€Å"Well, do you remember when Gaspar gave us the rules of the monastery, and we wondered about the one that said we were not to kill a human or someone like a human?† â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"Well, he’s someone like a human, I guess.† â€Å"Okay.† Joshua climbed to his feet and looked at Big Furry. Big Furry straightened up and looked at Joshua, tilting his head from side to side. Joshua smiled. Big Furry smiled back. Black lips, really long sharp canines. â€Å"Big teeth,† I said. â€Å"Very big teeth.† Joshua held his hand out to the creature. The creature reached out to Joshua and ever so gently took the Messiah’s smaller hand in his great paw†¦and wrenched Joshua off his feet, catching him in a hug and squeezing him so hard that his beatific eyes started to bug out. â€Å"Help,† squeaked Joshua. The creature licked the top of Joshua’s head with a long blue tongue. â€Å"He likes you,† I said. â€Å"He’s tasting me,† Joshua said. I thought of how my friend had fearlessly yanked the tail of the demon Catch, of how he had faced so many dangers with total calm. I thought of the times he had saved me, both from outside dangers and from myself, and I thought of the kindness in his eyes that ran deeper than sea, and I said: â€Å"Naw, he likes you.† I thought I’d try another language to see if the creature might better comprehend my meaning: â€Å"You like Joshua, don’t you? Yes you do. Yes you do. He wuvs his widdle Joshua. Yes he does.† Baby talk is the universal language. The words are different, but the meaning and sound is the same. The creature nuzzled Joshua up under its chin, then licked his head again, this time leaving a steaming trail of green-tea-stained saliva behind on my friend’s scalp. â€Å"Yuck,† said Joshua. â€Å"What is this thing?† â€Å"It’s a yeti,† said Gaspar from behind me, obviously having been roused from his trance. â€Å"An abominable snowman.† â€Å"This is what happens when you fuck a sheep!?† I exclaimed. â€Å"Not an abomination,† Josh said, â€Å"abominable.† The yeti licked him on the cheek. Joshua tried to push away. To Gaspar he said, â€Å"Am I in danger?† Gaspar shrugged. â€Å"Does a dog have a Buddha nature?† â€Å"Please, Gaspar,† Joshua said. â€Å"This is a question of practical application, not spiritual growth.† The yeti sighed and licked Josh’s cheek again. I guessed that the creature must have a tongue as rough as a cat’s, as Joshua’s cheek was going pink with abrasion. â€Å"Turn the other cheek, Josh,† I said. â€Å"Let him wear the other one out.† â€Å"I’m going to remember this,† Joshua said. â€Å"Gaspar, will he harm me?† â€Å"I don’t know. No one has ever gotten that close to him before. Usually he comes while we are in trance and disappears with the food. We are lucky to even get a glimpse of him.† â€Å"Put me down, please,† said Josh to the creature. â€Å"Please put me down.† The yeti set Joshua back on his feet on the ground. By this time the other monks were coming out of their trances. Number Seventeen squealed like a frying squirrel when he saw the yeti so close. The yeti crouched and bared his teeth. â€Å"Stop that!† barked Joshua to Seventeen. â€Å"You’re scaring him.† â€Å"Give him some rice,† said Gaspar. I took the cylinder I had warmed and handed it to the yeti. He popped off the top and began scooping out rice with a long finger, licking the grains off his fingers like they were termites about to make their escape. Meanwhile Joshua backed away from the yeti so that he stood beside Gaspar. â€Å"This is why you come here? Why after alms you carry so much food up the mountain?† Gaspar nodded. â€Å"He’s the last of his kind. He has no one to help him gather food. No one to talk to.† â€Å"But what is he? What is a yeti?† â€Å"We like to think of him as a gift. He is a vision of one of the many lives a man might live before he reaches nirvana. We believe he is as close to a perfect being as can be achieved on this plane of existence.† â€Å"How do you know he is the only one?† â€Å"He told me.† â€Å"He talks?† â€Å"No, he sings. Wait.† As we watched the yeti eat, each of the monks came forward and put his cylinders of food and tea in front of the creature. The yeti looked up from his eating only occasionally, as if his whole universe resided in that bamboo pipe full of rice, yet I could tell that behind those ice-blue eyes the creature was counting, figuring, rationing the supplies we had brought. â€Å"Where does he live?† I asked Gaspar. â€Å"We don’t know. A cave somewhere, I suppose. He has never taken us there, and we don’t look for it.† Once all the food was put before the yeti, Gaspar signaled to the other monks and they started backing out from under the overhang into the snow, bowing to the yeti as they went. â€Å"It is time for us to go,† Gaspar said. â€Å"He doesn’t want our company.† Joshua and I followed our fellow monks back into the snow, following a path they were blazing back the way we had come. The yeti watched us leave, and every time I looked back he was still watching, until we were far enough away that he became little more than an outline against the white of the mountain. When at last we climbed out of the valley, and even the great sheltering overhang was out of sight, we heard the yeti’s song. Nothing, not even the blowing of the ram’s horn back home, not the war cries of bandits, not the singing of mourners, nothing I had ever heard had reached inside of me the way the yeti’s song did. It was a high wailing, but with stops and pulses like the muted sound of a heart beating, and it carried all through the valley. The yeti held his keening notes far longer than any human breath could sustain. The effect was as if someone was emptying a huge cask of sadness down my throat until I thought I’d collapse or explode with the gr ief. It was the sound of a thousand hungry children crying, ten thousand widows tearing their hair over their husbands’ graves, a chorus of angels singing the last dirge on the day of God’s death. I covered my ears and fell to my knees in the snow. I looked at Joshua and tears were streaming down his cheeks. The other monks were hunched over as if shielding themselves from a hailstorm. Gaspar cringed as he looked at us, and I could see then that he was, indeed, a very old man. Not as old as Balthasar, perhaps, but the face of suffering was upon him. â€Å"So you see,† the abbot said, â€Å"he is the only one of his kind. Alone.† You didn’t have to understand the yeti’s language, if he had one, to know that Gaspar was right. â€Å"No he’s not,† said Joshua. â€Å"I’m going to him.† Gaspar took Joshua’s arm to stop him. â€Å"Everything is as it should be.† â€Å"No,† said Joshua. â€Å"It is not.† Gaspar pulled his hand back as if he had plunged it into a flame – a strange reaction, as I had actually seen the monk put his hand in flame with less reaction as part of the kung fu regimen. â€Å"Let him be,† I said to Gaspar, not sure at the time why I was doing it. Joshua headed back into the valley by himself, having not said another word to us. â€Å"He’ll be back when it’s time,† I said. â€Å"What do you know?† snapped Gaspar in a distinctly unenlightened way. â€Å"You’ll be working off your karma for a thousand years as a dung beetle just to evolve to the point of being dense.† I didn’t say anything. I simply bowed, then turned and followed my brother monks back to the monastery. It was a week before Joshua returned to us, and it was another day before he and I actually had time to speak. We were in the dining hall, and Joshua had eaten his own rice as well as mine. In the meantime, I had applied a lot of thought to the plight of the abominable snowman and, more important, to his origins. â€Å"Do you think there were a lot of them, Josh?† â€Å"Yes. Never as many as there are men, but there were many more.† â€Å"What happened to them?† â€Å"I’m not sure. When the yeti sings I see pictures in my head. I saw that men came to these mountains and killed the yeti. They had no instinct to fight. Most just stood in place and watched as they were slaughtered. Perplexed by man’s evil. Others ran higher and higher into the mountains. I think that this one had a mate and a family. They starved or died of some slow sickness. I can’t tell.† â€Å"Is he a man?† â€Å"I don’t think he is a man,† said Joshua. â€Å"Is he an animal?† â€Å"No, I don’t think he’s an animal either. He knows who he is. He knows he is the only one.† â€Å"I think I know what he is.† Joshua regarded me over the rim of his bowl. â€Å"Well?† â€Å"Well, do you remember the monkey feet Balthasar bought from the old woman in Antioch, how they looked like little human feet?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"And you have to admit that the yeti looks very much like a man. More like a man than he does any other creature, right? Well, what if he is a creature who is becoming a man? What if he isn’t really the last of his kind, but the first of ours? What made me think of it was how Gaspar talks about how we work off our karma in different incarnations, as different creatures. As we learn more in each lifetime we may become a higher creature as we go. Well, maybe creatures do that too. Maybe as the yeti needs to live where it is warmer he loses his fur. Or as the monkeys need to, I don’t know, run cattle and sheep, they become bigger. Not all at once, but through many incarnations. Maybe creatures evolve the way Gaspar believes the soul evolves. What do you think?† Joshua stroked his chin for a moment and stared at me as if he was deep in thought, while at the same time I thought he might burst out laughing any second. I’d spent a whole week thinking about this. This theory had vexed me through all of my training, all of my meditations since we’d made the pilgrimage to the yeti’s valley. I wanted some sort of acknowledgment from Joshua for my effort, if nothing else. â€Å"Biff,† he said, â€Å"that may be the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.† â€Å"So you don’t think it’s possible?† â€Å"Why would the Lord create a creature only to have it die out? Why would the Lord allow that?† Joshua said. â€Å"What about the flood? All but Noah and his family were killed.† â€Å"But that was because people had become wicked. The yeti isn’t wicked. If anything, his kind have died out because they have no capacity for wickedness.† â€Å"So, you’re the Son of God, you explain it to me.† â€Å"It is God’s will,† said Joshua, â€Å"that the yeti disappear.† â€Å"Because they had no trace of wickedness?† I said sarcastically. â€Å"If the yeti isn’t a man, then he’s not a sinner either. He’s innocent.† Joshua nodded, staring into his now-empty bowl. â€Å"Yes. He’s innocent.† He stood and bowed to me, which was something he almost never did unless we were training. â€Å"I’m tired now, Biff. I have to sleep and pray.† â€Å"Sorry, Josh, I didn’t mean to make you sad. I thought it was an interesting theory.† He smiled weakly at me, then bowed his head and shuffled off to his cell. Over the next few years Joshua spent at least a week out of every month in the mountains with the yeti, going up not only with every group after alms, but often going up into the mountains by himself for days or, in the summer, weeks at a time. He never talked about what he did while in the mountains, except, he told me, that the yeti had taken him to the cave where he lived and had shown him the bones of his people. My friend had found something with the yeti, and although I didn’t have the courage to ask him, I suspect the bond he shared with the snowman was the knowledge that they were both unique creatures, nothing like either of them walked the face of the earth, and regardless of the connection each might feel with God and the universe, at that time, in that place, but for each other, they were utterly alone. Gaspar didn’t forbid Joshua’s pilgrimages, and indeed, he went out of his way to act as if he didn’t notice when Twenty-Two Monk was gone, yet I could tell there was some unease in the abbot whenever Joshua was away. We both continued to drill on the posts, and after two years of leaping and balancing, dancing and the use of weapons were added to our routine. Joshua refused to take up any of the weapons; in fact, he refused to practice any art that would bring harm to another being. He wouldn’t even mimic the action of fighting with swords and spears with a bamboo substitute. At first Gaspar bristled at Joshua’s refusal, and threatened to banish him from the monastery, but when I took the abbot aside and told him the story of the archer Joshua had blinded on the way to Balthasar’s fortress, the abbot relented. He and two of the older monks who had been soldiers devised for Joshua a regimen of weaponless fighting that involved no offense or striking at all, but instead channeled the energy of an attacker away from oneself. Since the new art was practiced only by Joshua (and sometimes myself), the monks called it Jew-d;, meaning the way of the Jew. In addition to learning kung fu and Jew-d;, Gaspar set us to learning to speak and write Sanskrit. Most of the holy books of Buddhism had been written in that language and had yet to be translated into Chinese, which Joshua and I had become fluent in. â€Å"This is the language of my boyhood,† Gaspar said before beginning our lessons. â€Å"You need to know this to learn the words of Gautama Buddha, but you will also need this language when you follow your dharma to your next destination.† Joshua and I looked at each other. It had been a long time since we had talked about leaving the monastery and the mention of it put us on edge. Routine feeds the illusion of safety, and if nothing else, there was routine at the monastery. â€Å"When will we leave, master?† I asked. â€Å"When it is time,† said Gaspar. â€Å"And how will we know it is time to leave?† â€Å"When the time for staying has come to an end.† â€Å"And we will know this because you will finally give us a straight and concrete answer to a question instead of being obtuse and spooky?† I asked. â€Å"Does the unhatched tadpole know the universe of the full-grown frog?† â€Å"Evidently not,† Joshua said. â€Å"Correct,† said the master. â€Å"Meditate upon it.† As Joshua and I entered the temple to begin our meditation I said, â€Å"When the time comes, and we know that the time has come for us to leave, I am going to lump up his shiny little head with a fighting staff.† â€Å"Meditate upon it,† said Josh. â€Å"I mean it. He’s going to be sorry he taught me how to fight,† I said. â€Å"I’m sure of it. I’m sorry already.† â€Å"You know, he doesn’t have to be the only one bopped in the noggin when noggin-boppin’ time rolls around,† I said. Joshua looked at me as if I’d just awakened him from a nap. â€Å"All the time we spend meditating, what are you really doing, Biff?† â€Å"I’m meditating – sometimes – listening to the sound of the universe and stuff.† â€Å"But mostly you’re just sitting there.† â€Å"I’ve learned to sleep with my eyes open.† â€Å"That won’t help your enlightenment.† â€Å"Look, when I get to nirvana I want to be well rested.† â€Å"Don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.† â€Å"Hey, I have discipline. Through practice I’ve learned to cause spontaneous nocturnal emissions.† â€Å"That’s an accomplishment,† the Messiah said sarcastically. â€Å"Okay, you can be snotty if you want to, but when we get back to Galilee, you walk around trying to sell your ‘love your neighbor because he is you’ claptrap, and I’ll offer the ‘wet dreams at will’ program and we’ll see who gets more followers.† Joshua grinned: â€Å"I think we’ll both do better than my cousin John and his ‘hold them underwater until they agree with you’ sermon.† â€Å"I haven’t thought about him in years. Do you think he’s still doing that?† Just then, Number Two Monk, looking very stern and unenlightened, stood and started across the temple toward us, his bamboo rod in hand. â€Å"Sorry, Josh, I’m going no-mind.† I dropped to the lotus position, formed the mudra of the compassionate Buddha with my fingers, and lickity-split was on the sitting-still road to oneness with allthatness. Despite Gaspar’s veiled warning about our moving on, we again settled into a routine, this one including learning to read and write the sutras in Sanskrit, but also Joshua’s time with the yeti. I had gotten so proficient in the martial arts that I could break a flagstone as thick as my hand with my head, and I could sneak up on even the most wary of the other monks, flick him on the ear, and be back in lotus position before he could spin to snatch the still-beating heart from my chest. (Actually, no one was really sure if anyone could do that. Every day Number Three Monk would declare it time for the â€Å"snatching the still-beating heart from the chest† drill, and every day he would ask for volunteers. After a brief wait, when no one volunteered, we’d move onto the next drill, usually the â€Å"maiming a guy with a fan† drill. Everyone wondered if Number Three could really do it, but no one wanted to ask. We knew how Buddhist monks liked to teach. One minute you’re curious, the next a bald guy is holding a bloody piece of pulsating meat in your face and you’re wondering why the sudden draft in the thorax area of your robe. No thanks, we didn’t need to know that badly.) Meanwhile, Joshua became so adept at avoiding blows that it was as if he’d become invisible again. Even the best fighting monks, of whom I was not one, had trouble laying a hand on my friend, and often they ended up flat on their backs on the flagstones for their trouble. Joshua seemed his happiest during these exercises, often laughing out loud as he narrowly dodged the thrust of a sword that would have taken his eye. Sometimes he would take the spear away from Number Three, only to bow and present it to him with a grin, as if the grizzled old soldier had dropped it instead of having it finessed from his grip. When Gaspar witnessed these displays he would leave the courtyard shaking his head and mumbling something about ego, leaving the rest of us to collapse into paroxysms of laughter at the abbot’s expense. Even Numbers Two and Three, who were normally the strict disciplinarians, managed to mine a few smiles from their ever-so furrowed brows. It was a good time for J oshua. Meditation, prayer, exercise, and time with the yeti seemed to have helped him to let go of the colossal burden he’d been given to carry. For the first time he seemed truly happy, so I was stunned the day my friend entered the courtyard with tears streaming down his cheeks. I dropped the spear I was drilling with and ran to him. â€Å"Joshua?† â€Å"He’s dead,† Joshua said. I embraced him and he collapsed into my arms sobbing. He was wearing wool leggings and boots, so I knew immediately that he’d just returned from one of his visits into the mountains. â€Å"A piece of ice fell from over his cave. I found him under it. Crushed. He was frozen solid.† â€Å"So you couldn’t†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Joshua pushed me back and held me by the shoulders. â€Å"That’s just it. I wasn’t there in time. I not only couldn’t save him, I wasn’t even there to comfort him.† â€Å"Yes you were,† I said. Joshua dug his fingers into my shoulders and shook me as if I was hysterical and he was trying to get my attention, then suddenly he let go of me and shrugged. â€Å"I’m going to the temple to pray.† â€Å"I’ll join you soon. Fifteen and I have three more movements to practice.† My sparring partner waited patiently at the edge of the courtyard, spear in hand, watching. Joshua got almost to the doors before he turned. â€Å"Do you know the difference between praying and meditating, Biff?† I shook my head. â€Å"Praying is talking to God. Meditating is listening. I’ve spent most of these last six years listening. Do you know what I’ve heard?† Again I said nothing. â€Å"Not a single thing, Biff. Now I have some things I want to say.† â€Å"I’m sorry about your friend,† I said. â€Å"I know.† He turned and started inside. â€Å"Josh,† I called. He paused and looked over his shoulder at me. â€Å"I won’t let that happen to you, you know that, right?† â€Å"I know,† he said, then he went inside to give his father a divine ass-chewing. The next morning Gaspar summoned us to the tea room. The abbot looked as if he had not slept in days and whatever his age, he was carrying a century of misery in his eyes. â€Å"Sit,† he said, and we did. â€Å"The old man of the mountain is dead.† â€Å"Who?† â€Å"That’s what I called the yeti, the old man of the mountain. He has passed on to his next life and it is time for you to go.† Joshua said nothing, but sat with his hands folded in his lap, staring at the table. â€Å"What does one have to do with the other?† I asked. â€Å"Why should we leave because the yeti has died? We didn’t know he even existed until we had been here for two years.† â€Å"But I did,† said Gaspar. I felt a heat rising in my face – I’m sure that my scalp and ears must have flushed, because Gaspar scoffed at me. â€Å"There is nothing else here for you. There was nothing here for you from the beginning. I would not have allowed you to stay if you weren’t Joshua’s friend.† It was the first time he’d used either of our names since we’d arrived at the monastery. â€Å"Number Four will meet you at the gate. He has the possessions you arrived with, as well as some food for your journey.† â€Å"We can’t go home,† Joshua said at last. â€Å"I don’t know enough yet.† â€Å"No,† said Gaspar, â€Å"I suspect that you don’t. But you know all that you will learn here. If you come to a river and find a boat at the edge, you will use that boat to cross and it will serve you well, but once across the river, do you put the boat on your shoulders and carry it with you on the rest of your journey?† â€Å"How big is the boat?† I asked. â€Å"What color is the boat?† asked Joshua. â€Å"How far is the rest of the journey?† I queried. â€Å"Is Biff there to carry the oars, or do I have to carry everything?† asked Josh. â€Å"No!† screamed Gaspar. â€Å"No, you don’t take the boat along on the journey. It has been useful but now it’s simply a burden. It’s a parable, you cretins!† Joshua and I bowed our heads under Gaspar’s anger. As the abbot railed, Joshua smiled at me and winked. When I saw the smile I knew that he’d be okay. Gaspar finished his tirade, then caught his breath and resumed in the tone of the tolerant monk that we were used to. â€Å"As I was saying, there is no more for you to learn. Joshua, go be a bodhisattva for your people, and Biff, try not to kill anyone with what we have taught you here.† â€Å"So do we get our boat now?† Joshua asked. Gaspar looked as if he were about to explode, then Joshua held his hand up and the old man remained silent. â€Å"We are grateful for our time here, Gaspar. These monks are noble and honorable men, and we have learned much from them. But you, honorable abbot, are a pretender. You have mastered a few tricks of the body, and you can reach a trance state, but you are not an enlightened being, though I think you have glimpsed enlightenment. You look everywhere for answers but where they lie. Nevertheless, your deception hasn’t stopped you from teaching us. We thank you, Gaspar. Hypocrite. Wise man. Bodhisattva.† Gaspar sat staring at Joshua, who had spoken as if he were talking to a child. The old man went about fixing the tea, more feebly now, I thought, but maybe that was my imagination. â€Å"And you knew this?† Gaspar asked me. I shrugged. â€Å"What enlightened being travels halfway around the world following a star on the rumor that a Messiah has been born?† â€Å"He means across the world,† said Josh. â€Å"I mean around the world.† I elbowed Joshua in the ribs because it was easier than explaining my theory of universal stickiness to Gaspar. The old guy was having a rough day as it was. Gaspar poured tea for all of us, then sat down with a sigh. â€Å"You were not a disappointment, Joshua. The three of us knew as soon as we saw you that you were a being unlike any other. Brahman born to flesh, my brother said.† â€Å"What gave it away,† I said, â€Å"the angels on the roof of the stable?† Gaspar ignored me. â€Å"But you were still an infant, and whatever it was that we were looking for, you were not it – not yet, anyway. We could have stayed, I suppose, and helped to raise you, protect you, but we were all dense. Balthasar wanted to find the key to immortality, and there was no way that you could give him that, and my brother and I wanted the keys to the universe, and those were not to be found in Bethlehem either. So we warned your father of Herod’s intent to have you killed, we gave him gold to get you out of the country, and we returned to the East.† â€Å"Melchior is your brother?† Gaspar nodded. â€Å"We were princes of Tamil. Melchior is the oldest, so he would have inherited our lands, but I would have received a small fiefdom as well. Like Siddhartha, we eschewed worldly pleasures to pursue enlightenment.† â€Å"How did you end up here, in these mountains?† I asked. â€Å"Chasing Buddhas.† Gaspar smiled. â€Å"I had heard that there lived a sage in these mountains. The locals called him the old man of the mountain. I came looking for the sage, and what I found was the yeti. Who knows how old he really was, or how long he’d been here? What I did know was that he was the last of his kind and that he would die before long without help. I stayed here and I built this monastery. Along with the monks who came here to study, I have been taking care of the yeti since you two were just infants. Now he is gone. I have no purpose, and I have learned nothing. Whatever there was to know here died under that lump of ice.† Joshua reached across the table and took the old man’s hand. â€Å"You drill us every day in the same movements, we practice the same brush strokes over and over, we chant the same mantras, why? So that these actions will become natural, spontaneous, without being diluted by thought, right?† â€Å"Yes,† said Gaspar. â€Å"Compassion is the same way,† said Joshua. â€Å"That’s what the yeti knew. He loved constantly, instantly, spontaneously, without thought or words. That’s what he taught me. Love is not something you think about, it is a state in which you dwell. That was his gift.† â€Å"Wow,† I said. â€Å"I came here to learn that,† said Josh. â€Å"You taught it to me as much as the yeti.† â€Å"Me?† Gaspar had been pouring the tea as Joshua spoke and now he noticed that he’d overfilled his cup and the tea was running all over the table. â€Å"Who took care of him? Fed him? Looked after him? Did you have to think about that before you did it?† â€Å"No,† said Gaspar. Joshua stood. â€Å"Thanks for the boat.† Gaspar didn’t accompany us to the front gate. As he promised, Number Four was waiting for us with our clothes and the money we had when we arrived six years before. I picked up the ying-yang vial of poison that Joy had given me and slipped the lanyard over my head, then I pushed the sheathed black glass dagger into the belt of my robe and tucked my clothes under my arm. â€Å"You will go to find Gaspar’s brother?† Number Four asked. Number Four was one of the older monks, one of the ones who had served the emperor as a soldier, and a long white scar marked his head from the middle of his shaved scalp to his right ear, which had healed to a forked shape. â€Å"Tamil, right?† Joshua said. â€Å"Go south. It is very far. There are many dangers along the way. Remember your training.† â€Å"We will.† â€Å"Good.† Number Four turned on his heel and walked into the monastery, then shut the heavy wooden gate. â€Å"No, no, Four, don’t embarrass yourself with a sappy good-bye,† I said to the gate. â€Å"No, really, please, no scenes.† Joshua was counting our money out of a small leather purse. â€Å"It’s just what we left with them.† â€Å"Good.† â€Å"No, that’s not good. We’ve been here six years, Biff. This money should have doubled or tripled during that time.† â€Å"What, by magic?† â€Å"No, they should have invested it.† He turned and looked back at the gate. â€Å"You dumb bastards, maybe you should spend a little less time studying how to beat each other up and a little more time on managing your money.† â€Å"Spontaneous love?† I said. â€Å"Yeah, Gaspar’ll never get that one either. That’s why they killed the yeti, you know that, don’t you?† â€Å"Who?† â€Å"The mountain people. They killed the yeti because they couldn’t understand a creature who wasn’t as evil as they were.† â€Å"The mountain people were evil?† â€Å"All men are evil, that’s what I was talking to my father about.† â€Å"What did he say?† â€Å"Fuck ’em.† â€Å"Really?† â€Å"Yeah.† â€Å"At least he answered you.† â€Å"I got the feeling that he thinks it’s my problem now.† â€Å"Makes you wonder why he didn’t burn that on one of the tablets. ‘HERE, MOSES, HERE’S THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AND HERE’S AN EXTRA ONE THAT SAYS FUCK ‘EM.'† â€Å"He doesn’t sound like that.† â€Å"FOR EMERGENCIES,† I continued in my perfect impression-of-God voice. â€Å"I hope it’s warm in India,† Joshua said. And so, at the age of twenty-four, Joshua of Nazareth did go down into India. How to cite Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 19, Essay examples

Wilson’s Stance During Ww1 free essay sample

Cem Anil Kenar HIST104A-B02 Spg12 Wilson’s Stance during WW1: From â€Å"He kept us out of the War† to â€Å"Make the World Safe for Democracy† As it is well-known the World War I was primarily of a war fought due to imperialist aims, stemming from the need to satisfy the demand for raw material in the Europe. With the industrial revolution urge for raw material became of crucial importance for the European states. This was followed by the aggressive colonization projects that eventually led to a harsh competition between different parties around Europe, who want to hold control over the economic resources.The United States was not a super-power, as it is now, at the time of the War. Being aware of this Wilson opted to remain as a neutral observer during the initial phase of the war. It was the third year of the war, when the British intelligence intercepted the coded  telegram  dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire,  Arthur Zimmermann, on 16 January 1917. We will write a custom essay sample on Wilson’s Stance During Ww1 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page While the two blocs, The Entente Powers (France, The British Empire and Russia) vs.The Central Powers, (Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire), were fairly evenly balanced between 1914 and 1917, with the year 1917 the Central Powers started to be weakened due to several reasons. The Americans were convinced that the Central Powers were doomed to lose the war, when the Zimmermann telegram was revealed. Therefore, Wilson aspired to take advantage of these circumstances and use the telegram as a pretext for convincing the American public opinion to join to the War and side with the Entente Powers.Given that all the parties involved in the war was motivated with the aim to gain competitive advantage over others, Wilson’s decision can be understood as an attempt on the side of the U. S. to pursue its own interest. In fact, Americans has succeeded in their endeavor to take advantage of the situation. Though the American causalities were around 100,000 with the end of the war, the American economy and its strategic positioning in the World politics were reinforced. This paper is attempt to shed light on Wilson’s stance during the World War I.It will be argued that Wilson had skillfully maximized the American interests during the war through several strategies. Though his re-election campaign was based on the slogan of non-involvement, Wilson was well-aware the danger, as well as the window of opportunity, awaiting the U. S. Accordingly it will be demonstrated that Wilson had utilized the Zimmerman telegram to justify the involvement of the American in the war. Accordingly the structure of this paper is as follows; firstly a brief summary of Wilsons’s arguments to launch the war is provided.These arguments will be evaluated critically. Secondly, the factors that delayed the American involvement will be discussed. This will be followed by Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917. His arguments to support the American entry into the War were based on the grounds of moral arguments. For Wilson, the U. S had a moral responsibility to enter the war to make the world safe for democracy. However the main reason underlying his call to join the war on the side of Entente Powers was more complicated than that. The American economy was dependent on the Britain.Therefore while Wilson listed many reasons to justify his call to enter to war, such as the German submarines attack on American civilians on international waters, the autocrat nature of the German state, and the responsibility of Americans to spread democracy and liberalism around the world, these arguments were not convincing. Germans had already announced that the attack on happened because those ships were transporting arms to the Britain. Besides though Wilson claimed that the war against Germany would also mean a war against autocracy, he was sided with Russia, which was also governed by an autocrat. Wilson proclaimed that the American entry into the World War I was inevitable since the war came very much close to the Americans. However this argument was also open to question. Here one can consider how countries like Norway, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Spain that were almost at the line of the battle remained neutral despite the proximity of the fighting actors. Wilson could have remained neutral if he had imposed bans on arm shipment through ships that carry American flag, as Brazil did. [1] Wilson was quite careful on his wording when he was announcing war against Germany.He emphasized that the American citizens do not have any problem with Germany, whereas American government was targeting the German Kaiser who had been ruling the Germans with autocracy. The reason why Wilson was directly targeting the Kaiser, rather than the German people was related with the significant German immigrant population in the U. S. Being wary that this population might get vigilant with the announcement of the war; Wilson based his discourse on â€Å"liberating the German people†. Wilson was well-equipped with intelligence and strategic thinking.He was aware that the World War I could be window of opportunity for the Americans. The American economy was depended on England before the war. However with the American involvement of the war things has changed. Americans posed a pressure on Britain when the American Federal Reserve board had warned its member basks against granting loans to belligerent governments. In short thanks to Wilson’s policies, the U. S. had strengthened its economy vis-a-vis Britain and Germany. [2] There was couple of reasons why Wilson protracted the American involvement in the war.Firstly this was related with the election campaign and propaganda of Wilson, since his second term in the office came after the election, during which his motto was â€Å"Peace without victory. † Wilson was concerned over accusations of hypocrisy, since his re-election campaign emphasized the slogan â€Å"he kept us out of war. † Any earlier attempt to involve into war would damage the image of Wilson. Therefore Wilson had to wait for a solid reason to declare war against Germany. When the Germans forwarded the telegram to Mexico and proposed to form an alliance, Wilson had a valid ground.The Germans were offering the Mexicans to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, in return to their declaration of war against the U. S [3]. The reason why I believe that Wilson had used the telegram as a pretext to launch the war against Germany is because of the fact that he had never questioned the authenticity of the telegram, when it was decoded and sent by the British [4]. The telegram was used to mold the public opinion and in a short time period the overwhelming majority of Americans were convinced that the U. S. had a responsibility to get involved in the war.When Germany posed such a strategic threat against the U. S. , it was unthinkable to expect Wilson to remain neutral. Accordingly the Congress had accepted his proposal of declaration of war with little opposition. (Senate vote 82-6, House vote 373-50)[5] The brutality of the war and high number of casualties was the second reason that delayed the American involvement in the war. Advances in the military technology increased the casualties tremendously. The more the Americans delayed their involvement, the fewer casualties they would suffer from.The brutality of the war was manifested when around 60,000 British soldiers died in the Hidderburg Line on one day [6]. Therefore during the first three years of War, Wilson skillfully avoided any military aid, but confined himself to monetary and equipment aid. The Americans ended up with 100,000 causalities when the war was terminated. However given that more that 10 million people died during the war, it is obvious that this number is relatively low when it is compared with the losses of other parties.Though it is impossible to grasp what was in Wilson’s mind fully, it is possible to suggest that the considerable number of German originated Americans was another reason that deterred Wilson to declare war against Germany. The number of German natives amounted to 216,000 in the American Union Army, while the number of those having German parents was 300,000. This might be the third reason that delayed the American involvement [7] . Germans were already informed about these figures and Zimmermann had threatened Ambassador Gerard that in case of a threat the Germans in the U.S accompanied with the Irish would revolt against the American state [8]. During this period Germany was also attempting to provoke Mexico, which is the bordering state of the U. S. , as well Japan that was eagerly looking forward to challenging the Americans over the Pacific. That might make Wilson hesitant to transport American troops to another continent, and rather consolidate the military strengthen within its borders. There were two major reasons that can explain the belligerent attitude of Germany against the U. S.First the Germans wanted to intimidate the U. S. and deter the Americans to provide aid to Britain. The second reason was to use Mexico against the U. S. in the case of their involvement to war. Germans wanted to keep Americans occupied in their own territory through a Mexican attack and avoid their involvement in the continent. Germany had no demands over the American continent. This can be seen in the telegram, where the Mexicans were promised their lost territory ( New Mexico, Texas, Alabama), yet any demand on the German side was absent. 9] In short it was the economic factors that made Wilson to take sides in the War. During the later phases of the war Britain was highly indebted to the US. Even the American economy faced with stagnation due to this heavy loaning. Had Britain lost the War, the Americans would not collect their loans, at least in the short time. Therefore Wilson had legitimate and rational reasons to get involved in the war. Hence, it is safe to argue that the main motivation of the Americans to take part in the World War I was primarily economic, rather than humanitarian.The moral justification for the involvement, which was based on the claim to halt German aggression and spread democracy and liberalism, was mainly a pretext. Wilson could have remained neutral and pursued his initial policy of non-involvement. However for Wilson, the war was a great window of opportunity to expand American influence around the globe. Wilson’s policy might be judged as hypocritical, since his whole re-election campaign was based on the American non-involvement in the war, yet it was also Wilson who led the nation into the war. However during the critical phase of history, Wilson accomplished to maximize the gains of the Americans thanks to his skillful strategies. Molding the public opinion with the Zimmermann telegram, Wilson made Americans to get involved into the War. However this was motivated by strategic thinking and an urge to strengthen the power of the U. S. The late involvement of the Americans into the War diminished its losses and causalities. After the entry of the U. S. the war terminated with the defeat of Germany.

Body Fat Analyzer Scale A Good Business Idea an Example of the Topic Health Essays by

Body Fat Analyzer Scale: A Good Business Idea Recently, people have become more and more conscious of themselves. People, regardless of gender, have been more mindful of their health and physical state. True to this, taking nutritional supplement has become part of a daily routine and mindful food intake has been practiced. More people have come to consider the nutritional content of the food that they consume. With this increased awareness in nourishing one's health, a good product introduced to the market is HoMedics Body Fat Analyzer Scale. It is a device that measures body fat, body water, muscle mass and bone mass. It is embedded with a KnowledgeBook technology that ensures accuracy of the measurements. Because of its capability to gauge the important aspect of a person's health and fitness, this device serves as an ideal one-stop device for health and fitness conscious individuals. Need essay sample on "Body Fat Analyzer Scale: A Good Business Idea" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed With this new device, obtaining medical records will now become easier and faster. The time consumed for having long and strenuous series of tests and measurements will be just part of the past. Today, there is no need to conduct separate tests to gauge the different aspect of a person's health. For calorie conscious individuals, the HoMedics Body Fat Analyzer Scale also provides a Daily Calorie Predictor that identifies the ideal amount of a person's daily calorie intake. It made with durable stainless-steel design and has 2'' backlit blue LCD display that provides easy view of the results. With this product, even busy people will now be able to constantly monitor their health condition. There is no need to constantly visit the doctor's clinic; you can now do an assessment of the many aspects of your health on your own. Undoubtedly, this is an important development in empowering people to become more mindful of their personal health. References: Dubner, Stephen J. & Levitt, Stephen D. (2005). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. USA: HarperCollins Publishers Lipman, Harvy (1997). Guns in America. Albany, N.Y.: Albany Times Union.

Gods and Goddesses of Norse Mythology

Gods and Goddesses of Norse Mythology When Ymir lived long agoWas no sand or sea, no surging waves.Nowhere was there earth nor heaven above.Bur a grinning gap and grass nowhere.- Và ¶lusp-The Song of the Sybil Although we know a little from observations made by Tacitus and Caesar, most of what we know of Norse mythology comes from Christian times, beginning with the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (c.1179-1241). Not only does this mean the myths and legends were written after the period when they were routinely believed, but Snorri, as is to be expected, occasionally intrudes his non-pagan, Christian worldview. Types of Gods The Norse gods are divided into 2 major groups, the Aesir and Vanir, plus the giants, who came first. Some believe the Vanir gods represent an older pantheon of the indigenous people whom the invading Indo-Europeans encountered. In the end, the Aesir, the newcomers, overcame and assimilated the Vanir. Georges Dumezil (1898-1986) thought the pantheon reflected the typical pattern of Indo-European gods where different divine factions hold different societal functions: military,religious, andeconomic. Tyr is the warrior god; Odin and Thor divide the functions of the religious and secular leaders and the Vanir are the producers. Norse Gods and Goddesses - VanirNjà ¶rdFreyrFreyjaNannaSkadeSvipdag or HermoNorse Gods and Goddesses - AesirOdinFriggThorTyrLokiHeimdallUllSifBragiIdunBalderVeViliVidarHà ¶dMirmirForsetiAegirRanHel The Gods Home Norse gods dont live on Mt. Olympus, but their abode is separate from that of humans. The world is a circular disk, in the center of which is a concentric circle surrounded by sea. This central portion is Midgard (Mià °garà °r), the home of mankind. Across the sea is the home of the giants, Jotunheim, also known as Utgard. The gods home lies above Midgard in Asgard (sgarà °r). Hel lies below Midgard in Niflheim. Snorri Sturluson says Asgard is in the middle of Midgard because, in his Christianization of the myths, he believed the gods were only ancient kings worshiped after the fact as gods. Other accounts place Asgard across a rainbow bridge from Midgard. 9 Worlds of Norse Mythology The Gods Death The Norse gods are not immortal in the normal sense. In the end, they and the world will be destroyed because of the actions of the evil or mischievous god Loki who, for now, endures Promethean  chains. Loki is the son or brother of Odin, but only through adoption. In reality, he is a giant (Jotnar), one of the sworn enemies of the Aesir. It is the Jotnar who will find the gods at Ragnarok and bring about the end of the world. Norse Mythology Resources Individual Norse Gods and Goddesses Next page  Ã‚  Creation of the World   Page 1,  2

Why does Shilling describe the body as unfinished Essay

Why does Shilling describe the body as unfinished - Essay Example The self that we come to recognise is an embodied self, and we use the power that is in that body to interact with the world around us. We have to exercise control on that body, but and in so doing we build up an ordered view of our own identity which we then present for others to see and interact with. This explains how and why our view of the world is necessarily bodily centered. The work of Shilling (1999; Shilling and Mellor, 2007) builds on this groundwork and explores the tensions than can exist between the self and the body. Every human being exists in a physical form, that is to say a body, and yet also at the same time is able to conceive of this body as something separate from, but still related to, the actual self. This ability to distinguish mental and physical attributes creates a number of problems for sociologists, because it is not understood and applied in exactly the same way across different cultures and in different historical times. This paper discusses two paper s in which Shilling discusses the body in relation to society, and theorizes that the body is in a fundamental way unfinished. The main points of the two articles are summarized and the reasons which led to the formulation of the â€Å"unfinished body† hypothesis are explored. Finally this paper outlines some of the implications of this important way of understanding the relationship between body, identity and society. In the past the vocabulary of religion would have been used to portray this kind of issue as a contrast between the body and the spirit or even the soul. In modern times different sociologists such as Parsons (1988) and Lockwood (1964) have debated interrelationships between humans and society and there have been many different ways of theorising the body in a social sense. In Shilling’s view, too much attention has been paid to the mind, and not enough to the body, resulting in a view of the individual and of society which is flawed. Concepts such as ag ency and interaction have been too often defined as if they were somehow â€Å"disembodied.† (Shilling, 1999, p. 544) In 1999 and again in 2007, Shilling addresses these problems, and brings out a series of arguments to show that the individual human body is unfinished, because it requires interaction with others before it can achieve integrity and cohesion. This paper considers the arguments of each paper in turn in the light of other scholars who have examined similar issues and explores what Shillings means by the body being â€Å"unfinished† and why, along with implications of this insight for sociology in the twenty first century. In the earlier paper Shilling turns to the work of Goffman (1983) on the individual’s need for a social self, through which interactions with others are lived: â€Å"People are confronted with the necessity of establishing interpersonal relations with others, in order to construct a social self, and remain vulnerable within this domain: interaction occurs within arenas which expose people, physically and mentally, to others (Shilling, 1999, p. 546). According to Shilling, Goffman improves on earlier work on the self and society by taking more account of corporeal and emotional aspects, and this puts the mental, or cognitive, aspect back into its place alongside these other ones, rather above them in a position of pre-eminence. Goffman’s work on embarrassment (Goffman, 1983) clearly describes some of the physical signals that occur when people engage in particular activities, and this causes Shilling to reflect on the supposed interconnection between thoughts, emotions, and bodily experiences. He

SWOT Analysis of St. Austin Primary School Essay

SWOT Analysis of St. Austin Primary School - Essay Example This essay stresses that the school enjoys a good relationship not only with the neighbors but also with the school stakeholders. Periodic audience between the school administration and the students ensures that problems are solved as soon as they arise. There are periodical meetings between the teachers and the parents and this ensures that the two parties act in a synchronized manner as far as bringing up the child is concerned. There are parent days once per year where the students, teacher and students come together. This paper makes a conclusion that the school possesses a lengthy history, been in existence for thirty years now. This means that the school has laid down infrastructures as far as education provision is concerned. It has a fully stocked library and laboratories. It also has a powerful network of alumni. These are prominent people in the society and provide inspiration to our student and staff. The school is very expensive, it been a private enterprise. This locks out students that deserved an opportunity to study at our school since they cannot meet the costs. The school is said to be rigid as far as religion goes. It is run exclusive on Roman Catholic principles. This alienates students of other faiths like Muslim and Protestants. The school has been in existence for a period of thirty years. Due to this, it finds it very hard to deviate from its tradition and embrace new ways of life. It is accused of still running the business of education the old school way.

Describe the development of ancient Greek burial customs through time Essay

Describe the development of ancient Greek burial customs through time - Essay Example The Archaic and Classical Periods continued the worship of the dead. Central to all of the periods was that honor was of central importance in burial (Morris 49). Valor on the battlefield and the ability to produce offspring were more valued than anything else in the Greek society, since they provided continuity to the ancient Greek bloodlines and society. Greek territory is located at the Aegean sea, and spread across many islands (Martin 1). Mainland is covered by mountains (Martin 1). Only 20 – 30 percent of Greek mainland and a few islands were arable in the time of ancient Greece (Martin 2). Sea was their main transport route (Martin 2). Greeks traded with merchants from the Near East, Egypt and other eastern Mediterranean parts (Martin 2). Despite the shared culture, Greeks never constituted one state. Ancient Greeks lived in different communities, ranging from oligarchies to monarchies and tyrannies, with some such as Athens reaching democracy (Martin). However, they all shared â€Å"a cultural identity because they spoke dialects of the same language† (Martin 4). They worshipped the same gods and gathered at celebrations of their gods (Martin 4). Two prominent cultures in the Bronze Age were the Mycenaean on the mainland and Minoan on Crete. Around 2,200 B.C., the Minoan culture developed (Martin 24). Palaces sprang up in the Minoan culture. Females were highly valued as represented on the palace frescoes and figurines of â€Å"bosomy goddesses†, but burial customs reveal that males held highest positions in running the society (Martin 26). Martial prowess was highly valued, as the wealth of weaponry found in graves of Minoan males indicated (Martin 26). It is safe to assume than Minoan palaces were run by male kings or princes, and that the society was already highly specialized (Martin 26). The first Greek speaking culture whose burial grounds have been uncovered come from the Mycenaean

Turn of the Screw Unreliable Narrator

Turn of the Screw Unreliable Narrator Vision or perspective is a key theme that reoccurs in both the film entitled The Innocents by Jack Clayton, and novel Turn of the Screw by Henry James. They both suggest that the governesses vision is not dependable making her an unreliable narrator. Throughout the novel and the film the governess is certain that she sees ghosts and tries to convince Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, to acknowledge their presence as well. The crucial question that is left unanswered in both novel and film is the existence of the ghosts. According to Banard, the governess is a neurotic spinster whose repressed passion for her employer, the childrens bachelor uncle causes her to hallucinate (Banard 199). The governess comes across similar to a boy crazy teenager who sees a man and falls head over heels in love with him. The governess exhibits much behaviour which makes her seem like she has a couple of her screws loose in her head. From the beginning of the novel the governess presents herself in a way that barely qualifies herself for the job as the childrens governess. The initial narrator, Douglas describes the governess as young, untried, nervous (James 121). From the first chapter the governess suggests that she is a somewhat moody person describing her past as a succession of flights and drops (James 123). It makes her seem like taking the job as a governess would be a bad idea because she is quite sensitive and fickle. By making us aware of her changes in mood, it makes her come across as nervous, emotional, and not necessarily reliable. Her instability creates a feeling of uncertainty to the readers which makes us uncertain that we can trust her point of view in the narrative. While the instability makes us, the readers doubt her, the uncle does not pick up on that unstableness at all for all he wants is someone to keep his niece and nephew out of his way so he can continue his life as an eligible bache lor. She even doubts herself, saying she feels she is making a mistake, felt all my doubts bristle again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake.'(James123). It is the uncle who makes the mistake because he hires her even though she has no experience and does not know much about the job. When she arrives to Bly, she becomes irrational when she discovers that Miles, one of the children she is to care for has been expelled from school. As she constantly inquires about why he was sent away, Miles never answers her questions as to why he was expelled which makes her much more sceptical of him because he is acting like he is hiding something. Instead of writing to the school to investigate the real reason why Miles was expelled she conquers up her own reason rather than finding out the truth. She lets her imagination run wild about a little boy she barely knows concluding that Miles is an evil child which is why he was thrown out of school. The governess is very curious about the reason b ehind Miles expulsion but chooses to complicate the situation rather than just contacting the school. Her scepticism is obvious more in the film for she asks Miles quite frequently and never really responds. Without any proof she labels Miles and spends the rest of the novel and film trying to help him. In the end she discovers the truth finally; Miles was expelled because he said things to other boys at the school. The governess finally gets some answers when interrogating Miles in the last few chapters of the text although they are still vague: No, I didnt steal my handsshook him as if to ask him why, if it was all for nothing, he had he condemned me to months of torment. What then did you do? Well- I said things. Was it to everyone? I asked No- only a few. Those I liked. And did they repeat what you said? Oh yes, he nevertheless replied- they must have repeated them. To those they liked. (James 233-235). Even early on the novel she is proving herself to be unfit for the position she has acquired, in this particular scene she is interrogating Miles to find out answers. Instead of being the comforting caregiver like she was hired to be, the governess cross-examines the children similar to a criminal that is on trial. Even finding out the truth frustrates her because his answer is so vague. The governesses attitude towards the children makes her perspective as a narrator seemed biased and somewhat deceitful, she labels the children early on in the story which prevents us from seeing the childrens perspective as well. The technique James uses in his writing makes the text ambiguous for her chooses to tell the story from the perspective of the governess, an unreliable narrator which characterizes his writing. As Voltteler indicates in his argument, by using this technique the reader often witnesses events through the eyes of the character whose perception may be clouded by personal jealou sly, misunderstanding or self-deception (Votteler 263). In the case of the governess, her vision is clouded by her lust for the uncle. In addition to her desire for the uncle, she often sees Peter Quint or Miss Jessel but nobody else seems to acknowledge their presence when she points them out making it seem like she is the crazy one. In the film, the governess who is named Miss Gibbons goes looking for Flora by the lake and Miss Jessel appears and she tells Flora to look. When Flora indicates in the film that she has no idea what the governess is talking about she interrogates her and tries to force Flora into saying that she sees the ghost of Miss Jessel, someone whom Flora was close to and who died within the past year. When Mrs. Grose admits that she didnt see the ghost either, she is accused of betraying her for Mrs. Grose never did disagree with Miss Gibbons claims in neither the novel nor the film. In the novel, the governess calls Flora you little unhappy thing (James 213) and points Miss Jessel out from across the lake implying that Flora sees her. Flora replies scared and horrified that Miss Jessel was eve n brought up. I dont know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing. I never have. I think youre cruel. I dont like you!'(James 215). In the film, Clayton accentuates this scene by making Flora seem like she is corrupted not by the ghost but by Miss Giddons. In the film Flora seems like an innocent young girl and when Miss. Giddons questions her Flora looks as if she really does not see Miss. Jessel and it makes her quite upset. This scene emphasizes that Flora now sees that her governess is unfit and is corrupted. In forcing Flora to admit that she sees her previous governess, Flora then begins to think that Miss Giddons is wicked and cannot be trusted anymore. According to Wilson, there is never any reason for supposing that anybody but the governess sees the ghosts. She believes that the children see them, but there is never any proof that they do (Wilson 117). Not many questions are answered in the novel and the film; Clayton keeps with the ambiguous tone that is evident in the novel. Even the title of the film, The Innocents gives the viewer the idea that the governess is crazy and the children are merely just being children, a concept which the governess chooses to ignore. So when the children act in way that the governess does not understand she thinks that the children are corrupt and she must save them. In keeping with a similar representation among both the film and novel, it allows the viewer to decide for themselves. Either she is a crazy, hallucinating governess or the ghosts are real and the children are in on the plan to drive her out of Bly. Additionally, in the novel the governess has a fascination with gothic literature therefore she is hallucinating because she is a disturbed because she reads dark stories in her free time. What the governess first does after she sees Quint is compare it to her reading of gothic novels with romantic heroines. Was there a secret at Bly- a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?'(James 138). Since she loves reading such dark stories, they are all she has to compare what is happening in Bly to. When she first sees a man walking along the roof of the house all she can describe is what the figure looked like, but on her second sighting she feels that Quint was looking for someone other than her. This is important because as the story progresses her claims about the ghosts get more biased. Even though in the film there is no mention of her fascination with gothic books we still grasp that Miss Giddons mentality is not stable, making her an unfit caretaker. Afterwards the governess claims to know many things that cannot be proven, ridiculous claims based on her senses undermine her trustworthiness as a narrator in the novel. As well, when she sees these ghosts she is not certain that they are the deceased governess and valet until Mrs. Grose tells her that Miss Jessel, the previous governess and Peter Quint, the valet died nearby the house in Bly. The governess has no proof in the novel, whereas in the film an addition point is added, while playing hide and seek with the children, Miss Giddens finds an old photo of a man who Mrs. Grose identifies as Peter Quint. The additional proof added in the film makes the plot more believable because it means that Miss Giddens had some evidence to back up her claims. In the novel, all we are told about Quint is that he is handsome but it is really impossible to know how much the ghost the governess sees resembles Quint. According to Wilson, James knew what he was doing and he int ended the governess to be suffering from delusions. The governess could have learned about Quints appearance from the people in the village who with whom we know she had talked and who had presumably also told her of the manner of Quints death (Wilson 153).There are many ways she could have found out more information about the deaths of these two former employees which could have made her more delusional. Although neither the novel nor the film discuss her speaking to the other people in the town, we must not assume that the mansion is the only home in that part of England. So in conclusion, in both novel and film there is a recurring theme of unreliability of perception. The governess is shown as an unreliable narrator preventing us from seeing more than just her perspective. Her vision is contaminated by her lust for the childrens uncle who she falls head over heels in love with. From the beginning she is described in terms which make her perspective not trustworthy since she is described as moody. Throughout the novel and the film the governess is certain that she sees ghosts and tries to convince Mrs. Grose and the children that the ghost of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are a reality. Lastly, her fascination with gothic literature enables her to see aspects of evil which may not be really there. As she imagines scenes from her book, she believes she is seeing ghosts which are not really there. So on the whole, many incidents contribute to the belief that the governess is just hallucinating the ghosts and corrupting Flora and Miles by frightening them .

Definitions of Words Relating to Colonial America :: American History Puritans War Essays

Definitions of Words Relating to Colonial America 1.Iroquois Confederacy— confederation of five indigenous North American peoples, or nations, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca; founded c.1570. 2.Powhatan Confederacy— a group of 30 Native American tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. 3.Raleigh, Sir Walter— 1554-1618, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters. He conceived and organized the colonizing expeditions to America that ended tragically with the lost colony on Roanoke Island, VA with Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman. 4.Roanoke Island— 12 mi (19 km) long and 3 mi (4.8 km) wide, off the NE coast of North Carolina between Albemarle and Pimlico sounds, site of the earliest English colony in North America. The first colonists, sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh landed in Aug. 1585 but returned to England in 1586. A second group, arriving in 1587, disappeared by the time additional supplies were brought from England in 1591. Artifacts from the lost colony are displayed in Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on the island. 5.Virginia Company— name of two English colonization companies chartered by King James I in 1606. One founded on the Plymouth Colony; the other, latter known as the London Company, founded colonies in the South, notably Jamestown, VA. 6.Jamestown— former village, SE Va., first permanent English settlement in America; est. May 14, 1607, by the London Company on a peninsula (now an island) in the James R.; named for the reigning English king, James I. 7.Royal Colony— In 1691 a new royal charter was granted for the colony of Massachusetts, which incorporated the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket Island, Maine, and Nova Scotia. Under the charter a popular assembly was established to aid the royal governor, and the right to elect representatives to the assembly was based on property qualifications, rather than on church membership. The royal charter ended control of Massachusetts government by Puritan religious leaders. 8.Puritans— ‘Followers' of Puritanism, a movement for reform in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas in England and America. In America the early New England settlements were Puritan in origin and theocratic in nature. The spirit of Puritanism long persisted there, and the idea of congregational democratic government was carried into the political life of the state as one source of modern democracy. 9.Plymouth Colony— settled by the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1620. The settlers had difficulty surviving early hardships, although a treaty with neighboring tribes assured peace for 50 years.

Gertrude and Ophelia (Hamlet) Essay

In Hamlet, the women act the small roles portraying their historical status at the time. Although Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark and Ophelia is the prince’s lovers, they have no standing in the society and their voices are never heard. Their actions and fates are greatly influenced by the men’s decisions. All their lives Ophelia and Gertrude are led by the men’s power; they together make a weak image of dependent women at Shakespeare’s time. Although Gertrude and Ophelia are not well developed through out the play, their actions, language and influence on the play portray them as the obedient passive type of women. Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother, a queen who betrayed her husband and got seduced by the prince’s uncle Claudius. She remarried with him and thereafter obeyed every order from Claudius. Gertrude is objectified by Claudius, as he said: â€Å"my crown, mine own ambition and my Queen.† To him the queen is one of his possessions and not even listed as the first. This suggested Gertrude is used by Claudius to get to the throne. The hasty marriage only a few weeks after her husband’s death shows her great dependence on men. Hamlet’s proclamation that he will â€Å"speak daggers to her, but use none† illustrate that he perceives her to be inferior, weak enough to fall foul to his words. Overall, Gertrude is the type of women that cannot survive without a man in her life, with suc h a weak soul she betrays her own husband and son. Ophelia is different from Gertrude. She is innocent, and naà ¯ve with no experience in life. She does love Hamlet with her pure heart, but she is also too submissive to her dad Polonius and brother Laertes. As they claim Hamlet is dangerous, that Hamlet’s â€Å"will is not his own† and that she should â€Å"fear† him, she does not try to oppose him, or justify Hamlet’s â€Å"affections† instead she tells Laertes that he â€Å"shall keep the key† of her memory. Polonius insults her and Hamlet’s love, responding to her declaration that Hamlet â€Å"has of late made tenders of his affection† he cries â€Å"Affection? Pooh!†¦Do you believe his tenders as you call them?† to which Ophelia replies â€Å"I do not know, my lord, what I should think†. She gives all the other male influences in her life. Later in the play, after Hamlet killed Polonius and runs away, Laertes is in France, she has no one to turn to. She depends too much on those people, now without any support she turns to  madness and finally commits suicide. All her life Ophelia is led by others and has never decided anything but her death. â€Å"Hamlet† was written in a time when women were not even allowed to play themselves on stage, women were seen as inferior and women were ‘owned’ by men. Ophelia and Gertrude have no real Autonomy, they are at the mercy of Hamlet, Claudius, Rodrigo, and Laertes moods to define their moods, and when the men are in conflict the women suffer, which is death in this case. They are a portrait of what women in Shakespeare’s time were like, dependent on men and never could control their own fate. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Rpt. in Compact Literature Reading Reacting Writing. By Kirszner and Mandell. 6th ed. 2007.

The Role of Women in 3 Greek Myths essays

The Role of Women in 3 Greek Myths essays One day, Persephone was in the field gathering the crops and Hades, the god of the underworld, was admiring her. He decided that he had to have her as his wife. Hades then shook the ground and caused it to split open and Persephone fell into the realm of the underworld. Persephone was then offered a pomegranate from Hades and she accepted. Little did she know that once she ate the pomegranate she had to stay in the realm of Hades as the wife of Hades. Demeter, Persephones mother, pleaded with Zeus to get Persephone back. He explained to Demeter that once she ate the pomegranate she had to stay there. Demeter is the goddess of the weather and vegetation so her rage cause massive storms, frigid weather, and everything to stop growing, or die A few months later, Zeus made a bargain with Hades to let Persephone go for 9 months of the year and she would be back during the other 3 months. Hades agreed and Demeter was so happy, that the weather turned nice and everything grew back. This is how the seasons came to be. Persephone is thought to be a beautiful women with long brown hair and is nearly always found wandering the fields. She truly is an enchantress, but is also a very gullible women because she was tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds. Persephone is also helpless because she can not do anything to break free. The storyteller wants us to feel bad for both Persephone and Demeter because they are both at a loss. Demeter for losing her daughter and Persephone for being captured. The female characters are portrayed less powerful than the male characters in this myth. There once was a fair maiden who was the daughter of the king named Atalanta. She was desired by many suitors. Atalanta vowed to stay a virgin and would never get married. However, her father pressed her to get married. She came up with a plan, since Atalanta was very athletic, she would ha ...