The Media and the Role They Play in Suicide Research Paper

The Media and the Role They Play in Suicide - Research Paper Example ion, arrest, punishment, embarrassment, and pity Case study 3: â€Å"Father of a gang-raped teenage girl commits suicide 'in shame'† A father to a 16-year-old girl committed suicide by taking poison after a gang of eight men raped his daughter Media shame led to Krishan’s completed suicide Change of writing styles With the discussions provided by Lester, it is agreeable that the media through publicized books fosters suicidal behaviors particularly to readers seeking information regarding suicide Classical writers applied writing styles such as: a. Romantics b. Boffo c. Irresistible Current writing styles such as: a. Spare b. Crafty c. Lyric Suicide related books have changed for the worse Statistics on suicide Data brought forward by National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) document that people also commit suicide because of exposure to behaviours opined to suicide by media figures, family members, and peers Statistical figures showing the rate of suicide since year 1993 to 2010 After every 13.7 minutes, an individual dies through suicide in the US. Almost 1,000,000 individuals attempt to commit suicide every year. Ninety percent of those people who commit suicide have a treatable and diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Most people with mental illness do not commit suicide Medical costs amount to almost $100 million annually (2005). Conclusion The media, may it be publicized or viewed, play a crucial role in escalating the rate of completed, planned, attempted, and thought attempts especially among people undergoing certain challenges including diseases, depression, and disorders Recommendations People thinking of committing suicide should seek medical attention or counselling Researchers and doctors recommend specific forms of psychotherapy such as dialectical... This paper approves that The National Vital Statistics System of the United States reveals that, many people take their lives every year in this country. The research results point out that the risk of committing suicide is higher in some people than in others. According to the available data, the major causes of suicide in the US are depression, prior suicide attempt, suicide family history, and incarceration. Media plays a potential role in contributing to the suicidal behaviours of many Americans where firearms usage in movies and substance abuse take the largest percentage of deaths that occur due to suicide. This essay makes a conclusion that the media, may it be publicized or viewed, play a crucial role in escalating the rate of completed, planned, attempted, and thought attempts especially among people undergoing certain challenges including diseases, depression, and disorders. The market is flooding with movies where characters portrayed to have contracted killer diseases end up hanging themselves. This aspect affects people the third world countries, as their living costs are high. Television and the internet especially with the upsurge and accelerated use of social networks, live video coverage, and instant messaging are contributing to suicide behaviors every day. The discussed case studies show that the media facilitates death through suicide given that the antagonists of media’s role in suicide cases depicts that the involved people committed suicide due to the shame brought unto them by the media.

Darko Suvins Metamorphoses of Science Fiction Essay Example for Free

Darko Suvins Metamorphoses of Science Fiction Essay

Essay on the Character of Katharina in Taming of the Shrew

The Character of Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew      Ã‚   Michael W. Shurgot has written that The Taming of the Shrew "may never be as intellectually stimulating as reading, say, The Merchant of Venice or Hamlet or The Winter's Tale" and that the characters that seem one-dimensional on the page can only become interesting on the stage (328).   Shurgot would seem to imply that Shakespeare did not fully develop his characters, and that the play is only entertaining after a director has taken creative license with the stage directions.   A close reading of the play itself will show it to be interesting enough indeed, for it reveals clues to the motivation of both Katharina's shrewishness and later submissiveness, and the manner in which her character is to be portrayed and viewed.       Agnes Mure Mackenzie would have audiences believe that "Katharina's revolt is temperamental apparently: at least we are given no reason for it in its beginnings," (24).   Baptista says that his daughters will have "a good bringing up," (1.1.99), implying that he has always tried to raise the girls right.   Katharina, he would have us believe, has turned out shrewish despite his best intentions.   He also says that he intends to school his daughters.   This does not necessarily mean that Katharina is intelligent, but she has probably been encouraged to think.   Like it or not, Baptista has reared an independently thinking female.       An audience might assume that Katharina has always been shrewish; her reputation seems to have already been established, as is evidenced by Hortensio and Gremio's heckling in the first scene (1.1.55-61).   This does not mean she is a shrew by nature, only that she had been exhibiting this behavior f... ...hout his even knowing it.       So we see that Katharina is indeed a very complex and interesting character.   Generations of readers and performers have misunderstood her character, and probably misrepresented her.   Tucking Katharina into the "crazy shrew" package may be very convenient for the director looking for an easy production, but it is probably incorrect.   In fact, no production that produces the play as a straightforward farce does the character of Katharina any justice.    Works Cited MacKenzie, Agnes Mure.   The Women in Shakespeare's Plays.   London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1924. Ring.   "Was shrewish Shakespeare a feminist bard?" from http://web.uvic.ca/ucom/Ring/99feb19/bard.htm Shurgot, Michael W.   "From Fiction to Reality: Character and Stagecraft in The taming of the shrew."   Theatre Journal, October 1981, 327-340.

AIDS and Religion in Africa :: Free AIDS Essays

Introduction: Presently, somewhere between 34 and 46 million people live with AIDS worldwide. In total, Africa holds the highest number with just under 30 million people suffering from AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa, by itself, accounts for between 25 and 28.2 million people. These numbers leave Northern Africa with just over one million people living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Any news you hear regarding the AIDS Epidemic, a main topic involves Sub-Saharan Africa. Besides a somewhat different climate, what else is special about Northern Africa that seems to keep the population’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rates low compared to the southern portion of the continent. Look at the two figures in the Appendix. One figure represents the religious spread including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Indigenous Religions. The other figure illustrates the spread of AIDS in Africa. Notice the similarities in spread. High correlation exists between low rates and the Islam territory and with high rates and Christianity. Religion seems to have immense influence over the spread of AIDS. The history of African religion dates back centuries through original tribal religions, Islam, Christianity with some Judaism. Within this paper, I will briefly describe the spread of each of these religions including tensions between each other and the already present traditional religions. Following this description, I will describe the main ideas behind each religion in a theological viewpoint as well as any social implications. These tenets are long developed with distinct traditions and beliefs backing them through the centuries. Over the last 20 years, a new factor has developed in Africa exerting extreme pressure on many of these long-lived traditions. I want to explore the relationship between the rise of the AIDS epidemic and the subsequent public health campaigns challenges focusing on the traditions behind the main religions. I look to explore how some of the already present traditions aid and also hurt the fight against AIDS, some of the religions’ reactions to the epidemic and future predictions on how the epidemic will reshape religion in Africa and possibly globally. Islam in Africa: The actual definition of the word, â€Å"Islam†, â€Å"refers to the peace that come from surrender to God† (World Religions: Islam). The book of Islam is the Quran, an unedited version of The Holy Prophet Muhammad’s messages of Allah’s teachings. The Islamic religion’s main tenets involve the â€Å"affirmation of one God, with total repudiation of polytheism and all forms of idolatry, including the use of images† with importance stressed with overall justice, humility and submission (McCasland, Cairns and Yu, 328).

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 8-9

8 ROBERT Robert loaded the last of the laundry baskets full of dishes into the bed of the pickup. The sight of a truckload of clean dishes did not raise his spirits nearly as much as he thought it would. He was still depressed. He was still heartbroken. And he was still hung over. For a moment he thought that washing the dishes might have been a mistake. Having created a single bright spot, no matter how small, seemed to make the rest of his life look even more dismal by contrast. Maybe he should have just gone with the downward flow, like the pilot who pushes down the stick to pull out of an uncontrolled spin. Secretly, Robert believed that if things got so bad that he couldn't see his way out, something would come along and not only save him from disaster but improve his life overall. It was a skewed brand of faith that he had developed through years of watching television – where no problem was so great that it could not be surmounted by the last commercial break – and through two events in his own life. As a boy in Ohio he had taken his first summer job at the local county fair, picking up trash on the midways. The job had been great fun for the first two weeks. He and the other boys on the cleanup crew spent their days wandering the midways using long sticks, with nails extending from one end, to spear paper cups and hot dog wrappers as if they were hunting lions on the Serengeti. They were paid in cash at the end of each day. The next day they spent their pay on games of chance and repeated rides on the Zipper, which was the beginning of Robert's lifelong habit of exchanging money for dizziness and nausea. The day after the fair ended, Robert and the boys were told to report to the livestock area of the fairgrounds. They arrived before dawn, wondering what they would do now that the colorful carny trailers and rides were gone and the midways were as barren as airport runways. The man from the county met them outside the big exhibition barns with a dump truck, a pile of pitchforks, and some wheelbarrows. â€Å"Clean out those pens, boys. Load the manure on the truck,† he had said. Then he went away, leaving the boys unsupervised. Robert had loaded only three forkfuls when he and the boys ran out of the barn gasping for breath, the odor of ammonia burning in their noses and lungs. Again and again they tried to clean the stables only to be overcome by the stench. As they stood outside the barn, swearing and complaining, Robert noticed something sticking up out of the morning fog on the adjacent show ground. It looked like the head of a dragon. It was beginning to get light, and the boys could hear banging and clanging and strange animal noises coming from the show ground. They stared into the fog, trying to make out the shapes moving there, glad for the distraction from their miserable task. When the sun broke over the trees to the east of the fairgrounds, a scraggly man in blue work clothes walked out of the mist toward the barn. â€Å"Hey, you kids,† he shouted, and they all prepared to be admonished for standing around instead of working. â€Å"You want to work for the circus?† The boys dropped their pitchforks as if they were red-hot rods of steel and ran to the man. The dragon had been a camel. The strange noises were the trumpeting of elephants. Under the mist a crew of men were unrolling the big top of the Clyde Beatty Circus. Robert and the boys worked all morning beside the circus people, lacing together the bright-yellow canvas panels of the tent and fitting together giant sections of aluminum poles that would support the big top. It was hot, sweaty, heavy work, and it was wonderful and exciting. When the poles lay out across the canvas, cables were hitched to a team of elephants and the poles were hoisted skyward. Robert thought his heart would burst with excitement. The canvas was connected by cables to a winch. The boys watched in awe as the big top rose up the poles like a great yellow dream. It was only one day. But it was glorious, and Robert thought of it often – of the roustabouts who sipped from their hip flasks and called each other by the names of their home states or towns. â€Å"Kansas, bring that strut over here. New York, we need a sledge over here.† Robert thought of the thick-thighed women who walked the wire and flew on the trapeze. Their heavy makeup was grotesque up close but beautiful at a distance when they were flying through the air above the crowd. That day was an adventure and a dream. It was one of the finest in Robert's life. But what had impressed him was that it had come right when things seemed the most bleak, when everything had gone, literally, to shit. The next time Robert's life took a nosedive he was in Santa Barbara, and his salvation arrived in the form of a woman. He had come to California with everything he owned packed into a Volkswagen Beetle, determined to pursue a dream that he thought would begin at the California border with music by the Beach Boys and a long, white beach full of shapely blondes dying for the company of a young photographer from Ohio. What he found was alienation and poverty. Robert had chosen the prestigious photography school in Santa Barbara because it was reputed to be the best. As photographer for the high school yearbook he had gained a reputation as one of the best photographers in town, but in Santa Barbara he was just another teenager among hundreds of students who were, if anything, more skilled than he. He took a job in a grocery store, stocking shelves from midnight to eight in the morning. He had to work full-time to pay his exorbitant tuition and rent, and soon he fell behind in his assignments. After two months he had to leave school to avoid flunking out. He found himself in a strange town with no friends and barely enough money to survive. He started drinking beer every morning with the night crew in the parking lot. He drove home in a stupor and slept through the day until his next shift. With the added expense of alcohol, Robert had to hock his cameras to pay rent, and with them went his last hope for a future beyond stocking shelves. One morning after his shift the manager called him into the office. â€Å"Do you know anything about this?† The manager pointed to four jars of peanut butter that lay open on his desk. â€Å"These were returned by customers yesterday.† On the smooth surface of the peanut butter in each jar was etched, â€Å"Help, I'm trapped in Supermarket Hell!† Robert stocked the glass aisle. There was no denying it. He had written the messages one night during his shift after drinking several bottles of cough medicine he had stolen from the shelves. â€Å"Pick up your check on Friday,† the manager said. He shuffled away, broke, unemployed, two thousand miles from home, a failure at nineteen. As he left the store, one of the cashiers, a pretty redhead about his age, who was coming in to open the store, stopped him. â€Å"Your name is Robert, isn't it?† â€Å"Yes,† he said. â€Å"You're the photographer, aren't you?† â€Å"I was.† Robert was in no mood to chat. â€Å"Well, I hope you don't mind,† she said, â€Å"but I saw your portfolio sitting in the break room one morning and I looked at it. You're very good.† â€Å"I don't do it anymore.† â€Å"Oh, that's too bad. I have a friend who's getting married on Saturday, and she needs a photographer.† â€Å"Look,† Robert said, â€Å"I appreciate the thought, but I just got fired and I'm going home to get hammered. Besides, I hocked my cameras.† The girl smiled, she had incredible blue eyes. â€Å"You were wasting your talent here. How much would it cost to get your cameras out of hock?† Her name was Jennifer. She paid to get his cameras out of hock and showered him with praise and encouragement. Robert began to make money picking up weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, but it wasn't enough to make rent. There were too many good photographers competing in Santa Barbara. He moved into her tiny studio apartment. After a few months of living together they were married and they moved north to Pine Cove, where Robert would find less competition for photography jobs. Once again, Robert had sunk to a lifetime low, and once again Dame Fate had provided him with a miraculous rescue. The sharp edges of Robert's world were rounded by Jennifer's love and dedication. Life had been good, until now. Robert's world was dropping out from under him like a trapdoor and he found himself in a disoriented free-fall. Trying to control things by design would only delay his inevitable rescue. The sooner he hit bottom, he reasoned, the sooner his life would improve. Each time this had happened before, things had gotten a little worse only to get a little better. One day the good times had to keep on rolling, and all of life's horseshit would turn to circuses. Robert had faith that it would happen. But to rise from the ashes you had to crash and burn first. With that in mind, he took his last ten dollars and headed down the street to the Head of the Slug Saloon. 9 THE HEAD OF THE SLUG Mavis Sand, the owner of the Head of the Slug Saloon, had lived so long with the Specter of Death hanging over her shoulders that she had started to think of him as one might regard a comfortable old sweater. She had made her peace with Death a long time ago, and Death, in return, had agreed to whittle away at Mavis rather than take her all at once. In her seventy years, Death had taken her right lung, her gall bladder, her appendix, and the lenses of both eyes, complete with cataracts. Death had her aortic heart valve, and Mavis had in its place a steel and plastic gizmo that opened and closed like the automatic doors at the Thrifty Mart. Death had most of Mavis's hair, and Mavis had a polyester wig that irritated her scalp. She had also lost most of her hearing, all of her teeth, and her complete collection of Liberty dimes. (Although she suspected a ne'er-do-well nephew rather than Death in the disappearance of the dimes.) Thirty years ago she had lost her uterus, but that was at a time when doctors were yanking them so frequently that it seemed as if they were competing for a prize, so she didn't blame Death for that. With the loss of her uterus Mavis grew a mustache that she shaved every morning before leaving to open the saloon. At the Slug she ambled around behind the bar on a pair of stainless steel ball and sockets, as Death had taken her hips, but not before she had offered them up to a legion of cowboys and construction workers. Over the years Death had taken so much of Mavis that when her time finally came to pass into the next world, she felt it would be like slipping slowly into a steaming-hot bath. She was afraid of nothing. When Robert walked into the Head of the Slug, Mavis was perched on her stool behind the bar smoking a Taryton extra-long, lording over the saloon like the quintessential queen of the lipstick lizards. After each few drags on her cigarette she applied a thick paste of fire-engine-red lipstick, actually getting a large percentage of it where it was supposed to go. Each time she butted a Taryton she sprayed her abysmal cleavage and behind her ears with a shot of Midnight Seduction from an atomizer she kept by her ashtray. On occasion, when she had rendered herself wobbly by too many shots of Bushmill's, she would shoot perfume directly into one of her hearing aids, causing a short circuit and making the act of ordering drinks a screaming ordeal. To avoid the problem, someone had once given her a pair of earrings fashioned from cardboard air fresheners shaped like Christmas trees, guaranteed to give Mavis that new car smell. But Mavis insisted that it was Midnight Seduction or nothing, s o the earrings hung on the wall in a place of honor next to the plaque listing the winners of the annual Head of the Slug eight-ball tournament and chili cook-off, known locally as â€Å"The Slugfest.† Robert stood by the bar trying to get his eyes to adjust to the smoky darkness of the Slug. â€Å"What can I get for you, sweet cheeks?† Mavis asked, batting her false eyelashes behind pop-bottle-thick, rhinestone-rimmed glasses. They put Robert in mind of spiders trying to escape a jar. He fingered the ten-dollar bill in his pocket and climbed onto the bar stool. â€Å"A draft, please.† â€Å"Hair of the dog?† â€Å"Does it show?† Robert asked in earnest. â€Å"Not much. I was just going to ask you to close your eyes before you bled to death.† Mavis giggled like a coquettish gargoyle, then burst into a coughing fit. She drew a mug of beer and set it in front of Robert, taking his ten and replacing it with nine ones. Robert took a long pull from the beer as he turned on the stool and looked around the bar. Mavis kept the bar dimly lit except for the lights over the pool tables, and Robert's eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. It occurred to him that he had never seen the floor of the saloon, which stuck to his shoes when he walked. Except for the occasional crunch underfoot identifying a piece of popcorn or a peanut shell, the floor of The Slug was a murky mystery. Whatever was down there should be left alone to evolve, white and eyeless, in peace. He promised himself to make it to the door before he passed out. He squinted into the lights over the pool tables. There was a heated eight-ball match going on at the back table. A half dozen locals had gathered at the end of the bar to watch. Society called them the hard-core unemployed; Mavis called them the daytime regulars. On the table Slick McCall was playing a dark young man Robert did not recognize. The man seemed familiar, though, and for some reason, Robert found that he did not like him. â€Å"Who's the stranger?† Robert asked Mavis over his shoulder. Something about the young man's aquiline good looks repelled Robert, like biting down on tin foil with a filling. â€Å"New meat for Slick,† Mavis said. â€Å"Came in about fifteen minutes ago and wanted to play for money. Shoots a pretty lame stick, if you ask me. Slick is keeping his cue behind the bar until the money gets big enough.† Robert watched the wiry Slick McCall move around the table, stopping to drill a solid ball into the side pocket with a bar cue. Slick left himself without a following shot. He stood and ran his fingers over his greased-back brown hair. He said, â€Å"Shit. Snookered myself.† Slick was on the hustle. The phone rang and Mavis picked it up. â€Å"Den of iniquity. Den mother speaking. No, he ain't here. Just a minute.† She covered the mouthpiece and turned to Robert. â€Å"You seen The Breeze?† â€Å"Who's calling?† Into the phone, â€Å"Who's calling?† Mavis listened for a moment, then covered the mouthpiece again. â€Å"It's his landlord.† â€Å"He's out of town,† Robert said. â€Å"He'll be back soon.† Mavis conveyed the message and hung up. The phone rang again immediately. Mavis answered, â€Å"Garden of Eden. Snake speaking.† There was a pause. â€Å"What am I, his answering service?† Pause. â€Å"He's out of town; he'll be back soon. Why don't you guys take a social risk and call him at home?† Pause. â€Å"Yeah, he's here.† Mavis shot a glance at Robert. â€Å"You want to talk to him? Okay.† She hung up. â€Å"That for The Breeze?† Robert asked. Mavis lit a Taryton. â€Å"He got popular all of a sudden?† â€Å"Who was it?† â€Å"Didn't ask. Sounded Mexican. Asked about you.† â€Å"Shit,† Robert said. Mavis set him up with another draft. He turned to watch the game. The stranger had won. He was collecting five dollars from Slick. â€Å"Guess you showed me, pard,† Slick said. â€Å"You gonna give a chance to win my money back?† â€Å"Double or nothing,† the stranger said. â€Å"Fine. I'll rack 'em.† Slick pushed the quarters into the coin slot on the side of the pool table. The balls dropped into the gutter and Slick began racking them. Slick was wearing a red-and-blue polka-dotted polyester shirt with long, pointed collars that had been fashionable around the time that disco died – about the same time that Slick had stopped brushing his teeth, Robert guessed. Slick wore a perpetual brown and broken grin, a grin that was burned into the memories of countless tourists who had strayed into the Slug to be fleeced at the end of Slick's intrepid cue. The stranger reared back and broke. His stick made the sickly vibrato sound of a miscue. The cue ball rocketed down the table, barely grazing the rack, then bounced off two corner rails and made a beeline toward the corner pocket where the stranger stood. â€Å"Sorry, brother,† Slick said, chalking his cue and preparing to shoot the scratch. When it reached the corner pocket, the cue ball stopped dead on the lip. Almost as an afterthought, one of the solid balls moved out of the pack and fell into the opposite corner with a plop. â€Å"Damn,† Slick said. â€Å"That was some pretty fancy English. I thought you'd scratched for sure.† â€Å"Was that a solid?† the stranger asked. Mavis leaned over the bar and whispered to Robert. â€Å"Did you see that ball stop? It should have been a scratch.† â€Å"Maybe there's a piece of chalk on the table that stopped it,† Robert speculated. The stranger made two more balls in an unremarkable fashion, then called a straight-in shot on the three ball. When he shot, the cue ball curved off his stick, describing a C-shaped curve, and sunk the six ball in the opposite corner. â€Å"I said the three ball!† the stranger shouted. â€Å"I know you did,† Slick said. â€Å"Looks like you were a little heavy on the English. My shot.† The stranger seemed to be angry at someone, but it wasn't Slick. â€Å"How can you confuse the six with the three, you idiot?† â€Å"You got me,† said Slick. â€Å"Don't be so hard on yourself, pard. You're up one game already.† Slick ran four balls, then missed a shot that was so obvious it made Robert wince. Slick's hustles were usually more subtle. â€Å"Five in the side!† the stranger shouted. â€Å"Got that? Five!† â€Å"I got it,† Slick said. â€Å"And all these folks got it along with half the people out in the street. You don't need to yell, pard. This is just a friendly game.† The stranger bent over the table and shot. The five ball careened off the cue ball, headed for the rail, then changed its path and curved into the side pocket. Robert was amazed, as were all the observers. It was an impossible shot, yet they all had seen it. â€Å"Damn,† Slick said to no one in particular, then to Mavis, â€Å"Mavis, when was the last time you leveled this table?† â€Å"Yesterday, Slick.† â€Å"Well, it sure as shit went catywumpus fast. Give me my cue, Mavis.† Mavis waddled to the end of the bar and pulled out a three-foot-long black leather case. She handled it carefully and presented it to Slick with reverence, a decrepit Lady of the Lake presenting a hardwood Excaliber to the rightful king. Slick flipped the case open and screwed the cue together, never taking his eyes off the stranger. At the sight of the cue the stranger smiled. Slick smiled back. The game was defined. Two hustlers recognized each other. A tacit agreement passed between them: Let's cut the bullshit and play. Robert had become so engrossed in watching the tension between the two men and trying to figure out why the stranger angered him so, that he failed to notice that someone had slipped onto the stool next to him. Then she spoke. â€Å"How are you, Robert?† Her voice was deep and throaty. She placed her hand on his arm and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. Robert turned and was taken aback by her appearance. She always affected him that way. She affected most men that way. She was wearing a black body stocking, belted at the waist with wide leather in which she had tucked a multitude of chiffon scarves that danced around her hips when she walked like diaphanous ghosts of Salome. Her wrists were adorned with layers of silver bangles; her nails were sculptured long and lacquered black. Her eyes were wide and green, set far apart over a small, straight nose and full lips, glossed blood red. Her hair hung to her waist, blue-black. An inverted silver pentagram dangled between her breasts on a silver chain. â€Å"I'm miserable,† Robert said. â€Å"Thanks for asking, Ms. Henderson.† â€Å"My friends call me Rachel.† â€Å"Okay. I'm miserable, Ms. Henderson.† Rachel was thirty-five but she could have passed for twenty if it weren't for the arrogant sensuality with which she moved and the mocking smile in her eyes that evinced experience, confidence, and guile beyond any twenty-year-old. Her body did not betray her age; it was her manner. She went through men like water. Robert had known her for years, but her presence never failed to awaken in him a feeling that his marital fidelity was nothing more than an absurd notion. In retrospect, perhaps it was. Still, she made him feel uneasy. â€Å"I'm not your enemy, Robert. No matter what you think. Jenny has been thinking about leaving you for a long time. We didn't have anything to do with it.† â€Å"How are things with the coven?† Robert asked sarcastically. â€Å"It's not a coven. The Pagan Vegetarians for Peace are dedicated to Earth consciousness, both spiritual and physical.† Robert drained his fifth beer and slammed the mug down on the bar. â€Å"The Pagan Vegetarians for Peace are a group of bitter, ball-biting, man haters, dedicated to breaking up marriages and turning men into toads.† â€Å"That's not true and you know it.† â€Å"What I know,† Robert said, â€Å"is that within a year of joining, every woman in your coven has divorced her husband. I was against Jenny getting into this mumbo jumbo from the beginning. I told her you would brainwash her and you have.† Rachel reared back on the bar stool like a hissing cat. â€Å"You believe what you want to believe, Robert. I show women the Goddess within. I put them in touch with their own personal power; what they do with it is their own business. We aren't against men. Men just can't stand to see a woman discover herself. Maybe if you'd exalted Jenny's growth instead of criticizing, she'd still be around.† Robert turned away from her and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror behind the bar. He was overcome by a wave of self-loathing. She was right. He covered his face with his hands and leaned forward on the bar. â€Å"Look, I didn't come here to fight with you,† Rachel said. â€Å"I saw your truck outside and I thought you might be able to use a little money. I have some work for you. It might take your mind off the hurt.† â€Å"What?† Robert said through his hands. â€Å"We're sponsoring the annual tofu sculpture contest at the park this year. We need someone to take pictures for the poster and the press package. I know you're broke, Robert.† â€Å"No,† he said, without looking up. â€Å"Fine. Suit yourself.† Rachel slid off the stood and started to leave. Mavis sat another beer in front of Robert and counted his money on the bar. â€Å"Very smooth,† she said. â€Å"You've got four bucks left to your name.† Robert looked up. Rachel was almost to the door. â€Å"Rachel!† She turned and waited, an elegant hand on an exquisite hip. â€Å"I'm staying at The Breeze's trailer.† He told her the phone number. â€Å"Call me, okay?† Rachel smiled. â€Å"Okay, Robert, I'll call.† She turned to walk out. Robert called out to her again. â€Å"You haven't seen The Breeze, have you?† Rachel grimaced. â€Å"Robert, just being in the same room with The Breeze makes me want to take a bath in bleach.† â€Å"Come on, he's a fun guy.† â€Å"He's a fun-gus,† Rachel said. â€Å"But have you seen him?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"Thanks,† he said. â€Å"Call me.† â€Å"I will.† She turned and walked out. When she opened the door, light spilling in blinded Robert. When his vision returned, a little man in a red stocking cap was sitting next to him. He hadn't seen him come in. To Mavis the little man said, â€Å"Could I trouble you for a small quantity of salt?† â€Å"How about a margarita with extra salt, handsome?† Mavis batted her spider-lashes. â€Å"Yes, that will be good. Thank you.† Robert looked the little man over for a moment, then turned away to watch the pool game while he contemplated his destiny. Maybe this job for Rachel was his way out. Strange, though, things didn't seem to be bad enough yet. And the idea that Rachel could be his fairy godmother in disguise made him smile. No, the downward spiral to salvation was going quite nicely. The Breeze was missing. The rent was due. He had made enemies with a crazed Mexican drug dealer, and it was driving him nuts trying to figure out where he had seen the stranger at the pool table. The game was still going strong. Slick was running the balls with machinelike precision. When he did miss, the stranger cleared the table with a series of impossible, erratic, curving shots, while the crowd watched with their jaws hanging, and Slick broke into a nervous sweat. Slick McCall had been the undisputed king of eight ball at the Head of the Slug Saloon since before it had been called the Head of the Slug. The bar had been the Head of the Wolf for fifty years, until Mavis grew tired of the protests of drunken environmentalists, who insisted that timber wolves were an endangered species and that the saloon was somehow sanctioning their killing. One day she had taken the stuffed wolf head that hung over the bar to the Salvation Army and had a local artist render a giant slug head in fiberglass to replace it. Then she changed the sign and waited for some half-wit from the Save the Slugs Society to show up and protest. It never happened. In business, as in politics, the public is ever so tolerant of those who slime. Years ago, Slick and Mavis had come to a mutually beneficial business agreement. Mavis allowed Slick to make his living on her pool table, and in return, Slick agreed to pay her twenty percent of his winnings and to excuse himself from the Slug's annual eight-ball tournament. Robert had been coming into the Slug for seven years and in that time he had never seen Slick rattled over a pool game. Slick was rattled now. Occasionally some tourist who had won the Sheep's Penis Kansas Nine-Ball tournament would come into the Slug puffed up like the omnipotent god of the green felt, and Slick would return him to Earth, deflating his ego with gentle pokes from his custom-made, ivory-inlaid cue. But those fellows played within the known laws of physics. The dark stranger played as if Newton had been dropped on his head at birth. To his credit, Slick played his usual methodical game, but Robert could tell that he was afraid. When the stranger sank the eight ball in a hundred-dollar game, Slick's fear turned to anger and he threw his custom cue across the room like a crazed Zulu. â€Å"Goddammit, boy, I don't know how you're doing it, but no one can shoot like that.† Slick was screaming into the stranger's face, his fists were balled at his sides. â€Å"Back off,† the stranger said. All the boyishness drained from his face. He could have been a thousand years old, carved in stone. His eyes were locked on Slick's. â€Å"The game is over.† He might have been stating that â€Å"water is wet.† It was truth. It was deadly serious. Slick reached into the pocket of his jeans, fished out a handful of crumpled twenties, and threw them on the table. The stranger picked up the bills and walked out. Slick retrieved his stick and began taking it apart. The daytime regulars remained silent, allowing Slick to gather his dignity. â€Å"That was like a fucking bad dream,† he said to the onlookers. The comment hit Robert like a sock full of birdshot. He suddenly remembered where he had seen the stranger. The dream of the desert came back to him with crippling clarity. He turned back to his beer, stunned. â€Å"You want a margarita?† Mavis asked him. She was holding a baseball bat she had pulled from under the bar when things had heated up at the pool table. Robert looked to the stool next to him. The little man was gone. â€Å"He saw that guy make one shot and ran out of here like his ass was on fire,† Mavis said. Robert picked up the margarita and downed its frozen contents in one gulp, giving himself an instant headache. Outside on the street Travis and Catch headed toward the service station. â€Å"Well, maybe you should learn to shoot pool if you're going to get money this way.† â€Å"Maybe you could pay attention when I call a shot.† â€Å"I didn't hear you. I don't understand why we just don't steal our money.† â€Å"I don't like to steal.† â€Å"You stole from the pimp in L.A.† â€Å"That was okay.† â€Å"What's the difference?† â€Å"Stealing is immoral.† â€Å"And cheating at pool isn't?† â€Å"I didn't cheat. I just had an unfair advantage. He had a custom-made pool cue. I had you to push the balls in.† â€Å"I don't understand morality.† â€Å"That's not surprising.† â€Å"I don't think you understand it either.† â€Å"We have to pick up the car.† â€Å"Where are we going?† â€Å"To see an old friend.† â€Å"You say that everywhere we go.† â€Å"This is the last one.† â€Å"Sure.† â€Å"Be quiet. People are looking.† â€Å"You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?† â€Å"It's the difference between what is right and what you can rationalize.† â€Å"Must be a human thing.† â€Å"Exactly.†

The Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire began in the early 1st century as a branch of the Yuezhi, a confederation of ethnically Indo-Europeans nomads who lived in eastern Central Asia. Some scholars connect the Kushans with the Tocharians of the Tarim Basin in China, Caucasian people whose blonde or red-haired mummies have long puzzled observers. Throughout its reign, the Kushan Empire spread control over much of Southern Asia all the way to modern-day Afghanistan and throughout the Indian subcontinent- with it, Zoroastrian, Buhhdism and Hellenistic beliefs also spread as far as China to the east and Persia to the west. Rise of an Empire Around the years A.D. 20 or 30, the Kushans were driven westward by the Xiongnu, a fierce people who likely were the ancestors of the Huns. The Kushans fled to the borderlands of what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, where they established an independent empire in the region known as Bactria. In Bactria, they conquered the Scythians and the local Indo-Greek kingdoms, the last remnants of Alexander the Greats invasion force that had failed to take India. From this central location, the Kushan Empire became a wealthy trading hub between the peoples of Han China, Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire. Roman gold and Chinese silk changed hands in the Kushan Empire, turning a nice profit for the Kushan middle-men. Given all their contacts with the great empires of the day, it is hardly surprising that the Kushan people developed a culture with significant elements borrowed from many sources. Predominantly Zoroastrian, the Kushans also incorporated Buddhist and Hellenistic beliefs into their own syncretic religious practices. Kushan coins depict deities including Helios and Heracles, Buddha and Shakyamuni Buddha, and Ahura Mazda, Mithra and the Zoroastrian fire god  Atar. They also used the Greek alphabet that they altered to suit spoken Kushan. Height of the Empire By the rule of the fifth emperor, Kanishka the Great from 127 to 140 the Kushan Empire had pushed into all of northern India and expanded east again as far as the Tarim Basin- the original homeland of the Kushans. Kanishka ruled from Peshawar (currently Pakistan), but his empire also included the major Silk Road cities of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan in what is now Xinjiang or East Turkestan. Kanishka was a devout Buddhist and has been compared to the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great in that regard. However, evidence suggests that he also worshiped the Persian deity Mithra, who was both a judge and a god of plenty. During his reign, Kanishka built a stupa that Chinese travelers reported as about 600 feet high and covered with jewels. Historians believed that these reports were fabricated until the base of this amazing structure was discovered in Peshawar in 1908. The emperor built this fabulous stupa to house three of the Buddhas bones. References to the stupa have since been discovered among the Buddhist scrolls at Dunhuang, China, as well. In fact, some scholars believe that Kanishkas forays into the Tarim were Chinas first experiences with Buddhism. Decline and Fall After 225 CE, the Kushan Empire crumbled into a western half, which was almost immediately conquered by the Sassanid Empire of Persia, and an eastern half with its capital in Punjab. The eastern Kushan Empire fell at an unknown date, likely between 335 and 350 CE, to the Gupta king, Samudragupta.   Still, the influence of the Kushan Empire helped spread Buddhism across much of Southern and Eastern Asia. Unfortunately, many of the practices, beliefs, art, and texts of the Kushans were destroyed when the empire collapsed and if not for the historical texts of Chinese empires, this history may have been lost forever.

Reflection on Weight Loss Essays

Reflection on Weight Loss Essays Reflection on Weight Loss Essay Reflection on Weight Loss Essay Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Reflection on Weight Loss Decreasing my weight was an important part of determining my overall health. This is attributed to the prevalence of autonomous lifestyle diseases due to the abnormal body weight. Therefore, it was highly important for me to engage in a weight loss program that enabled me to lose my weight and coincidentally determine various factors that were intrinsic and determinant of my weight. Such factors include my height, weight and daily activity and consumption. By knowing about such factors, now I am able to lead a healthy lifestyle. Foremost, my weight in kilograms (Kg) was 94 kg and my height in inches was 70, which translates to a measure of 5 feet 8 inches. In order to calculate my body mass index (BMI), I need to divide my weight in kilograms by my height in meters. Therefore, my BMI is 31.4 kg/m2. The Body Mass Index (BMI) determines whether a person is abnormally overweight, which is referred to as obese or has normal weight. If the BMI is lesser than 30, then the person is said to have normal weight. However, if the person has a BMI that is greater than 30, then that signifies that the person is overweight. Therefore, since my BMI is 31.4, then that means that I have to engage in a weight loss program in order to achieve normal weight. Before embarking on the weight loss program, my eating habits were uncontrolled. For instance, my eating schedule for five days was completely different from the schedule I have presently. For instance, on the first day of the week, I could eat various foods that were considered fatty such as French Fries and Pizza as well as foods rich in proteins such as roasted chicken, beans and bread. My daily schedule was limited to such foods, which resulted into a high rate of carbohydrates. Therefore, my first-day intake analysis was Carbohydrates at 45, proteins at 17 and the total fat at 6.4. Additionally, my food energy level was at 256, the dietary fiber at 5 and the saturated and mono-saturated fat at 2.4 and 2 respectively. This analysis was the minimum intake I could achieve for five days, thus indicating that my calorie level was increasing after the first day. My Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) was 1900 calories while my Daily Energy Expenditure (DEE) was at 1498. My DEE was attributed to the co-curricular activities I love engaging in such as playing badminton, wrestling and walking. However, the efforts that I put in the activities were negative. This is because I was able to play badminton for 20-30 minutes and walk for a maximum of 1 hour. Since my school owns a gymnasium, I usually took part I badminton with some of my friends after class and after that, walked home instead of taking the bus or using my bicycle. Due to the ineffectiveness of my workouts, I was able to change my workouts by engaging in extra and rigorous curricular activities such as basketball and soccer for 1 to 2 hours after school and during the weekends. Such activities enabled me to increase my fitness level and even helped me change my diet by increasing beverages and fruits and limiting the amount of fatty foods. My attitude towards my weight changed since I discovered efficient ways of decreasing it through simple and enjoyable routines. I was able to reduce my BMI, which is currently at 26 kg/m2. Despite the disadvantages of my hectic school schedule, my dwindling self-esteem due to my obesity, laxity and procrastination tendencies, I was able to meet my objective of losing weight, which has enabled me to be active, fit and healthy.

Wolves and Beavers in Yellowstone National Park

Wolves and Beavers in Yellowstone National Park The elimination of two animal groups from Yellowstone National Park changed the course of rivers and decreased plant and animal diversity. What two animals had such a big impact?  Creatures that humans have long considered competitors and pests: wolves and beavers. Why Eliminate Wolves? It all started with good intentions. In the 1800s, wolves were seen as a threat to settlers’ livestock. Fear of the wolves also made it seem logical to eliminate them. Other predator populations such as bears, cougars, and coyotes were also hunted during this time in order to enhance other, preferred species. By the early 1970s, a survey of Yellowstone National Park showed no evidence of a wolf population. How Did a Lack of Wolves Change the Physical Geography of the Park? Without wolves to thin herds, elk and deer populations surpassed the park carrying capacity. Despite efforts to manage deer and elk populations, their preferred food sources of aspen and willow trees were decimated.  This resulted in a lack of food for beavers and their populations declined. Without beaver dams to slow the flow of rivers and create appropriate habitat, water-loving willows nearly disappeared.  The lack of shallow marshes created by beaver dams also decreased the quality of habitats for birds, amphibians, and other animals.  Rivers became faster and deeper. Reintroduction of the Wolves The process to restore habitat conditions was made possible with the passage of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The law compelled US Fish and Wildlife Service to reestablish endangered populations when possible. Yellowstone National Park became one of three designated recovery sites for the Gray Wolf.  Amid much controversy, wolf reintroduction finally began in 1994 with the capture of wild wolves from Canada that were released in Yellowstone. A few years later, wolf populations stabilized and a wonderful story emerged about the restoration of park ecology.  It was hoped that with reduced elk populations, beavers would have access to their favored food and return to create lush wetlands. The return of the previously maligned wolf would transform the ecosystem for the better. It was a wonderful vision and some of it has come true, but nothing is ever easy in the restoration of complex ecosystems. Why Yellowstone Needs to Have Beavers Come Back Beavers have not returned to Yellowstone for a simple reason - they need food. Willows are preferred by beavers for dam construction and nutrition; however, despite the decline in the elk population, willows have not been recovering at the pace predicted.  The potential reason for this is a lack of the marshy habitat that favors their growth and expansion. Willows thrive in areas where soil is kept moist from regular flow of nearby water. Rivers in Yellowstone run faster and have steeper banks than they did during the era with beavers.  Without beaver ponds and meandering, slow-flow areas, willow trees are not thriving. Without willows, beavers are less likely to return.   Scientists have tried to resolve this dilemma by building dams that recreate beaver habitats. So far, willows have not spread into these man-made ponding areas.  Time, rainy conditions, and still lower elk and deer populations may all need to converge before there will be mature willows to lure back a large beaver population. Yellowstone Wolf Restoration Still a Great Story The great debate over how fully wolves have restored Yellowstone ecology may go on for years, but scientists seem to agree that the wolves have improved conditions. Wildlife biologists have noted that endangered grizzly bears often manage to steal wolf kills. This could be critical if other food sources such as fish populations continue to decline. Coyote and foxes still thrive, but in smaller numbers; perhaps due to competition with wolves. Fewer small predators have allowed populations of rodents and other small mammals to recover. It has even been suggested that deer and elk health has improved because they must move more quickly and remain alert with wolves in the area. Wolves in Yellowstone Today The expansion of the wolf population has been amazing. In 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that there were about 1,650 wolves in Yellowstone National Park. In addition, the wolves were taken off the endangered-species list in Idaho and Montana. Today, the packs in Yellowstone range from two to eleven wolves. The size of the packs varies with the size of the prey. Wolves are currently hunted in areas surrounding Yellowstone National Park. The National Park Service is still monitoring the wolf population in the park and surrounding areas. Hope for the Beaver? Beavers are among the most persistent wildlife on the planet.  Their reputation of nuisance comes from the challenge of discouraging them once they become attached to a stream or river. While they prefer willows, they can survive from other tree species, such as aspens. The National Park Service continues to monitor the beaver population. It is possible that over time the combination of reduced elk populations, improving aspens and willows, and a wet weather period could combine to create ideal conditions for their return.

Problem Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Problem - Speech or Presentation Example Financial position to increase by less than half: Of course, the recommendation assumes that the stock split will not have effect on the price, but it does have an effect because the price is a factor of the demand and supply in the market. And while perfect information is assumed under Modigliani and Miller argument, the price is supposed to drop. Although this drop in market price cannot be estimated fully as to how much, the increase in financial position with at least the amount of stock that is traded, by undertaking this decision on capital structure, the financial position will increase at least by less than half. Modigliani and Miller proposes that debt policy should not matter, as in a tax-free economy and well-functioning markets, dividing the capital structure between debt and equity will have no effect on the total value of the company. But in the real world where taxes are prevalent, taxes provide tax shield or tax deductions for interest expenses. This gives a firm advantages of utilizing debt for its capital structure. The effect of increasing debt results in what has been called financial leverage. This is apparent in the computation of cost of capital; by computing the relative weights of debt and equity as proportions to the overall capital mix, multiplied by their returns cost of capital is computed. However, the computation is not complete unless the tax deductions for interest expenses, hence the tax rate is subtracted from the return of debt, which is then multiplied to the proportion of debt in the capital structure. Given this, increase in debt, as it gives tax advantages, lowers the cost of capital for the firm. Because of this implication, it seems to be beneficial for financial managers to increase debt in order to decrease the cost of capital for the firm. The cost of capital for the firm has a serious implication

THE PERSUASIVE SPEECH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

THE PERSUASIVE SPEECH - Essay Example As we know, those who oppose gun control usually highlight the necessary for self-protection. They also maintain that individuals with guns would ensure self defense when police fail to provide protection to general public. However, evidently gun is not devised to threaten or injure someone but to kill. Hence, the free use of guns must be banned despite the so called benefits. In the first place, once gun becomes a common utensil like knife or pen nobody will take serious care of it. Evidences show that guns are very often misused by everyone especially school children, for when they get emotionally upset, instead of seeking some counseling measures, they tend to pick parent’s gun and shoot at their peers and teachers. As reported in the New York Times dated May 2, 2011, in the 90s, the number of children carrying guns to the school was more than 10, 0000 in the US (School Shootings). In the same way, the overall murder rate of the United States is â€Å"six times higher than the average economically developed nation† (Carter 4). It is also reported by Cleck that â€Å"both gun carrying and gun violence are phenomena almost entirely confined to world outside schools† (qtd. in â€Å"Texas Plan for guns..†). The statistics clearly shows the incidents like shooting in a college of Alabama killing one woman wounding three on April 7th 2011. The killing of 12 elementary school students by a gun man in Rio De Jeniro, Brazil on April 8th stands on the top of all such incidents (School shootings, May 2, 2011). The practice of allowing children to get access to guns is not digestible for common sense. Some others argue that since criminals have guns, the public also must be given guns to counter balance the situation. There are people who have the license to use guns. But still there are incidents like bank robbery and house breaking. If the license to use guns would well tackle

Templeton debate series Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Templeton debate series - Essay Example ess would mean hiring more workers and that would have the effect of putting money in the pockets of Afrikaans that would better their standard living. A better standard of living will end the cycle of poverty and empower the people of Africa. Iqbal larger global argument is about the promotion of an idea that for Africa to progress, foreign direct investment is necessary to propel the economy of Africa. Pouring money in business has the net effect of empowering its citizens and not government bureaucracy (Iqbal 6-8). He is calling for foreign capital to invest in Africa because the country is ripe for investment with huge available cheap labor and abundant resources just waiting to be used for business. I totally agree with Iqbal Quadir’s global argument of letting business flourish in Africa so that people will have jobs that will better their lives and finally end the cycle of poverty there. I agree with his argument of putting money in business because it would also contribute to ending government initiated violence since less money would mean that despotic governments there will not have enough money to buy

Jamaican Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jamaican Culture - Essay Example This essay mostly focuses on the description of Jamaican people and ther bright culture. This essay suggests a brief travel through the Jamaican land which will reflect its true views on religious beliefs, holidays, cuisine, etiquettes, clothing and life-style. History of Jamaica and it's modern developing also described in the essay. Jamaica is the third largest isle out of a chain of four islands known as Greater Antilles and forms the northern boundary of the Caribbean Sea. Jamaica is very mountainous and has valleys, waterfalls, marshlands, flat plains and tropical rain forest. This essay describes Jamaica as a melting pot of many traditions, some legacy of the authentic ancestors and the rest introduced by foreigners. The main ethnic group of population in Jamaica are Blacks, with the minorities of other. According to some researchers, mentioned in this essay â€Å"being one of the largest cities in the country, Kingston is the capital of Jamaica located at south of United States of America†. It also provides reader with information on Jamaican religion and beliefs, such as Christianity and Rastafarian religion, which was developed there. Some other lifestyle traditions of Jamaican citizens are also described, such as common greetings, reationship displays, table etiquette and business etiquette, socializing and different educational levels for men and women. In conclusiion, this essay mentiones Jamaicans as family oriented people who believe in family values and states that the island is exquisitely beautiful.

Corporate Governance Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Corporate Governance Models - Essay Example The essay "Corporate Governance Models" presents the comparison of the two models of corporate governance: Shareholder value and Stakeholder. The shareholder value is designed in such a way that the only the shareholders and executives will earn high returns on the stocks they have invested. As seen above, the shareholder value focuses wholly on the shareholders and ignores the other stakeholders of the company such as employees, suppliers, and customers. As the time passed and new developments came about in corporate governance, the theory underlying the shareholder value model changed to a certain extent but the theory is still followed as the new theory "The Stakeholder Model" are yet fully developed. But this model keeps in view all the stakeholders related to the company especially the employees. Under the shareholder model, it is believed that as the management is focused on one objective of maximizing shareholders’ wealth, the strategies are planned in that direction an d ultimately increases the total wealth of the firm. Thus, everyone in the firm can get a bigger share of the pie if the pie is large. Therefore this model does not believe in transferring the rights of voting and cash-flows to the employees. A principle of proportional ownership has being identified by the EC as an important factor that could reform the internal markets. It is ‘one share, one vote’ rule which seeks to strengthen the shareholder rights and thus weakening the protection of the employees.

Jamaican Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jamaican Culture - Essay Example This essay mostly focuses on the description of Jamaican people and ther bright culture. This essay suggests a brief travel through the Jamaican land which will reflect its true views on religious beliefs, holidays, cuisine, etiquettes, clothing and life-style. History of Jamaica and it's modern developing also described in the essay. Jamaica is the third largest isle out of a chain of four islands known as Greater Antilles and forms the northern boundary of the Caribbean Sea. Jamaica is very mountainous and has valleys, waterfalls, marshlands, flat plains and tropical rain forest. This essay describes Jamaica as a melting pot of many traditions, some legacy of the authentic ancestors and the rest introduced by foreigners. The main ethnic group of population in Jamaica are Blacks, with the minorities of other. According to some researchers, mentioned in this essay â€Å"being one of the largest cities in the country, Kingston is the capital of Jamaica located at south of United States of America†. It also provides reader with information on Jamaican religion and beliefs, such as Christianity and Rastafarian religion, which was developed there. Some other lifestyle traditions of Jamaican citizens are also described, such as common greetings, reationship displays, table etiquette and business etiquette, socializing and different educational levels for men and women. In conclusiion, this essay mentiones Jamaicans as family oriented people who believe in family values and states that the island is exquisitely beautiful.

Rhetorical Analysis of Commercial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Rhetorical Analysis of Commercial - Essay Example The quality of the advertisements encourages brand consumption since the main characters in the ad enjoy coke at all times. Background music featured in the ad in different seven languages shows the diversity of the American people. This shows that people of America speak different languages but consume the same Coca Cola products in a show of unity in consumption of products. Therefore, the general message of the ad reflects the essential social values that Coca Cola consider when releasing products to the American people. The commercial ad also features people in various landscapes such as the shores of the Pacific and the Southwest desert, cafes and cityscapes as they enjoy taking coke. It provides pictures of the real livelihoods of the people from different ethnicity, religion, families and races in the US. That is why the aim of this commercial is to show that Coke brand is for all the people of America. In addition, it promotes optimism amongst Americans that Coke brand is a binding factor between races and religion since both consume the same quality, quantity and brand across

Compare and Contrast 1984-Brave New World Essay Example for Free

Compare and Contrast 1984-Brave New World Essay â€Å" Do you see, then, what kind of world we are creating? † (Orwell, 1950 p. 267)George Orwell, author of 1984 released in 1950, present the idea of a society that proves to be a dystopia as it is completely based on fear and rarely does one see happiness while in the other hand, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World presents the idea of a functional utopia were feelings are destroyed and no one is unhappy because they don’t know happiness but all this could change by the hands of one outcast. These two societies ruled in different ways-one through fear and the other through psychological and physical manipulation- present successful ways to maintain order and power, although they differ greatly and outcasts have different aims and uses. In a society where fear is predominant, physical and mental capacities reach a stagnant state as the will to survive and loyalty become predominant. In a different society where men are created to the liking of their rulers and are controlled with drugs instead of fear, the meaning of a utopia can disappear but yet subjects will think everything is perfect. Finally a sense of false equality, manipulation, and fear allow total and utter control. In societies like the ones depicted in these two books, nothing is perfect and nothing is true. Members of these communities cannot know what is true because this will make them become dangerous to their leaders. The use of fear in 1984 and the idea of Big Brother facilite control as the idea of constant surveillance and Thought Police puts everything a member of this society does to the test and when they make a false move, they know they are done for. The scene where Winston talks about two plus two not being for or if Gravity is a force that works really depicts the kind of fear installed by the party. â€Å"The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not only that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? † (Orwell, 1950 p. 80). As explained by the quote, doubting whatever the party said could end up in negative ramifications. It is incredible how people can adjust to these changes. Things that seem so simple be questioned and believed, which is even worse. The mutability of the party’s adherents is astonishing as they change whenever the part needs them to follow the most ridiculous ideas as if they were normal and all of this is achieved through fear. Winston also mentions the fact that your mind can fail you. â€Å"The most deadly danger of all was talking in your sleep. There was no way of guarding against that, so far as he could see. † (Orwell, 1950 p. 64). Even thinking erroneously about the parties flaws and going against their ideas can be lethal as sleep talking cannot be controlled and can always be heard. The third example of fear and its installment in Winston’s mind is when he receives the letter from Julia. â€Å"One, much the more likely, was that the girl was an agent of the Thought Police (†¦) the thing that was written on the paper might be a threat, a summon, an order to commit suicide, a trap of some description. (Orwell, 1950 p. 106). This displays how fear can make something normal seem completely hazardous and how reliance on others can be purged as you do not know what to expect from anyone. Even though people may be unhappy, this demonstrates to be successful as no one goes against the status quo. In contrast to 1984, Brave New World doesn’t need fear since if they want change, they create new beings to change or just bring out soma but still, control is maintained. Physical and psychological manipulation gives a sense of order even though it is non-existent, and drug use maintains a false control that seems alright to everyone inside that sphere however, when someone notices this false control, he will become a problem. In Huxley’s Brave New World, which is supposed to be a Utopia, equality is not present and this is what a utopia is supposed to be about. Within the social classes, the top ones still think of the lower ones as useless and basically inferior. Lenina demonstrates this through the following quote. â€Å"What a hideous colour khaki is,† remarked Lenina, voicing the hypnopaedic prejudices of her caste. † (Huxley, 1946, p. 42). This quote demonstrates that even messages coming from the government promote separatist ideas and at the same time they promote equality. Drug use and psychological manipulation allows this to maintain epsilons happy with how they are, also maintaining absolute control over society. Hypnopaedia as seen before, doesn’t always promote the values of a Utopia as it should. Another hypnopaedic message demonstrating this is â€Å"Every one works for everyone else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for everyone else. We can’t do without anyone. † (Huxley, 1946, p. 50). The use of Soma is a very important factor as it is a way of escaping the reality of a supposed utopia that in reality is everything but a utopia. â€Å"Why you don’t take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You’d forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you’d be jolly. So jolly,† she repeated and smiled (†¦)† (Huxley, 1946, p. 62). It is very important to realize how this method of control still proves to be successful and allows organization for the government to preserve. Whether it’s installing fear, secret organizations, and complete surveillance or actually creating subjects, it is evident that both methods are thriving as they sustain order and undemanding management of society. Winston, who was the soul and heart of change in 1984 , ended up failing and the idea, person, or whatever Big Brother is, who he hated the most actually ended up taking over him and it is mentioned in the novel. He won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. † (Orwell, 1950 p. 268) The only man who was capable of causing change and denouncing the artificiality his government was based on. Fear has now proved to be a functioning method of control. In comparison to Brave New World, the outsider and only man capable of making others realize the lie they lived in ended up killing himself. â€Å"Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south- west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east.. † (Huxley, 1946 p. 176) This also verifies the effectiveness of this method and according to this, both men failed to change the status quo. By the end of both novels, no change was made and both fear and manipulation proved to be effective ways of maintaining control. As the predominance of both fear and manipulation grow, methods of changing society and its governance method become scarce and even those who go to extremes find themselves with unfeasible situations where physical and mental capacity will be pushed to new limits but yet, not enough to revolutionize their societies. This is mainly due to most of those who have been subjected and accepted the reality in which they live in, which is what both Winston and John go through but their ways to accept it, were vastly different. Even though there are some with strong minds and others who have not been toyed with, it will never be enough to fight fear nor manipulation of the human being.

impact of Poverty on Health

impact of Poverty on Health 1 Health Access to Nursing Health Assignment 2 Kirsty Lincoln Tutor Lis Footsoy This should be in the report format! Please follow Assignment Brief instructions carefully! According to Ogden (1996), there are many factors that impact on the health of individuals within society, some are more common than others such as poverty, unemployment, lifestyle and residential areas. Alongside these are medical factors, religion and differing beliefs in medicine and health. According to Ogden (1996) although these are all different areas to take into consideration they are all interlinked to one another and it is often thought that if an individual has any one of the above chances are they will have some degree of each one impacting on their general health and wellbeing. [LF1]Naidoo and Wills (2000) claim that there are many determinants also known as health inequalities, which can all be broken down into categories such as social, environmental, lifestyle and physiological factors, it can be suggested that social factors have a major impact on health and the way individuals live generally associating health with social class, lower working classes are seen to lead unhealthier lifestyles due to poverty or lack of employment which in effect will lead to poor housing and living in higher crime rate areas and less access to health services and very little means of leisure activity which will then result in poor nutrition as not many individuals in the lower classes can afford healthy food and 10 fresh fruit and vegetables a day which is needed to maintain a good level of health, this could also include high consumptions of alcohol and cigarettes. Naidoo and wills (2000) explains how all this then leads to physiological factors that impact on health like stress and depression, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity which then ends up costing the National Health service thousands and thousands of pounds each year. It can be suggested that this is just a vicious cycle and until poverty and unemployment levels decrease, society as a whole will continue to consume money in the NHS. The graphs above shows the unemployment rates in the united kingdom compared to other countries, it is suggested that although it is not at the higher end of the scale there is still a high number of unemployment which has a major impact on the National Health service and the united kingdom’s economy which will in turn effect the overall health of the general public through poverty. It is clear to see from this brief overview how all the determinants are interlinked and how each one individually affects health and wellbeing. Ogden (1996) states that what is clear is that ill health does not happen by chance or through bad luck, in order to maintain health, society as a whole should promote it. The Lalorde report published in 1974 helped identify four fields of health that can be improved these are: Genetics and biological factors which determine an individual’s disposition to disease, lifestyles factors in which health behaviours contribute to illness, environmental factors like housing or pollution and the health services provided. If an area has a poor health service than it is more likely that death rates are higher through disease and health will be effected. These show that factors other than genetic and biological all affect an individual’s health but it is possible to change it. Naidoo and w[LF2]ills (2000) explains that unemployment and low income is a major determinant of living standards and when studying levels of income and material deprivation through unemployment it has been found that it can tie in with ill health and premature mortality. The graph above shows the different ages and class groups of the working environment it shows the level of deaths are a lot higher in those who work in manual hard labour which is very hands on and demanding in comparison to those of other intermediate and higher professional backgrounds paying in higher wages than other lower class jobs. According to the Rowntree report in 1990, 24% of the population had an income of below the national average after allowing for housing costs (Rowntree foundation 1995), people most likely to be in this category are the unemployed, pensioners, lone parents and the low paid. Blackburn suggests that there are three ways in which low income and unemployment can affect health, Physiologically inadequate housing, lack of warmth, lack of food, psychological – stress lack of support network and behavioural – health damaging behaviours like excessive smoking, drinking alcohol, sweets for children instead of healthy foods, living in poverty can affect anyone and without the means to provide a healthy lifestyle many are forced to live unhealthy lifestyles to make ends meet, it is not a choice. According to Ogden (1996) one of the main challenges the National Health Service (NHS) has to deal with is the constant usage of money, as healthcare costs thousands each year and regions with poor housing and less deprived areas spend more due to leading unhealthy lifestyles, an issue with this is that those people who are unemployed who live in these poorer communities pay nothing into the system yet can still access healthcare with the same rights as people employed who do pay into the system and pay taxes, so people who are unemployed can claim benefits, healthcare should be free and accessible to everyone although there will come a time when there is no financial funding left to pay for healthcare, there have been suggestions of placing a charge for every time the individual visits the doctor or attends Accident and Emergency on a Friday night when they have been found too intoxicated to function. This in turn will promote a healthier living although it can be seen as discrimina tion as individuals in poverty or unemployment still will not have the means to pay for the healthcare visits resulting in poor health and diseases increasing, having a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing within society. The graph above shows how the National Health Service funding has increased over the last 7 years reaching a high of just over  £105,000 in the years 2012 to 2013. As Naidoo and wills (2000) explains there are some factors that impact health that we cannot change for example: ethnicity, different race and ethnic backgrounds can determine an individual’s health for example: individuals with darker skin have a higher protection from diseases of the skin, caused by sunlight such as skin cancer and individuals with lighter more pale skin can burn easily and be allergic to the sun, this can tie into the environmental factors that affect health. Although in order to fit in to society in modern day it can be seen that there is a lot more pressure placed on young girls and women who feel the need to be perfect due to the mass media resulting in a rise in the use of tanning beds in order to gain a tan and darkening of the skin, this heightens the chance of skin cancer and other skin diseases. The graph below shows that in 2010, among men, white men had the highest rate of getting melanoma of the skin, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and black men. Among women, white women had the highest rate of getting melanoma of the skin, followed by Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and black women. Melanoma of the Skin Incidence Rates* by Race/Ethnicity and Sex, U.S., 1999–2010 It can be suggested that along with this, studies have found to show that younger people particularly are at risk using a tanning bed as people who start using sunbeds before the age of 35 are 87% more likely to develop Melanoma compared to people with darker skin from different ethnic groups or those who never use sun beds. [LF3] It can also be said that on the other hand certain ethnic groups are more prone to specific diseases, darker skin is especially prone to sickle cell disease, and individuals who are prone to certain diseases can use the National Health Service at their discretion depending on their beliefs surrounding medicine. Although in some countries like America, certain ethnic groups do not believe in the health care system American Indians believe disease is an act of nature and should be allowed to follow its course. It can also be said that in third world countries medicine and healthcare is not easily accessible as there is little funding to provide the adequate care. It can also be suggested that some regions with less sunlight can also affect health due to causing psychological factors like stress and Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) which is a disorder affected by seasons which in turn causes higher suicide rates in winter colder months in comparison to summer months. It is possible that all things in society affect health and although looking at this from a Marxist point of view unemployment and poverty are a root cause to most health issues. Marxists believe that everyone should be equal and that poverty helps maintain the domination of the Bourgeoisie (upper class) it serves the interest of the wealthy, although other sociologists disagree and argue that individuals are to blame for their own poverty or as groups they develop a culture of poverty. Marxists believe poverty is rooted to the structure of society rather than a specific individual therefore if an individual lives in a deprived area they are more likely going to adapt to the ways of that community leading to ill health through poor lifestyles. [LF4] Along with Karl Marx another sociologist Charles Murray (1989) [LF5]stated that poverty is caused by the lower class in the sense that the lower class do not want to work or find employment, he blames illegitimacy for this state of poverty in 1979 Britain had an illegitimacy rate of 10.6% but by 1988 this had risen to 25.6% he claimed that illegitimate children are more likely to come from women of the lower class and that they run wild due to the lack of a father figure and in effect he held them responsible for rising crime, property crime and violent crime. This in turn damaging communities making the residential area deprived with little amenities and also made people withdraw into themselves causing all kinds of illnesses mainly psychological. A critic of this is that there is no evidence to prove his conclusions and there are no significant differences between the lower class and the employed in their attitudes towards work and it can be seen that mothers with husbands/fathers spend more time claiming benefits than single mothers. Naidoo and wills (2000) suggests that the Marxist approach to poverty and unemployment ties in with the social scientists perspective on medicine, as they argue that medicine is closely linked to power and is still a powerful means of social control, as without medicine health would deteriorate and society would lack structure. [LF6] There are many medical models that look at the determinants of health. The behaviour change model aims to encourage individuals to adapt healthy behaviours which are seen as the key to improve health and wellbeing. It can be argued as this model does not reflect the understanding of poverty the approach is popular as it views health as a property of individuals, making it possible to assume that people can change their behaviours to make improvements to their health. It also states that individuals who do not care for themselves are to blame for the consequences of ill health. When looking at poverty and unemployment and this approach it is impossible to change behaviours and lifestyles for improved health when they are outside the individuals control, there has to be some amount of flexibility to be able to make changes, individuals living in poverty and who are unemployed know that changing bad lifestyles is not always as easy as it may seem. The above shows how the Behaviour change model works. On the other hand a health model that can be tied in with poverty is the Social change model the main aim of this approach is to enable people to gain control of their lives, it enables people to gain skills and confidence, and empowerment is also used as a way to describe a way of working which increases peoples power to change their social reality, an example of this in communities there are self-help groups and community based development like setting goals and community based development such as meeting in order to meet specific needs like clean-up programmes and such, this would help individuals in poverty and unemployment gain confidence to learn new skills in order to find a job which in turn would improve their health or even help individuals with depression or stress by meeting new people going through the same thing. [LF7] The picture above shows the different stages of the social change model. This approach also attempts to bring changes in the physical, social and economic environment this includes things like bans in public places for example smoking, which in turn will decrease or attempt to decrease smoking levels in more deprived areas which could result in saving money and starting the long road out of poverty. It can also be suggested that it could reduce air pollution as if the area of residence has high air pollution then this carries a more detrimental issue on health in regards to individuals who are medically unwell or have illnesses such as asthma or emphysema. Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health. By reducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma. The lower the levels of air pollution, the better the cardiovascular and respiratory health of the population will be, both long- and short-term. The WHO Air quality guidelines provide an assessment of health effects of air pollution and thresholds for health-harmful pollution levels. Ambient (outdoor air pollution) in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012. [LF8] Some 88% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and the greatest number in the WHO Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions. Policies and investments supporting cleaner transport, energy-efficient housing, power generation, industry and better municipal waste management would reduce key sources of urban outdoor air pollution. Reducing outdoor emissions from household coal and biomass energy systems, agricultural waste incineration, forest fires and certain agro-forestry activities (e.g. charcoal production) would reduce key rural and peri-urban air pollution sources in developing regions. Reducing outdoor air pollution also reduces emissions of CO2 and short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon particles and methane, thus contributing to the near- and long-term mitigation of climate change. In addition to outdoor air pollution, indoor smoke is a serious health risk for some 3 billion people who cook and heat their homes with biomass fuels and coal (WHO, 2014) Very good discussion with clear evaluation of theories and models. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be seen that poverty is the main cause to ill health within society, regardless of age, ethnicity, religion, social class. It all comes down to poverty, as without the means to live a healthy lifestyle, individuals cannot change behaviours and attitudes towards healthier living. Poverty can cause disease and illness and affect general health through stress. Psychologically becoming depressed over money worries, poor living conditions and lack of nutrition or too much junk food and alcohol can cause obesity, diabetes and liver damage. If the area is industrial or run down an individual has more change[LF9] of developing lung disease and breathing difficulties. Poverty is a term which is defined as very wide spread and there are millions of implications to health and what living in poverty can cause. A very good report which discusses models, theories, concepts and issues well. To further improve: Make sure you ‘un-pick’ a concept thoroughly in order to give a greater level of evaluation. Take care with referencing – you need to review this practise (study skills handout and/or Cite Them Right) Make sure the sections of your report are clearly defined by way of section headings. Table of References Butterfield, W.J.H. (1968) ‘priorities in medicine’. London: Nuffield Naidoo, J. Wills, J. (2000) ‘Health promotion’ (2nd edition) London: Bailliere Tindal Ogden, J. (1996) ‘Health psychology’ Buckingham: University press Katz, J., Peberdy, A. (1997) ‘Promoting health, knowledge and practise’ Basingstoke: Open University press. World Health Organisation. (2014) ‘Ambient air quality and health’ [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/> [Accessed 5th May 2014] Very good sources. Kirsty Lincoln [LF1]If this were an essay this would be allowed therefore this should have been a Report! Also I can’t identify where your Introduction ends and Discussion of Findings starts etc. [LF2]Capital Letter [LF3]It is important here to point out that you are basing this upon US statistics. [LF4]Source? [LF5]Source? [LF6]Good points made and evaluated here. [LF7]Very good discussion of models however where are you getting your information from [LF8]Sources [LF9]‘chance’

The Bildungsroman and Pips Great Expectations Essay -- Great Expectat

     Ã‚   On the surface, Great Expectations appears to be simply the story of Pip from his early childhood to his early adulthood, and a recollection of the events and people that Pip encounters throughout his life. In other words, it is a well written story of a young man's life growing up in England in the early nineteenth century. At first glance, it may appear this way, an interesting narrative of youth, love, success and failure, all of which are the makings of an entertaining novel. However, Great Expectations is much more. Pip's story is not simply a recollection of the events of his past. The recollection of his past is important in that it is essential in his development throughout the novel, until the very end. The experiences that Pip has as a young boy are important in his maturation into young adulthood. These elements are crucial to the structure and development of Great Expectations: Pip's maturation and development from child to man are important characteristics of the genre to which Great Expectations belongs. In structure, Pip's story, Great Expectations, is a Bildungsroman, a novel of development. The Bildungsroman traces the development of a protagonist from his early beginnings--from his education to his first venture into the big city--following his experiences there, and his ultimate self-knowledge and maturation. Upon the further examination of the characteristics of the Bildungsroman as presented here it is clear that Great Expectations, in part, conforms to the general characteristics of the English Bildungsroman. However, there are aspects of this genre from which Dickens departs in Great Expectations. It is these departures that speak to what is most important in Pip's development, what ultimately ma... ...ates Dickens rejection of the middle class values of marriage and "success," the values celebrated and elevated by the traditional, middle class genre of the Bildungsroman. Dickens believed that basic moral values such as generosity and kindness were to be elevated; that the material world was irrelevant to a man's worth. Dickens still creates a novel of development - a Bildungsroman - but the fact that Pip's development is complete only in Dickens' rebuff of many of the traditional traits of the Bildungsroman shows what Dickens believed truly made a gentleman: goodness.    Works Cited Buckley, Jerome Hamilton. Season of Youth: The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1974. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Ed. Janice Carlisle. Boston: Bedford, 1996. Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography. New York: Morrow, 1988.   

Influence of Advertising

Terese Kruszka Beth Lewis How Advertising Influences Us 1. Calfee made it a point in his advertising that Kelloggs all-bran cereal is high in fiber. With being high in fiber it can reduce the risk of some kinds of cancer. He also used the advertising to inform people on their diet and how it can improve with that particular cereal. An advantage of Kelloggs coming out with high fiber cereal would be more brands would come out with other cereals with other nutrients that our bodies could use. Some other brands have cereals high in calcium which some people think it is just as good as high fiber. A disadvantage would be that all the brands are constantly trying to out do each other, by making their cereals much healthier and needed in consumers diets. 2. The spillover benefits of advertising are when people who have useful information that failed to reach people who need it because producers could not change a price to cover the costs. 3. Some of the ways free marketing competition in advertising benefits consumers is by reducing the cost of the ads. Calfee advertisement is regulated by the FTC who encourage his ads and make it perfectly legal. 4. The tone of this article is that Calfee is proving his advertisement is a huge success. He also proves that throughout the years he has been successful by informing people on what the effects may be from using the products. Calfee has information and facts of each point he tries to get across in the article.

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (cited) Essay

Willy and Nora: Tragic Heroes or Home-wreckers? No one has a perfect life. Despite what Aaron Spelling and his friends in the media might project to society today, no one’s life is perfect. Everyone has conflicts that they must face sooner or later. The ways in which people deal with these conflicts can be just as varied as the people themselves. Some procrastinate and ignore their problems as long as they can, while others attack problems to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The Lowman and Helmer families have a number of problems that they deal with in different ways, which proves their similarities and differences. Both Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Nora Helmer, protagonist of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House experience an epiphany where they realize that they were not the person the thought they were: while Willy’s catharsis brings about his death, Nora’s brings her to a new life; hers. Bo th character’s flaws bring about their departure from their respective families as well. They are both overly concerned with the appearances they and their families present to society: as a result they both project false images to others. From their appearance, both seem to be involved in stable marriages and appear to be going places. Willy’s job as a traveling salesman seems stable (although we never know what it is he sells) when he tells his family that he â€Å"knocked ’em cold in Providence, slaughtered ’em in Boston† (Miller 1228). It is not until Willy’s wife, Linda tells us that he â€Å"drives 700 miles and when he gets there, no one knows him any more, no one welcomes him† (Miller 1241). If that’s not enough to convince readers of his failure on the job, the fact that he gets fired after working for the same company for 36 years cements his incompetency in the business world to readers. While Nora does not work in the business world, (few woman, if any did over 120 years ago) her failure to take care of her responsibilities becomes quite evident as well. See more: citing an essay When the play opens and Nora enters with a Christmas tree and presents for the children, she gives off the impression of a good mother trying hard to prepare a great Christmas for her family. Upon further analysis we see that Nora’s duties, in general, are restricted to caring for the children, doing housework, and working on her needlepoint. Nora cannot complete these duties even with the full-time help of Anne Marie, a housekeeper who cleans up after Nora just as much as the children. When Nora and Kristine are having a discussion towards  the start of the play, Nora informs her friend that, â€Å"I’m so happy and relieved [with my marriage]. I must say its lovely to have plenty of money and not have to worry. Isn’t it?† (Ibsen 1119). The rosy picture she painted of her family and marriage are in stark contrast to the â€Å"stranger of a man† (Ibsen 1168) she refers to her husband as. We realize that she had not been living her life at all; rath er the life that her husband wanted her to live. While both Willy and Nora succeed in giving of the appearance of being competent, efficient and helpful family members who contribute to the well being of their respective families, they prove otherwise as the plays progress. While the two plays take place nearly 100 years apart, are set on different continents and each have completely different family members, both engage in lies and deceit that hurt their families; after which each protagonist leaves their family. Not only does Willy lie about his performance on the job, he lies about his â€Å"faulty car† as well. He tells his family that the Studebaker keeps malfunctioning when in reality we find out through Linda that he has been deliberately trying to kill himself. The biggest way in which Loman deceives his family is by cheating on his wife while away for work in Boston. When his eldest son discovers his father’s unfaithfulness, he loses all trust for his father, and Biff’s life pretty much goes downhill from there. Willy Loman’s lies, deceit, unfaithfulness have resulted in huge problems for his family. Nora also starts trouble in her household through lies and deceit. Nora’s crime of forgery is not even a crime in her mind; she does not realize that the law does not take into account people’s motivations behind their actions. While she knows that Krogstad has been associated with shady law practices, she does not realize that his crime was on the same level, if not less illegal than the one that she has committed. When Tourvald opens the letter and finds out about her crime, he goes ballistic, and cannot believe that his own wife could be capable of such a crime. This is ultimately the reason / situation that helps Nora realize that she must leave her family in order to begin to live her own life. But Nora even lies about the little things in life such as the eating of macaroons (Ibsen 1126). Her husband forbade her from eating them on account that they will rot her teeth, and when she is seen eating them in her house, she says that they are a gift from Kristine, which is a lie. Both Willy and Nora’s lies and deceitfulness frustrate their families to the  point where each protagonist much leave their family; although Willy’s departure is his death, Nora’s is the start of her real life. Both main characters also use an escape mechanism to leave reality when they realize that their lives are on the wrong path. When Loman starts to realize that his pride and joy in life, Bi ff, â€Å"is a lazy bum† (Miller 1218) he begins to talk to himself (Miller 1221). These mental lapses bring Loman to a happier place and time, when his kids were young and innocent and he thought that the best part of his life lay still ahead. This acts almost as a defense mechanism against the pains of reality for Willy. In the final scene, after Biff tells his father that he is â€Å"a dime a dozen† and that the Loman name really doesn’t mean much, Willy engages in the ultimate escape mechanism; suicide. Although it may appear on the surface to be a selfish and coldhearted move to spite his family, he actually did it so that his family may live a better life with money he thinks they will receive from his life insurance policy. When faced with the harsh pains of reality, Nora also uses defense / escape mechanisms to ignore the problems at hand first, then to conquer them in the end. She believes that she has done nothing wrong, and that if what she has done is illegal, that her good intentions will nullify the illegality of her forgery. When Krogstad informs her otherwise, tells her the possible repercussions of her act, and ultimately gives her an ultimatum, this is her first touch of reality outside of the doll’s house that she lives in. To cope with the harshness outside of t his doll’s house, she immediately retreats back inside and attempts to distract herself with Christmas decorations (Ibsen 1133). She uses the tree and presents to distract her from her problems, and tells the nursemaid Anne Marie that she’s too busy to play with her kids who want to see her because she must try to distance her mind from the subject at hand. Here she is only making the problem worse by not dealing with it. When she finally realizes that her â€Å"main duty [is] to [her]self† (Ibsen 1166), and that she has been living life according to what her father and husband have wanted rather than what she has wanted, Nora’s epiphany is complete. She knows that the only possible solution that can work for her is to leave right away. Willy and Nora both escape their problems first by drifting away with mental distractions, then when they fully realize their problems, they both must physically leave their families. For Willy this means death, for Nora, the  start of (a new) life. Willy and Nora share a fatal flaw: they try to make others happy before making themselves happy. All that Willy ever wanted in life was to be â€Å"well-liked† and for his sons to follow in his footsteps. Their lives focused too much on fulfilling others rather than themselves, and in the end this flaw led to their departure from each of their respective families. When Charley asks Willie â€Å"when the hell are you ever going to grow up?† and Biff declares that â€Å"we never told the truth in this house for 10 minutes† (Miller 1280) we realize that Willy will never grow up and that he must leave his family because he will never grow up and that nearly his whole life has been a farce. Similarly, when Nora tells her husband that the only way he (and her) can only change if Tourvald has â€Å"his doll taken away† (Ibsen 1168) we realize that Nora’s life too has been a farce and that she must leave in order to begin her own life.