OBriens Things They Carried Essay: An American Nightmare

History has shaped every country and their people, in particular negative experiences like the Holocaust in Nazi-Germany or the Vietnam war, involving the United States in a grueling controversy from 1964 until 1975. The author Tim O'Brian confronts an American audience in his short stories "The Things They Carried" with the inhumane consequences of political and military power decisions by rewriting history from a subjective,individual point of view. Thus he forces the audience to take a stand, to ask questions, to get morally and ethically involved. The narrative structure of the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and "How to Tell a True War Story" contains two levels, the first on being a discourse about the characters of Vietnam stories. The "I", the narrator, introduces 'Rat' Kiley as his source for the narrative that follows. He characterizes stories about war as "strange", "swirling back and forth across the border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and mundane". The stories have a life of their own, reality is not absolute, not final. With this image he describes the ambiguity of war itself, the normality that turns into insanity, he summarizes the narrative about Mary Ann Bell and her experiences with the war. The narrator clearly states the purposes of these stories, he is not interested in factual truths about the war, he openly questions the reliability of his source: "Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement". He wants the audience to "feel exactly what he felt", an emotional experience, a subjective app roach. The second narrative level tells the story about Mary Ann Bell, the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". The narrator, probably the author, retells Rat's story in his own words, so that t... ...ositive as well as its negative accomplishments. But how is this to be done, how do we deal with history personally and politically? Ths author Tim O'Brian gives us one answer in "How to Tell a True War Story" on page 69: "You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. It you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty". In other words if you don't want war watch how you vote. The connotation of this statement is far reaching, it naturally places responsibility on the American government for having participated in the war, but it foremost appeals to the american public to take responsibility and to use this history, this story to create a better future. Works Cited: O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried.New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1990.

Steroids Essay -- social issues

Steroids In the past three decades, steroids has been becoming a serious problem more than ever in the athletic field. Steroids are anabolic drug "to build" growth hormones that include the androgens (male sex hormones) principally testosterone and estrogen and progestogens (female sex hormones). Steroids were first developed for medical purposes. They're used in controlling inflammation, strengthening weakened hearts, preventing conception, and alleviating symptoms of arthritis and asthma. Unfortunately research has shown that steroids have been abused in almost every kind of sport. Although steroids contribute to a muscular body, usage should remain illegal because they physically deteriorate and mentally destroy the body. Many people are fascinated about steroids because of their ability to build up the body. Whether taken by injection or the pill it increases strength and endurance. Steroids also help in the healing process of muscular tissue by first injuring them, then the muscles heal quicker adding more fiber increasing their bulk. Many athletes turn to steroids more often because they're cheaper then marijuana or cocaine. A ten week cycle of testosterone cypinate and methandrostone costs only about one hundred dollars. Steroids are also very hard to trace because of their water base composition. They can pass through the body within two days. All these benefits of steroids help an athletes become more competitive and increase their chance of being a winner. ...

Toward a Definition of Modernism Essay -- Modernism Opera Literature E

Toward a Definition of Modernism Lawrence B. Gamache’s article â€Å"Toward a Definition of Modernism† encapsulates in its title the challenges critics meet in their attempts to formulate a coherent theoretical modernist model, though the quintessential modernist works –even at the time of this 1987 article – are over sixty years old. Indeed, the sheer number of scholarly books and articles that discuss or contribute to the debate surrounding the definition of modernism indicates the extent to which modernism is a term whose only non-contentious consensus is that it its meaning is fraught with ambiguity. Susan Stanford Friedman’s contribution to the debate summarizes the theoretical crises thus: As terms in an evolving scholarly discourse, modern, modernity, and modernism constitute a critical Tower of Babel, a cacophony of categories that become increasingly useless the more inconsistently they are used. We can regard them as a parody of critical discourse in which everyone keeps talking at the same time in a language without common meanings. When terms mean radically different or contradictory things to people, then their use appears to threaten the project of scholarship/teaching altogether. (497) â€Å"Cacophony† aside, because there are some artists, though disparate in style and genre, who persistently make it into the debate, and who are universally regarded as modernist, such as T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Picasso, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or Frank Lloyd Wright, there must be a unifying or underlying principle that is essentially modernist. Notably, however, the sister arts drama and opera are absent from the genres represented by the â€Å"quintessential modernist works† of the artists above. (Although Picasso designed opera ... ... Tradition 2nd Ed. Ed. David Richter. Boston: Bedford, 1998. 1127-1141. Mathey, Francois. The Impressionists. Trans. Jean Steinberg. New York: Praeger, 1961. Puchner, Martin. â€Å"Modernism and Anti-theatricality: An Afterward.† Modern Drama 44.3 (2001): 355-361. Schonberg, Harold C. The Lives of the Great Composers. 1970. London: Futura, 1982. Stolba, K Marie. The Development of Western Music: A History 2nd Ed. Wisconsin: Brown and Benchmark, 1994. Trammell Skaggs, Carmen. â€Å"Modernity’s Revision of the Dancing Daughter: The Salome Narrative of Wilde and Strauss.† College Literature 29.3 (2002): 124-139. Yeats, William Butler. â€Å"My First Meeting with Oscar Wilde.† The Trembling of the Veil, in Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1916. 79-85. Rpt. in Oscar Wilde A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Richard Ellman. New Jersey: Prentice, 1969. 9-15.

Changes/ Continuites from 1492-1750

The Renaissance in Western Europe marked the end of the middle Ages and the start of Europe’s rise as a global power. States in Western Europe became more centralized, and monarchs exercised more control over their subjects. Christopher Columbus’s voyage to America and triumphant return signaled the beginning of a new era of exploration. Likewise, Prince Henry the Navigator’s expeditions along the West African coast led to increased trade with Africa. Long isolated from the rest of the world, the Native Americans’ lives were drastically changed by the presence of European explorers, and later, colonists.Some aspects of life, such as domination by the elite in Europe, trade in Africa, and Native American ways of life in the Americas, have remained the same through the period. New contacts among Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas, however, led to interaction that has only increased with time. New contacts and increased trade led to the rise of a middle class in Western Europe. Traditionally, and throughout the feudal period, nobles had controlled government and wealth. As trade with Africa and the Americas increased, however, a new merchant class rose.As the new class became wealthier, they began to agitate for political power, eventually leading to conflicts such as the 1789 French Revolution. In the Americas, social transformations were huge. Deadly diseases brought by the Europeans decimated local populations, who had no resistance to smallpox, measles, etc. In one notorious case, during Spaniard Hernan Cortez’s conquest of the Aztecs, the Spanish intentionally gave the Aztecs disease-ridden blankets. Such tactics also led to the downfall of the Incas, who were conquered by Francisco Pizzaro.From residing in mighty cities and presiding over huge empires, the Native American people were reduced to serving as servants or slaves of the new conquerors. A similar trend occurred in North America. Unlike the Aztecs or Incas, N orth American natives were decentralized, and loosely organized by tribes. Columbus’s initial subjugation of the Haitians, forcing them to mine gold, set a precedent for future domination. Africa was particularly affected by the slave trade. Large amounts of labor were needed on the Spanish and Portuguese sugarcane plantations, and Native American populations were often nable or unwilling to work as slaves. Especially after Bartolome de las Casas’s campaign against the subjugation of Native Americans, the Europeans needed another source of labor. Thus, the Atlantic slave trade began, ultimately resulting in the forced movement of 12 million slaves from Africa. The slave trade had both positive and negative effects on African society. While slavery was cruel and exploitative, the money some empires such as Benin acquired from working with the Europeans allowed them to build stronger empires.Despite massive change, some aspects of life stayed the same. In Western Europe, the gap between the poor and the rich remained; even though a middle class had developed, the power was still concentrated in the hands of a few. Every Western European country was a monarchy, and there was almost no popular representation. Even in Britain, by 1750 only about 2% of the population could vote, due to property ownership requirements and other standards. The period from 1492 to 1750 was still one of control.In the Americas, many tribes were still able to maintain their traditional way of life. Many tribes displaced by British settlers in North America moved west, and since the French had yet to settle the huge Louisiana Territory, they were free to continue with traditional methods. Africa was still, for the most part, free. Not until the 1880’s would the majority of Africa become colonized. Though less powerful than the Western Europeans, African nations remained independent and gained wealth through trade.In conclusion, the interaction between Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas has resulted in both change and continuity. One irreversible trend, however, was the growing interconnectedness of the global community. Columbus united the New World with the Old, creating a bridge that has never since been broken. Recent developments such as globalization and information technology have metaphorically shrunk the world. Interaction between 1492 and 1750 set a precedent for future actions.

Admission Essay for FNP

I believe that the nursing profession is a calling – a noble and selfless calling. As a nurse, I see myself as a solution to people’s problems. With this in mind, I try my best to give all I can to ensure that the health care needs of patients are met.The Family Nurse Practitioner is strategic in the health care system. This is because they directly deal with the family, meeting their needs both in and out of the hospital environment. Family Nurse Practitioners hold the responsibility of not only meeting the health needs of families but also to provide guidance, counsel and direct care in family self-medication.The Family Nurse practitioner needs a heart and that I have. Personally, I want to be a FNP serving in third world countries. I believe my help is needed more in these parts of the world where health care is in its developmental stages.I see myself counseling parents about the appropriate health plans that are best for them and their children. I also see myself h elping the underserved and the culturally different enjoy the same health care that the other sections of the society enjoy.I believe that there is neither black nor white, that we all have medical needs and we are all entitled to the same healthcare. My call is to prevent ailment when possible and to offer guidance to families in these third world countries. I see myself helping to put a smile in people’s faces and making life better for these people.I may not be a philanthropist with billions of dollars to give but I have the heart and I heed to my calling. I want to put a smile across the faces of the children and see parents going about their business with sound minds and body. This is why I want to be a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Methodism, the most astonishing eruption in the eighteenth century history of religion, was an anomaly

The eighteenth century is commonly viewed by historians as a period of decline for the Anglican establishment which suffered increasing losses in its authority over local parishes and failing to respond adequately to the changing society of the early industrial age and challenges over the nature of religion and its role in the lives of individuals. In the 1740s, Samuel Wesley and his sons began to preach outside the confines of the Church, advocating a more voluntary approach to religious devotion and encouraging increased involvement of laymen in the work of the parish. Methodism was effectively born out of societies set up to integrate the church into the community, but in carrying voluntarism to its logical conclusion, argues Gilbert, such a movement would naturally come into conflict with the establishment by offering an alternative to the prescribed methods of religious practise and undermining the ministerial authority and organising machinery of the Church. Although the Wesley family were conservative Tories and John Wesley, who was to become the leading Methodist figure, always expressed a keen desire to remain within Anglicanism, he told a inaugural conference in 1744 that Methodism would either leave the whole church or â€Å"be thrust out of it† Whether the Methodists were in essence a radical or conservative group was at the time, and remains a much debated topic. In an essay on Methodism, Dissent and Political Stability2, Gilbert argues that it was in fact both. Methodism was a means of taking a stand against prescribed religion and the status quo of social organisation through the withdrawal of status respect and assertion of freedom. Methodism was in effect a radical means of political and social protest in an era of new ideas and social instability, epitomised abroad by the violent revolutions in France, and yet the movement was unobtrusive in its politics and the moderate nature of this radicalism had a stabilising effect on society, acting as a â€Å"safety valve† that contained tension and helped avoid the polarisation of opinions. Looking at the religious history of other European nations, Methodism is quite the anomaly, a dissenting movement, cast out of the Anglican Church that eventually serves to prop up the traditional order. Weakness in the Anglican establishment dated back to the reformation, which had been a break away from authority from Rome, but had also meant an increase in secular authority over the ecclesiastical, through the judicial courts, some tithe taxes and rights of patronage. Though the clerical influence in national politics and in local parishes was still strong, it was no longer as an independent body, but in conjunction with secular authorities. Loss of influence in the upper echelons of power, with monarchs of differing faith on the throne and the abbots losing their majority in the Lords was coupled with strain on authority in the parishes through lack of adequate funding or dynamism. The demographic boom of the late eighteenth century and the breakdown of the traditional parish based organisation of ancien regime society with the increase in manufacturing towns left many outside the network of pastoral oversight, as Ward notes, this and toleration laws paved the way for eager dissenters to exert influence3. However, the first half of the century is more commonly characterised by a mood of religious apathy. Numbers attending Anglican services were declining, but Gilbert argues, Protestant dissent was also in a state of atrophy in 1740. Looking at statistics, this could be seen as a dramatic turning point in the history of religious dissent, but it must be remembered that after new toleration acts were passed it became necessary for all groups to register, nevertheless, this was a period when old dissenting movements were being surpassed by the new evangelicals, who could serve the community where the Anglican church could no longer cope. Naturally there was a certain discontinuity of dissent, with different traditions declining and growing in different patterns across the country. The chapel movement was one that responded to local needs, in some areas lay societies along evangelical lines were even encouraged by the local clergy, but the most prominent groups inevitably sprang up where the church was least effective and inevitably would become a source of conflict with the establishment. The evangelical revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was above all a popular movement, and with no central driving force, it is difficult to define the limits of the movement. Dissenters within the orthodoxy of the Church had existed before, but a newfound zeal, enthusiastic conversion methods and a more coherent programme now developed into a single, if multiform, religious phenomenon. Although there were divisions between Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Independents, they were not fundamental. All relied on lay preachers and the centrality of village communities to spread their message of voluntary piety, based around the family and spiritual equality, whereby all could receive salvation through faith and good works. Methodism can perhaps be characterised by its system of connexion networks that linked dissenting groups across the country. Wesley had hoped to unite his movement through the Anglican ministers and in 1764 had sent fifty letters appealing for a unity of purpose, but receiving only three replies, realised he would have to unite and organise his followers outside the clergy. The strength of the movement however, was not in a system of alliances, but its dynamism. Methodism was a movement that spread rapidly through expansionist missionary societies, and Wesley's followers breached the movement further away from the church by demanding that its preachers should be able to give communion. A 1793 conference voted that members of a society who were unanimous in their desire to receive the sacrament from their preacher might do so. Ward questions whether this was a case of the preachers following the flock, or the scheming of radical ministers to use the Methodist congregations to spread their radical political ideas. Samuel Bradburn was one such minister who introduced ideas of unbounded liberty and the Rights of Man into his sermons, but he shunned Kilham, an even more defiant political Methodist, casting doubt on any suggestion of a central political aim. In the 1790s, social tensions were reaching boiling point. Evangelical societies attracted dissenters at all social levels, even at court, where many independent politicians, clergymen and intellectuals deserted George III and headed a campaign as a Unitarian group for reforms to free trade and end slavery, believing in free enquiry and social progress. Among the lower social orders there was a backlash against the increasing number of dissenters and riots broke out, prompted by food shortages but also calling for â€Å"Church and King† and were largely unhindered by the clergy and magistrates of the old order. It is important to remember that while the growth of evangelical movements was significant, it still only affected a small proportion of the population, with many remaining ambivalent towards new ideals of piety and man others choosing to remain firmly within the Anglican fold. For some, traditional means of expressing discontent were still favoured. Davidoff sees the Evangelical movement as a largely middle class phenomenon. This was a rapidly expanding social group that needed to form their identity. He argues that a sense of religious belonging was provided by the various evangelical movements became a part of middle class culture and the success of the movement can be credited to its ability to fill this need. Traditional church practise did not involve participation from the lay community, and while the middle classes were a group with little political power, there role was gradually becoming more like that of the traditional gentry, as Lords devolved their duties in a practise of stewardship. Dissenting evangelical groups formed a basis of a middle class community as well as a middle class culture. The religious focus is undeniably meritocratic in tone; that salvation was open to all through their own piety. Davidoff also believes that there was a notion that this piety could give individuals strength to bare hostility from others, as the new middle classes may well have faced in the years of hardship and social tension at the end of the eighteenth century. The central importance of the family crossed denominations, another middle class value. The ideal was of the home as a moral haven from the amoral world of the business market. This haven was created by women, who were viewed as naturally more pious than men. The concepts of masculine and feminine were being transposed into more distinct social roles, each with their own responsibilities. Men were the material providers of the family and women's role was to create a moral home for her husband and children, domestic seclusion was a moral ideal and some serious evangelicals even shunned the pleasures of sport and the theatre in favour of this domesticity. Women did have increased prominence in church life, in some denominations they could even be ministers, but overall, the new movements were still male dominated. In some areas women may even have lost influence, where before they could have performed duties of clerks where necessary, roles were now more often formalised into those that were acceptable for women and those that were not. The evangelical community gave the middle class a forum to profess their beliefs and help to form their own culture and community. Dissenting groups were most prominent in new manufacturing towns and much of their establishment can be seen as benefiting the middle classes. They set up church schools and welfare societies, seeing their community almost s an extension of their family that need to be provided for. Schools were central to the evangelical movement, supporting the middle class love of reading and reflection as alternative entertainments. Indeed it was often the case that the school came before the chapel, as was the case in Bollington, a manufacturing town in the Northwest. Although initially non-denominational, the school soon became dominated by the Methodists. But importantly, the erection of such public buildings was not decided on by the preachers, but went before an appeal to the town, in tune with democratic principals. The practise of the Sunday school was an important means of gaining support among the locals, as many sent their children to work in factories at an early age and this would still give them a chance to learn to read. The work of evangelicals within their communities through charity and education may have stunted working class resentment, but Davidoff asserts that they still tended to stay away from Church. Gilberts sees the evangelicals as targeting the lower echelons of society, corroding the image of the lower orders as simple minded and maybe thus giving cause for concern to the ruling classes, but it is probable that these are two differing views of what was essentially the same social group, seen as the lower orders by contemporaries, but viewed by some historians, in the pattern of social evolution, as the emerging middle classes. The end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries saw a demographic boom, centred around new manufacturing towns. It was the early years of the industrial age and the changing structure of society had new needs that the state and church could not provide for. Looking abroad for a point of comparison, French society, with its firmly established monarchy and church was thrust into a violent revolution that was to remove both. In England, the less powerful position occupied by the monarchy and church could be seen as perhaps what saved them from a similar fate. Dissenting movements had been allowed to develop that were then to serve as a moderating force. There was much confusion in the late eighteenth century as to Methodists and their significance. The movement grew further and faster than other evangelical societies, and what Smyth called â€Å"Christian godliness without Christian organisation† in 1795 was attacked by others as having too much organisation and followers were subject to too much pastoral oversight, threatening the formation of a radical political force. 5 Indeed, Sidney Pollard and Robert Southerly were of the view that revolution was imminent. With hindsight, historians like Halevy have argued that there was nothing for the state to fear in the rise of Methodism, but contemporary powers would not have been able to see the larger picture of changing society and the development of a middle-class and so the movement may have been forced into its unobtrusive political stance where perhaps more radical beliefs were deep-seated. Jabez Bunting, a radical Methodist figure after the death of Wesley, saw the movement as wide, but not deep. He was relatively apolitical, but was keen to preserve the liberties that Methodism had benefited from in the face of conservative reaction to social tensions and revolution in Europe. But the evangelical revival, viewed with historical hindsight is indeed a political movement, the energies of the chapel communities were a force that resisted to reactionism and later advocated reforms, but after 1850 the dynamism of the movement had dwindled, as the social tensions of the age eased.

Analysis of ICT task for a hairdresser’s booking system

The new hairdresser salon called Hair Studio that has opened needs to improve its record keeping system because the record keeping system at present is not very reliable and does not work efficiently. Therefore the ICT specialist’s job is to introduce an efficient system to store the customer’s details and to develop a reliable booking system. The system needs to be able to book appointments for the customers quick and easy. The new system should be able to help the salon to function more smoothly and the ICT system that I will give the hair salon will help the business become more organised and can easily handle the client’s data more efficiently. The details of the customers will be stored in a section where all the personal details of each customer will be stored and the appointments will be stored in the booking system. There are many ways of promoting the business one of the ways is to advertise the business to the public and make sure that they are aware that the business is open and where the branch of the business is located. The point of advertising is to the public to come to the salon and this will make the hair salon more popular and the salons profits will increase. Also you can read Analysis July at the Multiplex There are two ways, which it is possible to improve the way the hair salon is run either by keeping the existing paper based system to store the client details and appointments or I can use a computerised system to store all the details and information. An example of a paper-based system is a record card system where all the details of the customers are put on a pack of cards in alphabetical order. An example of a computerised system is a database system or Microsoft Access. Computerised system Advantages of a computerised system. Disadvantages of a computerised system. 1. You can set-up a primary key 2. You can perform queries 3. Can be sorted in alphabetical order 4. Validation incorrect data cannot be entered 5. The can be a menu page to make it more professional 6. Backup in case the data becomes lost. 7. Spell check 1. You need to train people to use the computerised system. 2. If the computer crashes the data can be lost. Paper based system Advantages of a paper based system. Disadvantages of a paper based system. 1. Portable/ Easy to carry place to place. 2. No training needed to operate the paper based system. 3. Keep securely in a locked place so no one can enter the cards containing the details. 1. Messy looks unprofessional. 2. Takes up space. 3. If any alteration takes place this can make the information untidy. 4. Confusion 2 people might have the same names. 5. The writing needs to be readable by all members of the staff. My chosen solution is using a Microsoft access, which is a database that I can create the system on. There will be a series of subtasks I will need to collect the information using a data collection form or through an interview. This will help me to collect the data. I will need to design the structure of the data capture form such as columns and a menu page also I need to design a data entry form. The data that will be inputted in the database is the records and the details. And finally I need to make sure that the information that is inputted into the database is valid and correct. Read also  Case 302 July in Multiplex To advertise my business I will use a poster or a leaflet to advertise it to the customers so they are aware that the business is new to the area and is open to the public. I can use many different methods to advertise my business I could use billboards, Leaflet, radio and poster. Poster Advantages of the leaflet Disadvantages of the leaflet 1. Instant Visual Impact 2. Relatively Cheap 3. Can be seen by a large number of people if strategically placed. 1. Limited amount of information is presented 2. It’s difficult to measure effectiveness. Radio Advantages of the Radio Disadvantages of the Radio 1. Relatively cheap 2. Most of the customers will hear the advertisement on the Radio. 3. Most groups and many age ranges covered. 1. Not visual 2. No copy of the material 3. Have to rely on the target audience listening at the correct time. My chosen solution is the poster; I will use the poster to advertise my business to the public. As you can see there are many advantages and disadvantages of using the radios and the billboards to advertise the business the method I will use is the poster because this way is more efficient and easy to do. I will design a draft of the poster on Microsoft and I will design it also on Microsoft word and then I will distribute it to the customers.