The Siege by Helen Dunmore - Chapter 17 Essay Example for Free

The Siege by Helen Dunmore Chapter 17 Essay The chapter begins with Anna sharing how she feels about winter and the snow. Anna has always loved the first snowfall of winter. She knows as soon as dawn comes that it’ll be today. The sky remains dark, with a yellow tinge to the clouds. The light has a sharp, raw edge. Everything is waiting, silent and expectant. Snow will come. She thinks the snow will wipe away all mistakes. Light will stream upwards from the immaculate white of the ground. When the first snow falls, Anna always goes to the Summer Garden. There, the noise of the city is muffled, and the park is eerily luminous. Small, naked ­looking sparrows hop from twig to twig, dislodging a powder of snow. The trees are lit up like candelabra by the whiteness they hold in their arms. Underfoot, she hears for the first time the squeak of snow packing into the treads of her boots. She bends down, scoops up a handful of the new snow, throws it up into the air and watches it scatter into powdery fragments as it falls for the second time. And although she’s cold and she ought to get home, she always stays much longer than she means to, because she knows that this feeling won’t come again for another year. The snow will continue to fall, thaw, freeze, turn grey with use, be covered again and again by fresh blizzards. But nothing again will have the freshness, exhilaration and loneliness of the first snowfall. She’s the one thing still warm and alive in a world which is going to sleep. She looks up, into the snow which spirals down the steep funnels of the sky, whirls into her face, lands on her eyelashes and melts into tears. And then she goes back to the apartment, along streets where trams are already thrashing the new, soft snow into slush. Children skid around street ­corners, yelling, their faces blazing crimson. Soon it’ll be time for skis and sledges. And tomorrow, when she wakes, the snow will be thick and crusted with ice. The sun will be out, and all the shadows will be blue. This is how she has welcomed the snow every year of her life. But this year she will not welcome it in that way. The first snow falls on the fourteenth of October, drifting down through the sky and settling on the ruins of shelled houses, on to tank ­traps, machine ­gun nests and heaps of rubble. The snow is silent, but ominous. No one knows, this year, whether it will be an enemy or a friend. The Russian winter defeated Napoleon, people say to one another. Perhaps it will defeat Hitler, too. A ring of siege grips the city. Nothing comes in, nothing goes out. And in the suburbs, within sight, the Germans have dug themselves in. There they stay, hunkered down for winter in deep trenches, behind defended firing ­positions. The Germans have always been good at digging trenches, say older Leningraders who fought in the last war. Luxury trenches, they have, with carpets and chairs and pictures hanging on the walls. There they squat in the outskirts of Leningrad, like wolves at the mouth of a cave. They pour shells on to the city, but they do not advance any farther. This is blockade. swinging their arms. They write letters to their families, saying that they’ll be home soon, when they have won the war. Behind them, unbroken supply lines stretch all the way back to Berlin. The Germans are altering their rolling ­stock to fit Russian railway lines. They have got the harvests of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on hand, and they can wait as long as they have to. An iron ring squeezes around the besieged city, slowly throttling it. Marina and Anna talk about Marina’s roles, and how she played so many roles, one including Cordelia in For My Cordelia. ‘Oh Anna, I played so many roles. I kept it for the stone, not for the inscription. Besides, I never identified with the character. I am much too aggressive. I would have taken Lear by the shoulders and shaken some sense into him. That kind of vanity amounts to madness, don’t you think? All of us are to grovel on the floor declaring our love for our great leader. But of course, you have to find a way into every part.’ Q: How much money do they have left? A: Five Hundred. Q: What is one role that Marina potrayed? A: Cordelia in For My Cordelia

Catastrophes in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet :: Romeo and Juliet Essays

Catastrophes in Romeo and Juliet      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many characters in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet invite the catastrophes they experience.   These characters are Mercutio, Romeo, and Friar Laurence.   Mercutio because he never thinks before he acts.   He has a very big mouth and will say anything to create a joke.   Romeo because of this fight with Tybalt.   If this fight never occurred then the outcome of the story could have been better for Romeo and Juliet.   Maybe there families could have set aside their differences for there children and live the rest of there lives in harmony.   Friar Lawrence because I do not think he thought about the plan to unite Romeo and Juliet long enough.   He should have gotten a reliable messenger to inform Romeo of the situation.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Romeo's friend Mercutio was a very witty energetic man.   If he held his tongue and thought about what he said before acting on them he would not have gotten into so many fights.   His jokes were probably taken lightly be his friends Romeo and Benvolio because they were accustomed to hearing Mercutio's voice constantly.   Mercutio should not have tried to tease Tybalt because of the rivalry between Tybalt's family and Romeo's family.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While avenging Mercutio, Romeo should have thought about the consequences of slaying Tybalt.   On one hand he filled the urge to kill the man who had killed his friend. On the other hand he killed his wife's cousin.   How can one justify killing a member of their wife's family?   Another consequence he should have taken into consideration was the punishment he was going to receive from Price Escalus.   In act one scene one Prince Escalus already warned everyone in Verona that if anyone was caught fighting again the would pay for it with there lives.   If Romeo had not gotten into the duel with Tybalt Romeo would not have been banished from Verona.   When Prince Escalus exiled Romeo, that was the point in the play which was the biggest catastrophe.   This is because once Romeo was exiled he could not see Juliet ever again and Juliet could never see Romeo again.   Friar Lawrence would have never had to devise a plan to put Juliet into

Ethical Issues in Human Cloning Essay

In the modern society, cloning has been described as the man-made, genetic duplicate of another living form (United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2005). Cloning of mammals has been a far-fetched idea to some scientists for a very long time. However, in 1997, Dr. Ian Wilmut, along with his team, successfully cloned a lamb from a mature ewe (Kass & Wilson, 1998). This announcement has caused a lot of positive and negative responses from medical and non-medical communities. Protests from religious groups, bioethicists, humanitarians, and the general public led former President Clinton, the United States president of that time, to form the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) (Campbell, 1997). This committee then published a report and concluded that human cloning was morally unacceptable. It was then that government funds have been forbidden to be provided for human cloning research, making it illegal (Kass & Wilson, 1998). Critics of human cloning dispute that human cloning provides a number of medical risks that may harm the clone and the progenitor (Huang, 2001). Ninety percent of failure rate and high mortality rates in animal cloning have been reported. Dolly, the first lamb clone, was euthanized for developing old-age diseases despite her young age (Kass & Wilson, 1998). To create one successful clone, a huge number of unsuccessful embryos also have to be sacrificed. This concept has resulted in outrage among the critics of cloning for killing innocent clones for the benefit of one (Kuppuswamy, Macer, Serbulea, & Tobin, 2007). Apart from the medical risks of cloning, human reproductive cloning may also weaken the concept of kin and human reproduction (Kass & Wilson, 1998). A successfully cloned child would also have to face psychological problems such as personal identity and individuality. Designer babies and human enhancements will also be provided by reproductive cloning. Babies with perfect features and desirable characteristics will be available to high class societies because of the high-priced value of making them. Low class societies, on the other hand, will not be able to afford these babies, thereby creating a new form of discrimination that would further increase the gap between the rich and poor (Piercy, 1999). With human enhancements available, diseased and disabled people could be categorized as the â€Å"undesirables. † This implies that the lives of such persons are not worth living (Quick, n. d. ). In the society today, life is promoted and extended as much as possible. Discrimination is frowned upon and despised by all. Such ethical issues and many more are still being argued because of human reproductive cloning. Until these ethical issues are resolved, human cloning will still be morally unacceptable in the society. References Campbell, C. (1997). Cloning human beings: Religious perspective on human cloning. Retrieved from http://bioethics. georgetown. edu/nbac/pubs/cloning2/cc4. pdf. Huang, N. (2001). The ethics of human genetic cloning. MURJ, 4, 69–75. Retrieved from http://web. mit. edu/murj/www/v04/v04-Features/v04-f6. pdf. Kass, L. , & Wilson, J. (1998). The ethics of human cloning. Washington, CD: AEI Press. Kuppuswamy, C. , Macer, D. , Serbulea, M. , & Tobin, B. (2007). Is human reproductive cloning inevitable: Future options for UN governance. Yokohama, Japan: United Nations University – Institute of Advanced Studies. Retrieved from http://www. ias. unu. edu/resource_centre/Cloning_9. 20B. pdf. Piercy, E. (1999, December). Human cloning scientific, ethical and regulatory considerations relevant to cloning of human beings. Retrieved from http://www. aph. gov. au/house/committee/laca/humancloning/sub240. pdf. Quick, S. (n. d. ). Stem cell research and cloning—Science and ethics (Rev. ed). Retrieved May 27, 2010, from www. ethicalhealthcare. org/articles/quick_scr_cloning_ethics. pdf.

Personality Theorists Bandura and Maslow

Personality is a fascinating subject to study, because every person has a personality that is unique and complex. Personality theorists spend their time studying the reasons why people act the way they do. Are their innate processes that ensure a person will react to a situation differently if he is hungry? How will two different people behave if they both witness the same automobile crash?How behavior is affected and determined has been studied for years, and there are many different theories. Two theorists who have contributed significantly to this field of study are Bandura and Maslow.Bandura, like all behaviorists, was primarily interested in the stimulus-response branch of psychology. Having studied Skinner’s approach to Behaviorism, Bandura did agree that external forces contributed to behaviors. He believed environmental situations and reinforcers lead to certain behaviors. But Bandura also set out to answer some problems he found with Skinner’s theory. As Wagner (2009) states, even in his earliest work, Bandura argued that believing behavior could only be caused by a stimulus-response cycle was too simplistic.His studies led him to believe that behavior was not only a reaction to environmental stimuli as Skinner had proposed, but could also be learned from watching a model perform the behavior that could be copied. He also believed that learning could be cognitive. One of the most significant observations Bandura made during his studies was that while the environment did cause behaviors, behaviors could also create an environment. This phenomenon he called reciprocal determinism: The world and a person’s behavior cause each other.Bandura also believed that self-efficacy contributed to behavior. A person’s internal need to attain goals could cause them to behave in a way that ensured them success. Due to his research, Bandura argued that external and internal factors affected behavior. People can choose to act a certain way, o r the environment can cause them to act a certain way. Another theorist who made significant contributions to personality and behavior theory was Maslow. His most significant theory was his idea of a hierarchy of human needs.At the most basic level, humans have intrinsic needs, such as food and shelter, and the feeling of safety. Internal factors such as being hungry and the ability to breathe properly contribute to outward behaviors. Lemer (2000) summarized Maslow’s ideas into a practical application, by stating that, with children, adults should address the higher level needs for safety, security and knowledge only after the most primitive biological needs are met. Clearly, internal needs factor into behavior.As a people move up the hierarchy however, external factors begin to play a much larger role in behavior choice. Concepts such as morality, respect, and self-esteem are influenced by external factors such as societal demands and personal interactions. Maslow, like Band ura, believed that both internal and external factors contributed to behaviors. People behave certain ways at certain times due to a myriad of factors. Both of these theorists make powerful cases for the idea that behavior is both intrinsically and externally motivated. The case for internal motivation is solid.There are times when people choose to behave in a certain manner due to a need for respect, to fulfill a perceived role, or to attain a goal. Their behavior during those times is due to an internal desire for something. However, there are other times when environmental factors also cause behavior. A person may be trying to act a certain way, but a situation may arise that causes them to change the course of their behavior. It is also true that people can learn through simple observation, and this has to be caused by both internal and external factors.The environment and the situation the person is watching is shaping their behavior. But it also the internal need to duplicate the behavior of the other person that causes them to watch and learn. Both Bandura and Maslow believed that behavior was both internally and externally motivated. References Wagner, K. V. (2009). Albert Bandura biography. Retrieved May 10, 2009 from http://psychology. about. com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_bandura. htmfrom Lemer, P. S. (2000). Treat needs, not behavior: Maslow for the millennium. New Developments, 6(2), 23-26.

NO TITELE essays

NO TITELE essays On 31 August 1997, Princess Diana died tragically in a car crash driven by a drunken chauffer. Her death was shocking on several levels. It was violent. "It sent those she had touched through her charity work into heartbroken mourning, and saddened millions more who had never met her but who had followed her troubled and sometimes troublesome life with the intimacy that modern celebrity affords". This accident would not have happened if the driver was not intoxicated by alcohol. The recent figures from Statistics Canada show that there has been a 50% reduction from 1981 to 1996 in the number of Canadians being charged with drunk driving. There is a lifelong sorrow for the relatives of the fatal victims; moreover, there are astronomical costs, and problems for repeat offenders. Drunk drivers cause more deaths, injuries, and destruction than all murderers, muggers, rapists, and robbers combined. Every six hours, someone is killed by an impaired driver. Every twenty minutes, someone som ewhere in Canada becomes a victim to an impaired driver. Every year, more than 45% of all traffic fatalities involve alcohol. More than 1.700 Canadians die each year as the consequence of intoxicated drivers. Tens of millions of dollars are spent annually in court costs, rehabilitation, lost earnings, health care, and social programs all because of drinking driving accidents. This money comes directly out of the citizens' pockets in taxes and lost revenue. Transport Canada reports the minimum loss to society as a result of road accidents involving alcohol as: $390,000 per fatal accidents $310,000 per fatality $12,000 per injury accidents $3,600 per injured victim Almost 30,000 Criminal Code license suspensions were issued in 1992 for drinking driving related charges. Over one-half (59%) were repeat drinking driving offenses. Of all suspensions issued for impaired driving, 65% were issued for a second or subsequent offense. Crashes happen more often in ...

Providing quality care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Providing quality care - Essay Example While traditionally the concept of quality nursing care was defined by the policies, the facilities and the credentials associated with the nurses, this definition has been expanded in the modern times to incorporate the concepts of exploration, improvement of the processes and patient safety, as well as the evaluation of the whole outcome of all these components (Batalden & Davidoff, 2007: 2). In this regard, the concept of quality nursing care refers to the holistic evaluation of the nursing practice, starting from the time the nurse comes into contact with the patient, to the point where the individual is discharged from the health facility, and all the health practices that are involved therein (Institute of Medicine, 2001: 47). Therefore simply put, quality nursing care is the overarching umbrella under which the patient safety resides, and thus the concept of patient safety is indistinguishable from the concept of quality nursing care, since it is through quality nursing care that the safety of the patient is upheld (Russell et al. 2010: 49). Thus, this discussion seeks to analyse the concept of quality nursing care in pain management nursing practice, with a view to establishing how the quality agenda informs this practice. Pain management is an area of nursing practice that has consistently proved to present multifaceted challenges to the nursing practitioners, considering that at some point in life, everyone experiences pain in its diverse forms. Pain has been classified as either acute or chronic, where the acute pain subsides as the process of healing continues, while the chronic pain is persistent (Jensen et al., 2003: 72). The multifaceted challenges faced by the nursing practitioners under the pain management practice emanate from the fact that pain must not always be physiological, but may also entail some components of psychological, spiritual or emotional dimensions (Jones, 2006: 42). Nevertheless, in all these dimensions,

The movie V for Vendetta Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 13

The movie V for Vendetta - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the movie is based on a story of the 1982 novel of the same name developed by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The V is a political freedom fighter in an anarchist regime that tries to accomplish a number of terrorist attacks with a quest to ignite revolutionary actions against the regime. It bases on the history of the Guy Fawkes and the popular Gunpowder plot that involved a plot to have the palace of Westminster blown up during a proceeding of a parliament meeting between James I and the ministers. The meeting was aimed at developing oppression Roman Catholics. As a strong Catholic convert, Fawkes aimed at protecting the people and through this; he was enjoined in the plot with others as the military man that would provide the military experience needed to enrich their plot. Fawkes was the man for the job based on his history and relation to the Catholic development. The movie portrays an investigative ploy that ends up leading to a number of deaths with Stephen Rea the detective trying to stop V finding it difficult to handle his job well due to the tactical aspects of V that becomes difficult to handle. The movie released in 2006 was scheduled for release in 2005 due to some inevitable delays. The target was to release it on a day when the country marked the 400th Guy Fawkes Night. The night believed to be the night that he was executed opposite the buildings of parliament after the trial found him guilty of treason. The movie portrays the acts of the political class with a detailed picture of their thoughts and actions in relation to protecting their political strength. They portray the actions that the political class takes when passing a message to prevent uprisings and any revolutionary attempts on their reign. The movie displays this picture well and strengthens the political class while instilling fear in the ruled. Released on March 21, 2006, the soundtrack used in the movie was developed by Astralwerks Reco rds.