As I Lay Dying Essays Examples

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Dying is a unique novel in that there is no discernable protagonist. In lieu of the protagonist is a corpse, Addie, who is dead for most of the book. The novel is written in the first person, from the perspective of Addie and her family, although the perspective shifts for most of the chapters between Addie's self-interested family members with Addie herself only contributing one chapter. Addie's dying wish is to be buried in Jackson, and the story is about how she makes it there. Although Addie is not alive for much of the novel, her son Jewell reflects her interests after she's dead and acts as her legacy.

That the novel is the story of a dead person whose ends will not be met until she reaches her grave is typically thematic of voodoo cultures that existed in Mississippi's colorful history. Another theme is that of the oral tradition in the old South. This tradition was not only kept alive in African circles but also in folk tales. As with oral traditions, the story maintains distance from the perspective of any given individual by maintaining so many first-person voices. By using this practice, Faulkner attempts distance himself for his…… [Read More]

Modernist as I Lay Dying

For Faulkner, meaning and the reality of each person is "mutable." In this regard, the novel deals with the themes of identity and existence and the intentions and motivations behind each individual's reasons for undertaking the journey to bury Addie from many different points-of-view.

The images of death and dying tend to add to this search for meaning and identity; for example, Addie's slowly decaying corpse. The death of the mother motivates the family to begin the journey to not only bury her but also as a personal search for meaning. The theme of death also tends to stress that view that we are all in the process of dying and this emphasizes the importance of finding meaning and significance in life.

The novel uses symbols and image to convey its deeper intentions with regard to life, death and identity. We see this aspect in Vardaman's attempt to understand his mother's death. From his subjective point-of-view, he cannot understand her death rationally and sees her as a "Fish" which he has eaten. The image of the Fish is also a symbol that has connotations of resurrection and rebirth.

One insightful view of the novel is to see it as a…… [Read More]

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Dying William Faulkner Is a

In the opening paragraph, his detailed physical description of Jewel and him walking on the path exhibits what we soon see is a strong faith that language makes memory, perception, and action real. (Lockyer 74)

She also notes that Darl is the character who speaks the most in the novel, thus showing his adherence to the value of language in his actions as well as his words. In doing so, she says, "he displays the omniscience, verbal range, and responsibility for interpretation that we associate with a narrator" (Lockyer 74). What Darl says also solidifies the view that Addie has been isolated and has also been deceived by her former faith in words. Faulkner develops a range of views of language and its use and of the degree to which different characters express their own relationship with language.

Lockyer discusses this further and cites Mikhail Bakhtin on the novel to the effect that "the word does not exist in a neutral and impersonal language" (Bakhtin 294), an idea that infuses as I Lay Dying. Lockyer notes that Cash is the only character able to accommodate the idea of the other in language:

The novel, according to Bakhtin, is the ultimate…… [Read More]

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Dying Five Critical Perspectives on

1). For Lester, the novel is a novel of migration and the ambiguous benefits of Southern culture and traditions: when Addie demands that her family lay her body "to rest forty miles away, in Jefferson, where her relatives are buried" her "request places a burden on her family, who subsist on limited means as small farmers and occasional wage laborers in rural Northern Mississippi in the late 1920s" (Lester 2005, p.1). The burden upon the family of social obligations is a heavy one: they must honor the past and custom, but Addie's body becomes a heavy weight to bear, just as the ties that bind them together are heavy and strangle one another, physically, emotionally, and economically.

Marc Hewson of The Mississippi Quarterly offers a feminist reading of the book. The centrality of Addie and her profound influence upon her sons forces the reader to question Southern patriarchal norms: "The trip to Jefferson thus becomes for her boys a form of education in her ways. By mourning her and contemplating their relationships with her, Cash, Darl, Jewel, and Vardaman learn to emulate her and adopt her suspicion of patriarchal constructs" (Hewson 2000, p.1). Addie ties her boys to the land…… [Read More]

Dying the American Family in

It is thus that he helps to establish the truly tragic abstractions that characterize the family's individual experiences. Where a broad, unilateral overview of the story might direct the reader's focus to the burial plot, an objective set of narratives articulated by the character's themselves suggests that Faulkner intends the story more as a lamentation for the living.

In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner delivers a treatise on the American condition too often unconsidered in either the literary or the public forums. The Bundrens can be considered less a family comprised of actual individuals as a unit of caricatures. The characters are altogether conflicted by selfishness and emotional ambivalence, divided by an unrefined sense of loyalty and an incapacity to truly experience mourning and relentlessly driven to their goal even as they are guided by cloudy ambitions. In this regard, it is difficult to even determine that Faulkner finds redemption for his characters. Though in resolution they do deliver Addie to her final resting place, the novel's end is shrouded in uncertainty, just as is the rest of the narrative. Indeed, if the literary features discussed here can be said to align toward any one conclusion, perhaps it may be…… [Read More]

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Dying Is William Faulkner's Story

But since their sense of righteousness is flawed, their plans fall apart and the ending is quite disastrous as Howe explains: "When they reach town, the putrescent corpse is buried, the daughter fails in her effort to get an abortion, one son is badly injured, another has gone mad, and at the very end, in a stroke of harsh comedy, the father suddenly remarries" (138).

Addie and Cora represent two different versions of right. For Cora faith is on lips all the time and she expresses righteousness through words, for Addie, actions are more important and thus she appears vain compared to Cora but has a deeper and more accurate sense of right and wrong. While Cora appears with utterances such as "I trust in my God and my reward" (70) and "Riches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for He can see into the heart." (7) Addie is not interested in this lip service and for her words are hollow expression of faith while actions are what really count. She says, "people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too." (168).

Right and wrong and what man considers right…… [Read More]

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Effect of WWI on Literature

WWI and Literature

World War I was certainly one of the most productive periods in literature with millions of poets and authors emerging on the scene and each one contributing tremendously to the growth and progress of literature. It is quite strange that while WWI was a deeply disturbing and a largely horrifying experience for most countries, it inspired writers and poets around the globe and this resulted in significant growth of world literature.

In England alone, more than 2000 poets emerged during this period as Harvey (1993) elaborates: "From the very first week, the 1914-18 war inspired enormous quantities of poetry and fiction. The claim that three million war poems were written in Germany in the first six months of hostilities is difficult to substantiate, but Catherine W. Reilly has counted 2,225 English poets of the First World War, of whom 1,808 were civilians. For example, William Watson (then an esteemed poet, today virtually forgotten) quickly decided that his war poems should be 'so much in evidence that people [would] be saying that W.W. is the real national poet in this crisis', and had sixteen different war poems printed in various newspapers in the first six weeks."

But while…… [Read More]

Family Dysfunction Economic Distress and

It shows the selfishness of Dewey Dell, who is only concerned about her pregnancy and gives other family members little thought. It shows the long-suffering, to the point of self-immolation, of Cash. It shows the rivalry of Darl and Jewel, both vying for their dead mother's affection. And it shows the innocent simplicity, bordering on mental instability, of the young Vardaman. Each of these family members was affected in different ways by this destructive family dynamic.

Anse, in one of the most telling passages in the book regarding his relationship to the family, goes down the list of family members and whines about how each has cost him money in some way, further complaining that he has to work, when he does so, even though he doesn't have any teeth (35-37). Wadlington argues that because the story is set in the south and Anse is the "master" of the house, such laziness sets in motion a story of economic neglect in a culture where the male parent should be the breadwinner but isn't in this case. This selfishness of the father toward his children and wife is certainly evident, and it impacts negatively on the children. For example, in the…… [Read More]

EVA Peace and Addie Bunden

When pushed too far, when too greatly damaged, when the soul has been taken away, when the resilience is gone, all that is left is the act of birth, the cold and empty soul, and a generalized feeling of resentment and anger coming from mother and directed at life and history and the self. Faulkner's Addie's rotting body is an act of revenge, Eva's burning of her son is an act of insanity, both seek the harm of those closest to them, because their disappointment in life is so profound, and they are so utterly trapped in their surroundings, that being a good and wholesome person, being a healthy, nurturing mother, is simply no longer possible. This, then, is the nature of the South for both authors, and it is that nature which tells us that until the bodies are buried, and the souls put to rest, and the corrupted offspring are gone, perhaps then there can be a true rebirth.

References

Davis, Anita Price. Toni Morrison's Sula. New York: Research and EducationAssociates, 1999.

Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York: Penguin, 1982.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Vintage, 2004.

Baldanzi, Jessica & Schlabach, Kyle. What Remains?: (De)Composing and…… [Read More]

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Friends and Family Dealing With

Dickson had to deal with a few close relationships end in death, including that of her father, (Crumbley, 2000). Due to her nature of solitude, a death hit Dickenson hard. In her writing she tends to obsess over the act of dying. Much of her poetry features a first person narrator speaking about the actual experience of dying, "I hear a Fly buzz - when I died," (Dickson, 111). The grief she feels from the death of a loved one in a very personal way, so much so that she envisions experiencing her own death over and over again in several of her poems. She internalizes the grief of death into an obsession with the act of dying, "And then the Windows failed - and then / I could not see to see," (112).

William Shakespeare presents a King who had his Queen killed, and the devastating affects of overzealousness and jealousy combined. King Leontes overcomes to his insecurities regarding the faithfulness of his wife, and later has her condemned to death for her supposed disloyalty, "my wife's a hobbyhorse," (Shakespeare 15). However, once Hermione died, Leontes was struck with an heirless and lonely empire. He regretted the murderous over…… [Read More]

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High Degree of Misinformation I Had Received

high degree of misinformation I had received from traditional teachings about the church and the beginning of Christianity. Moreover, I was struck by the notion that most other people in the Western world receive this same degree of intentional misinformation, so much so that I have even heard people defend the idea that knowledge of the historical church is irrelevant to modern Christianity. Reading through the class material, I was struck by how critical this historical information was to the understanding of the actual church. One critical piece of information is the idea of Jesus as the head of the church, despite him not establishing Christianity as a separate religion. Another critical idea was that prophets could play a continuing role in Christianity, when my traditional understanding had suggested that after Jesus there would be no more Jewish prophets. I also found myself wondering about the very obvious and significant differences between historical biblical elders and leaders and the leaders of the modern church. Prior to this course, I had a historical awareness of the interrelationship between the church and monarchs, but the reading really helped me understand how that relationship developed. I also had a strong belief in the…… [Read More]

Stand Proud as You Can See I've

stand proud as you can see, I've survived and thrived and lived

Sometimes I have erred but other times I did succeed

I've reached a level in my life where there is less want and need

There are good memories behind me and many sad ones too

Things that I've regretted and moments I stood tall

A life is made of both, harshest times and all

Everyone I think of had issues just like mine

Maybe different circumstances and others they've done wrong

Harming people harming self and forgetting all along

If I be you then maybe I can understand my self

Or perhaps there is no understanding only something else.

I see others walking all around their phone clenched in their hand

No one's talking to each other and I cannot understand

Inhumanity is normal; a robot; a machine

My nightmares every single night; what is the dream I dream?

Response:

When reading the poems, the line from "A Lower East Side Poem" which is from the end spoke to me. Despite all the bad…… [Read More]

Childhood Home the House I Lived in

Childhood Home

The house I lived in when I was a child lay quietly shaded by forty acres of trees. In the springtime, we would hear the soft tapping of the newly sprouting leaves in the wind. The summer would come with the pervading squeal of tree frogs that could be heard when eating a Popsicle on the deck or answering the phone, when we would have to cover up one ear to help stop the noise. In the autumn, the leaves of these trees would drift lazily down to earth by the dozens. And even in winter, when the leaves were under the snow and it seemed that even the trees great lives were stagnant, their shadows would loom over and calm the glare of the bleach-white snow.

Although everyone lived amongst them, we, the children of the neighborhood, owned the trees and woods. At least that was how it seemed to us. So we claimed the land under the trees as our own land, vehemently building adult-proof forts and exploring as far out as we dared. While the line of woods that stretched the line of my friends' houses was all filled and inhabited, I remember my family's…… [Read More]

Congress Northwest Nazarene a Universal Answer Identify

Congress

Northwest Nazarene

A Universal Answer

Identify means of applying social justice for vulnerable populations that eliminate health disparities. (paper)

Audience: Policy makers in government or an organization

Describe your audience.

Describe the method of communication.

Describe the goals of the communication of what you want to accomplish.

Present the communication in a format that fits the audience- email, letter, letter to the editor of the newspaper or a response to a blog posting, etc.

Evaluate how you would know if the communication was effective.

Include documentation to support the action that you are requesting.

APA format and spelling, grammar, writing scholarly.

Audience

This letter addresses an important problem in today's society: applying social justice for vulnerable populations to eliminate health disparities. Policy in this field is debated and concluded at a Congress/legislative level, so this paper will take the form of a letter addressed to a Congressman. It is thus a generic letter that could be sent to all members of Congress. The preference for a letter has several arguments, but it is primarily related to the fact that it is a direct form of communication that links the interlocutors in a better manner than others. It also gives…… [Read More]

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Perinatal Loss Support at Time

Armstrong's findings additionally relate that due to previous research and the influence of perinatal loss on postpartum depression on partnered relationships. Armstrong states that differences in continued psychological stress between mothers and fathers after a subsequent birth is another area requiring further evaluation. Specifically stated is that it is necessary to evaluate "...the strength of partnered relationships during future childbearing experiences is important to identify any potential influence of the loss on couple, as well as family, outcomes. Understanding possible gender differences may help neonatal nurses and other healthcare providers to recognize couples at risk for discord." (2007)

Neonatal nurses are those who work closely with infants and parents and in the best position to make identification of depression and to pose questions about the individuals symptoms including:

1) mood;

2) appetite;

3) energy or fatigue levels;

4) ability to concentrate; and 5) as well the neonatal nurse is in the unique position to counsel with the parents. (Armstrong, 2007)

The healthcare provider should not hold an expectation that parents will offer up this information or ask for assistance but should encourage neonatal nurses to ask questions and to assess the psychological needs of parents experiencing perinatal loss including parents…… [Read More]

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Heart and Home in Frost's

Mary tells Warren that home is the "place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in" (122-3). This displeases Warren because he does not feel Silas deserves to call their home his own. Warren is not convinced and as he discusses Silas' brother with Mary, he claims Silas is "worthless" (149). Here we see how Warren thinks people should earn most of the things they have in life, including a place to call their own. Mary, on the other hand, understands Silas' need to feel as though he has returned to a safe place to spend his last days. With Silas at "home" she has hope for the future, even though Silas' state is grim.

Through irony, Frost also demonstrates how we all die alone despite our best efforts. Silas returns to a place he knew as home but in the end, Warren and Mary were bickering while he lay dying. Silas looked to the couple for companionship during his last days but he found none. Silas wants to do things to help Warren around the farm and while this sounds good, it may too little too late. Warren has no faith in Silas…… [Read More]

Works Cited:

Imitate Short Passages by Hemingway and Salinger

Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway, and a passage in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," by J.D. Salinger.

IMITATE SHORT PASSAGES BY HEMINGWAY AND SALINGER

Hemingway's short, staccato style and "macho" man image has often been parodied, reviewed, and dissected. "The Sun Also Rises" has been called one of his best books. This passage parodies Hemingway's macho style, and outlook on women as the weaker sex.

Paris again, and another broad in another taxi. How do I get myself into these things? Last thing I knew, I was in Pamplona, running with the big dogs. Now, I'm in a taxi with Brett, who's married to somebody else, and flirting with me. She's not half bad looking for a dame. Maybe I should just kiss her. Let her know I'm interested. What the hell. "Don't touch me, please don't touch me," she says to me, and I'm a pretty damned good kisser. What's the matter with this dame? This is Paris for chrissake, the city of romance. She shimmied over into the corner of the…… [Read More]

Gender in Romeo and Juliet Judith Lorber

Gender in Romeo and Juliet

Judith Lorber, author of "Night to his Day: The Social Construction of Gender" asserts that gender is not biologically determined, but is a construct of society. This would indicate that the process of socialization is a prime determinant in the development of gender. In other words, how a child is raised will determine his or her gender-based behavior. With this theory in mind, it is interesting to examine traditional gender roles in literature; to examine how literature of the past treated the traditional roles of male and female. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous works of literature in Western culture. It was written around the end of the 1500's, at a time when actors were exclusively male, and therefore all the women's roles would have been played by men. This alone would be enough to base a discussion on the traditional gender roles in society, but a more intensive look into the play will shed even more light on the role of the depiction of gender at that time. With Lorber's theory that gender is a product of socialization, the role of gender in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet will be…… [Read More]

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Hamlet by William Shakespeare the Play Hamlet

Hamlet" by William Shakespeare

The play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare has a story that revolves around the main themes of revenge and search for the truth. Shakespeare's male characters, in particular, are portrayed somewhat villainously because of the element of revenge inherent in each character's motivations in the play. Among the male characters in the play, the characters of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras emerge as the most remarkable among the numerous character in Shakespeare's piece. Many characteristics are shared among these three primary male characters. The first characteristic is that they possess the vitality of their youth, and the second one is that all of them face the world in an idealistic and somewhat naive perspective. Their being young, naive, and idealistic are the main reasons why, throughout the play, they have resorted to radical actions and behavior that will cause either their victory or downfall.

This paper will conduct a character analysis of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras' characters in relation to the events and circumstances that happened in the play "Hamlet." Furthermore, this character analysis will be accomplished using the comparative essay analysis, where the researcher will be able to give a causal relationship among the three characters, further…… [Read More]

Jane Eyre the Single Most

..(Lamonaca, 2002, pg. 245)

Within the work is a clear liberalization of Jane's ideas of spiritual fate and a challenge to the standards of the day, of a wife as a spiritual and physical subordinate to a husband.

Jane's insistence on a direct, unmediated relationship with her Creator uncovers a glaring inconsistency in Evangelical teaching that posed for women of faith a virtual theological impasse: Evangelicals championed the liberty of discernment and conscience for all believers, but also prized a model of marriage in which wives were spiritually subordinate to their husbands.

Given the religious and cultural context in which it was written, Jane Eyre proclaims what could be considered a message of radical spiritual autonomy for women. (Lamonaca, 2002, pg. 245)

Following in the line of her progression through the work the ending passage, including her no less than perfect description of her marriage to Rothschild is a picture of the demands of her autonomy and Bronte's radical ideas of independence for women and equality in relationships, so historically unequal.

I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest_blest…… [Read More]

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African-American Women's Literature Unlike Any

The fact that this figure remains a guess says something important about what Morrison was up against in trying to find out the full story of the slave trade. Much of that story has been ignored, left behind, or simply lost.

Through her works she attempted to retell the stories of grief associated with slavery and terror, her characters living their lives with greater understanding of its value than almost any other set of characters in fiction today.

Within the genre of the autobiography there is a different tenor of thought the words and deeds are that of the author and the message is clearly self, devolvement. Angelou in the Heart of a Woman demonstrates the ideals of her time, as a civil rights organizer and protestor. She clearly spells out the strife that exists between whites, and blacks and the dangerous dance they are doing during what most would call the most heated years of the civil rights movement (1957-1962). It is for this reason ands well as her unflagging representation of the depth of her character and experience that makes this work about much more than just the surface of her story.

As a serial autobiographer she must…… [Read More]

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Covenants in Genesis and Oedipus

How could that be true when that child was left in the woods to die?

Oedipus is calmed, but he still sets out to solve the murder-mystery and punish the man who committed regicide. As more details come to the surface, however, Oedipus starts to get a bad feeling. The evidence indeed points to him: Laius, he learns, was slain at the same crossroads where Oedipus took the lives of a group of men. Was Laius among them? Apparently so…as Oedipus also learns that he was the babe whom Jocasta and Laius abandoned -- and indeed has grown up to ruin the house by killing his father and marrying and having children with his mother Jocasta. Jocasta (sensing that this might be the case) had pleaded for Oedipus to halt the investigation, but determined to know the truth, Oedipus called the herdsman who found him tied to a tree to come and give testimony. The herdsman testified to the horror of all in Thebes. Jocasta hangs herself in despair, and Oedipus blinds himself and exiles himself from Thebes. He stumbles out with the assistance of his child Antigone.

Oedipus' fault through all of this was that he did not know…… [Read More]

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Nathaniel Hawthorne the Objective of This Work

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The objective of this work is to examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's works and to conduct a comparison of the life of Hawthorne to his short stories and to examine how his life and his works paralleled one another.

The life of Nathaniel Hawthorne many times was played out in his stories as his life events and experiences bled forth into his works demonstrating the struggles that the writer faced within himself and his own life. Running through the threads of the stories of Hawthorne is the theme of Puritanism and this is clearly perceived as one reads the stories of Hawthorne entitled "The Scarlet Letter," "The Minister's Black Veil and "The Birthmark." In order to understand Hawthorne's view it is necessary that one understand what Puritanism is, believes, and represents.

Puritanism

Puritanism was first presented in the works of William Tyndale (1495-1536) as well as in the work of John Hooper (d.1555) who had held that the English reformation was far too slow in advancing. During the time between the reign of Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell's death, was the time that Puritanism bloomed forth evidenced in the work of Cartwright (1535-1603 and Perkins (1558-1602) two Puritan philosophers. That…… [Read More]

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Hemingway the Snows of Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro

For many critics, no other short story by Ernest Hemingway is as overtly autobiographical as the Snows of Kilimanjaro. Richard Hovey goes as far to say that the story "must have been (Hemingway's) effort to purge himself of long-accumulated guilts" (83).

This paper examines how the parallels between the story's protagonist Harry and Hemingway reveal a theme of the conflict between financial comfort and the artistic calling. It shows how Hemingway depicts a writer, literally rotting from within, as he reflects on his own moral corruption and the loss of his artistic integrity.

As the story begins, the reader quickly learns that the protagonist, a writer named Harry, is dying. A scratch sustained earlier has become infected and has poisoned his blood, causing a gangrenous infection. Harry knows that death was coming, but he could no longer muster any horror or fear. Instead, all he feels is "a great tiredness and anger and that was the end of it" (41).

Harry's companion on the safari is a wealthy woman named Helen, whom Harry alternately clings to and despises. Helen is a middle-aged widow who is recovering from the recent death of one of her children. She first turns to…… [Read More]

Jesus' Teachings Prayer & Christian Life He

Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life

"He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the priest establishes a mandate for Christian Living. Historically, at the Last Supper, Christ used bread and wine as a supreme metaphor for the rest of our lives. Jesus was in turmoil. He was aware of what was about to befall him -- namely, suffering and death. This was the last major lesson he would teach before his arrest following Judas' betrayal. Eschatologically speaking, the above set the stage for the Christian ministry of the apostles, evangelists and priests. Indeed, every Christian is called to give of him or herself for the Glory of God and the Glory of Mankind. The message at the Last Supper was powerful. People have put themselves through unimaginable horrors and even death to spread this message. Christian or Christ-Like living is a privilege. Having Christ as a beacon and an exemplar is demanding. Saints and other divine personage come closer to this light than ordinary humans. They also work as intercessors for the rest of us in…… [Read More]

Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin Translated by David Hawkes

large book about a stone, would you be interested? Probably not, but if they are talking about the "Story of the Stone" by Cao Xueqin, then you are definitely in for a treat.

The story begins in the Land of Illusion where we learn the tale of the Stone and the Crimson Pearl Flower through the story of the two Priests, one of who is a Taoist and the other Buddhist. The Buddhist picks up a solitary stone and talks to it, and so we learn the story of "The Stone" which then sets the tale for what happens later in the story in the 'real' world. The connection here is made when the Stone says[to the Priest], "What you say is indeed true...my poor story is adorned by no rhetorical flourish nor literary art....but the world of mortals being what it is...I cannot but think that the tale here inscribed might be of some use..." This is one of the first examples where we see the connection between the land of illusion and the real world.

Later when we become involved in the story of the son, and his two female friends, we are given glimpses of how the…… [Read More]

Oswald's Innocence President John F

" The 'number' of witnesses later turned out to be a single witness who was not even sure about who he saw at the window.

Palm prints on the cardboard box: Similarly Oswald's palm prints were said to have been found on a cardboard box found at the window of the depository building from which Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy. Oswald's prints were not found anywhere else in the room except on a 'convenient' carton that could easily find its way to the police station where Oswald was kept in custody. (Lane,

Rifle Capability

Apart from these, not insignificant, inconsistencies in the "evidence" presented by the Dallas Attorney General, it is highly unlikely that Oswald, using the Carcano, could have shot with the accuracy and speed required at a moving target.

According to the Warren Commission that investigated Kennedy's assassination, three shots were fired from the Depository window, the first and last strikes occurring within a span of 4.8 to 5.6 seconds from a distance of 177 to 266 feet. The alleged murder weapon -- the Carcano Carbine -- has a bolt action re-loading mechanism that needs to be operated before every shot. The simulated the firing by getting sharpshooters rated…… [Read More]

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Heracles Means Glory of Hera Is Best

Heracles (means glory of Hera) is best known as the strongest of all mortals and considered as super hero on a grand scale. He is much stronger compared to other Gods. He was the deciding factor in allowing the Olympian Gods to win their battle with the giants. He was the last mortal son of Zeus. He is the only man born of mortal woman to become a god upon his death.

Offsetting his strength was a noticeable lack of intelligence or wisdom. Once when he became too hot he pulled his bow out and threatens to shoot the sun. This coupled with strong emotions in one so powerful frequently got Heracles in trouble. While his friend and cousin Theseus ruled Athens, Heracles had trouble ruling him. His pride was easily offended. He took up grudges easily and never forgot them. His appetites for food, wine, and women were as massive as his strength. Many of Heracles great deeds occurred while doing penance for stupid acts done in anger or carelessness.

It would be easy to view Heracles as a muscle bound buffoon. Indeed, many of the comic Greek playwrights used him this way. Even among serious critics he was…… [Read More]

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Alexander the Great King Philip

Alexander saw himself as that philosopher-king who would install a new kind of cooperation and brotherhood with one or unified Greek culture, Hellenism, and speaking a common language, Greek (Smitha 1998). He intended that his subjects in the East would be reared and trained to become like the Greeks and Macedonians.

In consolidating his huge territory, Alexander founded cities, mostly named Alexandria, in suitable and well-paved locations with sufficient supply of water. His army veterans, young men, merchants, traders and scholars settled there, infused Greek culture and, through them, the Greek language widely flourished. Through his mighty victories and territorial control, Alexander thus spread Greek civilization and paved the way for the incoming Hellenistic kingdoms and the conquest of the Roman Empire (Microsoft 2004).

He also felt that trade would unite his empire more strongly and so he forced new commercial possibilities and made Babylon the center of brisk world commerce (Smitha 1998). His first decisions created a new demand for iron. By conquering the Persian treasury, Alexander removed trade barriers and out more money into circulation. Building new ports, new cities and 70 military colonies in his conquered territories further stimulated economic vigor among them. Alexander had also wanted…… [Read More]

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Slaver Is a Horrible Thing

This person proved to be an honest and God-loving individual who is actually concerned about my well-being and the well-being of other slaves. He brought me a pair of glasses and a book called "Uncle's Tom Cabin" yesterday. I could never understand why many white people in the South can't abandon slavery in spite of the fact that they know that it's wrong, but I am satisfied knowing that they treat their slaves well. I could not stop reading the book ever since I laid eyes on it. I have been awake for almost two days now and I am infuriated with the institution of slavery in general, even with the fact that I did not experience the suffering it provoked from a first-hand perspective.

Some friends of my master visited today and had a fiery conversation as a result of Abraham Lincoln's reelection. My abolitionist friend seemed to agree to their thinking, but was hesitant about the proposition of getting involved in a conflict that he didn't believe in, taking into account that even though he was born in the South he learnt a great deal of things about the value of a person's life and about the struggle…… [Read More]

Faulkner's Unremorseful Day

Faulkner looking at the rhythms, sounds and underlying meanings.

The Unremorseful Day

The poem as read from a simple standing does not make complete sense it jumps from one aspect to another John is dying yet Joe is reading the story yet who is telling the story, there is a definite obscurity to the way the narrator gives his views, from the dying of John to the eating and preparing of food to the death of John.

There is no regular rhythm to the poem it falls into the lines of a disjointed dirge for the funeral march, the book seems of no interest to the narrator at all it seems as if the book is boring and has no consequence at all to the life of this man. In fact it can be seen that the book does not make any sense to the narrator at all even though he himself is an English teacher and should know what the "they " want.

To understand the poem one must have an understanding of the disjointed views that…… [Read More]

Eliot Stevens Williams Stein and Faulkner

Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Specifically, it will choose one instance of abstraction in the work, and describe what the author is trying to "get at," through that abstraction. What is he trying to suggest? What methods is he using to do so? Does it "work" for you? Why or why not?

Abstraction in Poetry

In "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," T.S. Eliot writes in many abstractions, but there is one at the end, which is especially poignant and full of meaning. "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. / I do not think that they will sing to me. / I have seen them riding seaward on the waves / Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black. / We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown" (Eliot).

Clearly, this passage is an abstraction because the mermaids he refers to do not exist, nor do "sea-girls wreathed with seaweed," and so, this is an abstraction for a dream - a lovely dream…… [Read More]

Euthanasia in All Its Forms

" This action according to Humphrey allows personal responsibility for family decision making to be broadened to a reasonable level.

Humphrey also lays strong claims for the medical responsibilities of euthanasia because of the overemphasis on life-support to prolong human suffering rather than allow certain and peaceful death. Humphrey's believes that the medical community needs be an example to individuals by stopping making decisions for the family based on technological progress of aggressive treatments. "People dread having their loved ones put on such equipment if it means they are never likely to be removed if that proves later to be the mores sensible coarse." (155) in short, Humphries contends that passive euthanasia is a personal and private responsibility and that the medical responsibility lies in stepping back and allowing individuals to make such decisions without fear of reprisal.

Ledermans's more personal account is of herself having to make decisions for a loved one, when that loved one, her 90-year-old grandmother was not able to make them herself. Her stand is one of waning the medical community to see, compassionately how difficult it is to follow the wishes of a loved, one, even when they are known. It is the expression…… [Read More]

Gravestone Etchings and the Creative

In point of fact, the article did not even provide enough information concerning whether control had really been lost, or if the new headstone fad was just that; a fad. The article was successful in providing information that a trend seems to be developing for the more eccentric individuals in society, and that trend is to be more creative in death than what has been acceptable in the past, but the article does not answer the implied question 'will this lead to a mass movement in tombstone creativity?' Or if the trend will continue to be confined to the relatively small portion of the dying public that it now concerns?

At one point in the article one of the interviewees told the story of how a widow called him to have a headstone hauled away a few days after the deceased had been laid to rest. The interviewee said, "I guess what you try not to do is make such an ungodly mess that the survivors will rip it out of the ground" (Heller, p. 94). Like the interviewee I felt that the deceased was going to have no say-so after death in regards to the tombstone, so if the…… [Read More]

Bibliography:

Meta-Analysis on the Literature Related to Nonpharamcological

meta-analysis on the literature related to nonpharamcological interventions for agitation in older adults with dementia. The authors intended to investigate which, if any, of the interventions used were the most effective.

Since the results of the effects of nonpharmacological interventions on decreasing agitation in dementia have varied, with some of these studies showing contradictory results, and since nursing staff need to know which particular intervention(s) to employ, a meta-analysis (which investigates and analyses the reliability of the various studies, comparing one against the other) is in order.

The procedures for this review were based on the eight steps suggested by Egger and Smith (2001). These are to: (1) formulate review question; (2) define inclusion and exclusion criteria; (3) locate studies; (4) select studies; (5) assess study quality; (6) extract data; (7) analyze and present results; and (8) interpret results.

Being that this is non-experimental study, no issues of control were used here. Rather, inclusion criteria was involved in order to define the studies that they felt pertinent to their research. Nonetheless, one of the inclusion criterion used included the fact that all accepted studies should employ a randomized controlled parallel or a randomized crossover study design. (Other inclusion criteria included…… [Read More]

African-American Women Who Have Lost

However, conventional beliefs that there is low rate for African-American involvement in suicidal activities, there exists minimal focus on learning the possible suicide patterns among African-Americans. Social workers are not aware of the risks and protectiveness among African-Americans. This gives room for misinterpretation of facts concerning self-destructive activities of African-Americans. The research further stresses the importance of social workers to the study of suicide among African-Americans. They also have the capacity for influencing national policies and strategies for the mitigation of suicidal cases. Through the research, it was evident that there exists extremely little information about the empirical knowledge of social workers practicing in this sector with regard to the works featured by the social work researchers.

With the evidently increasing need for social workers, it is necessary to study the capacities of knowledge of social workers regarding issued of suicide. This is relevant to the increase of social workers in the clinical sector within mental institutions. There is reliance on professional literature and practice knowledge, but there is dire need for unique perspectives and concepts to build scientific clinical knowledge applicable to the social practice related to African-American suicide.

The period of his research is not adequate for gathering…… [Read More]

Works Cited:

Aging and Death but With

Typically a Japanese funeral follows the sequence: when someone dies, they are placed to rest in their homes. The corpse was placed with the head pointing the North, copying the deathbed of Gautama, and the head of the bed is well decorated. Then the previously mentioned encoffinment process. The first night after one's death is called the Tsuya; and it is for close family and friends to remember their beloved. In the morning, a cleansing meal is served called Okiyome. The funeral is thereafter carried out where the Jukai rite also known as receipt of commandments gives the dead an opportunity to receive the Buddhist commandments, automatically making the dead a disciple of the Buddha, and the dead person is accepted into Buddha hood.

After all this, the deceased embarks on the journey to the other world as the coffin is carried out of the house and burnt in a crematorium to ashes.

Presently about 99% Japanese are cremated while only about 1% are interred. These changes in preference on the method of sending off the dead have been brought about by the Country's main religion, changes in dwelling environments and changes in technologies. During the high-growth era of the…… [Read More]

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True Lesson in a Lesson

But he didn't tell me that my aunt would help them do it'" (Gaines, 79). Grant believes at this point that dignity is something he can only find -- and is supposed to find -- outside of his community and away from the relationships and ties that he has there, including his maternal bond to his aunt.

As the novel progresses, however, Grant begins to realize how necessary the community is to his own happiness, if not his very survival. This transformation is not complete by the end of the novel, but Grant has begun to change or at least question many of his beliefs, including his attitude towards God and religion, and certainly in his attitude, hopes, and feelings for Jefferson. Perhaps most telling in Grant's search for dignity and identity within his community is his relationship with Vivian. Though she is still married and the relationship is therefore quite clandestine as it would be morally unacceptable to the community, she is also what Grant credits for drawing him back into the community. It is interesting that even in this relationship, he is unable to truly define his own role -- Vivian's attachment to her children and her not-quite-ex-husband…… [Read More]

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Puritan Life Was Heavily Contaminated by Death

puritan life was heavily contaminated by death. Half of the original 102 pilgrims that settled in America died during the first winter and it was not uncommon for children to perish before they reached adolescence. Funerals were a common occurrence in everyday life and the air of towns was often littered with the sounds of church bells. From the early stages of learning, children were educated on the grim reality that they faced and if they were fortunate enough to grow up, their demise still followed them wherever they ventured to. Puritan religion explains that a person is unable to control their destiny. Their ascendance to heaven or hell is pre-determined before the time of their birth and their actions in life have no influence on their final destination.

Although her lifetime took place more than two centuries after their arrival, Emily Dickinson presented poetry that offered views on death that were influenced by puritan belief. She believed that the manner in which a person dies would reflect their afterlife. For instance, a person that died a peaceful death, perhaps at home in the company of their family and friends, meant the person found harmony with the God after passing.…… [Read More]

Hamlet and the Memento of

"

Hamlet seems particularly interested with this idea of holding a mirror to the reality of situations to betray their alliances with death. He uses the same metaphor when speaking to the players: "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."

The play which Prince Hamlet stages is vitally important not only in that it is a mirror and reflection of sorts, but also because it is in itself art. A great deal of fuss is made in the text about the proper form of the art of playing, as if to highlight that it's artistic merit were important to the story. This may be because putting the death of the king into play form is meant, within the story, to represent the way that death is turned into art as part of the Memento Mori ideology. Indeed, the "death as art" aspect of this ideology is, quite literally, embodied in every part of the story because Hamlet itself, as a…… [Read More]

Bibliography:

Death With Dignity

Death With Dignity: A Right or Not?

The issue of "euthanasia" is a matter of great controversy today. It is often difficult to judge who the "right" to die under the influence of euthanasia without the "power of attorney" should be afforded. Religiously, one cannot predict the "miracle" of God in daily life. For a patient to live through feeding-tube for the rest of his/her life in the hospital or nursing home does not show any dignity to our beloved ones. This paper will examine the issue of death and dignity from the perspective that all patients deserve to die with dignity, but face many obstacles in doing so.

One of the more frequent arguments against voluntary active euthanasia in the media and in literature is that "the push for a legalized right to die with medical assistance is a radical movement" carrying with it "alarming implications" for society (Ballis & Magnusson, 1999:312). Many feel that allowing one to voluntarily end life would perhaps result in a devaluing of life and the potential for abuse of vulnerable or ill patients (Ballis & Magnusson, 1999). However this argument is largely unfounded and based on fears and irrational misgivings about death rather…… [Read More]

Works Cited:

African-American Males Between the Ages of 15

African-American males between the ages of 15 and 24 are at relatively higher risk of suicide according to Center for Disease control and prevention. Since 1980s the suicide rate has increased tremendously and many young seemingly successful males are committing suicide following years of suffering from chronic depression. Such cases highlight the importance of recognizing signs of depression young males but since researches and studies do not always reach parents on time, they fail to stay on top of it. This is how Gina Smallwood felt when in 2008 her young son shot himself right before his 20th birthday. (Thomas, 2009) Gina had no idea Kelvin was at the risk of suicide or that there were any statistics that placed African-American youth at greater risk of suicide. Instead she felt that since her son had been an honor student and had a bright future ahead of it; suicide would be the last thing on his mind. It however came as a complete shock when after an argument with his girlfriend; Kelvin went ahead and killed himself. But argument was not the reason, it was just a trigger. Studies suggest that young African-American males are at greater risk because of various…… [Read More]

References:

Tried to Expand on Areas

Freedom of choice includes the right to die and the right to choose assisted suicide.

3. An older argument in favor of assisted suicide that has been recently resurfaced with the implementation of a national health care bill could be termed the "economics argument" which states that the costs of keeping people alive who are going to die anyway is exceedingly high, higher than the benefit that the money and energy to maintain life bring. Life prolonged unnecessarily is costly to society and that money and those resources are being wasted and could be used more productively.

4. In essence, the final common argument us used in a number of legal and ethical situations and pretty much states that assisted suicide is already being performed in many hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes by physicians and nurses. It makes sense to formally legalize it so people will not have to sneak around, jeopardize their careers, and hide what is a practical solution to a difficult dilemma. In this manner assisted suicide cases could be monitored and formally reviewed if need be. As it stands there is no formal monitoring of these cases and such a situation is left open for misuse.…… [Read More]

Bibliography:

Feeding Tubes at the End

The quality of life was another issue addressed in research of the use of feeding tubes with patients who have dementia (Finucane, 2001).

Robert MCCann, MD reports that the everyday imagery of food and its pleasant addition to life cannot be ignored in the discussion of removing natural nutrition and using a feeding tube.

McCann reminds the medical community that the image of a family gathered around the Thanksgiving table, interacting and nurturing each other through the meal presents an entirely different image than an elderly person suffering from dementia alone in a bed in a nursing home with a tube inserted into their stomach. The imagery of food and its measurable impact on a person's life must be accurately envisioned for the decision to be made according to McCann (Finucane, 2001).

McCann studied Hospice cancer patients who were in the end stage of life. According to his research it is a natural part of dying to lose one's appetite as well as one's thirst.

He posits that to interrupt that natural process is actually to place a burden on the patient who is at the end stages of their life. The participants in this study were alert and cognitively…… [Read More]

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God and Good Death Concept Philosophers Have

God and Good Death Concept

Philosophers have argued for centuries the concept of a "good death." Death being one of the realities that everyone in life must face regardless of their status is universal and, therefore, as a concept it affects us all. Suicide as an alternative has been with us since antiquity but it has been only recently that suicide as a legal right has begun to emerge as a matter of public debate.

The camps are split on the issue of legalized assisted suicide and those who argue that any form of suicide is morally wrong. Those favoring the legalization of assisted suicide believe that individuals should be able to control the time and circumstances of their death. Further, they argue that actively causing one's own death is no different than refusing life-saving treatment. Opponents argue vulnerable individuals, that is, those living in chronic pain or degenerative disease for example, are easily coerced into assisted suicide. They also argue that God, not humans, should decide the time for death.

Wherein lays the answer to this debate? If one adheres to the theological argument that only God can determine the moment and method of death there is no answer…… [Read More]

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Ruth From the Dystopian Novel Never Let

Ruth from the dystopian novel, Never Let Me Go, is a character that first appears dominant and extroverted. "I knew exactly what she'd meant by her answer and smile: she was claiming the pencil case was a gift from Miss Geraldine. There could no mistake about this because it has been building up for weeks." (Ishiguro 52) She lies about where she got her pencil case to Kathy and begins a romantic relationship with Tommy even though it is Kathy and Tommy who truly feel a connection. She seems rude and self-centered, wondering who her parents were or who she was cloned from, always wanting to impress the veterans and even getting rid of the art collection from the other students because she thought that would help her fit in. But how does this fit in with the reader's perception of her? She is supposed to represent the struggle and rebellious desires of the clones.

Ruth's personality traits are a way for the author, Ishiguro, to unravel and paint the portrait of a clone with a soul. Ishigiro elicits feelings for the character of Ruth, towards the end, by giving her complexity and depth through her "completion." Clones from Halisham,…… [Read More]

Works Cited:

Believing That Death Means Nothing to Us

believing that death means nothing to us, since every good and every evil lies in sensation; but death is the privation of sensation. Hence a correct comprehension of the fact that death means nothing to us makes the mortal aspect of life pleasurable, not be conferring on us a boundless period of time but by removing the yearning for deathlessness. There is nothing fearful in living for the person who has really laid hold of the fact that there is nothing fearful in not living. So it is silly for a person to say that he dreads death -- not because it will be painful when it arrives but because it pains him now as a future certainty; for that which makes no trouble for us when it arrives is a meaningless pain when we await it. This, the most horrifying of evils, means nothing to us, then, because so long as we are existent death is not present and whenever it is present we are nonexistent. Thus it is of no concern either to the living or to those who have completed their lives. For the former it is nonexistent, and the latter are themselves nonexistent" (LD, p. 49-50)…… [Read More]

Caregivers of Individuals With Ad Caregivers of

caregivers of individuals with AD

Caregivers of Individuals with Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is a terribly debilitating disease that strikes older adults and for which there is no known cure. According to the Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's disease is "an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks." (2012, p.1) Alzheimer's disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer. Dr. Alzheimer is reported to have noted changes in a deceased woman's brain tissues that had passed away with an unusual mental illness, which had symptoms of "memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior." (Institute on Aging, 2012, p.1) Her brain contained abnormal clumps, which are now referred to as amyloid plaques and tangled bundles of fibers now called neurofibrillary tangles, the two main features of Alzheimer's disease. The third feature of Alzheimer's disease is the loss of connections between nerve cells or neurons in the brain. (Institute on Aging, 2012, paraphrased) The following illustration shows the changes in the brain of the individual with Alzheimer's disease.

Figure -- Changes in the Brain with Alzheimer's disease

While it is not known how the process of Alzheimer's disease beings…… [Read More]

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Wuthering Catherine's Face Was Just Like the

Wuthering

"Catherine's face was just like the landscape -- shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more transient..." Chapter 27,

This quote reveals a strong metaphor, describing Catherine's face as being "just like the landscape." Doing this not only provides brilliant imagery but also links Catherine to the land, and to her home, prevalent themes in Bronte's work. Catherine has essentially become spiritually one with the land in which she lives, anchoring her in geographic space and time. All issues of ownership of property, especially given Heathcliff's use of property ownership as a means to assert his political and social power, revert to Catherine.

Moreover, Bronte is sure to point out that the landscape of Catherine's face is filled with "shadows and sunshine," which are "flitting over it in rapid succession." This is an extension of the metaphor, showing that Catherine is susceptible to mood swings, which likewise occur in nature. Interestingly, the narrator notes here that Catherine did tend to have more shadows than sunshine on her face, meaning that she was experiencing more sadness than joy at this stage of her life. These vicissitudes are not, however,…… [Read More]

Psychology Application of E Kubler-Ross Theory to

Psychology

Application of E. Kubler-Ross Theory to Real Life Loss

Kubler-Ross Theory

Stages of Bereavement in relation to Real Life Loss

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross posits a theory that the process of loss and grief can be measured in seven distinct steps - shock, denial, anger, negotiation, depression, acceptance, and hope. While these stages may be in any order and can amount to any length of time to progress and advance to the next level, its significance is shown in the application of this theory to a real-life situation concerning the death of a loved one. This paper endeavours to explore each of the seven stages as outlined in the E. Kubler-Ross theory. Its application is also conducted on a real-life tragedy I experienced as a teenager when my childhood friend passed away. The stages of grief and loss in the E. Kubler-Ross theory does much to convey that the whole process is designed to help the mind come to terms with the loss, even if at times, the emotion-charged situation instigates irrational behavior, such as denial.

BODY

Loss of a loved one through death is always a challenging concept in psychology to study. Many theorists have attempted to formulate a standard…… [Read More]