Rhetorical Argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Rhetorical Argument - Essay Example Lamar provides suggestions on how a 3-year college degree is efficient in terms of educational and cost. On the other hand, the authors of What’s College for Anyway give similar sentiments. The authors believe that college time should be reduced but they have been keen to point out international students who might be required to take a little longer due to language barrier and acclimatization reasons. James Altucher the author of Skip Diploma, 8 alternatives to college begins with a story on how he used his college fee to buy a car only to return the car and join a college. He regrets this decision and cites reasons such as costs of education and time consumed in college as his reasons for regret. He therefore does not want other students to go through what he went through and provides them with 8 alternatives for college. Ironically, he gives reasons such as travelling around, creating an art, make people laugh, write a book as some of his alternatives. Jacques Steinberg is t he author of Plan B, Skip College. He reviews some of the professors and University presidents regarding this issue. ... The paper reviews their thoughts and offers analytical recommendation and conclusion regarding their debates. Thesis Statement There has been a lot of controversy regarding the time college students should spend in colleges and in the universities. There has also been a major concern regarding the quality of education in American colleges and Universities. Moreover, many critics believe that a four years education career at the university or the college is so expensive. Most of the scholars argue against the traditional 4 years and thinks that this time should be reduced to 3 years. I believe that college and university time should be reduced to three years instead of the traditional and fixed four years. Will this provide America with the fresh, energetic and skilled labor that it is lacking? Skip the Diploma According to the author of Skip the Diploma: 8 alternatives to college, James Altucher, attending college has made him regret his life. He gives 8 alternatives for attaining a diploma in a college. It is quite challenging to realize that most of the scholars are against attending colleges and give options for business as a way of living (James Altucher). The US government has been struggling with a shortage of skilled labor for quite a long time and the country depends on foreign labor in order to meet its demands. For this reason, questions have been raised on whether to shorten colleges and university duration in order to meet this demand. President Obama recently gave a proposal of an extended education a view, which has not been received well and has been criticized by most scholars and policy makers in the US. There have been concerns about the quality of education US has been producing. US is one of the economic giants in the world and

Risk Management Paper Essay Example for Free

Risk Management Paper Essay I interviewed James Alviar RN, the Coordinator of Risk Management at my current place of employment the Queens Medical Center West Oahu. I asked him if there were any current risk management issues at our facility that we could discuss, but he said all current issues were confidential and he could not divulge any information to me. Instead, James pointed me in the generic direction of hospital falls that is a nationwide risk management issue and also pertains to us at Queens Medical Center. This paper will be discussing risk managements role, what falls are, how falls are addressed, how risk management would remedy the problem, and how the similar situation is discussed at another facility. Queens Health Systems Risk Management (Risk Management) serves the Queens Health Systems (QHS) by developing and applying an integrated program for the preservation of QHSs capital assets and resources. The role of the Risk Management Department is to plan, direct, and coordinate the risk management and insurance function of Queens Medical Center, subject to and consistent with the Queens Health Services Mission Statement, policy and procedures, guidelines and applicable laws. Risk management is a process with four major components: identification, assessment, mitigation, and monitoring. Risk management addresses many issues that include patient safety, potential medical questions or errors, federal regulations, and legislation impacting healthcare. At Queens Medical Center, there are two options to file an event report. The employee may submit an event report anonymously or log onto the hospital intranet and utilize the RLs Risk Management software. The software is an easy step by step program for writing a thorough incident report to be submitted to Risk Management. The purpose of the occurrence report is to: Assist in identifying potential liability issues, facilitating appropriate corrective or remedial measures. To develop only information for investigation,  evaluation, and a final disposition of the reported incident. The information collected will provide management with a means of analyzing risk and quality levels. Fulfill QHSs internal reporting requirements, regulatory requirements, or insurance carriers requirements or legal obligation. Once the Risk Management department gets the report, they determine whether the situation should be investigated. If the situation needs to be examined, other departments are called upon to review the case. The other departments are but not exclusive to Falls Prevention and Protection Committee/Patient Safety, Department Managers and their nurses, Risk Managers, Human Resources, and Patient Advocate. Follow-up reports will be completed within three weeks, unless circumstances require a quicker response. I visited a smaller 57-bed hospital located central on the island to serving the residents of Central Oahu and the North Shore. Their incident reports are submitted on a form requiring the following information: How, when (date and time) and where the incident or offense took place The names of any injured persons and witnesses The nature and location of any injury or damage arising out of the incident or offense If a security report was made, a forwarded copy is required. If an incident report is written up, it would be submitted to the Risk Management where it would be reviewed. An investigation begins with a meeting with the department manager of the unit where the event occurred. If the incident was a fall, the incident is investigated to see if the ultimate cause of the fall was physiological or environmental. If the patient fell for physiological reasons, a plan of care is initiated. If it were an environmental reason like a loose handrail, they would be repaired immediately. Specifically to this paper, we will focus on patient falls. Patient falls are ubiquitous. According to the American College Of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank 2013 Annual Report (2013), the highest mechanism of injury by region are falls with a total of 338,805 reported cases and with the second highest mechanism of injury from motor vehicle injury at a total of 234,164 reported cases. A patients fall is an unintended descend to the floor that may or may not result in any injury to the patient. A fall is when a patient lands on a surface where you would not expect to find the patient. There are many risk factors associated with falls such as:  Physiological reasons (changes in blood pressure, Parkinsons, arthritis, neuropathy, vision problems ) Environmental reasons (wet floor, rugs without non-skid backing, poor lighting) Adverse effects of medications An assisted fall is when a staff member witnesses a patients fall and attempts to minimize the impact of descend. Many patient falls occurring during hospital encounters may cause little or no harm but some can result in serious and even possibly life-threatening consequences for many patients such as hip fractures and head trauma. Even when a fall does not lead to death, it can require prolonged hospitalization. Some could suffer disability, loss of function, and lose their independence or premature death. â€Å"Patient falls in hospitals are a common and often preventable adverse event. Nurses routinely conduct fall risk assessment on all patients, but communication of fall risk status and tailored interventions to prevent falls is variable at best.† (Hurley, Dykes, Carroll, 2009). When reporting a fall, the event report should be submitted as soon as possible after the event is discovered. The employee who is involved or observes the incident should complete the report. Although employees can submit an incident report anonymously, submitting through the Risk Management Website in the QMC intranet using the RLs Risk Management program is preferred. Documentation should be objective, fact-based, and not include personal opinions or subjective information. If a visitor falls or is involved in the incidence, the Security Department should be called to take statements, names, and any necessary evidence, such as photographs. An incidence report should be complete including names of witnesses and any pertinent information. If a visitor is injured, he or she should be encouraged to be treated in the Emergency Department. After submitting the report, Risk Management and the designated managers are notified immediately. The responsible manager will review all submitted reports, investigate the events as indicated, and institute any necessary corrective action. If its indicated, the incident report may be presented to the Performance Improvement Coordinator for analysis. Risk management periodically reports event information to the hospital Patient Safety Committee. These activities are considered quality improvement related and a patient safety work product. The event reports are intended for  administration use. If it were a patient here should not be any reference to the incident report in the patients medical record. The event, effects on the patient, and action taken must be documented in the medical record for patient care purposes. Prevention of falls in inpatient settings requires a multidisciplinary, multifaceted approach. There is not one definitive factor that is the silver bullet in preventing falls. Even though hospitals have devoted quality improvement and research efforts to prevent falls, patient falls consistently compose the largest single category of reported incidents in hospitals. (Rowe, 2013). It is important that hospitals maintain a safe and effective environment to prevent or limit falls and/or fall-related injuries by patients, visitors, and staff. Departments such as Risk Management, Falls Prevention and Patient Safety, and Patient Advocate were created to help maintain a hospital’s safe, healing environment. References American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank 2013 Annual Report. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.facs.org/~/media/files/quality%20programs/trauma/ntdb/ntdb%20annual%20report%202013.ashx Hurley, A., Dykes, P., Carroll, D. (2009). Fall Tip : validation of icons to communicate fall risk status and tailored interventions to prevent patient falls. Studies in health technology and informatics, 146(), 455-459. University of Phoenix Online Library. Rowe, J. (2013, June). Preventing Patient Falls What are the Factors in Hospital Settings that Help Reduce and Prevent Inpatient Falls?, Home Health Care Management Practice, 25(3), 98-103. University of Phoenix Online Library

The Concept Of Youth So Difficult To Define Sociology Essay

The Concept Of Youth So Difficult To Define Sociology Essay The concept of youth could be seen as difficult to define, as it covers such a diverse area, Pierre Bourdieu (1978)(In Jones 2010) suggested that youth is just a word and that it has been an evolving concept which has developed over the centurys into a social construction. Youth could also be defined by some, especially in western societies as the life stages between childhood and adulthood and becoming independent from dependent (Kehily 2007). Some favour biological markers, in which youth is the period between puberty and parenthood, while others define youth in terms of cultural markers a distinct social status with specific roles, rituals, and relationships (USAID/CMM 2005). Definitions of youth by age vary drastically across different institutions; the UN has defined youth as person from 15 to 24 years of age, whereas the National Youth Policy of Nepal defines youth as persons from 16 to 40 years of age. Therefore in understanding the difficulties in defining youth, it is impor tant to look at the many different ways , as to why age from the earliest of ages, industrialisation, cultures and the biological concept, to identify some of the key issues as to why the concept of youth is so difficult to define as it has such a diverse range of ideas and notions. The term youth is defined by sociologists as a transition between childhood and adulthood (Roche et al 2004) the alternative is the term adolescence which is often: Used within psychology to describe the common biological, psychological, emotional and sexual maturation phases associated with the onset of puberty and the teenage years From this notion it appears that some perceive youth as a sociological category rather than a biological one (Frith 2005, in kehily 2007) in that youth is a social construct rather than a biological and psychological concept as G Hall (1904) (In Kehily 2007p.57) noted that the biological side changes can have an effect on different people at different times in their lifes through hormonal and psychological changes from which they are not in control over and can have effect over their feeling and behaviour. However the sociologist Margret Mead1972 disregarded Halls concept that adolescence was brought on by biological changes which hall suggests occurs during puberty, from her own study concluded that this period in a young persons life was the effect of sexual repression in society and of societys handling of young people (kehily 2007). However as these studys by Hall and Mead were carried out in a specific area of Samoa, this study maybe relevant to this area but it cannot be genera lised to the rest of the world. Social anthropologists on the other hand try and understand the concept of youth from a cultural perspective for instance rather than seeing it from biological view, they study their behaviour, cultural beliefs, family lives, social, political organisations and their relationships with each other (kehily 2007, p.47) although it must be noted that most cultural studies are based upon non-western and traditional societies (keily 2007). Van Gennep 1960 (in kehily 2007 p.62) studies the rites of passage, and states there are three stages: the leaving behind of the familiar, living away from the community and thirdly reintegration, he backs this up with the study of Nelson Mandelas ignition of becoming a man, Gennep 1960 re-enforces this idea with the ritual of circumcism as some countries carry out rituals in order to publicly show the transition from one stage of a life to another (kehily 2007, p.63). although rites of passage can be observed in western countries it can be interpreted i n different ways, for instance, celebrating a birthday, leaving school, going on to university and getting married can be seen as an initiation process into either the passage to youth or the transition into adulthood as Gennep notes rites of passage were similar in structure and function wherever they occurred in the world. Aries (1962) (In kassem et al 2010) suggested that the concept of youth did not exist in the middle ages and that it has been socially constructed over the centuries, as Aries states, in medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist, and that from the age of 7 a child would be classed as an adult, as Heywood (2001 p.11) noted that the transition into adulthood took place when a child no longer needed their mother and could survive without them, which was somewhere between the ages of 5 and 7, he states they were launched into the great community of men, although some would argue with this concept, as kassem et al (2010) suggests that Aries work is only based upon the ideas of childhood and not children themselves. Pollock (1983) (In kassem et al 2010) also criticises Aries and suggests that from studying first hand accounts from diaries and autobiographies that this was not the case and that families in the 1500s did acknowledge childhood as kassem (2010) notes that Pollock q uotes numerous examples of grief at infant death, from mothers and fathers and that Aries work in only based upon secondary sources rather than actual accounts. Although some researches would agree with Aries that the term childhood has only arisen from the 1700s due to it being something which has been constructed (kassem et al 2010,p.3) from the growth of the middle class and the Industrial Revolution (Stone 1977 in kassem et al 2010) as this conctrucuralism could be seen as to arise after the era of industrialisation, for instance from the early age of around 6 years old children were working , which was reported by the Royal Commission on the Employment of children (1843) that children began work at around the age of 6 (Heywood 2001,p.130). By the late eighteenth century it was emerging that children needed a childhood as it was noted by Hendrick (in Heywood 2001 p.142) that it was emerging that the young was in need of a childhood and that we needed to start taking note of this , as Hendrick noted that children were now being seen as innocent, ignorant, dependent, and vulnerable. However some may only define youth, especially by age as they can be seen to have a vested interest for their own personal gain, their motivations may be different as the media for instance may have an interest to inform, whereas connection service see youth at the age of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ as they have an interest in improving the lives of youth by ways of empowering them into looking for work or improving their educational needs to enable them to work, wheras the high street stores such as newlook, topshop/topman aim their establishments at youth as for private gain in making money from them. In conclusion as to why youth is so difficult to define, as it is quite diverse and complex and there are numerous reasoning behind the concept of youth from nature v nurture to cultural and sociological explanations it also varies globally as their values and beliefs differ from others therefor as jones notes (2010) when youth is taken to mean age, then it really is just a word. Therefore the concept of youth will always be difficult to define as there is no neutral definition and we all define the concept of youth in many different ways. Word count:References Social and Human Sciences http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/youth/ the concept of youth http://www.allenandunwin.com/publicsociology/files/ch6RETHINK.pdf Heywood, C. (2001) A history of childhood, Cambridge: polity press. Kehily M.J. (2007) Understanding Youth: Perspectives, Identities and Practices. Milton Keynes:Open University Press. Roche, J, et al. (2004) youth in society, 2nd ed, London: sage publications. Kessem, D, et al (2010) Key issues in childhood and youth studies. Oxon: Routledge. Jones, G. (2009) Key concepts: youth. Cambridge: polity press.

The Horrors of War in Wilfred Owens Poem, Dulce et Decorum Est Essay e

The Horrors of War in Wilfred Owen's Poem, Dulce et Decorum Est From the earliest records of history, accounts of war have been portrayed as valiant acts of heroism. Children and adults alike have gathered together to hear tales of war and its glory. From the stories of Alexander the Great to recent-day movies like Saving Private Ryan, war has been praised and exalted with words such as bravery, honor, and freedom. However, Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" shows the ugly, horrible side of fighting. By use of gripping words and vivid descriptions, Owen paints incredible pictures of what World War I was really like. He tears away the glory and drama and reveals the real essence of fighting: fear, torture, and death. No longer are we left with good feelings and pretty phrases like "Liberty and justice for all!" Instead, our hearts grieve over what these soldiers had to suffer through. Every line of the poem rebuts the Roman poet Horace's quotation: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori--It is sweet and becoming to die for one's country." T he poem employs three different devices that work together to refute the belief that war is heroic and glorious: the speaker's descriptions, his similes, and his memories. First, the narrator's descriptions are clear and effective, leaving no dispute about what the soldiers had to endure with trenches and mustard gas. The poem does not use vague descriptions such as "It was terrible and horrible." Instead, the fifth and sixth lines read: "Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots / But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind." Right away, the reader can almost see the weary soldiers heading "towards [their] distant rest." They are so weary that some are sleeping while... ...ys will be a terrible, terrible thing. In conclusion, "Dulce et Decorum Est" is a magnificent tapestry of poetry. By the speaker's descriptions, similes, and memories, Owen weaves reality and memories together to create a masterpiece. Through the speaker, Owen seems to express his grief over those who have died fighting. He sees no glory in men dying horrible deaths from mustard gas, writhing with pain and agony. No, he does not feel that it is sweet or becoming to die for one's country. His opinion is expressed throughout the whole poem. Yet, his poem is not one of beauty. It has no pleasant words or pleasing sounds; it does not bring good feelings or happy smiles. But it is one of truth, the truth about war. Works Cited: Owen, Wilfred. â€Å"Dulce Et Docorum Est.† The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton & Company, 2000.

Barabas’ Role in the Jew of Malta Essay

Christopher Marlow was born in 1564, as William Shakespeare. This play was probably written in 1589; however, it was not actually published until 1633, after Marlowe’s death in 1593 when he was just 29 years old. This play was performed for many years and had a great influence on Shakespeare’s The Venice Merchant. †¢1. Summary of the play The play is set on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Calymath (the Turkish prince) arrives to exact Malta’s tribute which has been accumulated to a considerable sum. Ferneze (Maltese governor) cannot pay the tribute immediately, but he promises to pay within a month. After the Turks leave, Ferneze decides to collect the needed money from the Jews of Malta: each Jew must give up half of his fortune. Barabas complains strongly, so his full fortune is confiscated. The Jew tries to keep part of his fortune which was hided in his mansion. Having confessed falsely, Abigail was admitted in the nunnery (formerly Barabas’ mansion) and recovered her father’s hidden fortune. Meanwhile, the Spanish Martin Del Bosco convinces Ferneze to break Malta’s agreement with Turkey, promising to write the Spanish king for military help. Del Bosco also sells Ferneze his slaves, and Barabas ends up buying the Turkish slave Ithamore at the marketplace. At the marketplace, Barabas also runs into Mathias and Lodowick. Each young man desires to see Abigail, and Barabas promises his favours to each, but at the same time, Barabas is planning their death helped by Ithamore. Broken by his father’s selfishness and the death of her lover Mathias, Abigail on her own decides to enter the nunnery once again. Barabas, afraid that Abigail will betray him, poisons all the nuns included her own daughter Abigail who is the last to die. Before this, she manages to give friar Barnardino a written confession of her father’s crimes. Barnardino in companion with the friar Jacomo get to face Barabas and insinuate they know about the Jew’s crimes. In response, Barabas says that he would like to repent and become a Christian. Naturally, he will donate his huge fortune to whichever monastery he enters. The two friars, being from different monasteries, fight to win Barabas’ favour, each hoping to benefit from the Jew’s considerable fortune. Barabas once again has set a trap; he will kill both of the friars without arousing suspicion. Ithamore knows plenty of incriminating information. Once he is seduced by the courtesan Bellamira, Ithamore begins to blackmail Barabas with threats to confess if the Jew does not send him gold. In the last scene of the fourth act, Barabas arrives at Bellamira’s house in the disguise of a French musician and poisons his blackmailers. Meanwhile, the Turkish Bashaws have arrived. In response to Ferneze’s refusal to pay, they declare war on Malta. In the final act, Ferneze prepares to defend Malta against the Turks. Ithamore, Bellamira, and her attendant Pilia Borza enter and all play their parts in revealing Barabas’ crimes, but the Jew’s poison takes effect and they all fall dead. Barabas meanwhile has been captured, but he pretends he is dead through the effect of a drug. He finds himself left outside the city walls. The Jew betrays Malta and leads the Turks into the city. He takes position as governor but he decides to return Malta to help Ferneze to massacre the Turkish forces. The Turkish troops also believed the Jew’s trick. But Ferneze turns the tables on Barabas at the last moment, and Barabas dies. Ferneze takes Calymath as a prisoner in order to ensure Malta’s future safety. †¢2. About Barabas Barabas in the Jew of Malta is an extremely revengeful and ambitious character. He challenges the power with a great cunning. The accumulated tributes, Malta has to pay to the Turks, are more than this country can afford, that is why the governor of Malta is determined to ally to the Catholic Spain if this huge European power keep at bay to the Turks. Spain would take advantage of the sales of Turkish slaves in Malta and many other advantages in business. Malta wouldn’t have to pay the tribute to Turkey and could keep the money collected among its Jew population. This selfishness characterizes all the agreements between the Mediterranean governments. The word that designates these actions is â€Å"politics† and the Jew, Barabas, perceives this selfishness is the ruler’s main principle: â€Å"I, policie? That’s their profession, /and not simplicity as their suggest. † Besides, the rulers speak frankly about this, as we can see when Del Bosco is asked â€Å"what wind drives you in thus into Malta Rhode? And one of his Bashaws answered: â€Å"the wind that bloweth all the world besides, /desires of gold. † In this world in which each nation an d each man take care only of their own self-interest, the Jew of Malta appears at the beginning of the play as victim. Ferneze states Malta as the unique priority and states this:† to save the ruine of a multitude: /and better one want for a common good, then many perish for a private man†. But actually, their taxes on the Jews are hugely unfair. Moreover, Farneze, expect to keep the confiscated fortunes, once the alliance with Spain lets Malta to avoid the tributes that owes to the Turks. These unfair circumstances give Barabas the opportunity to create eloquent speeches against intolerance. He reproaches the Christians for using the scriptures to confirm the measures which go against the Jews: â€Å"What? Bring your scripture to confirm your wrongs? / Preach me not out of my possessions. /some Iewes are wicked, as all Christians are: / but say the tribe I descended of were all in general cast away for sinne, / shall I be tried by their transgression? / the man that dealeth righteously shall lieu: /and which of your can charge me otherwise? † The references to the bible in this extract emphasize how piteous he shows himself in this moment. Barabas is right when he calls â€Å"theft† and not â€Å"taxes† to the requisition of his wealth, and we cannot avoid feeling affected by his sad situation. The funny thing is that, as a Marlowe’s dramatic and moral strategy, in the prologue Barabas has been presented as the same Machiavelli and the Devil’s son, and Machiavelli in the prologue states this: †I count religion but a childish toy, /And hold there is no sinne but Ignorance†. At the very beginning, Barabas is shown as a unbelievable wealthy man and extremely shrewd and interested just in his own contentment. He is determined to let the Turks to invade Malta and slaughter everyone, he confesses in a soliloquy, if he would have the opportunity to get away with the situation. † I’le helpe to slay their children and their wiues, /to fire the churches, pull their houses downe. /take my goods too, and seize upon my lands. † He is completely decided to cheat on the others Jews; he also turns his back on his daughter when she abandons her loyalty to him. Later on we realize that his former speech about the sad situation of the Jews is just a theatrical trick created for the situation and refused in his soliloquies, he is a Jew because he was brought up as a Jew, but he is mainly a Maquiavelli and an immoral figure of vice. This vicious identity is clearer and clearer along the play, thus the Jew of Malta is developed more by disclosure of character than by change of personality. Barabas does not change but we progressively discover how he really is. Maybe the persecution ordered by Ferneze wakes in Barabas a desire of revenge, but he has always hated everyone and has always looked for his own benefit and survival using any means. His plan for kidnapping to her daughter and recovering his money hidden in his house, at that moment turned into a nunnery, results comprehensible and in fact Abigail shows herself decided to help him. However, when Barabas ignores Abigail happiness conspiring against her Christian lover Ludowick, just because he is the governor’s son and against Mathias, uses several strategies as the usury, extortion and persuasion which makes him an evil person even before the unfair tax of Farneze. Barabas boasts of his acts as we can read in the following line â€Å"Slew friend and enemy with my stratagems. † He considers Ithamore as one of his friends because: â€Å"why this is something: make account of me/ as of thy fellow; we are villainies both: Both circumcised, we hate Christian both† Here the dichotomy of motivation and unmotivated evil (a Samuel Tylor Coleridge’s expression) is evident in this combination of Judaism and pure evilness. Barabas’ vicious evilness is more and more present in his behaviour. Instead of sad laments, we can hear the satisfied laughter of Barabas who wants to solve skilfully all his plans. Abigail, who finds herself forgotten and rejected by her father; embraces Christian faith as she states â€Å"but I perceive there is no love on earth/ pitty in Iews, nor piety in Turkes. † As a punishment Barabas poisons every nun in the nunnery included her daughter. Barabas also cheats on the friar community taking advantage of their corruptness Barabas is a hypocrisy and disguise master, and he is surrounded by a group of thugs and courtesans that turn against him as the same time that he turns against them. His achievements in conspiracy and politics drives him to rule Malta, making agreements firstly with the Turks and then with Farneze. Brabas’ evilness is more persistent than even his own life as he lets us know: â€Å"Stand close, for here they come: why, is not this/ a kingly kinde of trade of purchase Townes/ by treachery, and sell ‘em by deceit? /Now tell me, worldlings, underneath the sunne, / If greater falsehood ever has bin doneâ€Å". Even in the moment of his death, when he is finally betrayed by Ferneze, he yearns for longing his wealth and domination and contemplating his Empire once more as we also saw in Faustus. †and had I but scap’d this stratagem, /I would have brought confusion on you all, / Damn Christians, dogges, and Turkish Infidels. † It is interesting how Marlowe gets Brabas’ huge ambition wakes in the readers a great admiration. There is no doubt that Barabas received a severe punishment when, at the end, he falls inside a caldron made by himself; he fell in his own trap and died shouting boastings and challenges. Anyway, this is an appropriate punishment for a life full of crimes. However, it is difficult to contemplate his end from an instructive and moral point of view because, Ferneze, his nemesis, is neither seen as virtuous character. Although he wants to look pious, (â€Å"No, Barabas, to staine our hands with blood / is farre from us and our profession†) he believes in his own policy, which has overcome Barabas evilness. He defeats Barabas by betraying him and then attributes his victory to God. This is an act typical of Maquiavelli’s disciple, who assigns the highest value to the State survival and uses religion as a mean for shaping the public opinion. If Farneze is an important figure in this play, is not because of his Christian virtue but because of his Maquiavellic virtue Maybe, Marlowe is inviting us to admire this shrewd governor whose policy ensures Malta’s survival and Barabas’ destruction. Marlowe destroys Barabas just for showing the strength of a really Maquiavellic strategist. Marlowe presents to his Elizabethan audiences a proposal which completely disagrees with any religious doctrine.

How does Shakespeare present the conflict of good and evil in his play, Macbeth? Essay

How do these extremes reflect the time in which the play was written? (20 marks) The play Macbeth presents the antithesis of good and evil as a concept that is absolute. The play follows the common religious beliefs of the time in presenting three main causes of evil: the total depravity of man, temptation from others and satanic influence. Good is also presented but is not the focus of the play. This is a play about evil, treason and uncertainty – a reflection of the turbulent times of Jacobean England under James I where the conflict between good and evil actions was very real. In examining the three ways in which Shakespeare presents the conflict, a good place to start would be total depravity. Primarily we see this battle of conscience versus will of the flesh personified in the character of Macbeth. In Act 1 Scene 4, after Duncan names Malcom as his successor, Macbeth laments that Malcom is an obstacle: â€Å"On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, / For in my way it lies.† We can see at this stage Macbeth is still undecided at what his course of action will be. His conscience tells him to give up, to â€Å"fall down†, but if he is to fulfil his desire of becoming king he must â€Å"o’erleap† such hindrances. He goes on to say, â€Å"Stars hide your fires, / Let not light see my black and deep desires.† Evil committed in darkness is a recurring theme across the play. Macbeth wishes to hide his evil deeds in the night, out of the sight of men and arguably out of the sight of God, as light typifies all that is good and at the time God was considered to be the ultimate good. This meaning would not have been lost on a Jacobean audience. The next couplet further emphasises the discord man can experience within himself: â€Å"The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye fears when it is done to see.† This conveys that man can be blind to his own actions, and not even be aware he is committing evil until his eye fearfully surveys the damage caused. The dual use of rhyming couplets at the end of the speech emphasises how twisted and evil Macbeth is becoming. This idea of man choosing darkness was a common idea of the times. The Puritans believed strongly in the doctrine of Total Depravity, the idea that when given the choice between good and evil man will eventually chose sin by default and is not capable of doing good without divine intervention. In John Calvin’s ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’ he explains evil as â€Å"a hereditary, depravity and corruption of our nature†. However, Banquo is an example of how the Jacobeans believed a religious man can overcome temptation. He is subjected to the same temptation as Macbeth but in Act 2 Scene 1 he is seen praying, â€Å"Merciful powers / Restrain me in the cursed thoughts that nature / Gives way to repose.† He asks for his depraved nature to be restrained so he will be able to choose to do good. It is possible that he himself is considering killing the king. The â€Å"cursed thoughts† that he speaks of have begun to transpose as nightmares, which represent how darkness is seeping into even the Scottish people’s repose. Sleep would normally be associated with peace and rest, but slowly it becomes a metaphor for death and decay. Following on from that the second way Shakespeare presents good and evil is temptation from others. We see this presented clearly with the scenario in Act 1 Scene 5 between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth finishes reading Macbeth’s letter she states that she fears, â€Å"thy nature, / It is too full of the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way.† She fears that Macbeth’s nature is too kind to take the most direct method to kingship: murdering Duncan. Here we can see how well she knows Macbeth and what drives him. She describes human kindness as â€Å"milk†. We know Lady Macbeth is currently nursing children, and milk in that sense represents all that is good, natural and necessary for survival. She implies that kindness flows as easily from Macbeth as milk from a nursing mother. She continues by saying, â€Å"Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it†, implying that Macbeth is an ambitious man who desires to be great, but he refuses to let evil influence his aspirations. He â€Å"wouldst not play false.† She recognises that without any external influence he will never commit the evil deeds that he is tempted towards. This is conveyed to us when she promises to, â€Å"chastise with the valour of my tongue.† The use of â€Å"chastise† creates a violent image, as if she intends to give him the verbal equivalent to a beating. She wishes to pass her boldness on to Macbeth, in variance to the typical submissive attitude that was expected of wives in that era. She further emphasises her dark and rebellious nature when the messenger informs her that Duncan is to stay in her castle that night. With an element of twisted glee she interprets the hoarse cry of the raven to foreshadow, â€Å"the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements.† She refers to the castle as if it belonged solely to her, and as if the murder of Duncan will be of her doing with minimal help from Macbeth. She is presented to the audience as just as ambitious as Macbeth, if not more. The raven itself is a bird typically associated with darkness, death and evil. It is even more ominous that it has croaked itself hoarse, conveying that evil is already corrupting Scotland before that cataclysmic deed is even committed. Lady Macbeth is adamant that she wants any form of femininity, no matter how mild, to be removed from her so that she can carry out her task efficiently. She expresses a desire to be â€Å"unsexed†. The milk analogy is continued when she asks evil spirits to, â€Å"Take my milk for gall.† She wishes that what she referred to in her previous speech as â€Å"the milk of human kindness† to be removed entirely from her and replaced with malice and evil. When she begins to tempt Macbeth she tells him that, â€Å"Your hand, your tongue; look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t.† She encourages Macbeth to shed his innocent, good exterior and unleash the serpent that lies below. Through the direct contrast between a flower and serpent Shakespeare conveys how incompatible good and evil are – Macbeth must choose one, for he cannot balance both. Shakespeare, through Lady Macbeth, presents good as something fickle and easily corruptible, the weaker side in the conflict between good and evil. Furthermore, referencing to a serpent is a Biblical metaphor of when Eve tempted Adam into sin. That’s not the only time in the Bible that evil women help men fall into sin: other cases include Samson and Delilah and Herod and Herodias. The Bible was taken extremely seriously in Jacobean times, and due to these beliefs that women are easier to tempt than men, Jacobean wives were expected to be submissive and obedient to their husbands, who would keep them on the right track. In his controversial book ‘The Monstrous Regiment of Women’ John Knox stated that â€Å"To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature.† A woman with influence over her husband would have been taboo, but a Queen like Lady Macbeth with power over the country she ruled would have been even more unacceptable in the social hierarchy of society (Knox wrote his book in response to the reign of Elizabeth I, who died three years before Macbeth was produced). King James, who the play was written for, would have been a staunch complementarian. Ultimately Lady Macbeth’s actions lead to her demise, leaving the audience to wonder how differently her life would have been if she had not tempted Macbeth. It could be argued that the tragedy in Macbeth hinged on Lady Macbeth usurping her prescribed role. Many scholars would claim that Shakespeare was a feminist, but even if that was true he would not have been able to express such views under James’s reign. Finally, the most effective way Shakespeare presents the conflict of good and evil in Macbeth is through the involvement of the supernatural and divine. In Macbeth good and evil is not confined to an internal conflict within man but is also represented through a spiritual war with frequent references to God and Satan, the ultimate adversaries. This is best conveyed when Duncan is killed, and then at the climax of the play when good ultimately prevails. In Act 2 Scene 3, when Macduff brings the news of Duncan’s murder, he cries, â€Å"O horror, horror, horror!† The tone of this line is pure shock, and the repetition of â€Å"horror† conveys that the deed is so horrible and inconceivable that Macduff is lost for words. He continues to deplore, â€Å"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece†. In the Bible it reads that, â€Å"God is not the author of confusion†, so that means Duncan’s death could only be a masterpiece of demonic proportions. The audience is given a sense of how heinous a deed this is when he continues; â€Å"Most sacrilegious murder hath broken ope / The Lord’s anointed temple.† In the conflict between good and evil in Macbeth Macduff is presented as being a religious man, like Banquo. He uses another direct Biblical reference, this time citing verses about kingship. Old Testament kings were directly anointed by God, and it is said the body of a holy man is the temple of God’s spirit. Violent imagery is used when he talks about the temple being, â€Å"broken ope†, implying that the spirit was forcibly and criminally removed from its righteous place. Following on from this, the Divine Right of Kings was a major factor in James I’s court. This was a Puritan doctrine that said each king was predestined to take the throne by God and treason against the king was also a blasphemous crime against God. In the epistle dedicatory of the King James/Authorised Bible it reads, â€Å"Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Sovereign, which Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, bestowed upon us the people of England, when first he sent Your Majesty’s Royal Person to rule and reign over us.† The doctrine’s purpose was routed in kings like James wishing to reinforce their position rather than Biblical fidelity. James was short and did not have the physical appearance of a typical king, and he had recently survived an assassination attempt at the hands of a Catholic group. He had many reason to fear for his right to the throne. The many demonic references were also deep routed in Jacobean culture, where fears of demons, witches and witches were very real. Hundreds of women were burnt as witches and James himself penned an essay named ‘Daemonologie’ after he believed demonic forces tried to kill his wife. To conclude, in Macbeth good ultimately wins the conflict: Macbeth is killed and the throne of Scotland is joined with England. God’s hand is placed back on Scotland in a slightly deus ex machina fashion. Shakespeare presents the audience with many different interpretations of the conflict between good and evil in keeping with the Jacobean culture, the most effective of which I believe is his use of the supernatural.

The Common App - New Questions for 2013

The Common App - New Questions for 2013 The Common Application keeps a-changing! This admissions season we have both a new word limit (650, increased from 500) and new question choices. Here are the questions you will be asked to choose from if you are applying to college this fall: Some students have a background or a story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn? Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community or family. As pointed out by the Huffington Post, these questions are designed for you to demonstrate what you would contribute to your college class. What is special about you? What character do you possess? What are your values? What’s important to you? Do these questions seem daunting? Said one of my clients, â€Å"These questions all seem so theoretical!† He did not know where to start. Allow me to make a suggestion: Consider that these questions are only theoretical if you don’t know what you want to say in your essay. Once you choose a topic, I’m willing to bet you can find a way to talk about it in response to one of the five Common App questions. There’s a trick for interview preparation where you write a list of things you want to talk about, and then use whatever questions the interviewer asks to say what you wanted to say. It’s an art to succeed in this method, as you do need to answer the question (you can’t answer a different one). Let’s look at an example as it applies to the Common App. Let’s say you want to talk about your love of music and what it’s like to perform. You could answer any one of the Common App essay questions and say what you want to say. Perhaps your musical abilities are central to who you are (#1). Perhaps you played a wrong note in a concert, or struggled in some other way as you learned (#2). Maybe your parents or teacher wanted one thing for you, and you wanted another (#3). Is the stage a place where you feel completely at peace? If so, maybe question #4 is for you. And certainly if music is important enough to you for an essay, you might have some accomplishment there that marked a transition to adulthood (#5). As you consider how your topic might apply to each question, you might learn something about yourself you didn’t know before! â€Å"OK,† you might be saying, â€Å"Now the questions seem less theoretical, but I’m still daunted: If I could write a great answer to every one of the questions, how do I possibly choose which one to answer?† I would suggest outlining a response to as many of the questions as you think you might want to answer; then evaluate which question allows you to express yourself most fully. In which answer do the most aspects of yourself get revealed? And, perhaps most important, which answer is most interesting to read? Important: The most interesting answer will not necessarily be the easiest to write. It might be less straightforward and take more thought and creativity- which is exactly what admissions committees are looking for! What if I don’t have a topic in mind? If you don’t have a topic you know you want to write about, try going through the questions one by one and having a conversation with someone (most likely someone other than your parents) about how you might answer each question. Brainstorm ideas and see what arises. Give it some time. Sleep on it. Have conversations with more than one person. You might discover a topic you didn’t know could become an essay! And of course, if you’re still stuck, it might be time to work with a professional essay coach. The Essay Expert would be happy to help!