Comparing Alcoholism in Grace and Dubliners :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Alcoholism in Grace and Dubliners What does it mean to be in a state of drunkenness? A person who is inebriated views his surroundings in a surreal fashion; reality exists on the periphery. The drunk is by default interacting with the world on an inferior level as opposed to those who are sober. Alcoholism is also a chronic debilitating disease. It resonates outward from the individual to all those that he has contact within his life. Joyce utilizes the character of the drunk in many of the stories in Dubliners, hardly a story skips a mention of drink. Among despair, isolation and dependence, alcoholism is a theme that runs through all the stories. Alcoholism is the focus in "Grace" where Joyce takes the symbolic alcoholic and shows us what Joyce believes is a part of the problem plaguing Dublin. When we first meet Tom Kernan, we are not even told his name. Kernan is an anonymous being-a drunk that is not differentiated from any other drunk. In his alcohol-induced state he is barely human. "He lay curled up at the foot of the stairs down which he had fallen...his clothes were smeared with the filth and ooze of the floor on which he had lain...a thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth" (Joyce 150). Kernan has quite literally fallen but also has fallen morally and spiritually. The crowd that surrounds him fairs better only in comparison to him. Instead of seeking immediate help, they all query as to what is his name. Who he is, is obvious, he is a drunk. Yet there is an unwillingness to address this by the crowd. The reason why he is lying on the floor is present but not acknowledged. Is this evasion part of the essence that makes up the people of Dublin? Surely it is for repeatedly the reader is shown or referenced alcohol but direct acknowledgment does not come. "'That's ugly'" (Joyce 153) we are told by Mr. Powers who has just been shown Kernan's bitten tongue. What exactly though is ugly? Solely the bitten tongue or the defeated man or the inhabitants of Dublin? Perhaps it is all of them. Kernan's physical maladies are demonstrative of his mental affliction. At first he has fallen, then his anonymousness persists because he cannot speak. He cannot speak at first because of the level of intoxication but also as we learn because of his bitten tongue.

Orlistat: A New Option in Weight Control :: Pills Weight Loss Orlistat Essays

Orlistat: A New Option in Weight Control Orlistat is a lipase-inhibitor drug designed to help obese individuals lose and maintain their body weight. The drug in combination with a healthy low-fat diet and exercise can help in the treatment of obesity. Reducing fat intake is critical when attempting to reduce body fat. Orlistat reduces body fat by increasing the amount of fat passed through the body. The drug has already been approved in Europe and is expected to be approved by the FDA in the US in 1999.There have been scientific studies which support the effectiveness and low risks of Orlistat. Diet and exercise should be stressed in all attempts at weight loss, yet it seems Orlistat may be a helpful addition to the weight loss program for obese patients. Purpose of Treatment: Orlistat is a drug that is geared towards helping obese patients who have a bodymass index of 30 or over. It is not meant to replace a healthy lifestyle, instead it is meant to be an additional supplement with exercise and a healthy diet (Brooks 835). Orlistat is designed to prevent the body from breaking down and absorbing fat. In addition to reducing body fat Orlistat also reduces highblood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar (ukyes.com). Some of the unpleasant side effects of Orlistat can lead to behavioral changes as well. Orlistat causes a learned aversion response to over indulging in fatty foods and thus decreases the amount of calories and fat consumed by the body (drdiet.com). How it Works: The drug does not effect the brain as do other weight loss drugs such as Redux and Phen-fen and Meridia. Orlistat is a lipase inhibitor, meaning it interferes with fat absorption. Dietary fats are large molecules which are broken down by enzymes known as lipases and then absorbed into the body. These digestive enzymes are produced by the liver and pancreas whenever food is injected into the intestine. The enzymes aid in the absorption of nutrients from the food. Orlistat has been designed to act as an inhibitor of two enzymes: pancreatic and gastric lipases. This action reduces the hydrolysis of dietary triglycerides and prevents the absorption of free fatty acids and cholesterol (David 1997). One digestive fluid contains pancreatic lipase, which absorbs fat. Orlistat inhibits this lipase causing less fat to be absorbed into the bloodstream. The drug must be consumed right before or within an hour of consuming a meal.

False Hope

Have you ever tried making yourself believe of the things that weren’t actually real? Well, if you did, then that was a normal thing experienced by others, experienced by you and experienced by me. False-hope. That was the right term to be used for those people who are keep on holding on to promises which they thought it will happen soon, tomorrow, the next day until the next-next-next days and ever. False-hope is a vague incidence. It was an untrue declaration of testimony uttered by those people who are good of making promises yet can’t stand for it. Promises. Promises and false-hope are then supplementary to each other. Because if there are no promises that has been said, then there will be no someone who will continuously keep an eye for such pledges. There will be no someone who will keep on waiting for unclear tomorrows. And there will be no someone who’ll just be an innocent believer of all of those promises. Well, the very purpose why I wrote this article is to express my thoughts of believing so many things which are then things that were set to be forgotten. I myself is amenable that I’ve always been a victim of this uncertain thing. But then, I just accepted those things . And so, I’ve come to a point of putting this into this piece of writing. Actually, I’m not feeling bad due to failed promises of so many people surround me. I just wrote this because I do believe that I’m not the only one who had experienced such thing. For a broader perspective, it’s not intentional. It happens because others didn’t want their belongings to directly lose their hope. It happens because they also thought that they could provide the things they promised to give yet after times of reaching to make it possible, still they won’t be able to do so. Sometimes, people didn’t intend to bring false-hope. It’s just that their capacity to fulfill their promises was not enough. But then, on the other hand, some tend to do this just to let other hope for nothing. Just like for example, a courtship between a lady and a gentleman. There are many times where guys had expected their dreamed girls to give them their awaited-yes answer. They’ve tried so hard to prove them they’re deserving. Yet at the end, they’ll end up disappointed. At home, I know we’ve been encountering this one often times. You might got excited because you’ll be going out somewhere with your family but it will just be postponed due to so many reasons either valid or invalid reasons. You might expect something from someone but expectations will just fail. There are still so many instances where false-hope was its ending application. And this is actually normal as I said on the first part. And I guess, there is only one certain thing we must do in order not to be a victim of this over and over again. Don’t believe too much. I didn’t mean of losing your trust to someone or to be a negative thinker. What I mean is don’t be 100% sure of the things being promised to you. Just expect for both sides. Just think that it might happen and it might not. Because the more that you expect the more that it will bring you failures. ‘Though we must always expect for the best but as I said we have to expect for both side. Well, I’ll end up saying â€Å"Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. † By Cicero. Thanks for reading anyway. False Hope Leanne Whittemore Lecturer: John McDonough ENGL 299-014 02/21/2013 Essay #1 False Hope The characters in The Glass Menagerie all hope for a better future which is filled with success and happiness. This hope flickers throughout the play and is finally put out all together in the closing actions of the play. In The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, this sense of hope is symbolized by light. It is shown in the very descriptive stage directions, the specific objects pertaining to light like candles and lamps, and by the colorful images of rainbows throughout the play.While providing the characters with actions the very descriptive stage directions also provide a sense of emotions for them to act out. In scene six while Laura and Amanda are waiting excitingly for Jim to come over, William’s describes Laura as being â€Å"piece of translucent glass touched by light, given a momentary radiance, not actual, not lasting† (1748). William’s uses this idea of light to describe Laura’s emotions and feelings during this scene. By stating Laura was â€Å"given a momentary radiance† Williams’ illustrates Laura’s hope of finding someone to love.In scene seven, when Laura and Jim are talking, Williams uses descriptive stage directions to describe Laura’s feeling of hope in regard to light. This happens right around the time that Jim attempts to being engaged. The directions say that Jim smiles at Laura â€Å"with a warmth and charm which  lights  her inwardly† (1762). Then, when she finds out that Jim is engaged, the stage directions describe how the â€Å"holy candles on the altar of Laura's face have been snuffled out† (1768). Both descriptions show hope in Laura, while one is her hope that Jim is single, and the other being her hope being destroyed when she finds out that he is not.From the beginning, the directions, as well as the dialogue, directly tell the readers that the play is dimly lighted (1723). Then in the beginning of the final scene, all the lights go out (because Tom has not paid the electric bill), and the only lighting left on stage is candlelight. Through the use of light in the play, it is clear that the play does not leave the characters looking towards the bright hope of their future, but realizing their dim reality. For Amanda, her new floor lamp represents her hope for the future.In the fifth scene, when Tom says that Jim is coming over, Amanda states that she has been paying for a brand new floor lamp that she will have sent out for the occasion (1744). By the sixth scene, before Jim arrives, the new lamp, â€Å"with its rose silk shade† is put in the living room (1747), symbolizing her hope for Jim to come back. This hope turns out to be pointless, which Amanda recognizes by stating that â€Å"all the expense† has basically been for nothing, and the first one she lists is â€Å"the new floor lamp† (1771).The new lamp is a symbol o f hope to Amanda, and its presence in her living room when Jim arrives makes her feel that there is hope for Laura and Jim. Like all other hope in the play, it was a useless, waste of time and energy At the end of the play when Tom is finishing his dialogue , the symbol of hope turns to Laura's candles. Tom speaks as if to Laura, â€Å"I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger- anything that can blow your candles out! † (1772).Tom interprets these candles as Laura's hope, which he can’t seem to get out of his brain. He doesn’t want the family to suffer dealing with false hope any longer. He sees the world as a dark and stormy place, by saying â€Å"For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura- and so goodbye†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1772). Then Laura actually blows out the candles, extinguishing the final light and making the stage become dark and lonely. This sy mbolizes not only a goodbye to Tom, but also saying goodbye to the hope of love and a brighter future for the Wingfield family.In an essay titled â€Å"Williams' The Glass Menagerie,† Bert Cardullo comments that, when Laura blows the candles out, â€Å"The implication is that no gentleman caller will ever enter her life again† (11), which, truly means that hope will never again enter Amanda and Laura’s lonely lives. The symbol of the rainbow in The Glass Menagerie shows the illusion of hope or false hope. Right when the characters almost reach what they hoped for it always seems to disappear. Laura’s fragile glass animals are used to show this sense of false hope.In the seventh scene, when Laura is talking to Jim, she shows Jim the glass unicorn and says, â€Å"Hold him over the light, he loves the light! You see how the light shines through him? † (1764). . As Jim holds the unicorn and comments â€Å"It sure does shine,† one can imagine the rainbow ray that the unicorn creates. This unicorn comes to symbolize the love that Laura has been waiting all her life for. This love â€Å"comes to her, however fleetingly, in the person of Jim† (Cardullo 3). However, like the rainbow light of the glass unicorn, this hope of love is just an illusion.Tom mentions rainbows again in his final words as he describes how he abandons Amanda and Laura, he says, â€Å"I pass the lighted window of a shop where  perfume  is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. † The image of a shattered rainbow fits perfectly with Tom’s closing words due to the fact that Tom’s abandonment from the family seems to shatter any type of hope the Wingfield family had.Williams’ last directions to make the stage completely dark seem like a symbol of the future of the Wingfield family; dark and lonely. As far as Amanda sees it, w ithout a man to take care of her and Laura they left with nothing but loneliness. Laura will never be able to work; Tom left his family behind, and it seems that no â€Å"suitor† will ever enter the women's lives again. Cardullo notes that, â€Å"The character of Tom is based in part on Tennessee Williams himself, and Laura is modeled after Williams' beloved sister, Rose† (12).Since the play is autobiographical, it has the feeling that Williams is attempting to show us the readers something that happened in his past, implying that hope never did come to this family. When the lights go out at the end of the play, it is dark for good. Works Cited Cardullo, Bert. â€Å"Williams's The Glass Menagerie. † The Explicator. 22 March 1997. . paragraphs 1-12. Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 1718-1773.

Richard Brandt

Richard Brandt: Rule Utilitarianism Chapter two in our book Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment covers different philosopher’s views on Rule Utilitarianism and how it is applied to misconduct and unlawful acts. In Richard Brandt’s discussion he raises three questions that should be addressed when identifying our American system of punishment. What is justifiable punishment for a criminals past actions? What are good principles of punishment? What defenses should be used as good excuses to keep someone from being punished? Our actions should be guided by a set of prescriptions the conscientious following of which by all would have maximum net expectable utility† (Brandt, 1972). In Utilitarianism they choose the set of rules or practices that would produce the greatest net expectable utility if everyone followed them.Net Expectable Utility is a more positive outcome for a higher percentage of the population. Brandt believes our system of punishment is based on three assumptions: (1) Fear of punishment deters criminal behavior. (2) Imprisonment or fines make repeat offenders less likely. 3) Imprisonment stops the criminal from harming society while that person is in prison or incarcerated. â€Å"Punishment is itself an evil, and hence should be avoided where this is consistent with the public good. Punishment should have precisely such a degree of severity that the probable disutility of greater severity just balances the probable gain in utility (less crime because of more serious threat)†(p. 94). I have to agree with Brandt on this view because if the punishment does not fit the crime, criminal behavior is sure to be more prevalent.I’m a firm believer in scaring the malicious minds into acting lawfully and abiding by the law in order to keep the majority of the public safe. Brandt says that the cost should be counted along with the value of what is bought. This means to me that the punishment HAS to equal, if not be greater , then the crime. He also says that many criminals will go undetected and because of that some penalties will have to be so severe that the risks outweigh the gain in whatever the crime might be.Another agreeable point Brandt makes is that the more serious crimes should carry the heavier penalties not just for prevention of the crime but also to motivate the criminals to commit a less serious rather then a more serious crime. To make sure that the same punishment be inflicted on any social status, and that the same suffering is felt from the crime, Brandt says that heavier fines would be given to a richer man then to a poorer man. If a rich man were to receive the same fine as a poor man it may barely give him any suffering at all.While if a poor man met the same penalty financially as a rich man he may remain in debt for the remainder of his life. Brandt then begins to speak Jeremy Bentham and of such â€Å"excuses† that would not make a person criminally liable for a crime. He first mentions that a man who committed a crime that was not yet a law cannot later be punished for it. I have to agree here because you aren’t breaking the law if it isn’t one yet. I also, however, believe that if that prior â€Å"non-law† is severe enough and the evidence is still applicable in court then the person can be tried and found guilty after the fact.His second excuse is that the law had not yet been made public. In order for the public to know they are performing a unlawful act they must first know that what they are doing is against the law and can result in punishment and fines. The third excuse is that if the offender was an infant, insane or intoxicated they should also be excused of the crime. I think that underage and insane offenders may have a legitimate excuse, and the same may go for the intoxicated but in order for the intoxicated to be excused from punishment, it must not be voluntary intoxication.Bentham then says the offender can b e excused if they were ignorant of the possible consequences and thought they were acting in a lawful way. I don’t agree with this view because it is the citizens responsibility to know that he or she is acting unlawfully and what the consequences of their actions may be. â€Å"I didn’t know I couldn’t do that† is something police officers hear all the time and if they let everyone who said that to them go free they’d probably be out of a job. Bentham’s final excuse is â€Å"that the motivation to commit the offense was so strong that no threat of law could prevent the crime† (Brandt, 1972).I believe that some offenders get angry enough to ignore the consequences of the crime they about to commit but this is still not excuse for breaking the law and the law should still be applied to these people. How would a judge be able to determine if someone was acting maliciously or out of pure emotion? Richard Brandt states that Bentham’ s legal defenses need some amending. He says that not punishing in certain cases will reduce the amount of suffering brought to the public by the law and that by not punishing in all of these cases will cause a â€Å"negligible increase in the incidence of crime† (Brandt, 1972).Brandt says that the utilitarian is committed to defend the concept of â€Å"strict liability† in order to get a strong deterrent effect when everyone knows that all behavior of a certain sort would be punished. When speaking of impulsive actions that lead to criminal actions Brandt says that people who commit impulsive crimes in the heat of anger don’t think about the consequences of their action and therefore would not be deterred by a stricter law.He also says that these people are unlikely to repeat the crime so that a smaller sentence should be given to them in order to save a good man for society. I like this idea but I find it hard to agree with completely. Who is to say which crim es are impulsive and which crimes are premeditated? Of course, some circumstances make it obvious which are impulsive for example, a man saving a small child or woman from a kidnapper and killing them in the process, but many crimes can be called impulsive and therefore let a man who isn’t telling the truth receive a lesser punishment for his crime.Richard Brandt says that some say utilitarianism needs to view imprisonment for crime in the same light as quarantining and individual. He uses the example of someone being quarantined after being diagnosed with leprosy. They are taken away from public for the greater good of the public in order to not spread disease. We cannot treat criminals the same however. Criminals need to be shown punishment for their crime so going to prison cannot be made comfortable to them.It has to be a time of sorrow and pity so that it both fears prospective criminals and prevents criminals from becoming repeat offenders. Most criminals will be allowe d back into society after severing their time, lepers will never see society again. â€Å"There is a difference between the kind of treatment justified on utilitarian grounds for a person who may have to make a sacrifice for the public welfare through no fault of his own, and for a person who is required to make a sacrifice because he has selfishly and deliberately trampled on the rights of others, in clear view f the fact that if he is apprehended society must make an example of him† (Brandt, 1972) My favorite part of this section is when Richard Brandt compared the utilitarian view of punishment to that of a parent with a child. A parent lets the child know of the rules, about how to be safe, and about right and wrong. The child must know of the bad act before he or she can be punished for it. A parent will give a more severe punishment to their child according to what they have done to break a rule.The parent establishes rules for the â€Å"future good of the child† (Brandt, 1972). All this is done to make life at home tolerable and to ensure that the future of the child is a bright and successful one, punishment is an essential part of every one of our lives and whether we are avoiding it or being put through punishment, it is for the greater good. WORKS CITED Brandt, Richard. (1972). Rule utilitarinism (iii). In G Ezorsky (Ed. ), Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment (pp. 93-101). Albany: State University of New York Press

Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘The fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ Essay

Compare and contrast the main themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘the tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’. The two stories both contain crime, punishment and murder. The two stories both contain two men who become obsessed with either his own or someone else’s body part. They seem very similar but they are actually quite the opposite†¦ The writers both build up tension in there stories they make this clear by adding something about the item in nearly every line, which makes the reader clear of what is going on. Ray Bradbury tries to give us a clue in his title what the story is about, before you have read the story the title is not clear but after you have read the story it becomes clearer, the man in the story murders someone and gets obsessed with cleaning, as he wants to get rid of the evidence. The author uses the metaphor ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ to emphasise that the man is so obsessed with the evidence and what can be seen he has forgotten about the things that are deeper than the surface what the eye can’t see, like the fruit that is at the bottom of the bowl. In this story we are not given a name, sex or given any kind of information about the character, which is rather strange. Edgar Allan Poe does the same kind of thing with his title ‘the tell-tale heart’ this as well is not clear to us until we have read the story his title explains what happens when the character is caught he/she breaks down in front of two policemen because of his/her heart, his conscious is telling him what to do and finally the character breaks down. The story is about a mad person ‘†¦that I am mad’ who is disturbed by one mans eye and can’t take it no longer and eventually murders the man and gets caught when he/she breaks down in front of two officers, but he/she only thinks they have killed the eye but they don’t realise they have killed the man but deep in there heart they know they have done wrong and their conscious gets the better of them. The fruit at the bottom of the bowl is set at midnight ‘the clock ticked midnight’ and the character who is William Acton becomes obsessed with cleaning as he has killed a man (Huxley) and wants to get purge of the evidence in nearly every line it mentions something about his hands or fingers he is trying to remember what his hands or fingers have touched ‘the fingerprints were every, everywhere!’ at the end of the story it doesn’t tell us if Acton was caught it leaves us to guess what is going to happen to him. As in the tell-tale the character (who we are not told a name or sex) is mad and becomes obsessed with an eye of a man ‘I think it was his eye, yes his eye’ and that’s what causes the murder and we do know that he is caught. They both committed the crime by murder. We do assume that both the main characters are taken away and given prison sentences but it doesn’t actually tell us this is happening because of the way the stories are set out with the flash backs, the past and present tenses we do not know if the story is being told to us even from a prison cell or if they have already received there punishment it leaves us in suspense to what is going to happen to them or what has happened to them. It does give us an idea that they are already sentenced because they are telling the story in the past presents. In the tell-tale heart the narrator is telling the story he or she starts to go mad when he mentions the eye and he starts to build up tension when it comes to the end where the character breaks down in front of the two officers the character breaks down because of the heart beaten in his head but I don’t think he does hear this in his head I think it is his conscious telling him to confess to what he has done in the written story they show this by adding a lot of explanation marks because he is breaking down and it is all happening so fast ‘I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt I must scream or die!’ In the two stories the characters choose to kill their victim. In the tell-tale heart the character planned to kill the man he couldn’t take the sight of the eye anymore ‘I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever’ as in the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ it was done more spontaneously he just ended up having an argument with a man called Huxley and Acton (the main character) ended up strangling Huxley and killing him. Even though the two stories seem very alike they have their differences. In the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ the writer uses a range of sentences when he is talking about the past he uses long sentences and in present he uses shorter sentences also the author writes the story after the murder is committed and tells us how the murder is accomplished by using flash backs and includes us into the story when he is talking in the present, which makes the story seem more eerie, as the ‘the tell-tale heart’ is told in a slightly different way it doesn’t use the same style of writing he writes in one format instead of two. He writes in the first person ‘hearken I and observe how healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story’. He starts the beginning of the story talking to the reader which drifts you in to the story because the character is not talking sense ‘I heard all thing in heaven and in earth. I heard many things in hell so how then am I mad?’ and you become confused to what is going on and makes you want to read on to find out what the character is saying and what he is on about? In the tell-tale heart the character mentions that he has gone mad ‘why will you say then that I am mad?’ he has lost his mind and I think that is punishment enough for him because he has took away someone’s life now he has had his mind taken from him. In the fruit at the bottom of the bowl I don’t think Acton has gone insane he just becomes obsessed with trying to get disposal of the evidence and this is what makes him become obsessive. I don’t think before the murder either of the characters were mad, maybe the character in the tell-tale heart may have been a bit mentally unstable as it is a bit confusing how he becomes so obsessive over one mans eye but I think that he/she tends to lose their mind after the murder as it has got to him/her a lot. As William Acton also tends to loose his mind towards the end of the story as his hands start to take control ‘but unknown to his eyes, his gloved fingers moved in a little rubbing rhythm on the wall’ and also he starts to talk to himself ‘would u, I would, are you certain, yes’. I think both stories had a well thought out setting and both themes were superior but even though the stories both contain the same contents (murder, crime and punishment) they seem very similar but they are really quite diverse I didn’t realise that until after I had compared the two stories. The two authors use different styles of writing in their stories. I really enjoyed reading the stories but not as much as comparing them and spotting how much they are unlike.   

Compare and Contrast a Life Raft, an Island, and Earth Essay

Survival is a key part of life in which humans have been attending to throughout our entire existence. As time progresses, technology and knowledge not only increases but also improves. Eventually, we develop to the point where our educational system has an important and crucial question where the students are asked to compare and contrast a life raft with emergency supplies in it, a moderately sized island, and Earth itself. The three subjects have a number of similarities and differences; however, some are obviously more important than others. Read Also:  Topics for a Compare and Contrast Essay There are quite a few similarities between a life raft, an island, and Earth, all of which are just as obvious as the differences. Each of the three can carry things in them. The Earth and an island hold many different things on their land, including us humans. A life raft can, and is meant to, hold things such as emergency supplies or people in it. More obviously, each of the three is in a solid state of matter. Also, each of them has its own gravitational pull or influence. Earth has its own gravitational pull; so naturally, things that are located on Earth are influenced and affected by gravity. Lastly, each of them (can) support life. Earth, itself, is supporting life for a huge number of organisms and beings at this very moment. An island supports not only a number of plants, but also some animals and other organisms as well. A life raft, or life boat, is meant to help people safely distance themselves from a larger ship or boat disaster. Because a life raft has emergency suppli es, it will support human life until they run out. With similarities, there are also differences within the life raft, island, and Earth. While Earth and the island is an ecosystem supporting a vast and diverse number of species and organisms, a life raft is merely just a lifeless boat. The island and Earth are also part of each other, while the life raft is more of an object that is used by humans. The island is  literally a part of Earth, they are one thing. However, the life raft is not a part of Earth; it’s more like a Third Party Program that is used along with the main server or program. This also leads to the fact that the life raft is man-made, rather than being organic like Earth or an island. Obviously, we humans did not create Earth. And in normal circumstances, humans also do not create islands. Comparing and contrasting a life raft with emergency supplies, a moderately sized island, and Earth is truly a random and odd thing to do. However, doing so would prove that everything has at least a similarity and difference. Where there is a similarity, there is also a difference. It could be an obvious and blatantly clear similarity or difference, or it could also be a well and critically thought comparison. In conclusion, the man-made life raft seems to be the center of difference and the background character of similarities.

Americas Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics Essay

Americas Next Top Model Show in Light of Power Dynamics - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) as a big brother show in which successful women applicants come together to compete for America’s Next Top Model title. This show is meant to give the women a chance to start a modeling career. The show is hosted by a female professional and model by the name Tyra Banks. It is rated as one of the biggest television shows in the world. The show is professionally constructed with episodes ranging from nine to eighteen. In all the seasons, there are about ten to twenty five female participants who vie for the adorable title. Each episode is structured in a way that one of the participants considered weak is eliminated by a panel of judges, Tyra Banks being part. The shows also provides a makeover in the earlier part of the show where the participants who are considered weak is put on probation and the audience is allowed to vote to save their preferred contestant. During the show, contestants undergo vig orous training in line with the theme of the particular week. This is meant to coach the girls and teach them various aspects related to the modeling career including press interviewing skills, sales skills, and cat walking. This is followed by photo shooting of the contestants who are given dresses that barely cover the bodies; the girls are actually semi-nude as they pose. From the photos shot, the judges make a decision and the female contestants with the lowest marks are eliminated or put on probation for a makeover. Other events featured in the show include in-depth assessment of personality traits and general knowledge. Each of the episodes ends with the ruling by a panel of judges who are experts in the fashion industry, regular judges of the show. A special guest judge is also usually called upon to assist in making a judgment. This involves posing challenging questions on modeling and fashion to the contestants, and their video photos are displayed and analyzed by the panel ists. The contestants are often asked to leave the room to give the panelists a chance to deliberate on their decisions and make the rulings. The female contestants are then called upon to the show room and face their fate; the successful ones remain in the show while those who score low are put on probation or sent packing (Kowalski 47). In view of the above, it is beyond doubt that the show is, therefore, professionally structured in a way that real women contestants are put into unreal events in order to create a story. Criticism of the Reality Shows Most of the reality shows run for a bout thirty to sixty minutes, a constant duration. If the show could be real then the events would run for an unidentified period. This shows that there are some incidences behind the scene that the audience is not able to know. It also brings out an element of editing of the events behind the scene to enable the program run within the stipulated period. It also shows that the story being told is n ot real but is subject to a lot of editing and manipulation of the contestants or participants. The editors, therefore, become the storytellers and take the positions of the contestants by altering the sequence of events that actually happened behind the scenes. Meanwhile, the audience