Impact of War in Tim OBriens The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays

Impact of War in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried      For young people, the Vietnam War is a thing of the past and they can only learn about it from second hand sources. In Tim O'brien's The Things They Carried, it becomes very apparent that the Vietnam conflict has proved to be one that many of the participants have not been able move away from, while getting on with their lives. O ²brien shows that the conflict takes on a parasitic form that eats away on its victims for the rest of their lives.      A parasite is defined as an organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while harming its host. The war in this case takes the place of the organism, and the host becomes the soldiers. There are several examples of the parasitic nature of war through out the book. In one particular section, Tim O'Brien returns to Vietnam with his daughter. Twenty years had gone by, but it seems as though all of his thoughts are geared back to the time he had spent in the jungle so long before.   The two of them travel all over the country, but before their departure, he returns to the field where he feels he lost everything.   On this list he includes his honor, his best friend, and all faith in himself. For O'Brien, evidence of the parasite is not solely in his return Vietnam, but rather a constant personal preoccupation that seems to flow through the collection of stories. O'Brien shows how the memories of the war take on a parasitic form, and uses himself as an example.      In the chapter  ³Speaking of Courage ², O'Brien introduces a character by the name of Norman Bowker. In the story Norman finds him self home after serving his time in Vietnam. Even though he is back in his home town, things do not seem the same to him. The was seems to have put a new spin on his life. Most of the story he spends driving in circles while thinking about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes his whole life, and he feels as though he is to far distant from the town people for them to understand. The reader then finds out that Bowker

How to do qualitative research Essay

Introduction: Qualitative research is about asking questions and gathering information through words, to then later analyze. One way of doing this is through ethnography. But before any research can be done, there must be a research question. In this case, â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in finding out the information needed to answer this research question. Methodology: An ethnography is â€Å"A Research approach to understanding the culture of a group (patterns of behaviour/attitudes, how they create meaning), by immersing oneself in the activities of the specific group over a period of time and then writing up a descriptive summary. † (Savage 3). An ethnographic approach includes being engaged in and listening to conversations, taking regular notes and collecting â€Å"artifacts† of the group being studied (Savage 7). All of these things later help in writing up a summary of findings that where gathered from the ethnography. There are two main types of ethnography, first there is an overt ethnography where the participants are told they are being observed. This type of ethnography is most commonly used and is less risky because the participants are aware of the study that is taking place. The other type is covert. This is where the researcher is unknown by the participants (Savage 10). The ethnography done about whether the Olympics change the way an audience acts is a covert ethnography. The subjects were unaware of the researcher and the fact that they were being studied and just watched TV as they normally would. Although this study was in a closed setting, there is always a chance of a risk when doing a covert study, because one of the participants may not want to be studied (Savage 9-10). Another important aspect of doing an ethnography is gaining access. Gaining access all depends on whether it is a closed setting or an open setting. Open settings are public settings are are fairly easy to gain access to. They include places like a street corner, or a movie theatre lobby, or city council meetings (Savage 9). Closed settings are non-public settings that are harder to gain access to because they usually require a contact, or permission to get into. Closed settings include families, firms, doctors offices and political parties (Savage 9). These are places that access is only granted to people who have permission. Although, in most cases, a lot of groups that are in a closed setting, have both open and closed settings, so if permission was not granted, then there would still be an opportunity for an ethnography when the group is in an open setting. The ethnography that was done took place in a closed setting and access was granted due to it being at the researchers house. This made it easy to gain access without having to worry about any limits that can sometimes come with closed settings. Summary of Findings For this topic, one would find that using ethnography would be the best way to go about making a research project about the Olympics causing an audience to act differently then when they watch other popular TV shows. This is because the study was about to view two different settings, one of subjects watching a popular TV show (American Idol), and one of subjects watching the Olympic Games. This allowed for a very good comparison between the two, and made answering the research question fairly easy. While doing the ethnography in both settings, being a â€Å"fly on the wall† allowed the researcher to observe how the subjects acted in both situations without being noticed. The setting also helped in disguising the researcher, because the subjects were just told it was homework, or they were used to the researcher being on the computer anyways. If this study were to be conducted as an in-depth interview, the results would be quite different. The interviewee may not know how they react when they’re watching television, or may not notice that they act differently and vise versa, which would then make it difficult to get the desired information. This would put the study at a halt because no relevant information would have been gathered. Conducting an ethnography is the only real way to go about answering this research question. There is a certain level of control that comes with doing an ethnography for this question because the researcher is unknown, this also ensures that the subjects are acting the way the normally would and not acting the way the think they should act. Which is sometimes the case when people are told they are being studied. Also, (in this case) the subjects are somewhat being forced to watch the desired television show. This ensures that the subjects are being exposed to the same show and can allow for more specific research. Ethnography is also useful because it allows for change. If the ethnography were to go on, there would most likely be more television shows to compare the Olympics to, but in this case, the research question could be narrowed down to â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching American Idol? â€Å". If the study were to continue, because it is an ethnography with multiple subjects for each show, there is room for change, and the data that was already collected would still be useful. Whereas if an in-depth interview was to done, and data was collected there is no guarantee that each subject watches the same television shows to be able to compare among the different subject that were interviewed. Key Learnings After choosing to use an ethnography to answer this research question, some things became quite clear. First, when conducting a covert ethnography, sometimes it is not so easy to remain unknown to every subject, and it is difficult to judge what they are thinking or what they will do if they were to find out. This raised the question of what should the researcher do if they are in a closed setting that they cannot leave and a subject did not want to be studied and was very angry? In most closed setting situations, the chances are that it will not be a covert ethnography, but after this covert closed setting ethnography, it was made clear that the position of research should not be made known for the safety of the researcher. This leads to another question about ethics and who should be harmed in that case. If the researcher is in danger of being harmed if they were to tell the subject that they were being studied, and if the researcher did not tell the subject, then it is considered unethical because the subject is being lied to. Does this issue then become an issue of choosing the greater good? In which case, who decides what the greater good is? Second, when doing an ethnography there is not always something useful to take note of. This causes ethnography to be very time consuming because the research must wait until they have all the information needed which may take a very long time if nothing is happening. This causes a problem because there is no guarantee that anything will happen at all that would help the researcher answer their research question. Conclusion: In discussing using ethnography to answer the question of â€Å"Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? † and what was learned, it is safe to conclude that ethnography is the best way to approach a question like this. This is largely due to the method being more successful at gathering information than it’s alternative, and because there are a number of way that is can be performed to ensure that the researcher is able to get the information needed.

Giving Advice on How “Actors Should Play Their Role in Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet Essay

You are going to write in role as Gregory Doran, the new artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. You are going to give a lecture to the actors you have chosen to plsy Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio. What advice would you give them about how and why they should act in Act 3 Scene 1? In Act 3 Scene 1 of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare raises the excitement and the tension throughout the scene by using dramatic tension between the characters, provocative and threatening dialogue, strong language effects, and sharp vital violence.The sudden, fatal violence in the first scene of Act 3, as well as the buildup to the fighting, serves as a reminder that, for all its emphasis on love, beauty, and romance, Romeo and Juliet still takes place in a masculine world in which notions of honor, pride, and status are prone to erupt in a fury of conflict. The viciousness and dangers of the play’s social environment are dramatic tools that Shakespeare employs to make the lovers’ romance seem even more precious and fragile—their relationship is the audience’s only respite from the brutal world pressing against their love. The scene begins with Mercutio continuously brushing off Benvolio’s advice as a peacekeeper to keep calm and he instead accuses Ben volio of being a hypocrite. This implies that Mercutio is very obstinate and is quick to cast suspicions and false accusations on others without much thinking. Mercutio accuses that Benvolio is just as violent and hot headed as him, â€Å"Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy†, without any proof. This implies that Mercutio is the type of character to jump in head first and rarely listens to others’ advice. Later on in the scene, Benvolio exclaims ‘By my head here come the Capulets’ upon Tybalt’s arrival, and to this Mercutio replies â€Å"By my heel I care not†. The phrase ‘I care not’ notions that Mercutio does not see any problem in Tybalt’s arrival, which in turn means that he is intending on provoking a fight which accentuates that Clearly Mercutio is in an aggressive mood. Tybalt addresses Mercutio and Benvolio. â€Å" ‘Gentlemen, good den, a word with one of you’ † Up to this point, Tybalt is courteous – his quarrel is with Romeo, not with Benvolio or Mercutio. However Mercutio is extremely provocatice and he responds to Ty balt, asking a word with one of them with, â€Å"Make it a word and a blow.† The audience feels there is a fight in prospect. Which achieves Shakespeare’s purpose and intended effect. Mercutio is clearly being very confrontational in this scene, therefore, the actor should deliver his lines imposingly, loud and clear in a tone of anger. When Tybalt appears, he should spit his words and when provoking Tybalt, the actor should increase their volume and have a very irritated and aggressive facial expression by grinding his teeth. However, when imitating Tybalt and making a mockery out of him, his actions should be over the top. His movements at the beginning of the scene should reflect his provocative behaviour and therefore he should walk with big strides and a fast pace. As he is ignoring Benvolio’s advice, eye contact should be avoided up until the point that Mercutio accuses him. When this happens, the actor playing Mercution should suddenly stop to build up tension then turn around and point at Benvolio. Mercutio’s costume should be a r ed sleeveless shirt as red reflects aggression , with tattered and ripped pants if possible to emphasis his wild nature. Another option for the top is a leather jacket and piercings and metal studs as accessories to clearly showcase his obstinate and hot-headed personality. Romeo, by contrast, is as passionate about love as Tybalt and Mercutio are about hostility. Romeo appears, cheerful and contented with having wed Juliet only hours before, and unaware that he’s even been challenged to a duel. Until Mercutio dies, Romeo remains emotionally distinct from the other characters in the scene. Romeo walks atop his euphoric cloud buoyed by blissful thoughts of marriage to Juliet, peace, unity, and harmony. In response to Tybalt’s attempts to initiate a fight, Romeo tells Tybalt that he loves â€Å"thee better than thou canst devise.† Ironically, Romeo’s refusal to duel with Tybalt brings about the very acceleration of violence he sought to prevent. When Romeo enters the scene, Tybalt and Mercutio are in the middle of a scuffle, he immediately tries to not be drawn into the fiery atmosphere and tries to keep calm. â€Å"Doth much excuses the appertaining rage to such a greeting.† The word ‘excuse; was deliberately used by Shakespeare to convince the audience that Romeo is not interested in violence but rather peace and wellbeing of all are his best interests. While talking, â€Å"Romeo† should be very soft-spoken and not provocative in anyway. Eye contact should be avoided and eyes should be averted to the feet to show timidness and reluctance to fight. When Mercutio and Tybalt are about to fight, he even tries to persuade Mercutio to â€Å"put thy rapier up†. The fact that he asks his best friend to stop fighting instead of the opposing side shows that he is completely passive in violence and displays his desperation for peace. During the conflict, the actor playing Romeo should never retaliate but instead tolerate all hits or simply avoid them to depict his passive and peaceful nature. However, after Mercutio is injured and dies, his attitude should change completely and resemble that of Mercutio’s. â€Å"Romeo’s† behaviour should then be similar to Mercutio’s. While challenging Tybalt and fighting with him, the actor playing Romeo should show no hint compassion, a stern face and and clenched fi sts with a to reflect his change demeanor as stated in the book, â€Å"And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now†. After Tybalt’s death by his hands, Romeo should then retreat into confusion, reflecting on what he has done. â€Å"Oh I am fortune’s fool!† The word ‘fool’ suggests that Romeo admits that he was overwhelmed by anger and blind fury at that point in time and regrets being unable to control himself. Romeo’s costume should be very sophisticated after returning from his wedding with Juliet and therefore he should be well-groomed. During his battle with Tybalt, his clothes should then be torned and messy to symbolise his transition from a peaceful person into a murderer full of vengeance. Benvolio still maintains his status as a peacekeeper throughout the entire play, however, unlike romeo he totally does not involves himself in any conflict and always prefers to just watch form the side, and this can be interpreted in theatrical set-up to advice the actor playing Benvolio to never be the centre of attention on stage and to position himself either d ownstage, or centre stage right, but never centre stage. At the beginning of the scene he advices Mercutio to stop wandering around as to avoid a conflict, â€Å"The day is hot and the Capels are abroad, And if we meet, we shall not ‘scape a brawl.† The phrase â€Å"not ‘scape† conveys the impression that Benvolio does not like to attract much attention and be drawn into violent combat. This characteristic can be interpreted as cowardice, but also wisdom. Benvolio knows that if another brawl occurs between the two families, someone will be killed and therefore tries to plan in advance, trying to omit all possibilities of a fight happening. Benvolio is also not offended when Mercutio makes advances on him and accuses him of being a hypocrite which portrays him as a matured character. Benvolio replies with â€Å"And what to?† to Mercutio’s statement and this presupposes that he pays no heed to Mercutio because he thinks of him as a child but is only worried that he will start a fight which explains his concern on Mercutio’s hot-headed behaviour. While trying to convince Mercutio to stop with his combative and warlike behaviour, the Benvolio’s actor should be very insistent that Mercutio calm down but indifferent towards his insults to reflect his maturity. When Tybalt enters the stage, Benvolio plays a smaller part and should move away from the center-stage in the moments that lead up to the fight to indicate his cowardice and reluctance to participate in combat. Once he starts explaining to the Prince what had happened, Benvolio should still maintain his composure and calmly explain the situation because in Shakespeare’s original version of Romeo and Juliet, his explanation is long, but still contains the key details of the event, â€Å"Tybalt, here slain, whose Romeo’s hand did slay†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Benvolio should wear a green shirt, as green resembles peace and is the colour of nature, hence life which is an accurate symbol of Benvolio’s tendency to avoid brawls and conflicts. I have picked out and analysed single words from Act 3 Scene 1, I have commented on how Shakespeare get’s his message across and have started to develop an appreciation for the techniques that he uses. I have also given out advice on how the actors should deliver their lines, their facial expressions as well as physical gestures and their costumes.

The Science of Comets essays

The Science of Comets essays The first written records of comets date back to nearly 3,000 years ago from China and Europe. The accounts of these comets were believed to be the causes of terrible events that occurred afterward. In more recent times, however, astronomers have found out what they really are. A comet is basically a mixture of ices, from both water and frozen gases, and dust. They have also been given the names "dirty snowballs" or "icy mud balls." The typical comet is less than 10 kilometers across. They spend most of their time frozen solid in the outer parts of our solar system. Comets are composed of five parts: the nucleus, coma, hydrogen cloud, dust tail, and ion tail. The nucleus is pretty solid and stable, composed mostly of ice and gas with a small amount of dust and other solids. The surface of the nucleus is best described as a black crust. Comet nuclei can range from 1 kilometer to about 50 kilometers across. The black crust on the surface of the nuclei helps the comet to absorb heat, wh ich causes some of the ices under the crust to turn to a gas. Pressure builds up underneath the crust and causes the surface to bubble up in some places. Eventually, the weak spots of the crust break open from the pressure, and the gas shoots outward; astronomers refer this to as a jet. Dust that had been mixed in with the gas is also pushed out, and as more jets appear, a small gas and dust shell forms around the nucleus, and this is called the coma. The coma, also called the head, is a dense cloud of water, carbon dioxide, and other gases and comes off of the nucleus. They can be several thousand kilometers in diameter, depending on the comet's distance from the sun and the size of the nucleus. The size of the nucleus is important because since large nuclei have a greater surface area facing the sun, which is the side that is the warmest, hence the side where most of the jets are coming from, it means more jets and greater amounts of gas and dust go in...

The Importance of Being Leadbelly essays

The Importance of Being Leadbelly essays Women and Liquor, that was his problem. My father got him to marry his girl, Martha, and that settled him for a while, a week or two. He called himself the twelve-string champion guitar player of the world, and I guess he was. I never heard anybody who could play it better. He loved being the best. He wanted to stay the best as long as he was alive. Hes just a name on a lot of lists: the fourth or fifth name on a list of influences, never first, and all too often not mentioned at all where appropriate. Hes also an ex-convict, who was a sweet old man only while sober, which wasnt often enough. But by looking at the people he influenced, you can see that Huddie Ledbetter, Leadbelly, was redeemable no matter what he did aside from making music. The self-proclaimed King of the Twelve-String Guitar was more aptly the Godfather of the Twelve-String Gui-tar, being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as an influence. He died poor and pitiful of a form of multiple sclerosis, and six months afterward his first hit song was a million-seller for another group. And every generation thereafter earned a new respect for a band that used one of his versions of a song. The importance of Leadbelly lies not in his legendary evil ways; it was in his great talent for making popular music. To make note of his importance, its important to note his discoverer, John Lomax. Lomax was on a constant search funded by the government to find its musical roots, rather to preserve what it could of them once the portable recording device was created. At the time Lomax met him, Ledbetter was serving a sen-tence at the Angola Prison Farm in Louisiana for murder, the second long stretch in prison for him. During his first run in prison, for assault in 1925 in Texas, he would play music for the guards to get lighter work-loads and eventually his music gr...

Effects of Smoking on the Human Body Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Effects of Smoking on the Human Body - Essay Example Once inhaled, carbon monoxide reaches the blood stream through the lungs and alveoli, it binds to the hemoglobin portion of the red blood cells, forming a stable compound called carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb). The stability of the compound is due to the fact that hemoglobin has a 200–250 times higher affinity for carbon monoxide than it has for oxygen. Thus, the oxygen-carrying capacity of the hemoglobin is reduced, limiting oxygen supply to cells and tissues. The diseases caused by limited oxygen in the blood include cardiovascular disease, stroke, and circulatory problems. Tar on the other hand, accumulates in the lung, causing the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchi, the trachea, and the bronchioles, damages the lungs, reduces the size of the airway. Smoke thus interferes with the functioning of the respiratory system and causes chronic bronchitis and persistent cough. Tar also damages the cilia on the upper portions of the respiratory system and increases phlegm production. Finally, the chemicals in smoke damage the lungs, reduce lung surface area and affect the alveoli’s’ functionality. Lung cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), mouth and throat cancer, and increased asthma symptoms are the other respiratory effects of smoking (National Cancer Institute, 2008). ... One of the mechanisms by which smoking leads to elevated CO2 levels in the blood is that the harmful chemicals in the smoke damages the alveoli of the lungs. This damage implies that the CO2 formed in other parts of the body and transported to the lungs for elimination is not efficiently eliminated at the alveoli surfaces, leading to increased levels of CO2 in the blood. How Smoking Affects other Organ Systems Besides the respiratory system, smoking affects other organ systems such as the circulatory system. In this system, smoking causes the blood clotting, blockages and narrowing of blood vessels, increased risks of strokes and heart attacks, increased blood pressure, palpitations. These conditions cause various infections that might require procedures such as amputation. The nervous system and the brain are also affected by tobacco smoking, which decreases oxygen supply to the brain as hemoglobin combines with carbon monoxide. The normal functioning of the CNS is affected as delic ate nerve endings are damages and blood supply interfered with (The New York Times, 2002). Additionally, smoking causes attention deficit and memory problems. The immune system is also affected by the tobacco toxins that enter the body via smoking so that the functioning of the white blood cells is impaired. Thus, the body becomes vulnerable to infections. The reproductive system is also not spared by smoking, which may cause erectile dysfunction, impotency, sterility, menopause, and low weight births. Correlating Cellular Respiration with the Respiratory System The correlation between cellular respiration and the respiratory system is rather clear. For instance, minus cellular respiration in the lungs,

TMJ syndrome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

TMJ syndrome - Essay Example The arterial blood supply of the temporomandibular joint is mainly from the superficial temporal and the maxillary arteries. The venous supply is by the corresponding arteries. The nerve supply of the joint is derived from the auriculotemporal nerve and the masseteric nerve. The movements of the normal joint include forward movement of the mandible, side to side movements which occur while eating food, lowering of the jaw for opening the oral cavity and then subsequently elevation of the joint for closing the mouth. There are around 35 million cases of this condition in the United States. The condition is known to have a greater predisposition towards women with the females being more affected than males with this condition. TMJ syndrome has been associated with many diseases which include inflammation of the joints of the body as well as hormonal problems and the pathology also has a hereditary component and hence genetic factors also tend to play a role. It is also associated with trauma which may result due to accidental injury or as a result of punch to the mandible. Accidental injury may be due to not wearing helmets or putting on the seat belt while driving. The symptoms associated with the injury include severe pain in the jaw which may also present with pain in the face and the neck. The movements of the joints become limited and it becomes increasingly difficult for the person to talk as well as move the jaw.