The Fall of the House of Usher free essay sample

The Fall of the House of Usher† is, quite literally, a story about the fall of the House of Usher. The â€Å"House of Usher† can be interpreted to mean either the literal, the House the Usher’s lives in, or it can refer to the bloodline, the House of the Usher’s (insert joke about personally belonging to the House of Godric Gryffindor here). Not only that, but to take it even more literally, when Roderick is attacked at the end of the story, he falls to the ground, which is yet another tie into the title of the story. The House of Usher does fall to the earth after the twins die, however, and that is where the true â€Å"fall† happens, as the entire Usher house – the structure and the bloodline – cease to exist. As the narrator approaches the house, his first glance of the structure is not straight at it, but instead at a puddle which reflects the house upside down. We will write a custom essay sample on The Fall of the House of Usher or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The symbolism of the reflection is reflected in the way that Roderick and Madeline are twins, but are boy vs. girl, mentally ill vs. physically ill, and dead vs. alive. Upon further inspection of the house, the narrator notes, â€Å"there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaption of parts and the crumbling condition of the individual stones† (89). The House of Usher has only existed through incest, so this description could be in reference to the fact that from a distance, or as a whole, the Usher family was in fine condition, until you looked closely at the individual members and see the ailments that are crumbling the individual family members. Another feature of the physical House of Usher is it’s claustrophobic feel. This is a representation of the claustrophobia between the twins to be their own person. They are confined to the house, and confined to each other (since they must reproduce in order to continue the blood line). She is confined by her body, through its illness that forces her to lose control of her limbs, and then she is forced into the space of the coffin, which is then stored in an underground tomb. Roderick is confined to the space of his own mind, which is too small in that he can’t escape from his thoughts or the sounds that he thinks he hears. Lastly, the fissure down the center of the house is a representation of the fissure between the brother and sister. The house’s foundation is unstable, as are the brother and sister, and ultimately this separation is what ends the House of Usher, both the family and the house itself. The House is not merely the setting where this story took place, but it played games with us and gave us clues as to who these people are. Each rotting stone was a person and it’s fissure down the middle was a relationship. The enclosed space of the house was the enclosed setting that led to the deaths of the House of Usher. The Fall of the House of Usher free essay sample Madeline of the House of Usher Role-playing games are a great past time for literature enthusiasts. A player sits down, creates a character with quirks and a personality, usually special abilities, and meets with other people who have done the same. They sit at tables, in couches, on porches all around the world. They sit down to hear and participate in a story, a story told by the storyteller. The storyteller creates a scenario, a background, extra characters (NPCs), and certain rules. Once the story begins, control is a relative term. The storyteller knows the story, but the characters are free to move about and unknowingly change the story as they go. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† the storyteller and characters interact in a very strange way. The storyteller tries to maintain control and the characters try to free themselves. It is a struggle against two aspects, the oppressor and the oppressed, masculine and feminine. We will write a custom essay sample on The Fall of the House of Usher or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Madeline Usher, the sole female character in the story, is kept in the background, but holds her own by being the main drive for much of the plot. Roderick Usher, the male descendant of the Usher household, has qualities of the feminine, but introduces a powerfully masculine identity into the house. The line of triumph of the oppressed feminine over the oppressive masculine is blurry and leaves much to be desired. The first key to the house as a story and backdrop is the connection often attributed to Roderick and the house. The idea that the house deteriorates with the last wielder of the Usher name has been argued before. Roderick’s slow descent into madness is marked by cracks in the foundation of the house. This theory holds good merit from textual evidence. The story itself follows that line; Roderick describes the house as having â€Å"an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence† (119). But this is just one influence the characters have over the plot and vice versa. This view of the house and the connection to the family is shaded by a masculine identity. Surely the last male heir of the Usher house must be the cause for the decay, regardless of the feminine Usher remaining. It is easy to label Madeline Usher as a weak character. Not only is her lack of presence in the story noted, but her physical descriptions are that of a weak girl. Roderick explains to the narrator that she suffers from an unknown disease, â€Å"[a] settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (119). Madeline suffers from an unknown illness and is kept indoors in case she becomes the victim of her own frailty. The narrator sees her only briefly before her burial later in the story, and soon after her appearance, she is confined to her bed. The character of Madeline Usher is subjugated. She is kept in the background. Her family line is given to Roderick, her twin brother, as was the custom at the time. Within the story, she could be representative of other women in the nineteenth century: left in the home with no rights. Madeline can also represent one of the more important aspects of the feminine as a whole, the idea of death and rebirth in her premature burial and subsequent escape from her tomb. Beverly Voloshin makes note of another point of Madeline’s femininity through color association. â€Å"Madeline matches her brother’s pallor, but her special mark is red†¦blood red being the token of both life and death† (14). Not only is she often introduced with the color red, a generally accepted color for the feminine, but her actions in the story speak directly to the idea brought about by that color. Madeline is, essentially, the feminine half of the Usher family. Roderick Usher, Madeline’s twin and the masculine half of the Usher family, is the initial, obvious oppressor. As Leila May explains as historical background in her essay, â€Å"’Sympathies of a Scarcely Intelligible Nature: The Brother-Sister Bond in Poes Fall of the House of Usher’,† the social and political authority over the household was given to the men (389). As far as the outside world is concerned, Roderick is the head of the household, putting him in a legal and social position over his sister. Diane Hoevler makes some very sound arguments for the idea of Roderick as an oppressor in her essay â€Å"The Hidden God and the Abjected Woman in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. She points out Poe’s own frustration with women and the idea that Roderick strives for a world, a â€Å"purely masculine universe, a fortress where males engage in discourse without the intrusion of the female in any form –living or dead: ‘Us’ versus ‘her’: ‘Us/her’† (388). Legally, Roderick is the superior half of the la st vestiges of the Usher family. It was Roderick, after all, who invited the male narrator to the house. The narrator explains that the two had been friends before and Roderick had recently sent a letter insisting that he come to the house (Poe 114). It is Roderick’s decision in the story to entomb his deceased sister in the vaults underneath the house before her burial. This burial can be viewed as an attempt by the masculine identity to rid itself of the female identity, Roderick making a final struggle against his sister. However, as Cynthia Jordan argues, â€Å"he is but a character in the story himself, and his actions are at least in part the product of his narrator’s construction† (6). The idea of plot control being in the narrator’s hands puts the narrator in the sole position of masculine oppressor and not just over Madeline Usher. The narrator in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† views, or at least tries to explain, everything from a distanced point-of-view. His logical take on what happens at the house paints a picture with traditionally masculine tones. He also is focused on the masculine half of the Usher twins. His focus is so centered on Roderick that he would as soon dismiss Madeline from his story entirely. Jordan notes this striving towards sole masculinity influence in her essay â€Å"Poe’s Re-Vision†¦Ã¢â‚¬ : â€Å"The narrator’s first encounter with Madeline confirms the conflict between the male storyteller and the lady of the house† (7). His first encounter with Madeline is almost half way through the story. He describes her briefly, almost as a wraith, when Roderick mentions her. â€Å"I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings† (Poe 119). His reaction to the feminine aspect of the Usher household is obviously negative, describing his emotions of shock and fear in the face of Roderick’s sister. After this brief mention, he leaves her out of the story once again, citing that she succumbed to her bed after his almost encounter and that he would not see her again alive (120). Jordan notes that this absence of Madeline is an attempt on the narrator’s part to keep Madeline out of the story: â€Å"the narrator uses language covertly to relegate Madeline to a passive position in relation to himself† (7). Roderick, in this case is not the masculine oppressor; the narrator is. The irony of the situation, though, is that in trying to suppress Madeline, the female twin and the object that the narrator prescribes to femininity, he lets that feminine essence flourish. By the end of the story, the narrator is forced to face that he cannot create a solely masculine story. As Raymond Benoit, a voice in Explicator’s long series of essays on â€Å"Usher,† points out, the narrator is forced to face the feminine through the reading of â€Å"Mad Trist† at the end of the story: â€Å"a mad story that parallels what is occurring in the house and reflects and even enables the awakening of the feminine side thought to have been laid to rest in the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment and by Roderick/narrator† (80). The narrator cannot ignore the strong feminine influence in the house, much as he tries. Perhaps this is because the source of the feminine influence is sitting beside him. Throughout the story, Roderick appears as a romantic and an artist. He reads romance and gothic novels and is emotional to the point of hysteria at times. Beverly Voloshin enters her theory in the series shared with Benoit and others on â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† in Explicator. Her theory follows the lines of Roderick being the feminine half of the Usher twins. â€Å"Roderick is associated with the abstract, atemporal, and ideal† (14). These attributes are generally feminine in nature, gentle and imaginative. In a usually feminine role, Roderick’s actions are often reactions to other characters, showing subordination. His madness is spurred by the supposed death of Madeline, an irrational and emotional reaction to an action of another character. Roderick’s death, often attributed with the ultimate fall of the house itself, is a reaction to the return and death of Madeline. His death is a reaction to the death of a feminine character, which gives power to the feminine over the masculine. Poe is known to have sickly seraph types in his stories, but these seemingly weak female characters speak to his fondness for women. Poe’s life was filled with women who were taken away by illness, making them physically weak: his mother, his cousin and wife. But the women in Poe’s life were often the source of his strength, making them spiritually and often mentally strong. The experience of physically weak, spiritually strong women in his life greatly influenced his portrayal of women in his stories and poetry; Anabelle Lee comes to mind. Similarly, Madeline follows the guidelines for Poe’s memory of women. In a strange way, Poe often put these women on pedestals. Madeline’s presence is very rarely in the foreground of Poe’s short story, but the times when she does appear, it is her appearance that changes the mood of the scene. Madeline owns every scene in which she appears. Her actions are catalysts. The character is weak, but Poe puts her in a position of power beyond character; Poe gives Madeline a position of power over the plot. While the ultimate portrayal of Madeline might be a slap in the face against feminists, her role in the story is large enough to create a strong female influence. Poe follows his own guidelines in the character of Madeline Usher. She fits his ideal for true beauty. John H. Timmerman helps lead the way towards viewing Madeline in this light by explaining Poe’s reasoning. He explains Poe’s drive towards creating beauty in his writing, a beauty that he believed could only be achieved through sadness (232). Because of this connection and his past with women, Poe comes to the conclusion that â€Å"the most sad thing, and therefore the most beautiful, is the death of a beautiful woman† (232). Madeline, though pale and sickly, is one of these beautiful women. Her death, then, is a thing of beauty in Poe’s eyes. The concept is not a very enthusiastic one, nor is it useful in citing Poe as an advocate for women, but that he put emphasis on women is a step in the right direction. From his idea that a beautiful woman’s death is indeed the most beautiful occurrence in nature, he spurned the male characters in his stories to help reclaim the feminine within his stories. The male counterparts to these tragic women are the main argument for Cythia Jordan. In her essay Poes Re-Vision: The Recovery of the Second Story,† Jordan argues that Roderick Usher and C. Auguste Dupin are male characters who attempt to bring to light the feminine or â€Å"second† story. While the narrator has ultimate control over the plot of â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† Jordan points out times when Roderick tries to wrestle that control from him and reassert Madeline as a prominent figure in the story. The final scene of â€Å"Usher† is where Roderick gets that victory, â€Å"Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door! † (130). Jordan explains that this marks a moment in which Roderick takes control of the narrative long enough to call the narrator out on his oppression and to bring Madeline out into the spotlight (11). Roderick proves again that he is not the male oppressor but is instead a supporter if not aspect of the feminine. The question becomes, then, why would Roderick want to bring Madeline to the forefront? The sole reason being that she is his twin is likely not enough. The idea of them being two aspects of the same being, or two sides of the same face is more concrete. But consider that Roderick is an artist, not only placing him in a feminine role, which would be cause enough to help the feminine thrive, but as an artist he must meet that ultimate goal that Poe put forth for himself: to create beauty. If Poe’s characters follow his own guidelines, then, Roderick’s only way to express that which is most beautiful in the world is to bring his beautiful sister’s death to the forefront of the story. Thus, in Roderick’s moment of control over the plot, in revealing the â€Å"second story† of Madeline, he follows those rules of an artist so avidly produced by his own author. The end result is not just Poe’s ideal of beauty, it also gives voice to the silenced feminine within the story –both Madeline’s and possibly Roderick’s own. The connection between Madeline and Roderick as twins is an interesting part of their mixed and almost non-existent gender roles. It has been suggested that their relationship is an incestuous affair, bringing together that mixed-gendered ambiguity into an even more scrambled position. Voloshin and others regard the twin connection, Voloshin looking specifically at the dichotomies apparent within that connection. †¦[T]he Usher twins also represent the duality of culture and nature, or more precisely, that they correspond to many cultural constructions of masculine and feminine, which divide the genders along the axis of culture and nature† (14). The fact that Poe decided to use twins pushes the idea that such dichotomies exist. Roderick, similar to Madeline, is afflicted with an ailment, on e that is â€Å"a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy –a mere nervous affection† (118). This nervous condition is displayed throughout the story in his outbursts and personality shifts. It is suggested that the ailment, being a family curse, is close to if not the same as Madeline’s. Madeline, however, shows strength in that she did not succumb to the illness before the narrator arrives. Madeline is given credit for being the stronger of the two, a masculine trait. The dichotomy does not fit what society would expect from gender roles. The male is the feminine and the female is the masculine. It has been suggested that Roderick and Madeline are the same person, or aspects of the same person. Hoeveler plays with this idea in her essay on the â€Å"Abjected Woman. She discusses the idea that Madeline is in fact the feminine half of Roderick that has escaped to become an alter-ego (391). Not only would physical evidence within the text dispute that idea –the fact that the narrator sees Madeline during a conversation with Roderick –but why, then, would Roderick assume so many feminine traits of his own? And why would Madeline seem to uphold those t raits generally accepted as masculine? The rest of the essay is another key: the idea of dualities in religion, the goddess and the god. The duality returns to the twin idea, and the twin concept requires a semblance of balance. If Roderick is the feminine role, Madeline must step in to play the role of the masculine. Traditionally, in feminist readings, the masculine identity can be discovered by its subjugation and subordination of the feminine identity. Madeline is buried in the vault, making her symbolically subordinated, but in the end, it is she who buries Roderick: â€Å"†¦with a low moaning cry, fell heavily upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated† (Poe 131). The first item of note is the fact that Roderick’s name is not mentioned once in his death scene. Roderick is placed in the passive part of the sentence, â€Å"upon the person of her brother,† rather than given an active death. His name is not mentioned, instead he is listed as the brother of Madeline. He is also noted as being a victim, a position often associated with the feminine. Here, Roderick is not only stripped of identity of his own, but is made the passive victim of a violent force against him. The idea of Madeline as a violent or at least controlling force over Roderick is used in the somewhat popular vampire theory. Lyle Kendall discusses this theory and cites examples from the text to help prove it. He suggests that Roderick asks the narrator to come to the house to aid him in the destruction of his oppressor, the vampire, Madeline (451). J. O. Bailey goes into more depth, citing the history and mythology behind the vampire theory. He, however, notes that both of the twins seem to exhibit traits of one who has been attacked by a vampire, but that Madeline was the one whose body is inhabited by a vampiric entity (Bailey 458). Vampires in stories have been male and female –there is no prescription for the sex of these mythological creatures. The idea of the vampire, though, of one who comes and sucks the life out of others fits the mold for a control aspect. The masculine identity is the controlling identity, and if Madeline is indeed a vampire, then she becomes that controlling identity; Madeline becomes the oppressor and Roderick the oppressed. Another supposedly masculine trait is the sense of structure and order. Robinson brings the dichotomy of order/disorder into play in his formalist reading of the short story in his essay â€Å"Order and Sentience in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. † Robinson writes, â€Å"[t]he progress of the story sees Usher, his house, and his sister Madeline changing from an organized to a disorganized state, until finally all sink together† (69). Robinson also brings to light the notion that Madeline’s physical senses dim through the story while Usher’s heighten (75). Roderick becomes more sensitive where his sister becomes less so. Their traits become intermingled, masculine and feminine twisting their positions to the opposite sex until finally it all comes back together into a union. The final union between the masculine and the feminine is the destruction of the house, according to Robinson, when the house and the story fall into a state of disorganization. The final scene in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† seems to be a culmination of all that is feminine within the work. Roderick sits and listens to his favorite romantic story, â€Å"Mad Trist,† which brings the feminine back into the plot. During this reading, Roderick comes into a position to speak against the narrator, for the narrator, when he calls him a â€Å"madman,† and reveals Madeline standing outside the door. When Madeline appears for her final scene, her coup de grace, she is in her burial shroud with blood on her, a symbol of rebirth. The walking symbol of the feminine falls upon Usher, who without a fight, falls to the ground, and the two die. The narrator flees the fall of the house of Usher, and watches as the house behind him is mysteriously destroyed. The story comes together, finally, with a seeming grand finale of femininity. Symbols, romanticism, disorganization, all of those ideals that have been attributed to feminism culminate. But looking back once again on Roderick’s death, there is the passivity. Madeline, in the midst of this fantastic moment of feminine symbolism, takes on the role of a masculine identity, pressing Roderick beneath her and putting him into a passive state. Are the symbols enough for this story to triumph over masculine influence? Or has the narrator put his foot down on the final scene to ensure that some semblance of masculine oppressiveness remained in the story? Regardless of masculine or feminine traits, at the end of the story, as the world of the narrator collapses into romantic idealism, it is the woman, the female half of the Usher family, that finally oppresses the man. Madeline triumphs, but only when put into a masculine gender role. Leo Spitzer, author of â€Å"A Reinterpretation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’,† also notes the near necessity for the two to die as one. He first shines light on the importance of Madeline, citing her as a deuteragonist and pointing out the eerie timing of her appearances, and he goes on to say that â€Å"Roderick and Madeline, twins chained to each other by incestuous love, suffering separately but dying together, represent the male and the female principle in that decaying family whose members, by the law of sterility and destruction which rules them, must exterminate each other† (352). They do destroy one another at the end, leaving the narrator to escape. And, as Jordan points out, the narrator gets the last word, â€Å"for his final act of ‘sentencing’ is to dispatch Madeline and her too-familiar twin into the ‘silent tarn,’ out of mind and out of language one last time† (12). Despite this triumphant climax for Madeline and Roderick, the narrator clings tightly to his story. The narrator, or storyteller, in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† fights for control over the characters within the story, both female and feminine. He takes on, ultimately, the role of masculinity. Whether, within the house, Madeline was oppressed or Roderick was matters very little –their aspects were in sync with on another and bound to come together eventually. But their ultimate victory and freedom from the masculine narrator is achieved only in their deaths, and the storyteller condemns the last vestiges of the feminine. In this story at least, the victory of femininity is short-lived and ultimately futile. Works Cited Bailey, J. O. What Happens in the Fall of the House of Usher? American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 35. (1964): 445-66. Benoit, Raymond. Poes the Fall of the House of Usher. Explicator 58. 2 (2000): 79-81. Hoeveler, Diane Long. The Hidden God and the Abjected Woman in the Fall of the House of Usher. Studies in Short Fiction 29. 3 (1992): 385-95. Jordan, Cynthia S. Poes Re-Vision: The Recovery of the Second Story. American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 59. 1 (1987): 1-19. Kendall, Lyle H. ,Jr. The Vampire Motif in the Fall of the House of Usher. College English 24. 6 (1963): 450-3. May, Leila S. Sympathies of a Scarcely Intelligible Nature: The Brother-Sister Bond in Poes Fall of the House of Usher. Studies in Short Fiction 30. 3 (1993): 387-96. Robinson, E. Arthur. Order and Sentience in the Fall of the House of Usher. PMLA 76. 1 (1961): 68-81. . Spitzer, Leo. A Reinterpretation of the Fall of the House of Usher. Comparative Literature 4. 4 (1952): 351-63. . Timmerman, John H. House of Mirrors: Edgar Allan Poes the Fall of the House of Usher. Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 39. (2003): 227-44. Voloshin, Beverly R. Poes the Fall of the House of Usher. Explicator 46. 3 (1988): 13-5. Works Referenced Obuchowski, Peter. Unity of Effect in Poes the Fall of the House of Usher. Studies in Short Fiction 12 (1975): 407-12. . Peeples, Scott. Poes Constructiveness and the Fall of the House of Usher. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2002. 178-190. Stein, William Bysshe. The Twin Motif in the Fall of the House of Usher. Modern Language Notes 75. 2 (1960): 109-11. .

Differences Between Après vs. Derrière and Avant vs. Devant

Differences Between Aprà ¨s vs. Derrià ¨re and Avant vs. Devant Aprà ¨s and Avant convey a notion of time or space. Aprà ¨s refers to doing something after while Avant refers to doing something before. Je le retrouve aprà ¨s/avant le dà ©jeunerIll meet up with him after/before lunch Aprà ¨s/avant le bois, il y a un cheminAfter/before the wood, there is a path Derriere and Devant convey a notion of precise space. Derrier refers to being behind something, or someone and Devant refers to being in front of something or someone. La petite fille est cachà ©e derrià ¨re larbreThe young girl is hidden behind the tree Pour la photo, comme tu es plus petite, va devant Camille.For the picture, since you are smaller, go in front of Camille.   Derrià ¨re le bois, il y a un cheminBehind the wood, there is a path Aprà ¨s and Derrià ¨re Are Not Interchangeable So, what is the difference between the two sentences aprà ¨s le bois, il y a un chemin and derrià ¨re le bois, il y a un chemin? They both give a piece of space-related information, but one is more precise, just like in English. Same exact logic applies to avant versus devant. Aprà ¨s Que Indicative / Avant Que Subjunctive A common mistake is Aprà ¨s que plus a subjunctive. Its a very common mistake, even among French people, because honestly, the indicative sounds terrible there. Avant que is followed by the subjunctive  because we dont yet know if the action is going to become a reality. With Aprà ¨s que, the action has taken place already: there is no doubt left, hence no need for the subjunctive. Aprà ¨s que subjunctive sounds so bad to a French ear that we will do our best to use a noun instead of a verb after. You can use the same trick with avant que et avoid using a subjunctive. Je dois commencer aprà ¨s quil part. (or aprà ¨s son dà ©part)I must start after he leaves (or after his departure). Je dois commencer avant quil parte (or avant son dà ©part).I must start before he leaves (or before his departure) By the way, even if we use le derrià ¨re in French (although this is extremely polite, just like saying the behind in English), French people use the preposition derrià ¨re without thinking about it at all. Just like in English you use behind without thinking about that part of the anatomy.

Aral Sea Essays

Aral Sea Essays Aral Sea Essay Aral Sea Essay Struggle and conflicts for water among people are unavoidable. Situation is no different in developed and developing countries. Developed countries like Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, Singapore, and North America are already feeling water stress. It becomes difficult for rivers and groundwater resources in UK to satisfy the augmented water demands of summer heat. Similarly in USA, agricultural requirements are fighting for their share with urban needs of water. Different states in India are fighting for their share of water bodies. Chinese farmers are sacrificing their water needs to feed urban demands of cities. Less water for irrigation means less food grains production and eventually a global food crisis. Shared water resources among countries will add to this fight. For instance Africa, where the conditions are already worse, will see different countries fighting for the Nile, Zambezi, Niger, and Volta river basins to meet their water needs. Similarly Aral Sea Basin for Central Asia and rivers like Amu Darya and Syr Darya will be a subject of conflict among Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The US and Mexico also share cold space over the Colorado River (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; Ch. 3. 3 ). Pollution has been the biggest enemy of rivers, lakes and other freshwater resources. Many rivers and lakes today are nothing more than garbage dumps. Industries discard their toxic chemical wastes in the water resources. Use of toxic chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture is polluting ground water resources. People will use 70% of surface freshwater available in rivers and lakes by 2025 which at present is 54%. This will disturb the whole balance of nature and other aquatic ecosystems and their inhabitants. Ecosystems like wetlands are of enormous importance. They help human beings in different ways serving as flood regulators, waste filtration systems and natural flora and fauna habitats. Mismanagement of water resources has led to the extinction of numerous species of invaluable freshwater fish. Damage done is irreversible. Trees are vital for water conservation as they replenish groundwater, protect soil erosion and balance the hydrological cycle. Growing population and industrialization is eating away forests at an alarming rate adding to the problems (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 4). Millions of people are dying around the world due to the unavailability of clean and safe water for their daily requirements. Situation is more disappointing in developing countries where major diseases and deaths occur because of water related diseases. Water borne diseases are caused from contaminated water. Unclean water for drinking and not enough water for sanitation give rise to water borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, shigella, polio, meningitis, and hepatitis A and E claiming millions of lives every year. Disposal of human and animal wastes in freshwater resources infects the water and hence leads to the spread of diseases. Industrial and agricultural chemical wastes in water can lead to diseases like cancer. Authorities should take steps to provide clean water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. Provision of proper sanitation facilities is also very important for appropriate waste disposal. Another set of diseases is called water based diseases spread by flukes, tapeworms, roundworms and tissue nematodes that live in contaminated water. Diseases like guinea worm (dracunculiasis), paragonimiasis, clonorchiasis, and schistosomiasis (bilharzia) fall under this category. These diseases are more common in areas near Dams. Keeping a distance from unhygienic water and food can help prevent thee diseases from spreading. Water-related vector diseases are spread by mosquitoes, tsetse flies and other insects that carry infections. These carriers live in foul and unclean water and cause diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, sleeping sickness, and filariasis. Using pesticides to kill these insects and wiping out their breeding grounds like dirty and stagnant water helps preventing these diseases. Trachoma, leprosy, tuberculosis, whooping cough, tetanus, and diphtheria are the diseases that spread due to insufficient water for maintaining personal hygiene. These can be prevented by providing enough water for sanitation (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 5). Water conservation and proper use is very important for ensuring adequate availability of water to everyone on this earth including flora and fauna. Every area needs improvement and water management. Water used for irrigation in agriculture needs foremost attention. A lot of water is wasted while reaching crops through irrigation systems. Some of it gets recovered as groundwater but majority of it gets contaminated by chemicals. On one side inadequate water for irrigation limits land use and crop yield while on the other side excess of water in the fields can lead to water logging and salinization and hence destruction of land and crops. Irrigation techniques like drip irrigation and low-energy precision application (LEPA) can improve irrigation efficiency considerably. Drip irrigation lowers the wastage of water and is getting widely adopted. LEPA is an efficient form of sprinkler system leading to water conservation and increased food production. Water harvesting by collecting water in rainy season and using in dry season is also an attractive option for poor countries. Treated urban wastewater can also be used for irrigation. Israel is famous for its urban wastewater reuse for agriculture purpose. Stopping deforestation and planting more and more trees also helps in water conservation (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 6). Water in industries must be recycled and used again and again to save precious natural resource. Many industries employ these techniques to conserve water. Chemicals, iron and steel, and pulp and paper are some of the industries that must pay attention to their water usage and adopt water conservation techniques. In household, people must save water and use it sensibly. We will have to pay the price of wasting water uselessly when in excess sooner or later. Only needed quantity of water must be used. Municipal corporations must ensure that their water transit systems are efficient enough not to waste water and maximum share must reach consumers. Leakage from pipes and illegal tapping must be checked. Laws to prevent stealing and wastage of water must be formulated by the authorities (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 6. 2). Population growth is the biggest challenge to be dealt with for saving water. Growing population at unregulated rates is a major problem especially in developing countries that already face water scarcity. It is very important for people to adopt family planning measures to keep a check on the rising population. Authorities must also educate people and spread awareness about the harms of unregulated births. They must inform people about the family planning measures and offer every kind of medical and financial help to achieve this objective (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 6. 5). Techniques like pressurization of seawater, filtration via carbon nanotubes, and reverse osmosis can be used for desalinization of water to add to fresh water. Presently these treatments are very expensive. Promotion of vegetarian eating habits and saltwater agriculture on coastlines is needed (â€Å"Water†). Efforts are required on international, national and regional levels for water conservation. Countries must formulate policies and must support each other’s initiatives to create a better living place. Money and resources are essential and developed countries must support developing countries (Hinrichsen, Robey and Upadhyay â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†; ch. 7). Save water! Its precious! Hinrichsen, D. , Robey, B. , and Upadhyay, U. D. â€Å"Solutions for a Water-Short World†. Population Reports, Series M, No. 14. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Population Information Program, December 1997. November 23, 2008 infoforhealth. org/pr/m14/m14chap1. shtml#top â€Å"Water†. millennium-project. org. World Federation of UN Associations. November 23, 2008 millennium-project. org/millennium/Global_Challenges/chall-02. html

Teaching Personal Space to Children With Disabilities

Teaching Personal Space to Children With Disabilities   Children with disabilities, especially children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, have difficulty understanding and appropriately using personal space.  Its importance is significant since many of these young people when they reach adolescence, become particularly vulnerable to assault or predation because they are unaware of the social and emotional boundaries that are important in the general public.   Deep Pressure Some Children with ASD are what we call deep pressure, and they seek as much sensory input as they can get.  They will throw their arms around not only significant adults in their lives but sometimes to complete strangers.  I worked 5 years ago as a volunteer at a camp at Torino Ranch, maintained by the Torino Foundation.  Ã‚  When my camper came off the bus he threw his arms around me (we had never met,) and I ticked off deep pressure kid, which led to four days of success.  I used that sensory need to keep him calm and appropriate.  Still, these students need to learn appropriate interaction.   The Science of Personal Space Proximics, or the science of personal space, explores how we as humans and as social and ethnic groups use the space around us.  Research has found that in a typical person the amygdala responds negatively to the invasion of personal space.  Research has not been definitive on the effect of population density on the size of personal space, as reported by anthropologists, but this writer has experienced it.  In Paris, in 1985, I attended a concert at the Place de Concord.  There were somewhere in the range of 50 to 60 thousand people there.  Someone started to push at the outside (Word was out that they were thugs [clouchards].)  Amazingly, after several minutes of chanting Assis! Assis! (sit down) we sat down.  Probably a couple of thousand people.  I looked at an American Friend and said: In America, we would have had a fist fight. This, of course, is why its important for special education students to understand personal space.  Students with autism may resist everyone entering their personal space, but all too often their amygdala is not firing when someone comes into their space, and we know they cant understand another persons desire for personal space.   There are three things needed to help them learn this: A metaphor that can help them understand personal space.Modeling to show how we use personal space andExplicit instruction in the use of personal space.   The Metaphor: The Magic Bubble Typical children and typical human beings are able to write their own meta-narrative, the story of their life.  Face it, when a woman gets married she often has a lifetime of plans dancing in her head about the perfect wedding (or her mothers dream.)  Children with disabilities, especially children with autism spectrum disorders, are unable to write those meta-narratives.  That is why Social Stories (TM) or Social Narratives (my name) are so powerful.  They use visual images, a story and often the childs own name.  I will be changing the name in the original document for the children I will use it with. I created the social narrative, Jeffies Magic Bubble, to support students with autism spectrum disorders.  It uses the metaphor a magic bubble to define the invisible space around each of us that is also called personal space.  Children with disabilities love to play with bubbles, so using it as a metaphor will provide a visible understanding of what that space is like.   Modeling Once the model is established by reading the book, make a game of magic bubbles.  Have children spin and identify the edge of their bubbles (arms length is a good compromise between intimate and familiar personal space.) Practice welcoming others into their magic bubbles by putting hands out and greeting others with a handshake. Hi, Im Jeffie.  Nice to meet you.   Make a game of Magical Bubbles by giving students clickers and having others come as close as they can without stepping inside another childs personal bubble.  The student in their Magic Bubble will click when they think the other student or students enter their bubble. Explicit Instruction Read the book Jeffies Magic Bubble aloud as a group.  If students need individual instruction (so they are better at paying attention to personal space) you will want to read it to those students over and over again.   After reading each page, have students practice:  when you get to crossing arms and hands on hips, have them practice.  When you read about Jeffie saying NO!  practice saying NO!  Practice asking friends for a hug.   Be sure that you recognize students who respect each others personal space.  You might want each child to have a magic bubble chart.  Hand out stickers or stars for each time you catch them asking to enter another childs space, or asking another student politely to move outside of their personal space.

Burke's Distinction and Public Representation Article

Burke's Distinction and Public Representation - Article Example Although public opinion is downplayed in this relationship, it certainly has its place in terms of public representation simply because the electorate must feel placated. The primary role of a public representative is, however, to understand the difference between opinion and interest, and to legislate with the best interests of the people in mind. Public representatives must work to find a balance between the focus of opinion and interest. Edmund Burke described the mentality of human society as being based on two basic principles: the people's interests and the people's opinions. These have been the foundation of Burke's Distinction, a theoretical framework of behaviour that has been used to study economics and politics as they pertain to public will and necessity. Burke's Distinction refers to the distinct forces of both interest and opinion, and describes how these forces relate to one another in terms of human character and motivation (Gargarella, 2001, 13). Burke's reference to people's interests is his idea that political or economic change will come as a result of successful government that understands the basic difference between whim and necessity. ... existence and unrestricted by conscious efforts, public interest has always been and will always remain fundamentally the same in that it must be addressed for survival purposes (Stanlis, 1958, 179). Public interest, in Burke's view, is therefore distinguished from public opinion because of its almost autonomous status (Hoffman et al, 1956, 177). Whether Burke's Distinction is called upon to analyse politics or economics, the force of public interest is always the scientific factor involved in the analysis. This is important because proper scientific breakdown can show how public interest is different from public opinion quickly and easily; although often the motivations behind the two are the same, Burke's Distinction shows which issues demand the attention of a governing body and which may simply be trendy at the time. Public opinion subsequently can be used to represent not only the popular opinion of a community but often the result of mass misinformation. According to Burke, popular opinion is very often cultivated from small truths which are stretched and skewed to an unrecognisable state upon which people then begin to make judgements (Somerset and Burke, 1957, 89). This can relate to international affairs, internal issues, economy, political systems themselves and virtually any facet of public or private life. Burke doesn't necessarily suggest that group mentality is fundamentally different than individual mentality; he simply points out that what can in one person's mind be an issue worth gathering more information about becomes an escalated, un-researched issue in the hands of an entire society at once. While public representatives need to always keep an eye on public opinion (after all, public opinion equates to the outcome of an election)

The realists vs. formalists approach to filming Essay

The realists vs. formalists approach to filming - Essay Example Supporters of the realist film theory such as Kracauer, S have been very detrimental to the thrilling form of entertainment utterly diluting its aesthetic qualities as far as its artistic composition is concerned. Those supporting the earlier film theories over the contemporary ones argue that the early theorists were very much concerned with proving cinemas artistic potentialities while the later theorists, who are less defensive and less elitist, take film status for granted. This paper will present a comparison between the modern and the ancient films with a favour on the modern films over the earlier ones. Kracauer argues that the contemporary films do not have the same taste as the former ones. To him this has been brought about by the conditions in which the contemporary films are shot, that is, the use of the cameras in shooting films and the variations in the film stock that have actually affected the way films look . In turn, these animations associated with new films eventu ally affect the film viewers’ ability to come into proper terms with the reality displayed in the film â€Å"edifying pieces of art should insist on the value of illusion as a more or less necessary pathway to truth. The Romantics sought to overcome the dichotomy between appearance and reality with a symbol whose appearance takes on a mysterious depth, a schoner Schein or ‘beautiful semblance’† (Kracauer 97). The reality that is supposed to form the major display in films therefore is being eroded over time due to the introduction of the modern changes that to him are a deviation from the original intention of the film industry. Kracauer further blames all this on the use of the digital technology when he argues that â€Å"technological applications such as computer enhancement, imaging, and editing that has actually diminished the reality in the real film plays† (Kracauer 103). On the other hand, other emerging scholars have argued in support of th e contemporary filming for instance, it is true when Andrew insists that early films are not uniform as ideological variations and national characterization formed the major themes in these films with the attention being focused on the spectator. In support for the modern times films, it is very important to note the two salient features that are common in the modern films and which were lacking in the earlier ones. These are the sound system and the technological advances that have enabled performers to camouflage easily into reality. The first movies that were made by the Edison Company actually had no sounds as well as very poor quality pictures. For this, most of the early films focused on the basic things such as crowds making noise, babies crying among others. It is very true that the sound accompaniment in a movie helps in keeping the viewer glued in the actions being performed in the movie. Thus, the sound combination associated with modern filming in a way gives the movie a third dimension such that the viewer is able to relate easily the events taking place in the film with the wordings. Sometimes, the music played in the movie helps in revealing the occurrences in the following scene hence keeping the viewer informed in prior. This always motivates the viewer by capturing his or her attention and therefore enhancing their concentration. Films are meant to function in such a way that they keep the audience completely engrossed in the performance that is certainly achieved by the modern films. Besides the above song enhancements, songs played in a film acts as a parallel form of entertainment for the viewer. At some point, the viewers are swallowed up in the film that they find themselves

The Xbox Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Xbox - Essay Example As everyone knows by now, Nintendo was the company that pioneered the cutting edge gaming consoles that we know of today. With its trendsetting Nintendo Family console systems, they redefined the way that we play video games via its motion sensor game system, the Wii. However, the Wii has recently fallen to the roadside as stiffer competition from the Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox began to offer better graphics, game play, and game titles. The Wii is perfect for entry level gamers but could prove to be a bore to the more serious game players. That is why game console experts do not recommend the Wii (Bakalar â€Å"Which Game Console Should You Buy?†) to: Those who are looking for a game console that doubles as an all-purpose entertainment hub, want state-of-the-art HD graphics, enjoy a robust online community, and/or those who prefer a wide selection of adult-targeted titles. In other words, you can get your feet wet in the Wii but dont expect to take a serious swim in it. Specially since the Wii has already been retired by Nintendo in favor of the newer but Wii U which has yet to catch on with the gaming market. The second serious motion gaming contender is the Playstation Move. Although its motion wand is nothing that should leave the Wii shaking in its wake, it does offer better graphics capabilities and game play than the pioneering console. Cnet Australia ranked this particular console as one of those destined to gather dust bunnies on your entertainment shelf due the limited motion gaming titles and problematic motion sensing system that results in a more complicated gaming system because: .. it also requires a camera to be installed near the TV, which wont actually be used for most PS3 games. It requires a few feet of distance to use, but most games only register the controllers motion, not yours... (Stein &Ackerman â€Å"Xbox 360 Kinect vs. PlayStation Move vs. Nintendo Wii Remote