Slaughterhouse Five Essays (2126 words) - Fiction, Literature

Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut's When one begins to analyze a military novel it is important to first look at the historical context in which the book was written. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in the history of man. By the end of the bombing 135,000 to 250,000 people had been killed by the combined forces of the United States and the United Kingdom. Dresden was different then Berlin or many of the other military targets which were attacked during World War II because it was never fortified or used for strategic purposes and, therefore, was not considered a military target. Because of it's apparent safety, thousands of refugees from all over Europe converged on Dresden for protection (Klinkowitz 2-3). Dresden's neutrality was broken and the resulting attacks laid waste, what Vonnegut called, the Florence of the Elbe. Kurt Vonnegut was a witness to this event and because of fate, had been spared. He wrote Slaughterhouse Fi ve to answer the question that resounded through his head long after the bombs could no longer be heard. Why me?- a frequent question asked by survivors of war. Vonnegut was tormented by this question and through Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Slaughterhouse Five, he attempts to reconcile the guilt which one feels when one is randomly saved from death, while one's friends and loved ones perish. Billy Pilgrim's own life was spared, but was never able to live with himself knowing that so many others had died. The feelings of guilt which emerged from his having survived the bombing of Dresden and from Billy's fortunate escape from death under the shelter of the fifth Slaughterhouse haunted Billy through much of his life. Billy Pilgrim did not consider his survival a blessing, but a curse. A curse to be forced to live on with the guilt of survival. Billy Pilgrim faced such tremendous guilt, that he spent his entire life after Dresden trying to alleviate himself of it. His guilt is in many ways comparable to the guilt felt by the survivors of the Holocaust. Many Holocaust survivors had to face their own Why me? question. However, many Holocaus t survivors were able to reconcile their feelings of guilt or put it out of their minds. This solution was never viable for Billy Pilgrim. Billy's guilt made life so unbearable that he could no longer live with himself and he rejected the life that had been granted to him. There was no answer to Billy's question because war is not logical, nor is it just. Never could one give a justification for the fortuitous slaughtering of the innocent, which claimed the lives of Dresden's inhabitants. This idea is exemplified in the secondary title Slaughterhouse Five is known by, The Children's Crusade. The Children's Crusade was one of the many Christian Holy Wars which aimed on destroying the Muslim people. The Children's Crusade was really a ploy by entrepreneurs to sell Christian children into slavery. Thousands of children were killed on ships en-route to the slave market and many others were sold, never to be seen again. Vonnegut gives the Children's Crusade as an example of the atrocitie s and in-humane acts which transpire under the auspices of War. That is why Billy Pilgrim invents a world where a justification can be given, where life and death are meaningless and feelings of guilt disappear. The only way Billy Pilgrim can confront this guilt is to excuse his survival and trivialize the gift of life and the cruelty of death. He creates a new world where he can be free from his guilt. That world is called Tralfamador. The Traflamadorian world provided Billy Pilgrim with the escape that he needed from his guilt. The Traflamadorian people are not locked in a three dimensional realm. They are not locked in the frames of time to which the human world is forced to live in. Traflamadorians can shift through time as seamlessly as humans can walk towards a point. This ability allows them to focus on the pleasant moments in the history of the Universe and ignore the aspects of time they dislike. Thus, the fire-bombing of Dresden is

the biosphere essays

the biosphere essays The biosphere is part of the earth in which life exists. It is 20 km thick from the bottom of the ocean to the lower atmosphere. It consists of three layers: the lithosphere, which is the land on the surface of the earth; the hydrosphere, which comprises of the water on the earth as well as water vapor in the air; and the atmosphere, which is made up of the air that surrounds the earth. The living organisms in the biosphere interact and affect each other in many ways. This is called a biotic factor. Similarly, there are nons of abiotic factors are air, temperature, water, soil, light, and minerals. In a biosphere, organisms live in special groupings. For instance, a population consists of all individuals of a species living in a general area. A community is a population located in a certain area living among different species. An ecosystem is yet a larger conglomeration of a population, a community, and abiotic factors. Ecosystems can be aquatic or terrestrial. The earth's aquatic ecosystem makes up about 75% of the earth's surface. This aquatic environment is divided into marine and freshwater environments. The earth's terrestrial ecosystem is mainly made up of forests and deserts, which make up for 25% of the earth's surface. The role or function of an organism in a community is that organism's niche. An organism's niche is an area picked by that organism based on physical factors such as temperature, light, oxygen and carbon dioxide content and biological factors such as food, competition for resources and predators. This niche provides the organism a place to live in. A habitat remains consistent with an organism's niche as well as provides the organism with a place to reproduce. In this case, organisms may have the same habitat, but different niches. ...

Characterization of Zaroff In Richard Connells T Essays - Fiction

Characterization of Zaroff In Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" 1) In "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, the antagonist, General Zaroff, can best be described as sadistic, arrogant, and manipulative. 2) The worst trait of Zaroff is his arrogance. 3) He claims that he is superior to other people of different races and that because he is strong, it's his job to abolish the weak. 4) This idea is expressed when Zaroff states, "...Life is for the strong, and, if need be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure... I hunt the scum of the earth - sailors from tramp ships - lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels- ..." 5) This shows that Zaroff not only acts arrogantly, but also is sadistic. 6) His demented mind forces him to believe that it is moral to hunt all living creatures, when in fact, he's actually committing murder. 7) The worst part is that Zaroff considers his hobby of hunting other humans amusing. 8) Another trait of Zaroff is that he is extremely manipulative. 9) In other words, he can get other people to do exactly what he wants them to do without that person realizing that he is getting brainwashed. 10) For example, the general pretends to be very civilized and generous thus, people start to trust Zaroff, but as soon as Zaroff's victims feel comfortable around him, he forces them to play his "game". 11) This usually ends up in death for General Zaroff's poor captives. 12) Therefore, we can see that the antagonist in the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" is not only sadistic and arrogant, but also manipulative.

Care study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Care study - Essay Example The Eskimos have a tradition wherein when a member of the family has reached an age where he or she is no longer an active participant of the tribe, the son or the closest member of the family is tasked to take him miles from the home and leave him in the freezing cold. Such practice, although barbaric, was accepted not only by the family member who has to do the form of euthanasia but also by elderly himself to be his fate. In simple logic, those who no longer contribute to the benefit of the family has lost his worth and must therefore accept the reality of death as promulgated by those close to him. The very thought of this scenario where an old person is left to die in frigid weather arouses disturbing thoughts in a humane perspective. The necessity to enforce that every person must be attributed with not only the quality of life but also the quality of death should be affixed to the elderly. The elderly psychiatry ward poses a professional challenge to the individuals assigned to it. But most importantly, it also yields the obligation to impart an emotional aspect to the care that they receive. Otherwise, rather than being treated as individuals, they may be deprived of the respect that is not entirely undue to them. There are a number of problems that arises in the nursing profession. One of such that persists is the ethical dilemmas that health professionals face in their career. Ethics, or in simple interpretation is the ability to distinguish between right and wrong is embraced in the moral conception of decision-making for individuals. Being professional is synonymous to doing the right thing that is good not only for the client but also for one’s own being. The Nursing & Midwifery Council’s promulgation of a Code of Conduct provides for set guidelines that must be met by nurses and midwives in their careers and their interaction with clients to ensure that they remain faithful to their oath. Rumbold (as

Chinese women and their problems during the High Qing era Essay

Chinese women and their problems during the High Qing era - Essay Example   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Writing of the elite-dominated the analysis of gender in High Qing times.   Sitting in the ivory towers, the intellectuals recorded their scholarly observations.   Susan extends the scope to the grassroots level. She deals with her contribution in the farm, household, entertainment by the courtesan, and the participation of women in rituals and domestic religious festivities; and above all, the important issue of women’s poetry. The sensibilities expressed by various women poets are great historical documents to the time during which these poems were written. They provide valuable information about the emotions of women, moral values, and social relations and to an extent, political judgments. Yuan Mei’s recollections of the women poets with whom he was acquainted with, were full of catkin images, especially the stories of child intellectuals who were brilliant poets. So also, Xie Daoyun of willow catkin fame was known for upstaging their male frien ds and relatives in verbal combat and poetry contests.That was a strange position, which Mann noticed and elaborated in her book, about the elite Chinese women. The patrilineal family demanded that elite women demonstrate family prestige by remaining secluded and restrict their activities. But they enjoyed a new type of freedom in the Qing constellation. They could write and reinterpret their own history. The elite women had a pragmatic approach to their role in the society. They did not challenge the familial traditions or the social structure and the question of â€Å"women’s identity† that in a way challenged men, was of no consequence to them. They exploited and enjoyed the possibilities of autonomy that was prevalent within their society.

Alka Seltzer Dissolving at Different Temperatures Essay example -- Alk

Alka Seltzer Dissolving at Different Temperatures The variable that I will change will be the temperature of the water that the Alka Seltzer is put in. For my results I will measure the time taken for the Alka seltzer tablet to completely dissolve in water at different temperatures. Input variables: * Varying surface area of Alka-Seltzer tablet, i.e. if cut into smaller pieces or crushed it will increase the surface area. (If the surface area is increased (more powdered) the rate of reaction also increases. This means that there are more collisions between the solid and liquid.) * Amount of tap water H2O used, i.e. volume (ml). * Amount of Alka-Seltzer tablets used, i.e. quantity of tablets. (one is used) * Number of times the solution is stirred. (If the solution is stirred more there are more collisions between the particles therefore the reaction is speeded up.) * Temperature of Water-Â °C. (As the temperature increases so does the rate of reaction. By increasing the temperature, particles move faster, i.e. they have more energy. So, they collide with more energy and more frequently.) * pH of Solution: Water has pH of 7 at 25Â °C. As the pH decreases, i.e as the solution increases in acidity, the rate of the reaction increases as well. Output Variables: ----------------- Rate of reaction depends on all the 6 points I have stated above: ----------------------------------------------------------------- * If the surface area of the tablets is increased by crushing, the particles around it in the solution will have more area to work on, and the rates of reactions will increase because there will be more collisions. Complete reaction will finish faster. * The more amount of water used as we increase the temperature, the quicker the tablets will dissolve because there will be more water particles to collide with. So the rate increases. * If the amount of tablets being used is increased for the same amount of water, i.e as concentration increases, rate will increase as well because there will be more collisions between particles. * If the water with Alka-Seltzer tablets are stirred during the reaction, then the rates of reactions will increase because the particles will be forced to make contact with each others and react much quicker, rather than take their time to make contact, and therefor... ... water bath could have been used, because I could set it to my required temperature. Also it would mean that the solution inside it would reach the exact temperature or close to It., and not increase or decrease once the water inside it has reached equilibration. It was also very difficult for me to observe exactly when the Alka-Seltzer tablets had totally dissolved and consistently decide this for every result obtained. This was probably the main factor that would have decreased the accuracy of my readings. To avoid this happening I would have needed to use specialized piece of equipment which would tell me exactly when the tablet was dissolved Overall, I can come to firm conclusion from my results that support my prediction and background knowledge that: As the temperature increases, less time will be required for a reaction to take place i.e. the rate of reaction increases. To improve the experiment overall I could use distilled water to avoid inaccuracies related to the hardness of tap water. I believe I should get a straight line curve. Another improvement I could have made is to increase the range of the temperatures investigated. (10Â °C to 100Â °C).

Kale in Kenya- Ag Issue 2012 Essay

Jonathan King Ag 101 September 16, 2012 Current Issues in Horticulture- Kale in Kenya I am going to go into the Horticultural field and one of the issues facing horticulture today is solving world hunger. Kenya is a nation that mostly lives in poverty, The United States and other countries are trying to help the Kenyan poverty problem by researching different food that can grow there along with trying to improve the food that they already have. A big crop in Kenya is kale because it costs so little to produce and the name sakuma wiki the Kenyan name for kale loosely translated means that it can sustain people throughout the week due to its extreme affordability, particularly for those who earn a dollar and below a day. The kale in Kenya is poor quality and it yields easily to diseases like black rot and leaf spot. Through a collaborative research project investigating the poor quality of kale seeds in parts of Kenya a team found that the best kale plants in Kenya originate from Kinale, a forested region north of Nairobi on the edge of the rift valley. The plants were then took to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and propagated to obtain clean, disease-free seed. Five lines of kale were developed and two of them did very well once the seed was tested in different parts. The propagated seed flowered later thus making the crop produce longer and had a better color with a sweeter flavored leaf. By using Horticulture the problem of hunger in Kenya is being addressed by diversifying kale to improve food and nutrition and to improve the economy by making a better plant that people would want to buy and eat.