The Face Before Me Is Youthful And Stern - 1642 Words

The face before me is youthful and stern; his smile is sincere, and inviting yet there is a slight quiver. This may be due to the fact that we have never spoken in such a formal and serious setting. Ernesto Santiago, now 46, is a former member of the Mexican Infanteria de Marina. Ernesto was stationed in Sierra Leà ³n and was put in charge of escorting Pemex employees to inspect tampered company pipelines. Whenever they escorted Pemex employees it was routine to simultaneously monitor cartel members on an open channel. During one of these routine surveillances a cartel member uttered his name. In Mexico it is common knowledge that if your name is being circulated by cartels it is because you have become a target. â€Å"En ese momento mi corazà ³n†¦show more content†¦They have an ambiance, yes we were poor but we were honest, the police was comprised by uncles and cousins.† In his small town children grew up with minimal education and with agriculture being the only career to look forward to. Ernesto however envisioned himself as an educated professional. â€Å"Tenia miedo de la gran ciudad, era enorme. Pero yo sabia que yo no me querà ­a quedar atrapado en la pobreza y en la vida de campo/ I was afraid of the big city, it was enormous. But I knew that I didn’t want to stay stuck in poverty and having to work in the field.† The nearest university was located in Oaxaca, 20 miles away. â€Å"La ciudad era de hecho enorme me sentà ­ como una idiota y nunca estuve realmente cà ³modo. No me gusto que no reconocà ­a a nadie. Todos los dà ­as habà ­a diferentes personas./ The city was in fact huge. I felt like an Idiot and I was never really able to adjust. I dint know anyone. Everyday there were different people.† The school was a sea of ever changing faces and the only people he could count on were the army officials who checked students as they entered the University. He slowly began conversing with the officials and he became interested in their profession. As academics became overwhelming and expensive he deemed it as a sign that University was not for him. Ernesto decided to then drop out of school and enlisted in the army and became a

Lamb The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 24 Free Essays

string(33) " his dogs down by the riverbank\." Chapter 24 I’ve finally finished reading these stories by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These guys make the whole thing seem like an accident, like five thousand people just showed up on a hill one morning. If that was the case, getting them all there was the miracle, let alone feeding them. We will write a custom essay sample on Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 24 or any similar topic only for you Order Now We busted our asses to organize sermons like that, and sometimes we even had to put Joshua in a boat and float him offshore while he preached, just to keep him from getting mobbed. That boy was a security nightmare. And that’s not all, there were two sides to Joshua, his preaching side and his private side. The guy who stood there railing at the Pharisees was not the same guy who would sit around poking Untouchables in the arm because it cracked him up. He planned the sermons, he calculated the parables, although he may have been the only one in our group that understood any of them. What I’m saying is that these guys, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they got some of it right, the big stuff, but they missed a lot (like thirty years, for instance). I’ll try to fill it in, which is why, I guess, the angel brought me back from the dead. And speaking of the angel, I’m about convinced that he’s gone psycho. (No, psycho isn’t a word I had back in my time, but enough television and I’ll have a whole new vocabulary. It applies. I believe, for instance, that â€Å"psycho† was the perfect term for John the Baptist. More about him later.) Raziel took me to a place where you wash clothes today. A Laundromat. We were there all day. He wanted to make sure I knew how to wash clothes. I may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but it’s laundry, for Christ’s sake. He quizzed me for an hour about sorting whites and colors. I may never get this story told if the angel keeps deciding to teach me life lessons. Tomorrow, miniature golf. I can only guess that Raziel is trying to prepare me to be an international spy. Bartholomew and his stench rode one camel while Joshua and I shared the other. We rode south to Jerusalem, then east over the Mount of Olives into Bethany, where we saw a yellow-haired man sitting under a fig tree. I had never seen a yellow-haired person in Israel, other than the angel. I pointed him out to Joshua and we watched the blond man long enough to convince ourselves that he wasn’t one of the heavenly host in disguise. Actually, we pretended to watch him. We were watching each other. Bartholomew said, â€Å"Is there something wrong? You two seem nervous.† â€Å"It’s just that blond kid,† I said, trying to look in the courtyards of the large houses as we passed. â€Å"Maggie lives here with her husband,† Joshua said, looking at me, relieving no tension whatsoever. â€Å"I knew that,† said Bart. â€Å"He’s a member of the Sanhedrin. High up, they say.† The Sanhedrin was a council of priests and Pharisees who made most of the decisions for the Jewish community, as far as the Romans would allow them, anyway. Aside from the Herods and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, they were the most powerful men in Israel. â€Å"I was really hoping Jakan would die young.† â€Å"They have no children,† Joshua said. What Josh was saying was that it was strange that Jakan hadn’t divorced Maggie for being barren. â€Å"My brother told me,† I said. â€Å"We can’t go see her.† â€Å"I know,† I said, although I wasn’t sure why not. We finally found John in the desert north of Jericho, preaching on the bank of the Jordan River. His hair was as wild as ever and now he had a beard that was just as out of control. He wore a rough tunic that was belted with a sash of unscraped camel skin. There was a crowd of perhaps five hundred people there, standing in sun so hot that you had to check road signs to make sure you hadn’t accidentally taken the turnoff to hell. We couldn’t tell what John was talking about from a distance, but as we got closer we heard him say, â€Å"No, I’m not the one. I’m just getting things ready. There’s one that’s coming after me, and I’m not qualified to carry his jockstrap.† â€Å"What’s a jockstrap?† Joshua asked. â€Å"It’s an Essene thing,† Bartholomew answered. â€Å"They wear them on their manhood, very tightly, to control their sinful urges.† Then John spotted us over the crowd (we were on camelback). â€Å"There!† said John, pointing. â€Å"You remember me telling you that one would come. Well, there he is, right there. I’m not kidding, that’s him on the camel. On the left. Behold the Lamb of God!† The crowd looked back at Josh and me, then laughed politely as if to say, Oh right, he just happened along right when you were talking about him. What, we don’t know from a shill when we see one? Joshua glanced nervously at me, then at Bart, then at me, then he grinned sheepishly (as one might expect from a lamb) at the crowd. Between gritted teeth he asked, â€Å"So am I supposed to give John my jockstrap, or something?† â€Å"Just wave, and say, ‘Go with God,'† Bart said. â€Å"Waving here – waving there,† Josh mumbled through a grin. â€Å"Go with God. Thank you very much. Go with God. Nice to see you. Waving – waving.† â€Å"Louder, Josh. We’re the only ones who can hear you.† Josh turned to us so the crowd couldn’t see his face. â€Å"I didn’t know I was going to need a jockstrap! Nobody told me. Jeez, you guys.† Thus did begin the ministry of Joshua bar Joseph, ish Nazareth, the Lamb of God. â€Å"So, who’s the big guy?† John asked, as we sat around the fire that evening. Night crawled across the desert sky like a black cat with phosphorus dandruff. Bartholomew rolled with his dogs down by the riverbank. You read "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 24" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"That’s Bartholomew,† Joshua said. â€Å"He’s a Cynic.† â€Å"And the village idiot of Nazareth for over thirty years,† I added. â€Å"He gave up his position to follow Joshua.† â€Å"He’s a slut, and he’s the first one baptized in the morning. He stinks. More locusts, Biff?† â€Å"No thanks, I’m full.† I stared down at my bowl of roasted locusts and honey. You were supposed to dip the locusts in the honey for a sweet and nutritious treat. It was all John ate. â€Å"So this Divine Spark, all that time away, that’s what you found?† â€Å"It’s the key to the kingdom, John,† Josh said. â€Å"That’s what I learned in the East that I’m supposed to bring to our people, that God is in all of us. We are all brothers in the Divine Spark. I just don’t know how to spread the word.† â€Å"Well, first, you can’t call it the Divine Spark. The people won’t understand it. This thing, it’s in everyone, it’s permanent, it’s a part of God?† â€Å"Not God the creator, my father, the part of God that’s spirit.† â€Å"Holy Ghost,† John said with a shrug. â€Å"Call it the Holy Ghost. People understand that a ghost is in you, and they understand that it goes on after you, and you’ll just have to make them believe that it’s God.† â€Å"That’s perfect,† Joshua said, smiling. â€Å"So, this Holy Ghost,† John said, biting a locust in half, â€Å"it’s in every Jew, but gentiles don’t have it, right? I mean what’s the point, after the kingdom comes?† â€Å"I was getting to that,† said Josh. It took John the better part of the night to deal with the fact that Joshua was going to let gentiles into the kingdom, but finally the Baptist accepted it, although he kept looking for exceptions. â€Å"Even sluts?† â€Å"Even sluts,† Joshua said. â€Å"Especially sluts,† I said. â€Å"You’re the one who is cleansing people of their sins so they will be forgiven,† Joshua added. â€Å"I know, but gentile sluts, in the kingdom.† He shook his head, assured now by the Messiah himself that the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Which really shouldn’t have surprised him, since that had been his message for over ten years. That, and identifying sluts. â€Å"Let me show you where you’ll be staying.† Shortly after I had met him on the road to Jerusalem, John had joined the Essenes. You couldn’t be born an Essene, because they were all celibate, even in marriage. They also refrained from intoxicating drink, adhered strictly to Jewish dietary law, and were absolutely maniacal about cleansing themselves, physically, of sin, which had been the big selling point for John. They had a thriving community in the desert outside of Jericho called Qumran, a small city of stone and brick homes, a scriptorium for copying scrolls, and aqueducts that ran out of the mountains to fill their ritual baths. A few of them lived in the caves above the Dead Sea where they stored the jars that held their sacred scrolls, but the most zealous of the Essenes, which included John, didn’t even allow themselves the comfort of a cave. He showed us accommodations near his own. â€Å"It’s a pit!† I screamed. Three pits, to be exact. I suppose there’s something to be said for having a private pit. Bartholomew, with his many canine pals, was already settling into his new pit. â€Å"Oh, John,† Josh said, â€Å"remind me to tell you about karma.† So, for over a year, while Joshua was learning from John how to say the words that would make people follow him, I lived in a pit. It makes sense, if you think about it. For seventeen years Joshua had spent his time either studying or sitting around being quiet, so what did he know about communicating? The last message he’d gotten from his father was two words, so he wasn’t getting his speaking skills from that side of the family. On the other hand, John had been preaching for those same seventeen years, and that squirrelly bastard could preach. Standing waist deep in the Jordan, he would wave his arms and roll his eyes and stir the air with a sermon that would make you believe the clouds were going to open and the hand of God Hisownself was going to reach down, grab you by the balls, and shake you till the evil rattled out of you like loose baby teeth. An hour of John’s preaching and you were not only lining up to be baptized, you’d jump right in the river and try to breathe the bottom muck just to be relieved of your own wretchedness. Joshua watched, and listened, and learned. John was an absolute believer in who Joshua was and what he was going to do, as far as he understood, anyway, but the Baptist worried me. John was attracting the attention of Herod Antipas. Herod had married his brother Philip’s wife, Herodia, without her obtaining a divorce, which was forbidden by Jewish law, an absolute outrage by the more severe laws of the Essenes, and a subject that fit well into John’s pervasive â€Å"slut† theme. I was starting to notice soldiers from Herod’s personal guard hovering around the edge of John’s crowds when he preached. I confronted the Baptist one evening when he came out of the wilderness in one of his evangelical rages to ambush me, Joshua, Bartholomew, and a new guy as we sat around eating our locusts. â€Å"Slut!† John shouted with his â€Å"thunder of Elijah† voice, waving a finger under Bart’s nose. â€Å"Yeah, John, Bartholomew’s been getting laid a lot,† I said, evangelizing for sarcasm. â€Å"Almost,† said Bart. â€Å"I mean with another human being, Bart.† â€Å"Oh. Sorry. Never mind.† John wheeled on the new guy, who put his hands up. â€Å"I’m new,† he said. Thus rebuked, John spun to face Joshua. â€Å"Celibate,† Joshua said. â€Å"Always have been, always will be. Not happy about it.† Finally John turned to me. â€Å"Slut!† â€Å"John, I’m cleansed, you baptized me six times today.† Joshua elbowed me in the ribs. â€Å"What? It was hot. Point is, I counted fifty soldiers in the crowd today, so ease up a little on the slut talk. You’re backed up or something. You really need to rethink this no marriage, no sex, no fun, ascetic thing.† â€Å"And the honey-and-locust living-in-a pit thing,† said the new guy. â€Å"He’s no different than Melchior or Gaspar,† Joshua said. â€Å"They were both ascetics.† â€Å"Melchior and Gaspar weren’t running around calling the provincial governor a slut in front of hundreds of people. It’s a big difference, and it’s going to get him killed.† â€Å"I am cleansed of sin and unafraid,† said John, sitting down by the fire now, some of his verve gone. â€Å"Yeah, are you cleansed of guilt? Because you’re going to have the blood of thousands on your hands when the Romans come to get you. In case you haven’t noticed, they don’t just kill the leaders of a movement. There’s a thousand crosses on the road to Jerusalem where Zealots died, and they weren’t all leaders.† â€Å"I am unafraid.† John hung his head until the ends of his hair were dipping into the honey in his bowl. â€Å"Herodia and Herod are sluts. He’s as close as we have to a Jewish king, and he’s a slut.† Joshua pushed his cousin’s hair out of his eyes and squeezed the wild man’s shoulder. â€Å"If it be so, then so be it. As the angel foretold, you were born to preach the truth.† I stood up and tossed my locusts into the fire, showering sparks over John and Joshua. â€Å"I’ve only met two people whose births were announced by angels, and three-quarters of them are loony.† And I stormed off to my pit. â€Å"Amen,† said the new guy. That night, as I was falling asleep, I heard Joshua scrambling in the pit next to mine, as if a bug or an idea had roused him from his bedroll. â€Å"Hey!† he said. â€Å"What?† I replied. â€Å"I just did the math. Three quarters of two is – â€Å" â€Å"One and a half,† said the new guy, who had moved into the pit on the other side of Josh. â€Å"So John’s either all crazy and you’re half crazy, or you’re three-quarters crazy and John’s three-quarters crazy, or – well – actually it’s a constant ratio, I’d have to graph it out for you.† â€Å"So what are you saying?† â€Å"Nothing,† said the new guy. â€Å"I’m new.† The next morning Joshua leapt out of his pit, shook off the scorpions, and after a long morning whiz, kicked some dirt clods into my pit to thunk me from my slumber. â€Å"This is it,† Joshua said. â€Å"Come down to the river, I’m going to have John baptize me today.† â€Å"Which will make it different from yesterday in what way?† â€Å"You’ll see. I have a feeling.† And off he went. The new guy prairie-dogged up out of his pit. He was tall, the new guy, and the morning sun caught on his bald scalp as he looked around. He noticed some flowers growing where Joshua had just relieved himself. Lush blossoms of a half-dozen vibrant colors stood surrounded by the deadest landscape on the planet. â€Å"Hey, were those there yesterday?† â€Å"That always happens,† I said. â€Å"We don’t talk about it.† â€Å"Wow,† said the new guy. â€Å"Can I tag along with you guys?† â€Å"Sure,† I said. And thus did we become four. At the river, John preached to a small gathering as he lowered Joshua into the water. As soon as Joshua went under the water a rift opened across the desert sky, which was still pink with the dawn, and out of the rift came a bird that looked to be fashioned from pure light. And everyone on the riverbank said â€Å"ooh† and â€Å"ahh,† and a big voice boomed out of the heavens, saying, â€Å"This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.† And as quickly as it had come, the spirit was gone. But the gatherers at the riverbank stood with their mouths open in amazement, staring yet into the sky. And John came to his senses then, and remembered what he was doing, and lifted Joshua out of the water. And Joshua wiped the water out of his eyes, looked at the crowd who stood stunned with mouths hanging open, and he said unto them: â€Å"What?† â€Å"No, really, Josh, that’s what the voice said, ‘This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.'† Joshua shook his head and chewed a breakfast locust. â€Å"I can’t believe he couldn’t wait until I came up. You’re sure it was my father?† â€Å"Sounded like him.† The new guy looked at me and I shrugged. Actually it sounded like James Earl Jones, but I didn’t know that back then. â€Å"That’s it,† said Joshua. â€Å"I’m going into the desert like Moses did, forty days and forty nights.† Joshua got up and started walking into the desert. â€Å"From here on out, I’m fasting until I hear something from my father. That was my last locust.† â€Å"I wish I could say that,† said the new guy. As soon as Joshua was out of sight I ran to my pit and packed my satchel. I was a half day getting to Bethany, and another hour asking around before someone could direct me to the house of Jakan, prominent Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. The house was made of the golden-tinged limestone that marked all of Jerusalem, and there was a high wall around the courtyard. Jakan had done very well for himself, the prick. You could house a dozen families from Nazareth in a house this size. I paid two blind guys a shekel each to stand by the wall so I could climb on their shoulders. â€Å"How much did he say this was?† â€Å"He said it was a shekel.† â€Å"Doesn’t feel like a shekel.† â€Å"Would you guys quit feeling your shekels and stand still, I’m going to fall.† I peeped over the top of the wall and there, sitting under the shade of an awning, working at a small loom, was Maggie. If she had changed, it was only that she’d become more radiant, more sensuous, more of a woman and less of a girl. I was stunned. I guess I expected some sort of disappointment, thinking that my time and my love might have shaped a memory that the woman could never live up to. Then I thought, perhaps the disappointment was yet to come. She was married to a rich man, a man who, when I knew him, had been a bully and a dolt. And what had always really made Maggie’s memory in my mind was her spirit, her courage, and her wit. I wondered if those things could have survived all these years with Jakan. I started to shake, bad balance or fear, I don’t know, but I put my hand on top of the wall to steady myself and cut myself on some broken pottery that had been set in mortar along the top. â€Å"Ouch, dammit.† â€Å"Biff?† Maggie said, as she looked me in the eye right before I tumbled off the shoulders of the blind guys. I had just climbed to my feet when Maggie came around the corner and hit me, full-frontal womanhood, full speed, leading with lips. She kissed me so hard that I could taste blood from my cut lips and it was glorious. She smelled the same – cinnamon and lemon and girl sweat – and felt better than memory could ever allow. When she finally relaxed her embrace and held me at arm’s length, there were tears in her eyes. And mine. â€Å"He dead?† said one of the blind men. â€Å"Don’t think so, I can hear him breathing.† â€Å"Sure smells better than he did.† â€Å"Biff, your face cleared up,† Maggie said. â€Å"You recognized me, with the beard and everything.† â€Å"I wasn’t sure at first,† she said, â€Å"so I was taking a risk jumping you like that, but in the midst of it all I recognized that.† She pointed to where my tunic had tented out in the front. And then she grabbed that betraying rascal, shirtfront and all, and led me down the wall toward the gate by it. â€Å"Come on in. You can’t stay long, but we can catch up. Are you okay?† she said, looking over her shoulder, giving me a squeeze. â€Å"Yeah, yeah, I’m just trying to think of a metaphor.† â€Å"He got a woman from up there,† I heard one of the old blind guys say. â€Å"Yeah, I heard her drop. Boost me up, I’ll feel around.† In the courtyard, with Maggie, over wine, I said, â€Å"So you really didn’t recognize me?† â€Å"Of course I recognized you. I’ve never done that before. I just hope no one saw me, they still stone women for that.† â€Å"I know. Oh, Maggie, I have so much to tell you.† She took my hand. â€Å"I know.† She looked into my eyes, past my eyes, her blue eyes looking for something beyond me. â€Å"He’s fine,† I said, finally. â€Å"He’s gone into the desert to fast and wait for a message from the Lord.† She smiled. There was a little of my blood in the corners of her mouth, or maybe that was wine. â€Å"He’s come home to take his place as the Messiah then?† â€Å"Yes. But I don’t think the way people think.† â€Å"People think that John might be the Messiah.† â€Å"John is†¦He’s†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"He’s really pissing Herod off,† Maggie offered. â€Å"I know.† â€Å"Are you and Josh going to stay with John?† â€Å"I hope not. I want Joshua to leave. I just have to get him away from John long enough to see what’s going on. Maybe this fast†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The iron lock on the gate to the courtyard rattled, then the whole gate shook. Maggie had locked it behind us after we’d entered. A man cursed. Evidently Jakan was having trouble with his key. Maggie stood and pulled me to my feet. â€Å"Look, I’m going to a wedding in Cana next month with my sister Martha, the week after Tabernacles. Jakan can’t go, he’s got some meeting of the Sanhedrin or something. Come to Cana. Bring Joshua.† â€Å"I’ll try.† She ran to the closest wall and held her hand in a stirrup. â€Å"Over.† â€Å"But, Maggie†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Don’t be a wuss. Step, hands – step, shoulders – and over. Be careful of the pottery on top.† And I ran – did exactly as she’d said: one foot in the stirrup, one on her shoulder, and over the wall before Jakan could get in the gate. â€Å"Got one!† said one of the old blind guys as I tumbled down on top of them. â€Å"Hold her still while I stick it in.† I was sitting on a boulder, waiting for Joshua when he came out of the desert. I held out my arms to hug him and he fell forward, letting me catch him. I lowered him to the rock where I had been sitting. He had been smart enough to coat all the exposed parts of his skin with mud, probably mixed from his own urine, to protect it from burning, but in a few spots on his forehead and hands the mud had crumbled away and the skin was gone, burned to raw flesh. His arms were as thin as a small girl’s, they swam in the wide sleeves of his tunic. â€Å"You okay?† He nodded. I handed him a water skin I had been keeping cool in the shade. He drank in little sips, pacing himself. â€Å"Locust?† I said, holding up one of the crispy torments between my thumb and forefinger. At the sight of it I thought Joshua would vomit the water he had just drunk. â€Å"Just kidding,† I said. I whipped open the mouth of my satchel, revealing dates, fresh figs, olives, cheese, a half-dozen flat loaves of bread, and a full wineskin. I’d sent the new guy into Jericho the day before to bring back the food. Josh looked at the food spilling out of the satchel and grinned, then covered his mouth with his hand. â€Å"Ow. Ouch. Ow.† â€Å"What’s wrong?† â€Å"Lips†¦chapped.† â€Å"Myrrh,† I said, pulling a small jar of the ointment from the satchel and handing it to him. An hour later the Son of God was refreshed and rejuvenated, and we sat sharing the last of the wine, the first that Joshua had had since we’d come home from India over a year ago. â€Å"So, what did you see in the desert?† â€Å"The Devil.† â€Å"The Devil?† â€Å"Yep. He tempted me. Power, wealth, sex, that sort of thing. I turned him down.† â€Å"What did he look like?† â€Å"He was tall.† â€Å"Tall? The prince of darkness, the serpent of temptation, the source of all corruption and evil, and all you can say about him is he was tall?† â€Å"Pretty tall.† â€Å"Oh, good, I’ll be on the lookout then.† Joshua said, pointing at the new guy. â€Å"He’s tall, too.† I realized then that the Messiah might be a little tipsy. â€Å"Not the Devil, Josh.† â€Å"Well, who is he then?† â€Å"I’m Philip,† said the new guy. â€Å"I’m going with you to Cana tomorrow.† Joshua wheeled around to me and almost fell off his rock. â€Å"We’re going to Cana tomorrow?† â€Å"Yes, Maggie’s there, Josh. She’s dying.† How to cite Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 24, Essay examples

Role of the United States in Ww2 and the Holocaust free essay sample

ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN WW2 AND THE HOLOCAUST World War II (WW2) was a military conflict that began in 1939. It came to be the worst war in human history based of the loss of lives and material destroyed. Though it began as a European conflict between Germans and the French coalition, it spread to include other nations of the world like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (US). Boundaries and lines between combatants and non-combatants blurred with wars being waged on entire enemy territories and their populates’. Nations fought against each other with Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, being on the forefront. Germany’s aggression continued to rise but the US was impaired against acting against any aggression by the passing of a neutrality law. This law prevented them from offering assistance to any country involved in foreign conflict. The worst act against human kind and the most memorable one was the holocaust in Germany. The German Nazi party ordered the killing of over 5. 7 million Jews during WW2. 1. 5 million of them were children. Before the holocaust, there was already hatred toward the Jewish population in Europe. Many Germans put blame on Jews for their defeat in WW1 and, Hitler blamed Jews for his country’s short-comings. He referred to them as a plague that needed to be eradicated and believed that they were pulling down the modern society (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). Also, he strongly opposed the Bolshevik leadership that most of the Jews of USSR practiced. Jews were forced to move and live in concentration camps and Jewish reservations. Also, they were forced to carry out German orders, labor without pay and wear yellow stars on their clothing to distinguish them. They did all this while living in atrocious conditions. They had very little to eat, lived in dirty areas and they did not have access to medical supplies. Soon afterwards, Hitler decided to exterminate what he thought of to be the biological source of Bolshevism. A military campaign started in 1941 with masses of Jews shot in front of mass graves that they had dug themselves. By late 1941, the target extended from USSR Jews to those in Serbia and Poland. They were asphyxiated in storage areas with poisonous gases. Jews were not the only victims. The Nazi regime moved from cultural racism to scientific racism. This broadened the span of victims to include the Roma, homosexuals, soviet soldiers and those with physical or mental disabilities (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). The Nazi doctors murdered over 70,000 disabled people in their euthanasia program. Also, some 200,000 Roma were murdered and 3. 5 million soviet soldiers. While the genocide was taking place, the US did not make serious attempts to stop it. Eugenics (proposed improvement of the human species by allowing reproduction between people whose traits are considered desirable) played a major role in contributing to the holocaust. The practices and attitudes of doctors in Nazi Germany allowed them to slaughter over 300,000 patients. Psychologists and psychiatrists in the US mirrored the same attitudes and practices. Organizations rooted in eugenics were cited as a defense against the so called ‘cleansing’ of humanity. The Rockefellers’ Kinsey-based Model Penal Code is one such organization (Messall, 2005). This organization was founded by the Rockefeller family who owned Standard oil which was a giant in the oil industry. The senior member of Rockefeller had wealth peaking at just under $ 1 billion. Rockefeller money had been funding eugenics long before Hitler decided to turn the theories into practical solutions. They influenced mainstream coalitions to support eugenic practices. The wealth they possessed gave them great political influence and by convincing influential figures to join their cause, they further advocated eugenic policies (Messall, 2005). Using these ideas and policies, the Nazis killed even their own countrymen to ensure that Germany had a population that was free of anything Hitler did not like. There have been many arguments that Americans did not know about the holocaust as it was being carried out. Though this may be true to the extent of the greater population, there were some Americans who knew what was going on. The government and some of the media knew about the holocaust but decided to keep the information under wraps. Whenever this information was shared with the public, key pieces of information were left out like the fact that Jews were the major target. Newspapers did not print holocaust information so that the readers could fully understand the extent of the holocaust. The American government was aware of Hitler’s atrocities and they even heard his threatening speeches. Also, they carried out negotiations with Germany for resettling Jews who would be known as political refugees. By remaining neutral, they did nothing to improve the conditions during the holocaust yet they could have tried. It was unclear to policy makers how they could orchestrate rescue operations behind German boundaries. Also, it was difficult for refugees to obtain visas because of the US state refugee policies. US doors were barred to aliens. Reports on the genocide were delayed by the US state department. In 1942, they received a cable from Switzerland telling them of Nazi plans to murder Jews. The information was from Gerhart Riegner who was a representative of World Jewish Congress. He had received this information from a German industrialist with connections to top Nazis. However, it was not given to the intended recipient who was the American Jewish leader, Stephen Wise (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2011). Riegner had also told the British consulate about the plan and they sent a cable to the London foreign office. It was then passed on to Samuel Sydney, a member of parliament who then sent it to Wise. Having learned of this information, Wise, being distressed, passed it on to the undersecretary of state, Sumner Welles, who told him to refrain from revealing it to the press till it was confirmed. He did not know that the US had already received this information (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2011). Welles received more cable from Switzerland about mass murders of Jews in Poland. The State department sent a memo about banning the American Legation from sending information to private citizens. Also, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was reluctant to help European Jews. He kept advocating for the US to postpone granting visas, he held a meeting for 29 minutes with Jewish leaders in America, he did not object to negotiating with Hitler and he did not meet with orthodox rabbis. Out of growing concerns of Jews being slaughtered in Europe, the Bermuda conference was held between allies. However, the American delegation arrived with discreet directives to contribute little or nothing to the solution. In addition, American Jewish leaders who had wanted to be part of the conference were denied access. Consequentially, the conference came up with no plausible proposal. The report was kept a secret. The US did not act decisively to rescue Jewish refugees and, efforts were started in 1944 after more information about mass murders were given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A war refugee board was established. The allies learned of the killing operations and their locations through reports from Riegner, R. E. Shoenfeld, Henry Morgenthau Jr, Thomas T. Handy and other world organizations. They decided to bomb Auschwitz (where Jews were forced to labor) and railways. They worked to bomb military targets so as to win the war. However, they did not hit the gas chambers. WW2 ended in 1945 and the Nazi regime was defeated. Some refugees in the camps died soon after. The other Jews had no family to return to, only unfriendly neighbors who were afraid that the survivors had come back for their property (Williams, 1993). Their determination to get home contributed to their return to Israel and immigration to other countries. The constrained immigration policies were not lifted during the holocaust and only about 30,000 Jews managed to get into the US every year (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2011). However, this number could have been 190,000 200,000 had the policies been changed. But, the policies were changed in 1948. Since numerous American Jews fought in WW2, Jews continued to be assimilated with a rise in the number of intermarriages. Also, the suburbs they lived in kept growing and school enrollment numbers went higher. In addition, synagogues were affiliated with others. Following WW2, America became the largest and richest center for practice of Judaism. As a result, smaller groups turned to the American Jewry for support and Jewish refugees from other Arab nations came to the US. For 12 years, Germany was ruled by the Nazi party. Jews were almost completely wiped out from Europe. People suffered unimaginable torture while other nations stood by and watched. There is no telling whether interference by the US would have made a difference but, the feeling is that they could have at least tried to do something about it. The war ended and Nazi regime fell and holocaust survivors were free of oppression. This is not to say that the beliefs that fueled the holocaust are dead because, the ideology behind cleansing of humanity is still at large and it should be tamed. Jews have immigrated to many areas mostly the US. American Jews now enjoy civil and human rights and are considered as part of the population of the US. Though America may have ignored the atrocities during WW2, their attitude towards Jews now is welcoming and supportive. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Bibliography Williams, Sandra, S. â€Å"The Impact of Holocaust on Survivors and their Children. † http://www. sandrawilliams. org/HOLOCAUST/holocaust. html, 1993. Holocaust Encyclopedia. â€Å"The United States and the Holocaust. † United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, http://www. ushmm. org/wlc/en/article. php? ModuleId=10005182, 2011 Lapon, Lenny. â€Å"Mass Murderers in White Coats (From Harvard to Buchenwald: A Chronology of Psychiatry and Eugenics† ttp://www. operationmorningstar. org/mass_murderers_in_white_coats1. htm, 2011. Messall, Rebecca. â€Å"The Long Road of Eugenics: From Rockefeller to Roe v. Wade† October 11, 2005 http://www. orthodoxytoday. org/articles5/MessallEugenics. php Feingold, Henry. Bearing witness how America and its Jews responded to the Holocaust. Syracuse, N. Y: Syracuse UP, 1 995. http://jessicadillon. wordpress. com/about/world-war-ii-how-much-did-americans-know-about-the-holocaust-as-it-was-happening/ Bankier, David. Holocaust. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

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. .

Personal Essay on Eating Disorders †Health

Personal Essay on Eating Disorders – Health Free Online Research Papers Personal Essay on Eating Disorders Health I have very strong feelings about many of the topics we discuss in class. One topic I can personally relate to is eating disorders. So many people want to be super model skinny and not work out to achieve it. Eating disorders are so common, because it is easier to skip a couple of meals than it is to go to the gym for an hour every day. The media plays a large role in the way women want to look. Characters and models in advertisements, movies, and T.V. shows are always very fit or very skinny. Super models are especially skinny, and all have the same body type. All models are around six foot tall and very flat chested. Every woman compares herself to these women, and wants to look just like them. Most models and actresses have very serious eating problems. I never realized how much an eating disorder could control your life, until I had one. I never worried about weight until I started hanging out with a lot of girls. Girls have big impressions on other girls. When I made the cheerleading squad was when everything started. Just like sports players were in competition for the best player, our squad was in competition for who could be the skinniest and prettiest. If you were the skinniest and prettiest you were more likely to be popular. A lot of girls, including myself, on the squad were either anorexic or bulimic. Both disorders are equally bad but very different. I started to become anorexic at the very beginning of the season. Our coach was very supportive of all of her cheerleaders, and worked our butts off to try and get us in the best shape we could be in. For me, exercise was not enough. I started to get into drugs to lose weight. I started on the diet pills, which cut my appetite in half. The diet pills and the exercise combined were still not working fast enough for me, so I began to experiment with cocaine. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn’t care, because I was losing weight faster than I had ever before. At the beginning of the season I weighed 130 pounds and within two months I was down to 100 pounds. At this point from the drugs I had lost any appetite I had and I was only eating two crackers a day. A twenty-ounce bottle of water would fill my stomach and sometimes push my belly out. I was so dissatisfied with myself when I would look in the mirror. My thighs were always too big or my tummy wasn’t flat en ough. I was never going to achieve Cindy Crawford’s body and still never will. I was the perfect stereotype, for an anorexic woman. I was very driven in every thing I did. I felt I needed to have control over everything and everyone around me. I felt I was slipping and letting the drugs control me, and my eating was something I could control. My self-esteem got very low and I started to become depressed. I got so bad I was to the point to where my period would start to skip a couple of months and then come back every once in a while. My boyfriend was the first to confront me about my problem. I didn’t want anyone’s help, because I felt I didn’t have a problem. One day at work I passed out in the middle of taking someone’s order and an ambulance rushed me to the hospital. The doctors could tell my body was so undernourished that they told my parents I was twenty pounds under weight and I needed to see a specialist or be checked in to a clinic. I freaked my self out when I woke up in a hospital bed and eventually with the help of my friends and family I began to gradually start eating and getting nutrients in my body. I quit cheerleading because of all the pressure to stay thin. Bulimia is another eating disorder that is very serious in our society. People who have problems with bulimia have different characteristics than people dealing with anorexia. People who are very outgoing and promiscuous are more likely to be bulimic. Bulimia is when a person has frequent episodes of binge eating and pukes after meals. Bulimia is very dangerous because it destroys your stomach lining, gives you very bad breath, and could give you ulcers in your esophagus. This disorder is a little harder to detect because the person can usually maintain a normal, steady body weight. Women who are bulimic often take laxatives to lose a couple of pounds quick. Weight and appearance isn’t only a problem in the female gender. Eating disorders seem to be getting more common in men as time goes on. The media shows men in a whole different light. The exact opposite is expected from men than what is expected from women. Men are supposed to look strong and muscular, the bigger the better. I don’t personally like a very muscular man; I would rather have someone I could cuddle with, not someone who feels like a rock. In Conclusion, Eating disorders are becoming more common everyday. In my opinion I think that beautiful is not one shape or size it is the way you present yourself. Women and men in the old days weren’t all skinny, take Marylyn Monroe for example, she was a size 7/8 and one of the most beautiful and most admired women in the world. This subject can be very depressing to talk about, but is something a lot of people deal with every day. Research Papers on Personal Essay on Eating Disorders - HealthTrailblazing by Eric AndersonHip-Hop is ArtBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductThe Hockey GameEffects of Television Violence on Children19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraMind Travel

How to Write a Book Report A Proven Step-by-Step Instruction

How to Write a Book Report A Proven Step-by-Step Instruction Writing a book report is a relatively easy assignment. This type of writing is believed to be common for K-12 students and is more of a technical assignment requiring narration and summing up of book contents. Book reports don’t usually require in-depth analysis and serve primarily to hone students’ writing skills and help them learn to structure information properly. Book report format consists of three major elements: introduction, body, and conclusion. TOP 25 BOOK REPORT IDEAS The next step is to provide in-depth analysis of the characters, plot, themes, motives etc. Generally, if you come up with a book report while you were asked for a book review, you’re in trouble and your grade is very likely to go down. The opposite situation is less harmful, however still undesirable. Therefore you need to pay close attention to what you are required to write and stick to the assignment criteria if you want to succeed. To demonstrate how to write a book report, let’s take some simple piece of writing and prepare a book report based on our easy 10 step book report template. For greater convenience, let’s try to write a book report based on the short story â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† by O’Henry. Book Report Outline: Sample Book Report What is the title of the book? Who is the author of the book? When was the book written? Who was it published by? What kind of literature is it? The â€Å"Gift of the Magi† is a short story by O’Henry that was first published on December 10, 1906, in the New York Sunday World Magazine. The short story was written when O’Henry’s popularity was at its peak, and despite its literary shortcomings, has enjoyed long literary life for more than a century. Characters The two main characters in this story are Jim and Della, a young married couple, who is going through times of financial difficulty. Brief Plot Summary The story unfolds on the day before Christmas and we find both spouses wanting to make Christmas gifts to each other, but being unable to afford them. Della has gorgeous hair and decides to cut and sell it in order to buy Jim a chain that he could use for his pocket watch. Jim too, looking for a way to buy a Christmas gift for his beloved wife, decides to sell his watch and buy Della a set of hair combs. Jim and Della learn that both had to sacrifice their most precious belongings. O’Henry compares them to the Magi, who put each other’s interests higher than their own, making sacrifices in the name of their loved ones. Themes The main themes of this short story are love, sacrifice, money. This is a short book report sample that shows how to write a book report. It might differ depending on your school and your professor. If you have a model book report and you need help with it, we will happily help you to work through it. is available 24/7 for all customer inquiries. Just place an order right now and we will gladly help you.

Leadership and Talent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 26

Leadership and Talent - Essay Example As the paper declares the human resource department did not consider it as essential, but in current times it is essential to address issues of talent because it is linked with creativity. Creativity of the workers can be improved through nurturing of their individual talents and encouraging them to develop the necessary skills for exploitation of their talents   From this paper it is clear that some talents may require the use of other skills. These skills are vital because they ensure the talent is visible. Talent leadership and strategic talent leadership are vital in the ear because it encourages the development of the talent with the organization or setting. The current situation of leadership discourages the development of the necessary skills in all the other sectors. Leadership and talents have often been misrepresented or mismatched leading to poor understanding of the role of leadership in management. Talent leadership ensures that employees in an organization are able to use their respective area of operation improving the performance and encouraging the development of the necessary skills and training. This study highlights that for a leader to become a successful talent leader, he must be able to change focus from self to managing others. To manage others, the leader must develop the necessary public relations as well as the relationship with the employees to be able to offer guidance even in issues that are deemed not effective or personal issues. The value of a talent manager is to bring to an organization the necessary skills and improve performance of the people he or she is managing. Leadership in this context involves behaviour and not a position or title. In the current set up, the individual contribution of the manager does not count. To achieve success, the manager must be able to develop a cycle of values that can create ripples throughout the organization.  

Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Management - Essay Example The human resources available to an organization have a key strategic role in acquiring, implementing and maintaining a competitive strategy. Supervisors, trainers and developers play a pivotal role in improving the transfer of training by communicating their support for potential learning. The attitude and responses of supervisors, peers and trainers to the trainee can either hurt or help the whole process. The action taken by these partners before, during and after the training directly affects the likelihood that transfer will occur properly. Although organizations spend a lot of time and money on employees’ training annually, there exists no significant relationship between learning and actual job performance. However, when the learned skills are successfully transferred into effective performance, organizations can surely produce better outcomes. As the technological, economic, social and political environment is in a state of continual flux, it is critical for learning o rganizations to adjust and adapt to the dynamic market trends. Over the last decade, the role of trainers and developers has changed in an increasingly integrated world where phones, internet and improvements in infrastructure have progressively changed relationships. The pace of development is so rapid that even trained experts are unable to regulate, monitor and control its impacts properly. What may be regarded as a cultural shift in many organizations, trainers and developers need to adopt a different attitude towards their own involvement in organizations. Such prevailing market conditions also make it imperative that trainers and developers play a more active role in communicating the benefits of training and dealing with the performance problems. This paper attempts to investigate as to how and why has the role of trainers and developers changed in the last ten years. The study will also suggest future developments in the changing role of trainers and developers. Finally, the conclusion will analyze factors influencing the change and suggest effective measures for further improvements. Theory For decades, training and development of human resources is believed to have key strategic importance in determining the organization’s overall performance. As a field, training and development is considered to have evolved during the industrial revolution in America. In the present era of globalization, technological expansions have diversified the traditional role played by trainers and developers. According to a survey, a trainer these days assumes the job of a â€Å"corporate trainer, performance practitioner, lecturer, OD specialist, performance analyst, training leader, employee development specialist, operations improvement coordinator, leadership training associate, training sergeant, and continuous learning and improvement coach at the same time† (ASTD, 1996). From 2000 onwards, the role has become even more versatile with the industrial inte gration and advent of various technological aids. As the term suggests, human resource development is itself â€Å"the process of moving from one place to another, a process that we normally count as ‘change’

Analysis Aqualisa Quartz Essay Example for Free

Analysis Aqualisa Quartz Essay Every company dreams that one day they can bring something unique and very competitive, and use it to dominate the market. But things might not be as easy as they thought. In Aqualisa case, Harry Rawlinson, managing director of Aqualisa, gives us an example that even with new significant shower product Quartz, which seems to be perfect in every aspect, they cannot make a relative progress in U.K. shower market. Quartz is designed to solve all the troubles that exist in U. K. showers. It provides efficient and reliable water pressure and temperature, needs less space in bathroom, has a stylish looking and is easy to use and install. Although Quartz leaps all other showers, the initial sales results turned to be gloomy, as Rawlinson said â€Å"For some reason, it simply wasn’t selling†. To reveal these â€Å"reasons†, we will first look at the general shower market status, and then we will analysis two main factors that cause Quart fail in initial Sales: Quart itself and Plumber. Finally, we will examine Aqualisa’s marketing strategy and find out what is the right thing to do. Shower market in U.K. The U.K. shower market has 3 distribution channels, 3 buyer segments, and 2 Special roles: Plumber and Developer. To give a brief summary, we will use some charts to demonstrate characteristics of these elements, and use it for latter discussions. As we can see, Quartz has 61% in Rate of return (manufacturer) and 47% in Rate of return (retailer), which is not the highest among other products. And we notice that Aquavalve Value, which is in value segment, and Aquaforce 1. 0/1. 5 Bar, which is in Standard segment, have higher Rate of return, but these product sold well in lower segments. Thus Quartz cannot be blamed for overprice, at least it was no more expensive than Aqualisa’s other product. Besides, if we consider the installation cost that saved by Quartz (2 days to half day, with 40-80/hour), Quartz is even cheaper. So either the price was not the reason, or the price was misunderstood. Consumer could be blinded by Quartz’s high retail price and ignore its relatively high produce cost. Besides, Aqualisa â€Å"was generally recognized as having top quality showers, a premium brand, and great service†, that reputation could make consumers form the idea that Quartz is just another premium product which is not cost-effective. This misjudgment of Quartz’s value is the true reason that Quartz was not accepted in lower market. Thus lower Quartz’s price would have less result if the misconception remains unchanged. To solve this problem, Aqualisa need more effort to spread the idea that Quartz is economical and practical. Quartz’s former advertisement plan shows most of its progressiveness, like the picture in Exhibit-9, they list all the priorities, make it even more like a premium product. They need to give some economy features such as the cost of installation, the durability of Quartz’s parts, Quartz’s life time budget etc, and compare Quartz’s features with traditional showers, to remind consumers that Quartz values for their money. Plumber, Friend or Foe? Plumber is an important role in shower market. Exhibit-4 shows that about 73% shower selection are influenced by Plumbers. Yet Plumbers are â€Å"wary of innovation, particularly any innovation involving electronics†, AKA Quartz. The negative impact of Plumber’s attitude is obvious, and even Aqualisa calling â€Å"face-to-face introduce and explain the new product† to their â€Å"very loyal† plumbers, nothing changed in short term. Rawlinson was so desperate to plumbers that he thought about abandon plumbers and target consumers directly. Considering the plumbers’ high clout in current market share, and Aqualisa already have high market share (70%) in Do-It-Yourself Sheds which target consumer directly, give up plumbers would be ineffective and useless. Rather than evade the issue, let’s face it straight: Why Plumbers oppose Quartz and how to change it. The main reason that plumbers reject innovation derived from risk aversion. Because â€Å"unfamiliar products could present unknown performance problems†, which will make plumbers pay money and time to adjust. Former failure case like â€Å"push-button† controls in 1980s had Strengthened plumbers’ stubborn. But Quartz has no substantive contradiction with plumbers, on the contrary, it’s easy to install and operate that could give plumbers substantial benefits. As a matter of fact, Plumbers who â€Å"puts one in†, becomes â€Å"convert†. Thus Plumbers’ prejudice will disappear by time. By saying â€Å"Adoption is a long, slow process† Pestell, Aqualisa national sales manager, did not realize that they do have some ways to speed up the process. In fact, it seems that Aqualisa did not consider plumbers as a distinct important part in their sales. They barely treat plumbers like consumers or retailers, told plumbers how excellent or advanced Quartz is. But what they should do is telling how good Quartz will do to the plumbers themselves. They could show plumbers the contradistinctions in installing Quartz and traditional showers, and emphasize that Quartz will make their daily two days work to half day, reduce both their work intensity and work time. With this advantage, plumbers can do more jobs and be better off in more income. Aqualisa can also give more samples to plumbers or pay non-loyal plumbers to install Quartz to clear former haze of electronics. With focused promotion plan, Aqualisa will make plumbers realize Quartz is favorable, and turn them into steady alliance. Strategy, Breakthrough or Mark time? Aqualisa’s former strategy is Steady and comprehensive. They joined every segments of market and provided their products in all distribution channels. Their current core product is Aquavalve 609, and they had been in the upper level in the market share (â€Å"number two in mixing valves and number three in the overall UK shower market†), only surpass by Triton and Mira (Exhibit-2). When Quartz joins the family, it did not have a clear position among other siblings. Actually, Aqualisa showed no clear expectations in Quartz’s performance. They just spread it to whole market and hope it can dominate. This pointless strategy makes them unconscious to the market response thus they make no effective action when sales encountered difficulties. Even if their final target is the whole market, they could build milestones and interim objectives like enter the high-end market then extend to lower market or simplify the product to catch the lower market with low price then release advance model to premium user. Either way, the company should have a more specific positioning and targeting plan to meet the company’s expectation. Despite the former marketing strategy, Aqualisa now need to decide their next move. Rawlinson showed his trepidation that Aqualisa, which is profitable with its current products, may not be willing to take the risk of promoting Quartz. The risk comes from two sides: first, the development of Quartz has already spent 5. 8 million and three years times, further promotion could cost 3-4 million more. It’s hard to stay profitable with this huge investment. Second, the Quartz has competition effect with company’s Cash Cow product: Aquavalve, which also put company’s stable market share and benefit in uncertainty. The risk of launching new products is inevitable, but is it possible that Aqualisa can sit back, relax and enjoy its current benefit? As we learn from Exhibit-2 (U. K. Market Share Data 2000), Aqualisa, had 18. 1% market share in total units sold, while Triton and Mira were 30. 3% and 21. 7%. In the Electric Showers category, which Aqualisa sold most, the market share was 16. 9% while Triton had 43. 5%. And in Mixer showers category, where core product Aquavalve 609 rest, the market share was 20. 8% while Mira had 36. 4%. With these figure, we cannot say Aqualisa is in a safe place. They did not have domination in any part of the market, and there were significant gap between Aqualisa and market leader. With more than one competitor, Aqualisa could easily be replaced and fall into masses. At this situation, even promoting new product could cost a fortune, Aqualisa still need a breakthrough and Quartz is just what the company need. On the other hand, the existing market structure gives Quartz sufficient space to outspread. If Quartz is good enough to assault Aquavalve 609’s sale, it could also shake the leader position of Triton and Mira’s products. If Quartz is, as Rawlinson said, â€Å"first significant product innovation in the U. K. shower market since forever†, it will beat down others company’s products and increase Aqualisa’s market share, and not only in U. K. market, it can move forward to European markets or global markets, then the current promotion cost would be unremarkable. But if Aqualisa give up Quartz, the opportunity cost would be too big to accept. Rawlinson’s worry will become true: â€Å"In five years’ time, someone else will have got the world market for this technology†. Then the Aqualisa’s experiences would be competitors’ field test and its former investment would contribute to other’s benefit. Conclusion People usually consider that finding the goose is the hard part, but in fact, make the goose laid golden eggs is also not easy. Aqualisa holds its goose named Quartz, and shows us such an example. This case also told us it’s not only about what we have, it’s more about how to connect everything together, including product (Quartz), customer, collaborator (plumber), market, make right decisions and build relationships.

Teacher Expectations and Education Essay example -- Education Teaching

Teacher Expectations and Education One thing I’ve learned this year is that teachers must always strive to adapt to the wide range of individual student abilities, learning styles, and interests even within a single class, but still maintain reasonable expectations, especially if tracking is present in the school. Through my observations, it seems that teacher expectations for students became increasingly lower with each "track." Furthermore, minority, low socioeconomic status and learning support students most frequently appear, in the lower tracks. The low expectations in these classes may be reflected in the students as they leave the school and attempt to function in society. Research by NCTE suggests that ability tracking is detrimental to some groups of students and to many individual students. I will be exploring how low expectations may cause inappropriate behaviors, lack of interest in subject matter, and resistance to learning and how tracking exacerbates these problems. I think it is important, as I discuss expectations in different tracks, to show the composition of students that make up each of the classes that I observed and taught, as it appears that minority, low SES, and learning support students tend to make up the lower tracks. I remember feeling; both shock and surprise when I learned that State College still practices a form of tracking, but Regular, College Prep, and Advanced English seemed pretty harmless at first. The distinct difference between the curriculum and "types" of students from level to level, particularly from Regular to College Prep is what soon began to catch my interest. I should first point out that in the 9th and 10th grades there are only two tracks, Regular and Advanced. Juniors ... ... artwork.† I truly believe (and I’m sure this will be worked out of me at some point) that the moment a teacher says or even thinks that a student is incapable of some task, that is the moment that the student becomes incapable. So what’s the solution to being sensitive to student needs, yet not single them out, labeling, or lowering expectations? Maybe the CTI has some value. Why not simply have two tracks, Regular/College Prep and Advanced (as researched by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented Learner does show that gifted students benefit from tracking) but keep the CTI model of two teachers collaborating in some way and smaller class sizes? With fewer students, teachers would have more time to give individualized help without labeling or segregating certain students and it is less likely that expectations would be lowered unnecessarily.

Affirmative Action Avoiding Racial Discrimination

In recent times, virtually every great political leader has recognized the truth of affirmative action. But, what is affirmative action one might ask? According to Merriam-Webster†s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition: â€Å"an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women.† In the United States, these minority groups include African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Alaskan Natives, and immigrants. In general, affirmative action is intended to benefit groups that are thought to have suffered from discrimination. However, critics argue that some groups benefit from affirmative action because of their political influence. In this essay, I will show that quotas and mandatory preferences not only violate our rights as individual citizens, but also are unnecessary, and why they should be abolished. The term affirmative action was first used in an order issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 that required businesses with U.S. government contracts to treat their employees without regard to race, ethnic origin, religion, or gender. However, later on the government asked the businesses to consider the race and gender of their employees to ensure that the mix of people on their staffs reflected the mix in the local work force. In addition, a fixed share of federal contracts were set aside for businesses owned by women or minorities. Many state and local governments, as well as numerous businesses and schools, created their own affirmative-action programs. Since the 1970's, controversy over affirmative action has developed. People disaccord about how to achieve the goal of nondiscrimination. Even though, some claim temporary preferences are necessary to achieve equality, others believe quotas, mandatory preferences, and other affirmative action policies unfairly affect the right of individuals to be treated according to their abilities. People also disagree about which groups are entitled to affirmative action and for how long (LaNoue). The reasons used by proponents like redressing past injustice and educational diversity are not proper and they harm the society instead of helping it to prosper (Puddington 70-83). Affirmative action in the United States is meant to provide jobs for blacks in formerly closed fields. Correcting a past injustice is admirable, but requiring an employer to provide black faces in order to fill a quota is unfair both to employers and to employees. It puts productivity at risk, as well as the self-esteem and potential for personal growth for those who are being helped (Almasi 4). Proponents also consider that educational diversity is an important reason behind affirmative action and giving preferences to minority students in schools is a way of achieving it. But the preferences remove from bad schools any incentive to improve, since their students are guaranteed places in good colleges irrespective of their own standards (O†Sullivan 22). In fact, to bring onto college campuses students whose academic abilities have been severely damaged by the conditions in which they have been forced to learn would be a recipe for failure (Carter 438). All these students need is a training to be successful in the real world and not just a push, favor, or preference that will force them into being a failure later on. The proponents suggest changing the race-based affirmative action into the class-based affirmative action that would not arouse any hostility. But it makes very little sense in an area of admission to colleges, universities, and professional schools. We already have a huge and expensive system of federal loans to make it possible for those without parental or their own income to get higher education. One can imagine covering all costs for higher education for everyone, it would be immense. The only effect of preference on ground of class could be to increase the number of poor whites and Asians in institutions of higher education, and to reduce the number of blacks (Glazer 444-45). Class-based program would only serve the most disadvantaged Americans. But this solution is not as simple as it may sound. A form of reverse discrimination would still occur, and there would be â€Å"victims† who are â€Å"passed over† regardless of how well they qualified for the school or job (Guernsey 95). Therefore, class-based affirmative action would not help all the minorities in achieving a higher education. As one climbs toward professional success, at some point the preferences must fall away entirely. When the student has shown what he or she can do, the rationale for a preference at the next level is slimmer. So, an even slighter affirmative action preference for professional school admission, while possibly justified on similar grounds, is less important, and a little bit harder to defend, than a program at the college level (Carter 440). Also, a person who has good college achievement does not need to depend on any favor in order to be successful in future. †¦affirmative action has always been what might be called iconographic public policy – policy that ostensibly exists to solve a social problem but actually, functions as an icon for the self-image people hope to gain by supporting the policy (Steele 441). In the quote, Steele means that affirmative action appears to solve the inequality, but instead it makes people see how unequal they actually are. The deleteriousness of an iconographic social policy is that one cannot be against it without appearing to be against what it intends to represent. The white man who opposes affirmative action looks like a racist and the black looks like an Uncle Tom. This kind of policies cause to last indefinitely by hiding behind what they represent.(442). The central idea of compensation behind the affirmative action is no longer justifiable. Many people have realized that even though affirmative action has been successful and beneficiary in the past, but today it has completely lost it purpose to compensate the hurt ones and instead has raised racial tensions. It had many adverse affects on the society over last few decades and people have seen enough of them to finally raise their voice against it. One example of this could be the public poll in which 54 percent of the respondents favored the affirmative action as being good for the country. But when affirmative action was outlined as â€Å"mandatory preferences,† 75 percent of them resisted it. The reason behind this reaction is that people consider quotas as an infringement of the ideal that people should be judged as individuals, not as members of a group (Rottenberg 435). In 1995, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a federal program requiring preference based on a person's race is unconstitutional unless the preference is designed to make up for specific instances of past discrimination. This meant that affirmative action could no longer be used to counteract racial discrimination by society as a whole, but must be aimed at eliminating specific problems. In 1989, the court had made a similar decision regarding state and local programs. In addition, a federal court in March 1996 ruled against a race-based admissions policy at the University of Texas Law School (LaNoue). Undoubtedly, through different court decisions and public outrage one can see why preference is wrong, intrinsically unjust, ethically confuse. It is moreover socially counterproductive: damaging to those who practice it, injurious to the society in which it breeds, and above all cruelly hurtful to the minorities who were to have helped by it (Cohen 459). No sound principles, constitutional or moral justify discriminating by race or sex to achieve some predetermined numerical distribution of goods. The defense of preferences fails because it contradicts the equal treatment of individual persons that fair process demand (457). Time has come for us to take a good look at the notion of affirmative action. We can stop it from increasing racial tensions, barriers, unconstitutional favors, and hostility or we can wait, not take action against it and suffer its destructive consequences in future. It is a choice we have to make right now before it is too late.