Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Ursula K. LeGuins The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Essay -- America

Ursula K. LeGuin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Works Cited Not Included In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," Ursula K. LeGuin makes use of colorful descriptions and hypothetical situations to draw us into a surrealistic world that illustrates how unsympathetic society can be. LeGuin's ambiguity of how the story will go is purposeful; she cunningly makes her case that each of us handles the undesirable aspects of the world we live in differently, and that ultimately, happiness is relative. As we explore this peculiar world of Omelas, we are prompted to ask ourselves, "What do I think is the `perfect society'? What is happiness to me?", and most importantly (to me), "Would I walk away from Omelas?" While we explore these questions, LeGuin expects that we will discover how far we are willing to go to indulge our need for comfort at the expense and pain of others. How important is our material possessions and comforts? "Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all"(1264), LeGuin invites us to take part in what at first seems to be a surrealistic trip through Omelas -- to explore our own Omelas. To partake as the main character in this utopia, this city of odd joy; we are urged on by a climaxing tempo of colorful passages and lush scenery, "Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay" (1264), and jubilant music and dance, "In other streets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance" (1264). One can almost hear the children's laughter, "[their] high calls rising like the swallows' crossing flights over t... ...at has become desensitized to the pain and suffering of others. LeGuin creates a paradox by offering us the mercy that is not extended to the child. We are given a chance to escape from Omelas. Will we walk away from Omelas and leave the child to suffer, or stay and become the people of Omelas, with their blank empty smiles? "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness" (1267). We don't know where the place is that these people escape to. Their fate is uncertain, but for those who leave, it is better to go into the unknown than to remain and be a part of this uncaring, indifferent society. LeGuin's short fiction "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas" suggests to us that it is possible to break away from our learned behavior and take on a new, more caring approach to each other, and the world around us.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Charles Dickens and Curley’s Wife Essay

A comparison of Nancy from ‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens and Curley’s Wife from ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. In the two books both characters can be compared with each other but in many ways they are different in looks, language and personality, but the reasons for which the authors created them is much the same. I believe that Steinbeck created Curley’s wife, so that the reader feels sorry for her because most of the other characters in the book try to stay clear of her and do not get to know her, and in a sense, judge her by the way she dresses. On the other hand Steinbeck is trying to express to the reader that looks do not count for everything. The main reason for Curley’s wife’s creation in my personal opinion is because all of the characters in the book are misfits for example; Lennie is not clever and acts like a child when he is with George by the riverbank and threatens to leave because George becomes annoyed with him. Also Crooks the Negro is crippled and cannot walk very well, but in his own way he is special and well educated. In the same way Dickens creates Nancy as the type of character that the reader feels sorry for but at the same time accuse her for the mistakes she has made, such as running away from Bill Sikes but returning to him because she loves him and cannot bring herself to leave. As the book progresses the reader begins to gain more respect for Nancy but I believe that there is a reason for Nancy’s death, which is brought about by Oliver and this, is that doing the right thing does not always mean that it is not dangerous to yourself. The two characters have different opinions on their partners and are not treated in the same way, but neither of them is happy with her life. Curley’s wife is unhappy with her life and this is most likely because Curly is over possessive of her and all he ever talks about is fighting which makes her a little scared of what he may do to her if he is in a mood. She is always flirting with other men on the ranch like when she is alone with Lennie she says, ‘What you got there sonny boy. ‘ We are also given the impression that she is a ‘tart’ by the way Steinbeck describes what she wears, ‘She wore her bright cotton dress and the mules with red ostrich feathers. Her face was made up and the little sausage curls were all in place. ‘ Curley’s wife married Curley to get back at her mother after her dreams had been broken because the letter, which she had been promised from Hollywood never, arrived. On the other hand the only reason Curley married her was for his reputation and we know that he is vein due to the way he keeps one hand in a glove in order to keep it soft for her. Curley is also worried about what she may be up to when he is absent and therefore is always snooping around after her, which makes his wife feel trapped. Nancy in much the same way is not loved either but she does really care about Bill Sikes. Unlike Curley’s wife, Nancy is assaulted by Bill on many different occasions and is eventually killed by him. The main difference between the two characters is that Sikes is not overprotective of Nancy in the same way Curley is and will let her go out as long as he knows where she is going, the reason for this is that Sikes knows that Nancy is loyal to him. When Nancy meets up with Rose and helps to save Oliver she also offers Nancy a new start but the offer is declined because Nancy does not want to leave Bill Sikes and she says, The main contrast between the two characters is that Nancy loves Bill, but Curley’s wife does not love her husband but she cannot leave him because she lives on the ranch and has no other place to stay. The characters partner’s opinions compare because neither of them really care for their lover. Sikes treats Nancy like a ‘punch bag’ and she is scared of Curley because he has hit many other people and she is suspense waiting to see if he will lash out at her. In ‘Of Mice and Men’ Curley’s wife is known to some of the other characters such as Crooks, George and Candy as a ‘tart’ or a ‘bitch’ and a good example of this is when she walks into the bunkhouse and George says, ‘Jesus what a tramp, so that’s what Curly picked for a wife. ‘ As George is saying this Lennie is admiringly staring at her saying’ ‘She’s purty’ in response to Georges insult. Most of the men on the ranch try to stay clear of her and George warns Lennie about her too, ‘ Listen to me you crazy bastard, don’t you even take a look at that bitch. I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ’em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jailbait worse than her. You leave her be. ‘ Lennie refuses not to listen and ends up not taking any real notice of what George has says to him. Oliver respects Nancy, like Lennie is fond of Curley’s wife and both of them seem to have child like qualities that judge the characters for who they are and not how they dress or look. In the same way as Curley’s wife is despised by the ranch workers, Nancy is looked down on by the upper class people of the nineteenth century. The main reason the upper class residents do not respect Nancy is because she is a prostitute and in the time of Dickens this occupation was the lowest of the low for a woman. When Nancy goes to visit Rose, who is the adopted daughter of the women whose house Oliver broke in to, she is looked down on by the servants and thrown out of the hotel because of the way she looks. ‘Come! ‘ said the man taking her to the door, ‘None of this, take yourself off. ‘ The servants are not the only characters that look down on Nancy, Fagin and Sikes treat her badly and Dickens describes Sikes as using Nancy as his punch bag. Bill Sikes persists this behaviour even though Nancy looks after him when she is ill and says that she would even walk around the jail if he was arrested, just to be with him, but Sikes replies that she would be useless to him unless she brought a file to help him escape. On the whole I feel that neither of the character are loved and they are judged by the way they look, not by the people they really are inside. Each of the characters is special to one person, in Curley’s wife’s case Lennie and in Nancy’s, Oliver. I feel that the biggest difference between the two books is the language and the reason for this difference is the time at which they were written. In John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ the language is simple but strong, the reason Steinbeck’s characters speak in this way is because that’s the way 1930s Americans would have spoken, for example, when George, Crooks and Slim are talking about Lennie, George says, ‘If that crazy bastard foolin’ around too much, jus’ kick him out, Slim. ‘ There is also a large amount of slang used between the characters, like when George and Curly are talking and George replies, ‘He was ‘gunna’ put some tar on a split roof. ‘

Sunday, January 5, 2020

We Must Stop Animal Research and Animal Testing Essay

What if I told you that more than 100 million animals are killed each year due to animal testing? What if I told you that these animals are burned, crippled, abused and poisoned on a regular basis? What if I told you that in order to obtain your favorite shampoo, hand sanitizer, lotion, etc. that innocent animals must be tortured? Throughout history animal research and experimentation has played a key role in scientific benefit and discovery. Even I cannot deny the numerous medical breakthroughs that have been founded using animals as test subjects; however, this does not excuse the physical and emotional persecution these poor animals must endure. Animal testing should be illegal. The use of animals in testing facilities is†¦show more content†¦Oftentimes these chemicals are left there for days and these rabbits suffer with no relief. For skin irritancy tests the animals are detained and chemicals, like perfume/cologne, are placed on a patch of shaved skin (â€Å"Blindedâ € ). These tests may sound harmless, but in reality they cause great damage to the participants. Common side effects of such experiments include but are not limited to, redness, bleeding, ulcers, burning and blindness. These animals are in constant pain to test products not intended for their use. As horrifying as that mental picture may have been, I realize that there can be no solution without an alternative and luckily there are. EpiDerm testing uses reconstructed human epidermal to test how chemicals will react to actual human skin. According to mattek.com, â€Å"This procedure [EpiDerm] can be used as full replacement of the in vivo rabbit skin irritation test for hazard identification and labeling of chemicals.† Basically this test is just as effective as using rabbits and no one is harmed. Bovine Corneal Opacity can also replace the Draize eye test. For this test the eye of a slaughtered meat animal is used to assess how one might react if chemicals entered the eye. 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