Hiroshima- John Hersey Essay Essay Example for Free

Hiroshima- John Hersey Essay Essay ‘Hiroshima is not merely a documentary, Hersey manages to inject into the narrative both compassion and awareness of the ultimate triumph of humanity. ’ Discuss Hiroshima from this perspective. Hiroshima is an historic depiction of a disaster that shocked the world. Utilizing the experiences of six Japanese atomic bomb survivors Hersey expresses compassion and awareness of the city’s triumph over the disaster. The narrative creates compassion by showing perseverance of common people and their journeys to overcome the tragedy. By using the patriotism of the dying victims Hersey creates empathy and outlines the nation’s indefatigable pride, He depicts Hiroshima’s triumph as a community uniting together to help each other in a time of adversity. The narrative focuses on six bomb survivors and their accounts during and after the bomb. Using the accounts of the survivors’ Hersey is able to extract compassion to the reader. Mrs Hatsuyo Nakamura was a widowed mother of three who suffered great poverty after the bomb; she was left torn and fragile. Suffering from radiation sickness and no means of income, Mrs Nakamura never loses hope. In an attempt to overcome her obstacles she worked countless jobs but barely earned enough to suffice. Regardless of how hard the task was physically and emotionally Mrs N was willing to do and sacrifice anything for the good of her children She earned barely enough for food†¦ Her belly began to swell up, and she had diarrhoea and so much pain she could no longer work at all†¦ The doctor treated Nakamura-san†¦to pay the doctor she was forced to sell her last valuable possession, her husband’s sewing machine. (p119, 120). And after all the hardship she was finally able to rebuild her life slowly: She felt at home in her body now; she rested when she needed, and she had no worries about the cost of medical care†¦It was time for her to enjoy life. (p128). Using her experiences Hersey is able to construct an emotional bond between the reader and Mrs Nakumura by retelling the hard and miserable journey she took just to stay alive and her triumph over her sickness and poverty. Mrs Nakumara was just one of the six stories Hersey used to convey compassion to the readers of Hiroshima. Hersey’s presentation of patriotism among dying bomb victims creates a sympathetic bond to the reader for their triumph over the devastation. After the attack on Hiroshima the survivors refused to die in vain in spite of what tragedy had hit their city. Even in the face of death, the survivors were rejoicing their heritage, dedicating their last breaths of life to their motherland and were determined keep their morale even after the devastation. One of the girls begun to sing Kimi Ga Yo, the national anthem, and others followed in chorus and died. (p 116). As a reader it was hard to comprehend the significance of honour these people felt for their country. After the bomb, they were suffering from poverty and tragedy, yet by hearing the emperors’ voice on broadcast they were touched and gratified: the Emperor, they cried with full tears in their eyes. ‘What a wonderful blessing it is that Tenno himself call on us and we can hear his own voice in person. We are thoroughly satisfied in such a great sacrifice †¦Japan started her new way. † (p 85) Hersey uses the patriotism of the survivors as an example of a triumph of humanity. The survivors were too proud to let the enemy take their last shred of hope their national dignity, opting to die with honour and pride. In addition to compassion, Hiroshima also raised awareness of the city’s triumph of humanity. A new sense of community and unification was present at the time of crisis; the atomic bomb left Hiroshima demolished. Hersey painted a dark and disastrous image, yet as a result, contrasted and portrayed the high points of humanity. Father Kleinsorge, a priest of the Society of Jesus, felt that he was an outsider prior to the bomb, yet after the bomb he was filled with gratitude for the cities new found acceptance: she came to him and said These are tea leaves. Chew them, young man, and you wont feel thirsty. The womans gentleness made Father Kleinsorge suddenly want to cry. For weeks, he had been feeling oppressed by the hatred of foreigners (p 70). The enemies’ intention to tear the city apart emotionally and physically backfired as it left the city stronger and united. One feeling they did seem to share†¦ was a curious kind of elated community spirit†¦ pride in the way they and their fellow-survivors had stood up to a dreadful ordeal(p114). Hiroshima raised awareness of the Japanese people’s indestructible spirit even when their city lay in ruins they would not be defeated and stayed strong. John Hersey’s Hiroshima gives a simple insight into one of the most devastating tragedy which creates compassion and awareness of Japans’ ultimate triumph of humanity. Hersey was able to use the perseverance of everyday people battling the effects of the atomic bomb to create compassion. In addition to this, he was able to express the importance of national-pride felt by victims who displayed patriotism, who were prepared to die for their honour. Hersey raised awareness of how Japanese civilians were able to unite and overcome the bombs aftermath. Hiroshima is not simply a monotonous documentation of the atomic bombs effects on a city, but a representation of empathy and compassion that notifies people of Japans triumph over adversity.

Subliminal Perception, Neuropsychology, and the I-Function :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Unconscious Processing: Subliminal Perception, Neuropsychology, and the I-Function In his 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard warned the American public that "Large-scale efforts are being made, often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes... Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness; so that the appeals which move us are often, in a sense, hidden" (1). Packard was convinced - perhaps rightly so - that advertisers were "professional persuaders" whose marketing techniques were deceptive and overly manipulative. Not only were advertisers becomingly increasingly adept at developing campaigns, pitches, and slogans to send specific messages to targeted consumer populations, but some had gone so far as to suggest that such messages could be effective even if they were presented below the level of conscious awareness. James Vicary, one of the market researchers and entrepreneurs profiled in Packard's book, claimed to have developed a machine capable of flashing such unnoticeable, "subliminal messages" within big screen movies. Vicary had allegedly tested his technique by altering movies so that messages urging viewers to "Eat Popcorn" and to "Drink Coke" were displayed at regular intervals throughout the film for such brief durations that they could not be consciously perceived. Vicary claimed that his subliminal messages resulted in a significant increase in sales of popcorn and coke (1). Although no experiment involving subliminal messages has ever replicated the success which Vicary claimed to have achieved and, in fact, Vicary later admitted that it had been no more than a marketing gimmick, the possibility of subliminal or unconscious perception has not been dismissed. In fact, although the use of subliminal messages is generally considered a foolish and invalid practice, the more general phenomenon of subliminal/unconscious perception deserves to be reevaluated in light of current debates surrounding the nature of consciousness. Subliminal or unconscious perception refers to the idea that stimuli presented below the threshold for conscious awareness can influence an individual's thoughts, feelings, or actions (2). The possibility that an individual can acquire and act on input without being aware of doing so has implications for the study of consciousness and the larger set of processes which characterize the I-function. It is generally assumed that that conscious perception of a stimulus is necessary in order to act on that stimulus, and this conscious decision to act is one of several processes which characterize the I-function.

Representation Of Wolves

Question : Compare and contrast the representations of wolves in Angela Carter’s â€Å"The Company of Wolves† and â€Å"Wolf Alice†. How successful do Carter’s literary appropriations demythologise gender stereotypes.IntroductionIn The Bloody Chamber (1979), Angela Carter’s short stories took a particularly conservative genre and radically subverted it for feminist purposes, deconstructing and demythologizing gender stereotypes in a very creative manner. Fairy-tales were always a very traditionalist and patriarchal literary form, first recorded by aristocratic writers in the 17th and 18th Centuries as moralistic and cautionary stories for children.Politically, their agenda was the exact opposite of Carter, whose feminist views were forged in the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Therefore, none of her female heroines follow these traditional gender roles of being passive victims or the sex objects of men. In â€Å"Wolf Alice†, the nameless female heroine was raised by wolves and was therefore on outcast in human society, unable to assume the passive and domestic gender roles expected of her, while in â€Å"The Company of Wolves†, the Little Red Riding Hood character is depicted as independent and fearless rather than a ‘typical’ female victim of the werewolf.At the end of both stories, the females also voluntarily enter into relationships with the ‘monsters’, claiming control over their own sexuality in defiance of the traditional gender roles. Female characters like these could only exist in a modern feminist or post-feminist context, and stand out as extremely divergent from the norm in society. Body â€Å"Wolf Alice† incorporates some of the elements of Snow White, Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast. Carter was always interested in the â€Å"’beat-marriage stories of the original fairy-tales†, and to the elements of ‘beastliness’ in all forms of sexuality (Makinen 1992).She was not simply portraying all males as beasts, rapists and monsters but rather making a more feminist statement that woman should take control over their sexual desires and â€Å"re-appropriate it as part of themselves† (Makinen 1992). Alice was raised by wolves and therefore could not speak, ran on all fours and preferred the night over day. In these characteristics, she retained all the â€Å"instinctual nature of her foster family† even after she has been sent to live with the nuns (Walker 77).As the nun-narrator explains â€Å"nothing about her is human except that she is not a wolf† (Wolf Alice 119). She is not even aware that she casts a reflection in the mirror, but believes it is another person. After teaching her some limited skills for nine days, the nuns decide that she really cannot be transformed back into a human, so they send her to the Duke’s castle. He is a nocturnal creature as well, who lives alone and feeds on the living and dead more like a ghoul than a werewolf or vampire.Alice performs domestic tasks for him, sweeping and making the bed, and â€Å"knows no better than to do his chores† (Wolf-Alice 120). Only with her menstruation does she begin to awaken to the fact that she is a female, since she knew nothing about these matters and the nuns certainly did not explain sexuality to her. At this time, she also becomes aware that her breasts are getting larger and begins to wear the old, discarded gowns that belonged to the Duke’s grandmother, although â€Å"she could not run so fast on two legs in petticoats† (Wolf Alice 124).After the Duke is injured during one of his nighttime forays, she begins to kiss his wound and thus transforms him back into a human â€Å"as if brought into being by her soft, moist, gentle tongue† (Wolf Alice 126). In â€Å"The Company of Wolves†, Carter subverts the â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† tale b y having the female hero willingly join in a sexual relationship with the werewolf. In the traditional versions of the story, of course, the monster is killed by the heroic male hunter, and as Carter describes the legends being circulated in the village, this was the normal fate of werewolves.In Carter’s alternative reality, though, the heroine becomes a â€Å"partner in seduction† (Walker 77). Even before she met the werewolf, she was slowly awakening to her sexuality and her â€Å"breasts had just begun to swell† (Company of Wolves 113). She had heard all the stories about werewolves from the villagers and the dangers of walking alone in the forest, but â€Å"she has her knife and is afraid of nothing† (Company of Wolves 113). To be sure, the werewolf is also described as young, handsome and seductive, so much so the even the grandmother notices his unusually large penis just before he kills and eats  her.Carter was well-aware of the mixture of sexual ity and violence in this creature, and writes that the â€Å"last thing the old lady saw in all the world was a young man, eyes like cinders, naked as a stone, approaching her bed† (Company of Wolves 117). When Little Red Riding Hood enters the cottage, they engage in the expected dialogue about his big eyes and teeth, but she was not a passive victim and laughed at his threats, knowing that â€Å"she was nobody’s meat† (Company of Wolves 118).At the very end of the story, she goes to sleep â€Å"between the tender paws of the wolf† that has just devoured Granny (Company of Wolves 118). Conclusion In â€Å"Wolf Alice† and â€Å"The Company of Wolves†, Angela Carter completely subverted and revised the traditional female stereotypes and gender roles, making her women characters courageous, autonomous and sexually aware. Not all of her leftist and feminist critics agreed with this, however.She was also so frank in her depiction of raw female p ower and sexuality that in in 1987, the New Socialist asserted that Carter was â€Å"the high-priestess of post-graduate porn† (Makinen 1992). Patricia Duncker. Aneis Lewellan and other feminist scholars thought that she had been unable to revise the â€Å"conservative form† of fairy-tales and turn them into feminist literature (Makinen 1992). On the other hand, Charley Baker was correct in arguing that Carter was always exploring â€Å"ways in which women can retain control and defy the systems of oppression that attempt to place them in the role of passive victim† (Baker 76).Similarly, Charlotte Crafts found that Carter’s intention was to â€Å"deconstruct myths about femininity contained within the tales† and challenge the â€Å"patriarchal structures of fairy-tale from within† (Crafts 54-55). Wolf Alice and Little Red Riding Hood were fully autonomous and independent women, who behaved in ways that not even the monsters could have expect ed. Contrary to traditional gender roles and stereotypes they were never passive victim and sexual objects, but instead chose to become involved in relationships with the creatures.To put it mildly, these would most definitely not have been considered appropriate actions for women in the traditional fairy-tales, and both of Carter’s female characters stand completely apart from ‘conventional’ society for that reason. From a political viewpoint, such a recasting of this ultra-conservative and patriarchal genre would only have been possible in feminist era in which liberated and powerful female heroines actually became conceivable for the first time in history.

Saving the Planet, One Panel and Turbine at a Time Essay

Fossil fuels are starting to be a problem and are slowly killing the Earth. We have other sources which we can use to solve our problems. â€Å"Wind and sunshine are clean, emitting neither the pollutants that cause smog nor the carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change†(Ball n.p.). Renewable energy should replace fossil fuels, because they are cleaner, they have been already working, and they are helping Africa. Renewable energy should replace fossil fuels because they are cleaner. Fossil fuels are well known to poison the Earth. They may seem like a solution to our energy needs but they are doing more harm than good. Even though they are so toxic to the Earth we still have a while until we can completely switch to clean energy. â€Å"The†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Wind energy generates about 1.4 percent of the world’s electricity†(Ball n.p.). The U.S. is doing ok with renewable energy but it could put more resources into expanding our technology. â€Å"A 2012 study for world wildlife-Netherlands by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants ranked the U.S. 15th in clean-tech sales relative to gross domestic product, with only 0.3 percent of our economy based on clean-tech†(Yang n.p.). The U.S. has always tried to make itself number one. It would be logical to think that they would want to continue that tradition, even in the green technology field. The U.S. would ha ve to improve their clean technology to be respected on a global level. â€Å"Germany has had policies in place for decades that have resulted in the installation of somewhere around half of the world’s solar panels in its country- even though it has far less sun than places like California†(Yang n.p.). The U.S. contains several sunny places where photovoltaic cells could thrive. They would be able to catch tons of energy. Those places that receive massive amounts of sunlight are a gold mine of untapped renewable energy. â€Å"California is an excellent example of what the United States has the potential to become. The Golden State enacted the pioneering 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, which sent unambiguous signals to the energy markets that the state is serious about combating climate change and that green technology will play a crucial role inShow MoreRelatedSolar Energy : A Positive Impact On Today s Society1943 Words   |  8 Pagespositive impact on todayâ⠂¬â„¢s society by making the world have less pollution. Solar power is the efficient way of saving energy for the better of our planet. 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