Our Society’s Indifference to Violence Essay

Last year, while sitting in my car with a friend at the beach, I witnessed a terrible situation in which almost no one helped the woman in trouble. Although I was scared, it never occurred to me to not offer my assistance. Looking back at the situation now, I can’t help but wonder if I wasn’t there how differently the night may have turned out for an innocent girl. This one night, changed my life and probably saved hers. On this night, we sat in the car talking about the day’s events and enjoyed the calmness of the ocean and the peacefulness of the night. Although it was already dark, many other cars lined the boardwalk and several people were sitting out watching the wave’s crash on the nearby beach. For a late evening, the beach was unusually busy. We sat and talked for few minutes before noticing a commotion off in the distance. At first, it appeared to be a prank, or a fight. Initially I didn’t think it was serious and went back to enjoying the sound of the waves and the company of my friend. Soon, the distraction appeared to take on a more desperate tone, so I focused ahead on what was happening. In the distance I could see a young woman frantically running from vehicle to vehicle. I had no idea what was going on, and although I wanted to ignore it, something told me not to. I strained my eyes to see what she was doing, and to my surprise no one else seemed to notice how frantic she was. As she ran around, shouting and what looked like crying, people walked away, rolled up their windows and ignored her. She was making her way down the line of parked cars in a hurried fashion, but I still had no idea how severe the situation was. In no time, she was standing at the driver’s side window screaming. Her words were difficult to make out and my first thought was that she was drunk or on drugs. I quickly dismissed this idea when I noticed her shirt. It was covered, in what appeared to be blood. She was crying, and talking so fast I couldn’t make out what she was saying. What was clear was that she was asking, in fact, begging for help. We quickly told her to get into the backseat, away from the danger that had caused her this horrible reaction. She was trembling, and bleeding and crying. We did our best to comfort her and quickly called 911 from our cell phone. Luckily the police were nearby and responded very quickly. As we sat, and waited for the police to question us, we couldn’t help but wonder why no one had helped her. She had asked at least ten people for help, and all of them had ignored her. The situation was obviously dire and had we not called the police immediately who’s to say what would have happened to her. We waited for what seemed like an eternity until finally the police explained the situation. It seemed the girl was making her way back to the road from the beach when a man jumped out from behind the bushes and attacked her. She had been stabbed, but managed to get away before he was able to do more harm to her. Unfortunately, the unidentified man was also able to get away. After being attacked, and stabbed, she ran for help. She was obviously hurt and bleeding but no one, except us, helped her. She was quickly whisked away in an ambulance and the police assured us that her wound was minor and she would be okay. We sat for at least another hour as the helicopters, police and search dogs looked for the assailant. We learned later, on the news that the man was never found. It was so disturbing to see someone in obvious need asking for help and everyone turning their back to her. It was as if they couldn’t be bothered, or they thought she was joking. So many people were so quick to dismiss it as â€Å"not serious† just to justify their time of peace that it nearly cost someone their life. I would like to think that if the people who did not help, knew that the girl was injured they would have offered to help, but I am not sure. They were all so quick to make a judgment about the situation and assume that it was serious that this girl, who had just been stabbed, couldn’t convince them that she was hurt. Our culture is becoming one of not only increasing violence, but one of desensitization to that violence. Had we not been there to help, I can’t help but wonder if anyone would have thought to call the police, or an ambulance, or offer even basic comfort to someone in obvious need. The people that did not help that night were completely indifferent to her and were more considered with their own enjoyment that they failed to help a young girl in need. In so doing, their lack of assistance may have provided the attacker the time needed to get away. In this case, indifference led to injustice for not only this one girl, but to everyone else this man may have attacked in months and years to come. We’ll never know just how many people this lack of compassion affected. Our society has become numb to violence and that numbness has not only caused an increase of violent acts it has caused a greater degree of indifference for the victims of horrible crimes like the one I witnessed. The people on the beach that night justified their lack of action by saying they thought she was acting, or drunk. Sadly, it should never have mattered why she was screaming, bleeding and asking for help. Help should have been offered without question and without prejudice. If we don’t change this behavior, as a society, violence and indifference will only continue to grow as it has for the past several decades.

“Continuum” by Allen Curnow analysis Essay

The poem Continuum by Allen Curnow different themes are dived upon. The poem reflects on the author leaving his house and gazing at the sky, then going back in the house because he was cold. This poem delves into different themes. In this essay I will be exploring the different themes of the poem. One of the main themes expressed in this poem is the theme of the time. The author waits a long time outside of his house. This is shown as he talks about how ‘the moon rolls over the roof’. In the end of the first stanza he mentions that the moon isn’t actually moving but it is his own perception. This may be because he waited for such a long time that the moon moved across the sky and that from his viewpoint across the roof or that he was moving himself and seeing the moon at different angles. In the 5th stanza, the poet says ‘A long moment stretches, the next one is not on time’. This shows a desire for order. This relates to perception of time, as he doesn’t see time pass when he wants something to last. The next theme I will be reflecting upon is the theme of perception. This is first mentioned in the first stanza where he sees the moon as rolling over the roof and falling down but later on he realizes that the moon isn’t actually rolling over the roof. This is a misconception of what is actually happening. In the 6th stanza, when the author writes ‘the night sky empties the whole of his contents down’ that is again a misconception of what is actually happening. He is using personification to explain this. Perception is also challenges in the 5th stanza. This is closely related to what was written in the previous paragraph on time. His perception of time is faulted depending on how he feels. The biggest theme of this poem, is the theme of creation, this theme has a large impact on the poem as the poet reflects on it quite a bit. In the 3rd stanza the poet writes ‘into the washed out creation, a dark place’. In the beginning of this stanza the author talk about normal, domestic things like a porch or a privet but he then stars out into raw creation. The ‘dark place’ might be just the actual creation itself. In the next stanza, the  author moves on to talk about ‘bright clouds’. This could be light coming from darkness and description that even in the darkest time of the day, there are still rays of light. In the last stanza the author talks about a ‘cringing demiurge’. A demiurge is a creator of universes, someone who creates. This is again linked to the theme of creation. During the poem Allen Curnow often tries to create some form of poetic structure but seems to fail continually. When he uses the word cringing maybe he his comparing himself to a demiurge that is forging the poem, or maybe he is blaming the demiurge for giving him insomnia, driving him outside and even then not letting him on any inspiration. The litter and the tools could be the feeble attempts to poet had made to create a worthy piece of work. In a sense this is paradoxical as the poet writes about not being able to write poems in a poet In conclusion, the three different themes mentioned above are all in some way or another related to each other. This is particularly seen in time and perception. The perception of time itself reflects both themes. This poet has used a lot of metaphysical ideas and the poem reaches an extremely deep meaning. The theme of creation reflected on in this poem is very influential on the rest of the poem. The author uses these three themes to reflect on himself and his reason for a lack to produce anything. In a sense this is paradoxical as the poet writes about not being able to write poems in a poem.

America History19th Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

America History19th - Essay Example However, in ‘The Yellow Wallflower’ the author has provided a scenario which indicates the dominance of men over women in the second half of nineteenth century. Both these literary works give a contradicting view of the gender roles in the society. The ‘Hospital Sketches’ is a short account of the experiences of a woman who worked as a nurse during the Civil War. The story starts with a woman who is trying to figure out what she wants to do in her life. After turning down a number of suggestions like; teaching, writing a book, acting and getting, she finally determines to nurse the soldiers in the Civil War. This starting of the story suggests the freedom of the women to choose what they want to do in their life. The setting of the story also suggests that the decisions of the women were also encouraged. The author is strong supporter of female equality. In her journey to become a nurse, she is helped by a number of gentlemen. The story further provides the account of the author regarding learning how to nurse and the difficulties faced by the author in the process. Throughout the story, the author provides an indication of the importance of women in the society. ... Thus, the author defines the roles of gender in the society by providing a convincing example. Since the author supports female equality, she has provided a convincing example of how men and women can work together in society for better results. However, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a story of a woman who is compelled to be confined within the bounds of a room and ultimately the psychological impacts of such confinement on the woman. The story provides a completely contradicting account of the gender roles in the second half of the nineteenth century when it is compared to the ‘Hospital Sketches’. The author tells the story in first-person perspective and she has written it in the style of journal entries. The story starts when a family goes to a colonial mansion for the summer and the woman who tells the story is confined in a room upstairs. Throughout the summer, she remains confined in that room with nothing to stimulate any of her feelings. The story provid es a gradual account of the woman’s descent into madness. With nothing else to interact with, the woman finds interest in the yellow wallpaper of the room. She finds it unnaturally intriguing. She closely inspects the pattern of the wallpaper and she perceives it to be more than ordinary wallpaper. The woman obsessively describes the wallpaper and claims that it has a unique â€Å"yellow† smell. After observing the wallpaper for days, she perceives a figure trapped in the wallpaper. She thinks that there is woman trapped in the wallpaper and in order to free her, she starts removing the paper off the wall. From a critical perspective, it can be said that the author is trying to represent the women

Can Values and Morality have Different Meanings Essay

Can Values and Morality have Different Meanings - Essay Example Even though Henri claimed to be French he was not so in reality. In other words, Henri is described as cunning character in this novel. Steinbeck tells us that Mack and the boys can be viewed as antisocial elements by a society; but in reality these antisocial elements also hold some positive elements. Society may consider them as "sons of bitches", but Steinbeck likes to labels them as "the Virtues, the Graces, and the Beauties of the hurried mangled craziness of Monterey" (Steinbeck p.18). Steinbeck tries to judge them based on what they truly are rather than what they do. In his opinion, what they do cannot be taken as a measure to label them as antisocial elements since they are not doing any immoral activities intentionally. Steinbeck blames society for the making of Mack and the boys as antisocial elements. In his opinion, when people are deprived of freedom and virtue, they may engage in antisocial behaviors. Doc is portrayed as a loveable character in this novel. Even aggress ive people like Mack and his company were very much attracted by the personal behaviors of Doc. In the novel, Cannery Row, Mack and his friends are trying to do something nice to their loyal friend Doc, who actually demanded nothing from them. The intentions of Mack and his friends were positive; but the Thank you party organized by Mack and his allies ended up in a disaster because of their own fault. In other words, Mack and his friends tried to demonstrate the value of friendship; however, they failed to demonstrate in an ethical manner. Steinbeck reminds us that even successful people in this world may have both bad health and bad souls because they "tear themselves to pieces with ambition, nervousness, and covetousness"(Steinbeck, 133). In his opinion, it is better to live naturally rather than artificially. In other words, keeping something in the mind and doing something exactly opposite to that cannot be labeled as a moral activity. Of course by doing so, a person can uphold the integrity of values publicly, but it should be remembered that he is doing something opposite to his instincts. For example, in our society we can see so many people who admire celebrities publicly and criticize them privately. Such activities cannot be labeled as moral activities even though it can be perceived as valuable activities. According to Steinbeck, the essence of humanity is living naturally based on instincts. In that sense, Mack and the boys can be considered as successful men, since they tried to live naturally. â€Å"Henri loves boats, but he is afraid of the oceans"(Steinbeck, p.37). Steinbeck tries to ridicule the attitudes of the public through these words. A boat is intended to use in oceans. If it stays on land, it may become useless. The utility of the boat can be exploited only if it is used in water or ocean. Steinbeck compares people who are living unnaturally to a boat staying on land. There are many people who try to live in accordance with the social norms even though their instincts are against it. For example, there are many people who like to have more than one wife at the same time. But the social norm is to have only one wife at a time. Even though, people like to have more than one wife, they forced to live with one wife alone. Such things are upholding social values, but it cannot be

Interracial Marriages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interracial Marriages - Essay Example The US Census Bureau states that in the year 1970, there were 65000 black-white marriages in US. In 2005, this number has increased to 422000. Interracial marriages make less than 10 per cent of the total presently. Being an African-American that was first married to a man from the same race and now, is married to a Caucasian, (Landry) has sufficient experience to make a balanced approach to evaluation of the merits and demerits of interracial marriage. Landry has spent five years with the African American husband who was her college fellow. After divorce, she married the Caucasian husband and has been living with him for four years. When she reflects back upon the two experiences, she realizes that race was never a strong issue. Landry parted ways with her ex-husband because there was communication gap between them and he was disloyal to her. Besides, they had issues related to money. Therefore, when Landry searched for a husband the second time, she placed more emphasis upon his co mmitment towards budget and his tendency to exchange views frequently and maintain loyalty to her in marriage than the race he belonged to. Landry spent twelve years as a single after her divorce. In those years, she spent tome with numerous men from different ethnic origins. Having dated men of different professions and racial backgrounds, Landry reached the conclusion that two people’s resemblance in the level of intelligence, personal interests, aspirations and values were much stronger determinants of their compatibility with each other than race could ever be. Landry has evaluated the potential advantages and disadvantages of interracial marriages in this article. Discussing the pros of interracial marriages, Landry first discusses personal growth. Successful marriage requires the partners to grow together with the passage of time. Marital partners can enhance their growth by sharing with each other and appreciating the challenges arising from their cultural and racial d ifferences. Landry has noticed that her Caucasian husband’s behavior is changed for the better after marrying her. He has started to understand how people of color may feel like strangers in settings where the others don’t look like them. He had a new experience of going to church with an African American wife as a lone white man. Nevertheless, he has started to enjoy the worship services greatly. Now he responds more to his African American friends who tend not to go with him when he invites them to go to places where African Americans are not very likely to be. Such awareness has inculcated in him the need to persuade people into doing things that they would otherwise not do because of their race. Landry and her family had many preconceived notions about the Caucasian people until she and her family had an opportunity to interact with Landry’s husband and his family frequently. Same can be said about Landry’s husband and his family. Before, Landry thoug ht that Caucasian people were insensitive, stern and unaffectionate, but she found her husband’s Irish American family unusually jolly. Landry still has to resist the long cultivated urge to meet them by shaking hands with them that she has been doing all life long. Now Landry disputes with her African American friends for their baseless claims about the Caucasian people. Interracial marriage is a potential means of eliminating the social segregation. With the increased intimacy between Landry’s Caucasian and African American families developed in joint gatherings, every member of the respective families is likely to increase his/her number of friends outside his/her own race. Living together is a better way to end the differences between races than government mandated programs or diversity training. The first con

The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Salem Witch Trials Essay

The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Salem Witch Trials - Essay Example The play was written in 1953 and presented a dramatized version of the events to such an extent that experts do not certify it as an authentic work on the trials that shook the theocratic society. This paper is an attempt to explore the differences and similarities shared by the real-life Salem witch trials and the literary version of that incident The Crucible. The paper will also advocate that the repressive environment of early modern period was the main cause behind such an event. Salem Witch Trials- A brief Overview: Salem Witch Trials are often regarded as the most high-profile case of mass hysteria in history. From 13th century onwards, religion and moral values took an obsessive form specifically in New England and the concept of evil also became deeply embedded, which was symbolized by witches who supposedly possessed demonic powers and pleased the devil by hurting innocent beings1. Gradually every abnormal behavior was associated with witchcraft. In the fall of 1692 two you ng girls, from the same household in Salem Village, Betty Parris (aged 9) and Abigail Williams (aged 11) started having strange fits and displayed behaviors that were â€Å"impossibly human† and beyond the understanding of doctors and ministers2. They crawled and hid under the furniture, felt that they were being poked or pricked, shouted and threw things on others, and twisted themselves into odd positions. Within no time many a lot of females including Ann Putnam Jr. and Elizabeth Hubbard started displaying similar signs and this generated chaos all over Salem. The girls accused Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne for casting spells on them and slowly every afflicted individual nominated and accused someone for witchcraft paving the way for a witch-hunt spree and the Salem Witch Trials. The trials were held against hundreds of Salem village residents and nineteen residents (mostly females) were hanged at Gallows Hill whereas one person named Giles Corey was stoned to death , and probably dozens languished in prisons without undergoing any trial.3 Historical Inaccuracies in The Crucible: Arthur Miller’s historical accuracy regarding the events and facts of these trials has been a topic of great debate lately. It is, indeed, true that Miller did fictionalize certain facts to suit the needs and demands of a literary play. However, it cannot be termed as an out-and-out inaccurate depiction of the proceedings of Salem Witch trials. As Miller himself explained in the preface of his text â€Å"this play is not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian. However, I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history†4. If the actual facts are to be considered, then Miller’s version shares some phenomenal contradictions. For instance, in The Crucible, the writer invented a ritual of wild dance in the forest followed by recitation of c harms for depicting the activities that were mistaken as witch-craft. 5 This probably was done to ensure maximum interest and engrossment from the audience. However, in reality, Tituba was accused for telling stories from Heinrich Kramer’s 1687 publication Malleus Maleficarum, which contained concepts like Voodoo, fortune

The high salaries paid to CEOs are not justified. To what extent do Essay - 1

The high salaries paid to CEOs are not justified. To what extent do you agree with this statement - Essay Example To the contrary junior employees’ salaries have stagnated or dropped and where they are raised the increment in percentage is insignificant compared to the CEOs increment in percentage within the same period. The paper will aim to consider the various facets surrounding the issue and the evidences under each. The CEOs salaries are not necessarily the true reflection of their performance or skills and therefore not justified to be that high. Companies that have awarded hefty pay packages to their CEOs have not been necessarily the highest performers in the business. To some extents these companies’ performance has been dwindling over time. This phenomenon therefore has raised genuine concerns over the unreasonable salaries the CEOs take home. An example of this kind of a scenario is Eisner of Disney who pocketed 38 million US Dollars in 2004 (Stanford GSB, 2005). This was way above the average in the entertainment industry at the time. This amount was awarded not considering that under his 6 years tenure till then, the company’s performance was actually on the decline during half of that period. The CEOs pay when compared to that of the junior staff members has risen to a staggering 400 percent from around 90 percent a decade ago (Frydman 2008). Looking at these figures and disparity one cannot help but question the trend. The obvious conclusion a lay man would lay to this scenario is that the high pay is hooked to performance and level of skill that the new manager has. In looking at this assumption it is in almost all cases that other factors other than skills and performance contribute to the huge salaries. It has been seen that in big companies where the chance of having pay not related to performance, the CEOs end up getting more than their counterparts in the small firms. This situation is usually worse in cases where the pay has been in form of stocks and where the firm has a large shareholder. In this latter scenario there is a high likelihood

History and Political Sciences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History and Political Sciences - Essay Example Let us discuss these factors in some detail in order to know how borders protect us from different national, social, and economic problems. 1. Borders Reduce Crimes Borders protect us from a large number of crimes. Border security forces stop illegal immigrants from entering the premises of a country. Illegal immigrants pose a great threat to the overall safety of the citizens of a country. Increase in the number of crimes and drug trafficking are two of the most noteworthy problems that illegal immigrants cause in any particular country. Illegal immigration refers to the process of crossing the borders of a country illegally. Illegal immigrants are such people who do not have legal documents which can help them enter the premises of a country in a legal way. Such people use illegal ways to cross the borders of well-developed countries. The intent of most of such people is to earn money through illegal ways because they do not have legal work documents with them using which they can earn legal money. Border security forces protect us from such people by continuously looking for people crossing the borders of their countries without legal documents. Almost every country has a proper border security force which protects the borders of the country. The main aim of border forces is to look for suspected people moving near the borders. Most of such people are usually illegal immigrants who are in continuous search of hidden paths through which they can cross the border without coming in sight of the border security forces. A large number of illegal immigrants fall into criminal activities when they find it difficult to earn their livings through legal ways. Crimes, such as, rapes, drug trafficking, violence, and terrorist attacks inject terror in the minds of the citizens. An increase in the number of terrorist attacks in a country and threats of terrorism can also be associated with the presence of a large number of illegal immigrations in the country. The well-kno wn incident of 9/11 which took away the lives of thousands of people is also an outcome of illegal immigration. The terrorists entered the premises of the United States of America illegally and launched a terrorist attack on the world trade center. Since then, the government of America has increased its border security to make its borders safe and secure for the citizens of America. It is a fact that borders ensure safety and security of citizens. If a country will not have any borders, everyone will get the opportunity to enter the premises of the country while destroying the peace of the society. Therefore, we can say that borders ensure safety of citizens by controlling the arrival of suspected people. 2. Borders Improve Economy Borders of a country play a vital role in improving economy of a country. The economy of a country having clearly defined borders flourishes more rapidly and at a constant pace because the government of that country can set proper economic and infrastruct ural policies based on accurate calculations of the total area of the country. On the other hand, the government of a country having weak borders finds it difficult to design a proper economic policy based on total area of the country. Moreover borders reduce illegal immigrations which also results in improving the economy of a country. Illegal immigrations harm the economy of a country as they reduce the number of job opportunities for local people, increase poverty, and decrease foreign

Obesity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Obesity - Research Paper Example There are various studies, which have been conducted on obesity. One of such studies has been conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). According to their study, obesity is associated with a poor quality of life. The quality of life is decreased with an increasing level of obesity. The research has also revealed that the quality of health life of obese people is lower than those with normal weight. Obesity is also associated with a poor health status. It has also been found that obesity results in depression. One of the key mechanisms employed to measure obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is the index of weight for height. It is recognized as the most useful measurement for obesity. Individuals are considered to be obese when their BMI is 30 or more. Historically, obesity was considered only an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. However, the recent research has indicated that there are many factors involved in obesity. There are various genetic, physiological, and behavioral factors that result in obesity. The specific causes of obesity vary among individuals. According to Butland et al. (2007), ‘At the heart of obesity lies a homeostatic biological system that struggles to maintain energy balance to keep the body at a constant weight. This system is not well-adapted to a fast-changing world, where the pace of technological progress has outstripped human evolution’. The researchers now accept that the changes in external environment impact the tendency of individuals to gain or lose weight. Obesity is the accumulation of excess fat in the human body. This condition reduces life expectancy and increase the chance of developing life threatening diseases. One of the most important prevention activities for overcoming obesity is physical activities. The constant exercise could result in an

George Orwell Essay Example for Free

George Orwell Essay A comparison between Dickens hard times Orwells 1984 I am writing about two novels that seem to come across as very different. Orwells novel portraying a nightmarish image of his opinionated future of Britain. Where as Dickens novel creates a vision to represent Victorian education over 150 years ago. Both of these storylines dehumanise and dictate a society, both of very different kinds. Charles Dickens and George Orwells novels differ in the recreation of the society and in the plot of the actual storyline. The innocence of the children and the bleak severity of the head teacher is what dickens focuses on to display his thoughts of Victorian schools. In which Orwell depicts a society where everything is bleak and distraught and dictated by a soulless party, BIG BROTHER. Further more both novels were written at totally different generations, Dickens being the Victorian times and Orwells being the mid nineteen hundreds. Despite all these issues that divide the novels apart they seem to come across as very similar. Within closer inspection of the novels they seem to both control and authorise their societies. Orwell has used an empowering character as his leader; he has created a party lead by BIG BROTHER. Where as in Dickens approach to create a leader he has used a less excessive and extreme character called Mr Gradgrind, the head teacher who only implicates facts. Although he may not be as demanding as Orwells approach, he uses satire to dissolve the pupils mentality. Both of these characters apply a very dominating attitude towards there audience and offer them no thought and identity. Girl number 20 6079 Smith Both authors have produced an atmosphere where people who are commanded by them, are clarified as mindless objects; rather than individuals with an imagination. This strips them down to nothing but factorised minds in one case, and an imagination that hardly existed in Orwells novel. In an extract from Hard times, the author disembowels the imagination of the students and use the idea of Morgiana the 40 thieves. Not unlike Morgiana looking into all the vessels ranged before him This gives an idea of Mr Gradgrind pouring the facts from his factorised mind, into the students damaged imagination. This compares with Orwells approach, where BIG BROTHER brutally demolishes the entire imagination and thought, as they suffer in a decayed dystopia. An additional contrast linking the novels together is, the stern and domineering party in both societies. The BIG BROTHER party emphasises the issue of them surveying the society of the party members and this is persistently repeated in the novel. In which Mr Gradgrind constantly stresses the importance of facts and crushes the childrens minds, until they grasp the significance of facts. In this life, we want nothing but facts, sir; nothing but facts BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU These two quotations illustrate the emphasis and constant repetition of the parties. The author uses these effects to not only get the picture imprinted in the mind of the characters, but also into the readers. Furthermore, the BIG BROTHER party in Orwells novel, links very well with Dickens criticizing character, Mr Gradgrind. These two characters both contrast and appear as very similar in personality and in appearance. They both are displayed with a face that jolts the reader, and creates in their imagination; a daunting and depressing figure. The black-moustachioed face gazed down while the dark eyes looked into Winstons own While his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, over shadowed by the wall The first quotation is Orwell showing his opinion of BIG BROTHER gazing with fear, and this compares extremely well with dickens attempt to create the same sort of atmosphere. Dickens expresses more scarce by using a metaphor to show his view of a leader, he also goes into more detail about the bold figure of Mr Gradgrind. Not only do they link well in appearance, but also in attitude towards their society. Both seem to dictate, and show immense power on the regulations of their own society. In conclusion, I feel that both authors have created a society and atmosphere; that both link together and show many similarities. Although they may well both show differences, they dont even compare with the shear amount of evidence that link the novels together. Each author has created authority, control and power to create an atmosphere that can dictate a whole society. In this case the societies are very alike and the tone of speech used by each author is much the same. In my opinion, these two novels equally portray a society that can create a vision for the reader to see a glimpse of the past or what may be a glimpse of the future.

Memory Test For Positive And Negative Words Psychology Essay

Memory Test For Positive And Negative Words Psychology Essay In the subject of Word Memory, many different types of researches have been done in the past. In many of these researches we can find that many different factors affect the way we remember some words. Examples of different factors are familiarity, imageability, arousal, and valence. In this particular study we took a look at one of these factors, negative and positive words. The subjects in this experiment were shown a list of 20 different words, and our hypothesis: subjects with low mean age will remember more negative words than positive ones. However we did not find any relevant difference between the two groups of words, more extensive studies could be carried out on the subject to see relevant differences. Introduction. There has been broad different researches in the field of Word Memory, and experts have been trying to figure out whether word recollection is affected by different variables. In some experiments it has come to light that word recollection is greatly affected by word concreteness. Concrete words are easier to remember than abstract words (Walker, Ian; Hulme, Charles, 1999). But yet it is not the only factor that can affect word memory. In some other cases, it was shown that the results were affected by the frequency of the words. As shown in the study conducted by Robert E. Guttentag and Donna Carroll (1997), word recollection is greatly affected by the frequency of the words: The findings indicated that subjects were better at remembering the mental operations utilized at study for low frequency than for high frequency words. In this research in particular we are going to focus on the emotionality of the words, such as positive and negative words. In long-term memory, negative information is better remembered than neutral information. Differences in processes important to working memory may contribute to this emotional memory enhancement (Kensinger, Elizabeth A.; Corkin, Suzanne, 2003) As stated emotion in memory can have quite a big impact. The way we feel about words meaning can greatly change the amount of time we will remember that specific word. In another experiment, subjects were depression induced, and had to undergo recollection of words. The experiments showed that emotion played a key role into the controlled group and the other. The subjects were recolling words based on the emotions induced from the experimenters. (Bradley, Mogg, Galbraith Perrett, 1993). Our goal is to investigate on the effect of emotionality in words recollection. Subjects will be shown 2 different groups of words for a total of 20 words. Negative words and Positive words. Since pre-experiment we knew that the age of the participants and size of the group were relatively small, we hypothesized that the participants will remember negative words more than positive words. Methods. Design: The experiment was a within subject design and the controlled variable was the valency of the words, positive and negative. The number of the words that each participant would remember was the dependent variable. The problem of order effect was overcome by creating two separate powerpoint presentations. The order of the words was also different and randomized. Participants: All of the participants were part of the psychology class at Aberdeen university. 16 subjects. Out of all the participants only 1 was male, the rest 15 were females. The mean age of the participants was 20.69, with a SD of 2.44 Apparatus: The main tool of the experiment were presentations done by using PowerPoint. All the subjects were presented with 20 words (10 positive 10 negative). The source were we took the words is Bellezza, Greenwald and Banajis (1986) catalogue of words. The 20 words were on a pleasantness scale. Positive pleasantness mean: 4.50, negative pleasantness mean: 1,64. In order to randomize and finding out the mean of pleasantness of the words also the program Microsoft Excel was used. Later for the results and analysis, a software named Statistical Package for Social Science was used. Procedure: Each subject was given a computer were the power point presentation was started. The presentation gave the instructions to each participant. The first slide showed the participants that they would be shown a list of 20 words, each word was shown on screen for only 2 seconds. Afterwards they would have to remember as many words as they could from the ones shown. It also said that between the acquisition and recollection of the words they would take a 2 minutes mathematical questionnaire, and then they could write down as many words as they could remember from the slides. After the experiment was over, we recorded the results of each participant and their sex and age. We then took those results and analyzed them using SPSS. Results. The results were the following: the mean number of words remembered for negative condition was 4.00 with a SD of 1.63, the standard error was 0.41. Instead for the positive condition, the mean was 3.69 with a SD of 1.54 and the standard error of 0.38. The results can be seen in chart below (Figure 1). Figure 1. Means for both negative and positive scores. Each top bar rappresents the plus or minus 1 for standard error. Since the results shown in Figure 1 very similar to each other, more analysis had to be done. A paired samples t-test was used in this case. The t-test showed that the mean for positive condition was 3.69, with a SD of 1.54. The mean for the negative condition was 4.00 with a SD of 1.63. Therefore the results showed us that there were no relevant differences between the two condition. Due to the results been non-significant, we can state that our hypothesis is not supported and it could be rejected. Discussion. According to Thomas Hasher (2006), the phenomena stated in our hypothesis would happen if the subjects were of younger age. Unfortunately as we saw in our results, our hypothesis, that negative words would be remembered more than positive words, was rejected. This could be due to different factors such as sex, age (Thomas Hasher, 2006), ethnicity and numbers of subject. Many different things could be the reason why we did not receive the results we were expecting. For example, the number of our participant was limited to 16. In a case where we would of have 100 or 1000 we could of seen the differences in the means curve. Also the words were a limited number. A list of 20 words could be too few to prove the hypothesis. For future studies these aspects should be observed and improved in order to see results more towards to our hypothesis. Conclusion. To conclude, the results in this experiment were not to expectations. The low number of participants and the list of few words were the main factors for these results. In future experiments perhaps we would take in consideration these factors and also improve other particulars, such as space where the experiment is taken; perhaps a single room for each participant would have impact on the recollection of words (less distractions). And also the time and task before the recollection, could be a bit longer time and different/more challenging task.