The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul :: Grapes Wrath essays

The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul         Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many writers in American literature try to instill the philosophy of their choosing into their reader.   This is often a philosophy derived at from their own personal experiences.   John Steinbeck is no exception to this.   When traveling through his native Californian in the mid-1930s, Steinbeck witnessed people living in appalling conditions of extreme poverty due to the Great Depression and the agricultural disaster known as the Dust Bowl.   He noticed that these people received no aid whatsoever from neither the state of California nor the federal government.   The rage he experienced from seeing such treatment fueled his novel The Grapes of Wrath.   Steinbeck sought to change the suffering plight of these farmers who had migrated from the midwest to California.   Also, and more importantly, he wanted to suggest a philosophy into the reader, and insure that this suffering would never occur again (Critical 1).   Steinbeck shows in The Grapes of Wrath that there is no one man, but one common soul in which we all belong to.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The subject of Steinbeck's fiction is not the most thoughtful, imaginative, and constructive aspects of humanity, but rather the process of life itself (Wilson 785).   Steinbeck has been compared to a twentieth century Charles Dickens of California; a social critic with more sentiment than science or system.   His writing is warm, human, inconsistent, occasionally angry, but more often delighted with the joys associated with human life on its lowest levels (Holman 20).   This biological image of man creates techniques and aspects of form capable of conveying this image of man with esthetic power and conviction; the power to overcome adversity through collectiveness, or in this case, as one combined soul(Curley 224).      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Steinbeck's basic purpose of the novel is essentially religious, but not in any orthodox sense of the word.   He is religious in that he contemplates man's relation to the cosmos and attempts to transcend scientific explanations based on sense experience.   He is also religious in that he explicitly attests the holiness of nature (Curley 220).   A common fear during the nineteenth century was one of this naturalism leading to the end of reverence, worship, and sentiment.   Steinbeck, however, is the first significant author to build his own set of beliefs, which some would refer to as a â€Å"religion,† upon a naturalistic basis.   Because of his â€Å" religious† style on a naturalistic basis, he is able to relate man with a natural soul that they own, and combine them into a grouping of a larger, more important soul (220).      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   America and American literature was founded on the spirit of

Negative Body Image Essay

A study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one â€Å"I hate my body† moment each day (raderprograms). Teens today are faced with many pressures: how they dress, who their friends are, who they are going to date, and most importantly, what they look like. In today’s society, body image is more than just the mental picture a person has of what their body looks like. For many, body image is also a reflection of how they feel about themselves and their lives. People with a negative body image believe that if they do not look right, other things, such as their personality, intelligence, social skills, or capabilities, also are not right. They think that if they fix their bodies, all their other problems will disappear. This can result in unhealthy weight management practices and an unhealthy relationship with food. People excessively diet and exercise out of fear of gaining weight. The media today portrays stick thin women with beautiful faces and size 0 bodies, but the truth is, the majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria to be considered anorexic (raderprograms). When influenced by role models like these, teenagers start to feel inferior if they do not look the same. In turn, when put under the pressure of women in the media, teenagers will most likely develop a negative body image, eating or mood disorder, or other unhealthy addictions if they feel their bodies do not â€Å"measure up† to those of women portrayed. Negative body image is a serious issue that can be greatly influenced by today’s media. Body image refers to a person’s feelings about how attractive their body is. Celebrities like Kate Moss are 30+% under their ideal body weight, along with this, adolescent girls are more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents, or nuclear war (raderprograms). Research has shown that media exposure to unattainable physical perfection is detrimental to people, especially women, and that the detrimental effects are currently more the rule than the exception (An Intervention for the Negative Influence on Body Esteem 405-418). Negative body image affects all aspects (physical, mental, social, and spiritual) of the body negatively and cause problems like depression, anxiety and social anxiety. Roughly half of the women in the U. S. wear size 14 or larger though most standard clothing retailers only cater to size 14 and smaller (raderprograms). Having a negative body image can be detrimental to a person’s self-esteem; they will always scrutinize themselves in mirrors and be envious to other’s bodies, whether it is celebrities, friends or even complete strangers. Many people with a negative body image will start to diet to control their weight and get it to where they want it to be. At any given time, one in every three women and one in any four men are on a diet (raderprograms). People diet to be thinner and more attractive, to look like people they see in the media. A People magazine survey showed that 80% of female takers felt that women in movies and television programs made them feel insecure about their bodies (raderprograms). The media is very negative towards people who are not as small as models and (most) actresses. The average U. S. model weighs 117 lbs and is 5’11†, while the average U. S. woman weighs 140 lbs and is 5’4† (raderprograms). The media also is a very strong advocate of dieting and especially diet pills. While dieting can be done healthily, some teenagers abuse dieting; 73% of teenage girls who abuse diet pills and 79% of teenage girls who self-purge (the act of forcibly making themselves vomit or abusing laxatives to not absorb calories) frequently read women’s fitness and health magazines (raderprograms). People who diet have an increased amount of depression due to body image and not getting the results they expect. Thirty-five percent of â€Å"occasional dieters† progress into pathological dieting (disordered eating) and as many as 25% advance to full blown eating disorders (raderprograms). Medical researchers believe that 80 percent of all eating disorders started with a diet (The Causes of Negative Body Image). Media causes teens to feel insecure and have low self-esteem. It is one of the leading causes of Eating Disorders in the United States. Eating Disorders affect 10+ million females and 1+ million males (raderprograms). Many teens suffer from eating disorders and it majorly affects a person’s life. â€Å"When you have an eating disorder at a young age, you can’t shake it easily. I’ve suffered with anorexia and bulimia since I was 12 years old, along with severe depression and anxiety disorders. It was largely influenced by the media and the pressure to be thin. You’re always pre-occupied with the voices telling you not to eat this, or not to eat that because you want to be thin, right? It’s always there and it’s hard. You know what you’re doing is wrong, but man does it feel so right. † (Billstein). For females between the ages 15-24 who suffer from anorexia, the mortality rate associated with the illness is twelve times higher than he death rate of ALL other causes of death (raderprograms). When a person develops an eating disorder they may also become addicted to exercise along with restricting calories. Exercise addiction is maladaptive, causing more harm than benefits. People become addicted to exercise in order to be thinner. This is usually paired with an eating disorder or negative body image. A person will exe rcise and burn off every calorie that they have consumed during the day and run their calorie count into the negatives so they do not absorb any calories at all. â€Å"I feel in control of my body when I exercise. I can see exactly how many calories I have burnt out of my body; being able to burn the small amount of calories that I have managed to eat just feels good. † (Billstein). About 10% of gym users have exercise addiction. Another disorder that ties in with eating disorders is Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD is â€Å"imagined ugliness†, where a person picks apart everything about themselves until their self-esteem is very low, making them susceptible to mood disorders. It is the gateway drug to eating disorders and negative body image, depression, anxiety and other altered mood disorders. 0% of people diagnosed with eating disorders also suffer from BDD. â€Å"When I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t see what other people see. I see a girl with a large forehead, big thighs, a fat stomach and beady little eyes. I hate my body so much that what I see is totally transformed and disgusting. I don’t want to look like this, that’s why I resorted to o ther things that I could control: eating and how much. † (Billstein). When a person has depression, anxiety, eating disorders or other altered mood disorders they may become addicted to unhealthy activities. An unhealthy addiction that many people, teenagers primarily, form is self-harm. It has many names: self-injury, self-injurious behavior, self-abuse, self-cutting, and repetitive self-harm syndrome. It is most often called self-mutilation. Regardless of what name a person uses, it is the intentional destruction or alteration of one’s own body tissue without conscious suicidal intent (How Negative Body Image Affects the Body and Mind). Self-harm consists of any bodily injury whether it be cutting, burning, scratching, picking or preventing the healing of wounds. Individuals self-harm to release pain. Some people say they self-mutilate because they are emotionally numb and it helps them feel something. When cutting, the person feels in control of the pain, while on the inside, they cannot control mental pain from disorders or depression. Those who cut feel a relief afterwards but it gets more intense of an addiction the longer it goes. They experience strong cravings to harm themselves and withdrawals when in recovery. â€Å"I cut because I can control it. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing, but I’m in recovery and I have relapsed. It takes control of your mind; you’re in a sad state when you take that blade to your skin. You have the scars forever to remember the times you’ve been through, but they show strength not weakness. They’re battle scars and they show that you’ve conquered, not been defeated, you’re still alive and here, and that’s beautiful. † (Billstein). 90% of self-injury individuals begin harming themselves during their teen years or younger. (Cutting: Self Injury Facts & Statistics). Only 4% of women in the world truly think they are beautiful (raderprograms). There are some positive body image influences in the media including Dove skincare. They have the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign showing moderate to plus size models in a positive atmosphere. There is a drastic difference between Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign (Figure 1) and Victoria’s Secret’s new ‘Love My Body’ campaign (Figure 2). Some forms of media are only positive to a certain weight group (i. e: ‘Love My Body’ campaign). Women should not be ashamed of their bodies, they should embrace them and show off their best features. â€Å"You’re going to be in this body for the rest of your life, so you might as well learn to like it† (Billstein). Figure 1 (Rana). Figure 2 (McDonell-Parry). Overall, negative body image is a very dangerous issue to have because it can lead to destructive behaviors like eating disorders, low self-esteem, mood disorders, exercise addiction and other unsafe body disorders. When teenagers are put under the pressure of women in the media, they are at a higher risk of developing a negative body image, eating or mood disorders and other unsafe addictions if their bodies are not as slim.

After the Battle

A jumble of limbs and skin, not that I knew it, I was just another fragment of the landscape, a surface of khaki and blood, surrounded the shore, clouded a dusky pink where a ship sat deserted and alone. Sand gatherings were sleek as they followed the wind and flustering specs as sharp as glass, were deciding where to settle, inspecting every body, join it for a while, but would soon be gone. Now my clothes are crusted with blood, a gunshot so neat can rip through your body; like a mole it burrow's within the depths of flesh, blood and bone, stopping at nothing to pass to the other side. A gunshot so destructive, can take no longer than a fraction of a millisecond, to puncture your heart, to suck the air from your lungs and leave the blood to empty your veins hour after hour. Hour after hour†¦its time to bleed. I could no longer feel the bitter sting of the burning sand on my open wounds, nor the suffocating inner walls of the tunnels, carved by a bullet, still seeping. All I could feel was a general ache, the fact that I'm still alive, seems inadequate. I feel like a tap that has been left on, drip, drip, waiting for my life, to be effortlessly, cut off. I could well be melting and the taste of the fluids dripping from my face is recognisable, I am drowning in my own blood, sweat and tears. Hesitating to open my eyes, I think of a rusty gate as the weight is so difficult to lift, secured with glue-like mucus, sharp and jagged in some places, my eyelids seem to be made of metal, brittle and disabled by age and rust. How long had I been here? Had I grown old in this battle? I feel altogether robotic, like a machine that had been broken, no longer a human but just another tool for those who are better than I am, either them or the person left in me gave me the strength to open my eyes, as that gateway is like lifting numerous tonnes of weight. But to my dismay all I saw were gashes of light that came to me like a stampede, the sand was on me and everywhere, each grain an annoying little bee, my eyes become a hive of little sand and blinding white, just being in existence. I sharply shut them again, I'm back in my own little world, but is that place really where I'm needed? Again, the shutter doors must open, the jagged edge is now broken, it seems a great weight off my mind when the entrance is clear, the gate is now satisfactory and lifts quite swiftly, I am free, freed into what? I'm stumped between a prison and a mass A and E. Everything around me is death, leads to death or inspires it. Ghoulish faces looked at me from all around, but with no expression. Their features lie beneath the murky layer of dust and dirt. One who was settled very close to me, has deep red stains all around his mouth and nose, it is visible to see the dried out tracks where blood had quickly escaped through his lips and nostrils, and even faint fingerprints where he must have rapidly checked the bleeding. He had been shot only once, in his neck, one move for one life and that touching of his face was likely to be the last move he ever made. His right hand lay on the sand, next to his neck, his fingertips too, tinted with his own blood. I suddenly realise that something was holding me up, I couldn't understand why I hadn't known this before, as it was far too close to my skin considering my vest, shirt and thick jacket, soon my awareness makes it somewhat painful. The sharp jagged material had formed a spear, and it took a moment to think about getting myself out of this awkward position. The gunshots in my leg and side were holding me back, but I had to use anything else I had in the world to push me away from this pain. †¦I can see my wife, that blinding white is now lighting up her big brown eyes, those same eyes that believed so much in me all that time ago, stand right before me as if they never left†¦ If this was all I had, it had to be enough to get me through this day; I must survive, if only for that. Stand up. I hesitantly move my boot soles onto to the flattest sand I can find, even now my leg is vibrating with pain, but I must go on. Stand up! Come on man! You are weak! You're no use to any of us down there! I won't ask you again boy! My knees unbend themselves and some miracle had led me to my feet, from where I immediately fall into the almost alight sand bed, it agitatedly buzzed around me, stinging and biting on any flesh available. But it was the distinct scream that will always haunt my mind, I didn't before this imagine I would ever fear my own voice, as it shattered the silence I lay hoping and praying it would not wake anybody up, I preferred to be alone. Or close to it, as my gaze now met that of another pair of eyes drained of all emotion. I looked at him, I wanted him to look unhappy, I wanted to feel sympathy, but it looked at me with pride, it had died in honour, it had done his duty, so nothing mattered. I reached out and gently pulled his eyelids over those misty eyes, and already began to miss him. I looked over him towards the admirable surroundings, where I always wanted to come, huge cliffs towered above me, crowned with beautiful plants, the vague outlines of which I saw swaying, almost dancing beneath the beautiful sunlight. The heat had done nothing but added to my pain, but the sky now glowed, its rich blue tones comforted me, I had done well, this I knew as I released my thoughts into the cloudless sky, where I stayed, 'til the end.

Muttaburrasaurus - Facts and Figures

Muttaburrasaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Muttaburrasaurus (Greek for Muttaburra lizard); pronounced MOO-tah-BUH-ruh-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of Australia Historical Period: Middle Cretaceous (110-100 million years ago) Size and Weight: About 30 feet long and  three tons Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Streamlined torso; occasional bipedal posture; powerful jaws About Muttaburrasaurus It takes only one look at Muttaburrasaurus to see that this dinosaur was closely related to Iguanodon: both of these plant-eaters shared the slender, low-slung, stiff-tailed posture characteristic of the two-legged, herbivorous dinosaurs known as ornithopods. Thanks to the discovery of a near-complete skeleton in northeastern Australia, in 1963, paleontologists know more about the head of Muttaburrasaurus than that of any other iguanodont; this dinosaur was equipped with powerful jaws and teeth, adaptations to its tough vegetable diet, and its strange muzzle may have been used to create honking sounds (a trait common to the descendants of the ornithopods, the hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs). One odd fact about Muttaburrasaurusand about iguanodonts in generalis that this 30-foot-long, three-ton dinosaur was capable of running on its hind legs when startled or pursued by predators, though it doubtless spent most of its day munching low-lying vegetation peacefully on all fours. As you might expect, the middle Cretaceous Muttaburrasaurus has an especially high profile in Australia, since (along with Minmi, a small ankylosaur) its one of the few near-complete dinosaur skeletons to be unearthed Down Under; you can see its reconstructed skeleton at both the Queensland Museum in Brisbane and the National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra.

Beside and Besides

Beside and Besides Beside and Besides Beside and Besides By Maeve Maddox Anwar wants to know the difference between beside and besides. Old English had the phrase be sidan, by the side of. OE side meant the flanks of a person, or the long part of anything. By 1200 the phrase was written as one word and used as both adverb and preposition. One meaning for beside in Middle English was outside. This is the sense in the expression to be beside oneself: He was beside himself with worry. He wasnt next to himself, he was outside himself. In modern usage beside is used chiefly as a preposition, while besides can be either a preposition or an adverb. The preposition beside means next to: Joans house stood beside the church. I like to sit beside my friend. As a preposition, besides means in addition to: Besides the administrators, the teachers were allowed to state their views. Besides the prize money, Charlie won a trip to the Bahamas. Besides often introduces a noun clause: Besides what you said, we must consider what she said. As an adverb, besides means in addition, as well as: There is enough for us and all our friends besides. Besides can introduce a further consideration: I dont think Ill attend the conference because it comes at an inconvenient time of year for me. Besides, I cant really afford it. Sometimes besides is a synonym for except or excluding: Besides him, everyone liked the idea. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Classes and Types of Phrases25 Russian Words Used in English (and 25 More That Should Be)Wood vs. Wooden

Tragedy and Survival of the Armenian Church Essay

Tragedy and Survival of the Armenian Church - Essay Example Thus in the nineteenth century the country was divided by Russia and Turkey. The years under Russia and Turkey were marked with genocide and oppression. Difficult was the life of the Armenians under the Turkish rule. They were treated as servants of the Ottoman Empire, suffered constant attacks of the Muslim bands and were deprived of the basic human rights. The interference of the Western Powers trying to protect the Christian nation did not help much, all the edicts promulgated by Sultan being not supported by any concrete measures. Little effect was produced by international San Stefano and Berlin treaties of 1978. The situation became only harder, so that in 1890 the Armenians organized the forces of their own, those being political parties Clarion and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. However, this only served as a pretext for massive massacres organized by Sultan Abduhamid. The massacres of 1894-1895 in the province of Mush brought away lives of many Armenians, and nearly 100,000 took refuge in Russian Armenia, The Balkans and Americas. In 1909 the massacre in Adana again brought away lives of the Armenians. The tyrannical rule of Sultan Abduhamid was overthrown in 1908. The Young Turks, the party that came to power, were largely assisted by the Armenian people, who hoped to see better times with the new regime. Their hopes were not to come to life. The Young Turks also had a dream, that being of the creation of monolithic Turkish Empire. They wanted their nation to be pure from alien cultures and traditions. That policy was called pan-Turanism. The Young Turks understood that Armenians would resist turkization. So it was decided to put an end to the Armenian Question destroying or deporting all the Armenians from Western Armenia. However, Armenian people were not aware of those plans and were preparing a program of reforms that was to give them a kind of

Flash mob Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Flash mob - Essay Example Therefore, the characters involved in actions are seen making calls and later on engaging in a group dance that begins with a single person. The film shows a group of people in different age sets getting amused by the dancers and eventually joining the group (Life’s for Sharing). Since the dancing style is similar amongst all the members, the Life’s for Sharing video evokes an understanding that everybody has importance; thus, the society should seek to relate with them happily. Another entertaining flash mob video that communicates its effect as desired to the society is the BouncE Streetdance Co. video, which is shot in Stockholm. The video- â€Å"Michael Jackson Dance Tribute† draws the attention of the Stockholm community as it involves many youths from different races. The message drawn from the flash mob film is that the legendary singer was a social icon and his life in the entertainment revolved around ethical communication to suit every group of