Movie Review on Mr.Holland Opus Essay Example

Movie Review on Mr.Holland Opus Essay Mr. Hollands Opus is a 1995 American drama film directed by Stephen Herek. It stars Richard Dreyfuss in the title role and the cast includes Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy and Jay Thomas. Mr. Hollands Opus is presented as a video biography of the 30-year career of the eponymous lead character, Glenn Holland, as a music teacher at the fictional John F. Kennedy High School in Portland, Oregon.Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a musician and composer. After playing clubs for a living he decides to accept a job as a music teacher at a high school. He intends this to be a short term proposition until he puts together enough money to allow him to pursue his first love, composing, full time. Initially he finds it tough going, as the students have no real interest in his classes and the school orchestra, which he conducts, is absolutely awful. The gruff but earnest Principal, Ellen Jacobs (Olympia Dukakis), keeps Mr.Holland on the right path while the taciturn and puritani cal Vice Principal, Gene Wolters (William H. Macy), has a problem with his use of Rock and Roll in teaching music appreciation. Despite the obstacles, Holland succeeds in building a rapport with his students who come to appreciate his unstinting efforts to help them. When his wife, Iris (Glenne Headly), announces that she is pregnant, he is initially taken aback as the realization dawns that this short term teaching gig looks like turning into a career.The arrival of their son, Coltrane (played by  Nicholas John Renner  as a child,  Joseph Anderson  as a teenager,  and Anthony Natale  and as an adult) is a joyful occasion but joy turns to sadness when they learn that their son is profoundly deaf. As Holland is unable to effectively communicate with his son, this leads to a rift developing between them and puts Iris in the position of being the go-between, mediator, and translator of their relationship. This is without doubt an extremely involving and moving story which s till manages to stay on the right side of being considered overly sentimental.Be warned, though, that its unlikely that you are going to be able to sit through this without shedding a tear or two at the very least and it is even possible that youll be shedding a whole lot more than that. Without giving any more of the plot away, there are several very touching moments that will be tugging at your heart strings as Holland composes his Opus, although not the musical one that he dreams of, but rather the one that is his life.In 1996 Richard Dreyfuss received Best Actor nominations for this role for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. Although he didnt win, there is absolutely no doubt that he has put in a superb effort in this film. A special mention must be made of   Jean Louisa Kelly, who plays student Rowena Morgan, for her absolutely stunning rendition of   Someone To Watch Over Me. Summary In 1964, Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a talented musician and composer who has been relatively successful in the exhausting life of a professional musical performer.However, in an attempt to enjoy more free time with his young wife, Iris (Glenne Headly), and to enable him to compose a piece of orchestral music, the 30-year-old Holland accepts a teaching position. Unfortunately for Holland, he is soon forced to realize that his position as a music teacher makes him a marginalized figure in the facultys hierarchy. He comes face to face with how seriously he is outranked by the high schools football coach; interestingly, the coach (Jay Thomas) becomes a close friend. Administrators either dislike him, as does assistant principal Gene Wolters (William H.Macy), or push him relentlessly, as does principal Helen Jacobs (Olympia Dukakis). Hollands lack of quality time with Iris becomes more problematic when their son, Cole, is diagnosed as severely hearing impaired. Glenn reacts with passive-aggressive hostility to the news that he can never teach the joys of music to his own child. Iris willingly learns American Sign Language to communicate with her son but Glenn resists. This causes further estrangement within the family. Through three decades, Mr. Holland is closer to students at John F. Kennedy High School than he is to his own son.He addresses a series of challenges created by people who are either skeptical of or hostile towards the idea of musical excellence within the walls of a typical middle-class American high school. He inspires many students and but never has private time for himself or his family, forever delaying the composition of his own orchestral composition. Ultimately, he reaches an age when it is too late to realistically find financial backing or ever have it performed. In 1995, the adversaries of the Kennedy High music program win a decisive institutional victory.Hollands longtime adversary Wolters, promoted to school principal when Jacobs retires, works with the school board to eliminate music in the name of n ecessary budget cuts, thereby leading to Mr. Hollands ignominious dismissal at the age of 60. Glenn is a realist who realizes that his working life is over. He believes that his former students have mostly forgotten him. On his final day as a teacher, the despairing Mr. Holland is led to the school auditorium, where his professional life is surprisingly redeemed.Hearing that their beloved teacher is leaving, hundreds of his pupils have secretly returned to the school to celebrate his life. One of his most musically challenged, Gertrude Lang (Alicia Witt (young) /Joanna Gleason (adult)), has become governor of the state. She sits in with her clarinet. Mr. Hollands orchestral piece, never before heard in public, has been put before the musicians by his wife and son. Gertrude and the other alumni ask the retiring teacher to serve as their conductor for the premiere performance of Mr. Hollands Opus (The American Symphony).A proud Iris and Cole look on, appreciating the affection and res pect that Mr. Holland receives. Plot: Glenn Holland is a musician and composer who takes a teaching job to pay the rent while, in his spare time, he can strive to achieve his true goal compose one memorable piece of music to leave his mark on the world. As Holland discovers Life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans and as the years unfold the joy of sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success.Cast †¢ Richard Dreyfuss Glenn Holland †¢ Glenne Headly Iris Holland †¢ Jay Thomas Bill Meister †¢ Olympia Dukakis Principal Helen Jacobs †¢ William H. Macy Vice Principal (later Principal) Gene Wolters †¢ Alicia Witt as Gertrude Lang †¢ Terrence Howard Louis Russ †¢ Damon Whitaker Bobby Tidd Jean Louisa Kelly Rowena Morgan †¢ Alexandra Boyd Sarah Olmstead †¢ Nicholas John Renner Coltrane Cole Holland (age 6) †¢ Joseph Anderson Coltrane Cole Holland (age 15) †¢ Anthony Natale Coltrane Cole Holland (age 28) †¢ Joanna Gleason Governor Gertrude Lang Reaction: This is a film which will instill hope in your heart if you have ever hoped to make a postive difference in this rather mixed-up world.Through Glenn Hollands struggles, we come to realize that although it sometimes seems as if we are getting nowhere, our actions and our beliefs do have an effect on the people around us. As a teacher, Holland had the opportunity to shape and influence several generations of young people; they became the notes that comprised his musical symphony. The trials and tribulations that occur to Holland along the way seem quite realistic. Although I am uncertain, it seems likely that his story is someones real storymaybe even your story.While at times, it can seem overly sentimental and manipulative, the feelings it evokes within you are not forced; they are a genuine reaction to the passion and the pathos in the movie. This is bound to be a movie which stro ngly appeals to women, much as did Terms of Endearment as it is definitely a movie of feelings and emotions. I recommend taking lots of tissues; even the men will have trouble controlling themselves towards the end. The soundtrack of the movie spans the ages, from Bach to the Beatles, whatever Holland thought he could use to get through to the adolescents in his classes.In an attempt to get through to his son and his friends through music, Holland demonstrates a way for the deaf too to enjoy the variety of music. [pic] Introduction This magical musical fable begins as a pilot makes a forced landing on the barren Sahara Desert. He is befriended by a little prince from the planet Asteroid B-612. In the days that follow, the pilot learns of the small boys history and planet-hopping journeys in which he met a King, a businessman, an historian, and a general. It isnt until he comes to Earth that the Little Prince learns the secrets of the importance of life from a Fox, a Snake, and the p ilot.The narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara desert. The crash badly damages his airplane and leaves the narrator with very little food or water. As he is worrying over his predicament, he is approached by the little prince, a very serious little blond boy who asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator obliges, and the two become friends. The pilot learns that the little prince comes from a small planet that the little prince calls Asteroid  325 but that people on Earth call Asteroid B-612.The little prince took great care of this planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and decided to leave. Despite a last-minute reconciliation with the rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.While journeying, the narrator tells us, the little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters for the first time the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups. On the first six planets the little prince visits, he meets a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations. Such strange behavior both amuses and perturbs the little prince. He does not understand their need to order people around, to be admired, and to own everything.With the exception of the lamplighter, whose dogged faithfulness he admires, the little prince does not think much of the adults he visits, and he does not learn anything useful. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind. At the geographer’s suggestion, the little prince visits Earth, but he lands in the middle of the desert and cannot find any hu mans. Instead, he meets a snake who speaks in riddles and hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back to the heavens if he so wishes.The little prince ignores the offer and continues his explorations, stopping to talk to a three-petaled flower and to climb the tallest mountain he can find, where he confuses the echo of his voice for conversation. Eventually, the little prince finds a rose garden, which surprises and depresses him—his rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind. The prince befriends a fox, who teaches him that the important things in life are visible only to the heart, that his time away from the rose makes the rose more special to him, and that love makes a person responsible for the beings that one loves.The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love for his rose makes her unique and that he is therefore responsible for her. Despite this revelation, he still feels very lonely because he is so f ar away from his rose. The prince ends his story by describing his encounters with two men, a railway switchman and a salesclerk. It is now the narrator’s eighth day in the desert, and at the prince’s suggestion, they set off to find a well. The water feeds their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life.The little prince’s mind, however, is fixed on returning to his rose, and he begins making plans with the snake to head back to his planet. The narrator is able to fix his plane on the day before the one-year anniversary of the prince’s arrival on Earth, and he walks sadly with his friend out to the place the prince landed. The snake bites the prince, who falls noiselessly to the sand. The narrator takes comfort when he cannot find the prince’s body the next day and is confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. The narrator s also co mforted by the stars, in which he now hears the tinkling of his friend’s laughter. Often, however, he grows sad and wonders if the sheep he drew has eaten the prince’s rose. The narrator concludes by showing his readers a drawing of the desert landscape and by asking us to stop for a while under the stars if we are ever in the area and to let the narrator know immediately if the little prince has returned. Summary The book starts with the narrator, who is an airplane pilot, recollecting his favorite picture when he was a six-year-old boy. The picture was of a boa constrictor eating a large animal.He recalls how a boa constrictor cannot move after swallowing its prey, and must hibernate for the six months until its food has been digested. Fascinated by this story, he had drawn his first drawing, Drawing Number One, which showed a boa constrictor devouring an elephant. When he showed his picture to the elders he was surprised to see that they couldnt make out what it was and were not frightened of it either as he had hoped they would be. They couldnt understand why anyone would be frightened of a hat, which is what they interpreted the drawing to be. But his picture was not a hat but rather, a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.He then drew the inside of the boa constrictor in another picture, Drawing Number Two, where the elephant could be seen clearly. But the grown-ups advised the narrator to give up drawing and pursue geography, arithmetic and grammar. Disheartened by his failure to become a painter, he realizes how difficult it is for children to always be explaining something to grown-ups. So the narrator learned to be a pilot, noting that the geography he learned did prove to be useful but that his opinion of adults did not improve: whenever one would see Drawing Number One, they would think it was a hat.Consequently, he could no longer talk about boa constrictors or stars with anybody. This continued until six years earlier when his plan e had crashed in the Sahara desert. He was thousand miles from home and faced with a life or death situation. The narrator was shocked to hear an odd little voice asking him to draw a sheep. He turns to see the little prince, who is examining the narrator, looking nothing like a child lost in the middle of the desert. The narrator doesnt know how to draw a sheep so he shows Drawing Number One to the little prince instead.The little prince examines the drawing and says that he doesnt want a picture of an elephant inside a boa constrictor. Finally after a couple of attempts he is able to draw a box with a sheep inside it, and the little prince is very happy. The narrator and the little prince become friends and he tries to find out where the little prince comes from, but the little prince is more concerned with the pilots plane, laughing at its broken parts. The little prince is comforted by the fact that the narrator also comes from the sky, asking him what planet he comes from.The p ilot is surprised at this question and in turn tries to find out what planet the little prince comes from. The little prince ignores the question and admires the pilots drawing of the sheep in a box. The pilot offers to draw a string to tie to the sheep so he wont get lost, but the little prince laughs. The sheep will not get lost he says, because on the planet where he lives everything is very small. The narrator is surprised to discover that the planet the little prince comes from is very small and only the size of a house. In fact, it is an Asteroid called B-612, which is only visible through a telescope.The narrator claims that a Turkish astronomer had sighted the little princes asteroid in 1909, but that no one would seriously believe anybody wearing traditional Turkish clothes. After a Turkish dictator ordered all his subjects to change to European clothing, the astronomer successfully presented his report again in 1920. The narrator insists that these details are not a conces sion to his grown-up readers. He says that grown-ups can only understand facts and figures, without ever wondering about other essential qualities, such as beauty and love.Instead they only care about how old someone is or how much a house costs in order to decide what is beautiful. For example, he notes that a child would accept the little princes existence based solely on the fact that he wanted a sheep, while an adult would care only that the little prince came from Asteroid B-612. | The narrator is worried that now he has grown too old to properly remember how the little prince had looked. Instead of relying on | |figures like an adult, he has decided to draw pictures of him.Even though he can no longer see sheep through the walls of boxes, he hopes | |that he can bring the little prince back to life. | |As the days pass in the desert, the pilot learns more about the little princes planet. He finds out that the little prince wants the sheep| |to eat the baobabs that grow on his planet. Baobabs are large tree-like weeds whose roots can secretly grow underground and split a planet | |into pieces. They can become so big that even a herd of elephants would not be able to eat all of them.The little prince exclaims that one| |must be very careful to take care of ones planet just as they would take care of themselves. It is hard to distinguish between good and | |bad seeds, so it is very important to watch out for baobabs. Lazy men often let small bushes grow, not realizing that they are baobabs | |until it is too late. The narrator feels that this is such an important lesson to be learned that he takes extra special care with a | |drawing of baobabs destroying a small planet. | On the fourth day, the pilot learns just how small the little princes planet really is.The little prince wants to see a sunset, and is surprised to learn that on Earth he must wait till evening to see one. The narrator notes that on a large planet like the Earth, when it is noon in Americ a, the sun is setting in France, while on a small asteroid, someone can see the end of the day whenever they like. He can hardly believe that the little prince once saw forty-four sunsets in one day. On the fifth day, the pilot had discovered the secret of the little princes life. Without any reason in particular, the little prince wonders if his new sheep will eat both bushes and flowers.The pilot tells him that sheep eat anything, but the little prince does not believe him: he says that flowers with thorns can protect themselves. The two get into a heated argument and the pilot asks not to be disturbed from rebuilding his plane, while the little prince reprimands him for behaving like an adult. The little prince exclaims that if someone knows of a rare flower that exists only on his planet out of the millions and millions of others then it is perfectly rational to wonder if a sheep will eat it.Ashamed of his attitude, the pilot tries to comfort the little prince by offering to dra w a muzzle for the sheep so that he may not eat the flower. The flower that the little prince mentions turns out to have been one of the most important parts of his life. One day, a seed mysteriously blew onto his planet and produced a flower different from any other the little prince had ever seen. The flower turns out to be a rose, a beautiful but vain creature who constantly demands that the little prince take care of her.He loves her very much and is thus happy to water her, protect her with a screen by day, and cover her with a glass globe by night. But the little prince soon doubts that the rose loves him, believing that her words are not sincere. He grows so unhappy that he decides to leave, later lamenting his failure to judge by deeds and not words. It is only after he leaves that he understands how she expressed affection, realizing that he was too young to know how to love her. The narrator is of the opinion that that the little prince used a flock of migrating birds to e scape from his planet.On the day of his departure he put everything in order, cleaned out all of his three volcanoes, including even the extinct one. The rose ignores his good-byes at first but soon asks for forgiveness, admitting that she loves him. But she is too proud to ask the little prince to stay with her and claims that she will get along fine without him. She urges him to leave and turns away so that he will not see her cry. | The little prince reaches the earth by travelling with a flock of migrating  birds. Some time later he comes across a king living on a | |neighboring  asteroid.The king starts to order the little prince around and even calls  him his subject. The little prince is puzzled as to | |why the king feels that  he is in control of everything in the universe. He marvels at the kings  supposed power to order sunsets, but soon | |realizes that the king is actually  a lonely creature who is only fooling himself about his powers. He pleads  with the little prince not to | |leave but the little prince does so because he  is only used to taking orders from himself and not from others. Then he comes across two | |men, one who is very conceited and the other who is  drunk.The conceited man orders the little prince to first salute him and then  to | |admire him. The little prince is amused at first, but doesnt quite  understand what the word admire means. The conceited man wants the | |little  prince to continually praise him all the time but the prince gets bored very  soon and leaves. Next he meets a drunk who tells the | |little prince that he  drinks so that he might forget. | The little prince is confused by this sort  of behavior and inquires what it is that the drunk is trying to forget. The  drunk replies that he is trying to forget the fact that he is ashamed of  drinking.The little prince carries on with his journey but is confused by  what the drunk has told him. Then, on yet another fourth planet t he little prince meets a businessman,  who is very engrossed in all his numerical calculations and hardly even  notices that the little prince is around. He informs the little prince that  he is very busy in counting all the stars in the sky as this is a matter of  great consequence to him. The little prince is even more confused when the  businessman claims that he owns all the stars. He does not see how it is  possible to own an object when one is of no use to that object.He remarks  that by taking care of his rose and his three volcanoes, his ownership of  them was at least useful. From this he realizes that things which are of  consequence to him are different from the things which the businessman  thinks are of great importance. With this newly acquired knowledge, he  carries on with his journey. Next the little prince meets a lamplighter and is even more confused because  he lights a lamp and then puts it out the very next minute. He feels sorry for   someone doing such an absurd job, but realizes that, unlike the previous  adults he has met, the lamplighter is doing something useful.Hoping to   become his friend he tries to help the lamplighter, but the planet is too  small to accommodate two people. He is quite sad to leave a planet, which  has a 1440 sunsets. On the sixth planet he meets a geographer. The little prince is thrilled to  at last meet someone who has a real profession, and even more so when the  geographer asks him to describe his planet. The little prince tells him  about his dear rose but the geographer refuses to record this saying that he  cannot record things which dont last forever.The little prince is  surprised to learn that his rose will not last forever and feels regretful  about leaving her. Even though he is still thinking about his flower he soon  takes courage as the geographer advises him to visit the planet Earth. Upon arriving on Earth, the little prince is surprised to find such a large  planet. The narrator marks that there are a great number of kings,  geographers, businessmen, and a whole army of international lamplighters who  are required to work around the clock on this planet. However, he does admit  that humanity is neither as important nor as large as it shows itself to be.The little prince wonders why he still hasnt met any humans though the  planet is so big. He meets a snake, who tells him that he is in the Sahara  Desert and there are hardly any humans there. He finds that the snake is a  curious creature who is not as dangerous as he appears. Before parting, the snake promises that he will help the little prince return to his planet if  he grows too homesick. The little prince continues searching for human beings, but only encounters  a few roses and desolation. The roses tell him that only seven humans exist  on the planet and are very difficult to find as they have no roots.The  prince climbs to the top of a mounta in and calls out to someone to be his  friend but all he hears is the echo of his own question. But he believes  that his echo is a reply from another human and concludes that human beings  are most unimaginative since they can only repeat what they are asked. He  begins to think about his rose upon discovering a large rose garden. When  he realizes that his flower was not unique, but just a common rose, he  begins to cry. | |Next he meets a fox, who asks the little prince to tame him. The prince does  not understand what the word tame means.The fox says the | | |word tame means to  establish ties with each other. He explains that by themselves, neither of  them are very important, but if the little | | |prince tames the fox, they shall  both need each other. The little prince is hesitant in the beginning, saying  that he does not have much | | |time since he is looking for friends. But the fox  says that the only way he will he will find a friend is if he ta mes someone  saying that | | |the reason men dont have friends is because they try to buy  them in shops.Since the little prince still understands very little in | | |the  ways of the world, the fox must teach him how to properly tame a fox. | Soon it is time for the little prince to leave and he is sad to see the fox  cry. When the fox says that he is happy because the little prince is now  unique in all the world to him, the little prince then realizes that even  though his flower is a common rose, it is his rose and thus unique in all  the world. Before parting, the fox tells him a secret. He says only the heart  can see clearly what seems invisible to the eye.He also tells him that it  is because of the time he has spent on the rose that it has become so  important to him. He warns the little prince that one is responsible for  what they have tamed. The prince continues his journey and he meets a railway switchman and a  merchant, each of who try to advis e the prince to save time by taking the  train and buying a pill that quenches thirst. He remembers the foxs advice  and declines their respective offers, declaring that wasted time is the most  important kind of time. The narrative returns to eight days after the pilots accident in the  desert.He is worried that he will die of thirst and refuses to find comfort  in the little princes story about the fox. He continues to tell the pilot  that it is good to have a friend, even if one is about to die of thirst, and  soon admits that he is thirsty as well. He suggests that they search for a  well and despite the futility of such an endeavor, the pilot agrees. They  begin to look for beauty within the desert: not what they can actually see,  but what they can feel. Deeply moved, the pilot carries the little prince,  realizing the most important part of his fragile little body is the part,  which is invisible.At daybreak they finally find a well. While they remove water from the well  they agree that men have lost sight of what is important in life. A little  water can also be appreciated like a Christmas present, just as a single  rose out of a whole garden is all that is really needed. This conversation  makes the little prince homesick and he tells the narrator that it is the  anniversary of his descent to the Earth and that he has returned to the  place he landed. The pilot is afraid for the little prince but cant find  out what the little prince plans to do next.On returning the next day, the  pilot returns to find the little prince talking to the same poisonous snake  which he had met on his first day on Earth. The little prince is asking the  snake to bite him later that night so that he can finally return home. The  pilot has finished repairing his plane but is very sad to see the little  prince looking so upset. He begs him to stay on but the little prince  comforts him with a present. He tells the pilot tha t whenever he looks up at  the stars he will hear the little princes laughter, like five hundred  million bells.Just as the little princes rose is unique for him, he tells  the pilot that the stars will also now be unique to him. He says that time  heals all wounds and that soon he will look up to the stars and laugh with  the little prince. The pilot insists on accompanying him to his meeting with  the snake. The little prince insists that there is no reason to be sad  because his body is nothing but an empty shell and that only the invisible  part of his body is what is important. He also reminds the pilot that he  feels responsible for his rose. The snake bites him quickly and the little  prince falls softly in the sand.Although six years have passed, the pilot still misses his friend. He does  hear the bells at night but worries that the sheep he drew might somehow  find a way to eat the rose. The narrator remarks that it is a shame that  adults cannot realize that this question of the sheep eating the rose is a  matter of great importance. The little princes body actually did disappear,  so the narrator tells the reader to watch out for a particular landscape in  the Sahara Desert. If they should meet a little man with golden hair who  laughs, the narrator wants them to send him word that the little prince has  finally returned. ReactionWhen a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey. That is the mystery of The Little Prince, a novel that represents and emphasizes some of the many roles of aspects in life such as honesty, loneliness, hate, success, love, compassion, fear, regret and has a strange power to portray them with extreme precision. I have learned so much about life from this richly-themed novel that since reading it, I have been seeing and understanding the world differently. The first main principle I learned from The Little Prince is simply to see with your heart and imagination rather than with eyes, facts, and figures.With the authors depiction of adults, lonely people who have lost their ability to understand and make their surroundings into beyond what they are on the surface, the little prince and the narrator alike understand this loneliness as inability to perceive beyond. The adults he meets are so lost and alone without even knowing so because they rely only figures to prove something, whereas in the childrens world, emotions and matters of consequence are viewed upon with imagination and a relative understanding (something you dont need to see to know that it exists).To be able to think like the children do is a trait much worth seeking, though. When the little prince was about to depart from a fox he met that had wished to be tamed by him, he was left with this: And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. A fox, that has spent its days observing men and their habi ts, surely would have derived the morals that govern the people that can see life for more than wealth and status.Unlike the children and people who know what their goals are, the adults depicted are always wistful of other things money, power, material, and mundane objects. The second important theme I have lear

The Journey †Creative Writing Essay Final

The Journey – Creative Writing Essay Final Free Online Research Papers The Journey Creative Writing Essay Final As the door shut I could immediately feel my lungs gasping for air. I don’t know which made my heart panic most: the intrusive search through my bag, being strapped to my seat by a tight belt, or knowing that I was doing something wrong.For me, an airplane is the one place in the world that evokes every emotion in my body: sadness, happiness, anxiety, relief, fear, anticipation. It is also a vehicle for escape and change in my life. For the past two years it has aided me in my everlasting battle against space, time and distance. It has allowed me to leave my stressful life behind and be with the one person who makes me feel complete. His ability to turn my sad days into happy ones and make me feel comfortable in my own skin has always been worth the journey. The forbiddance of being in a long distance, serious relationship has always been an unspoken understanding between my parents and I. I almost feel that sometimes they should just hand-cuff me and throw me behind bars when I walk through that metal detector. But I must say that there is a certain element of excitement within my fear of being caught. As I glanced out the window over the men throwing luggage around, the bright setting-sun pierced into my eyes. I slowly pulled down the small shade and shut out reality. As the plane took off, I found myself gripping onto the armrests as if my life depended on it. The turbulence must have woken up the butterflies in my stomach and, all of a sudden, memories of the day we met flashed through my mind. I remembered feeling this exact feeling in my stomach, as if we were on a roller-coaster ride. The cold, stale air from the air vent began to make me nauseous and chilly. I removed the fuzzy, red fleece blanket from the plastic bag and wrapped it around my body. It felt prickly but warm, like his hugs. I tried to wedge the tiny white pillow somewhere between the armrest and the window and as I put my head down and closed my eyes, I could feel the heartbeat of his chest. I remembered how I use to crawl underneath my blanket every night only so my roommate would not be disturbed by the giggles and laughs of my nightly conversations. I started to fall asleep with a subtle smile on my face, like every night. I was abruptly woken up when the wheels of the plane hit the runway, much like the way my pounding alarm clock did every morning. Only this time I didn’t have to go through my day alone. A heavy burden lifted off my shoulders and I felt a sense of relief, almost like getting away with a crime. The door opened up and I could finally breathe again. As I walked off the plane, through the airport and closer to him, I slowly forgot about everything that I left behind. And I didn’t look back. Research Papers on The Journey - Creative Writing Essay FinalThe Spring and AutumnThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsThe Hockey GameHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayTrailblazing by Eric AndersonBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyCapital PunishmentMind TravelComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote Study Guide

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote Study Guide Written by experimental author Jorge Luis Borges, Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote does not follow the format of a traditional short story. While a standard 20th-century short story describes a conflict that builds steadily towards a crisis, climax, and resolution, Borgess story imitates (and often parodies) an academic or scholarly essay. The title character of Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote is a poet and literary critic from France-and is also, unlike a more traditional title character, dead by the time the story begins. The narrator of Borgess text is one of Menards friends and admirers. In part, this narrator is moved to write his eulogy because misleading accounts of the newly-deceased Menard have begun to circulate: Already Error is attempting to tarnish his bright Memory†¦ Most decidedly, a brief rectification is imperative (88). Borgess narrator begins his rectification by listing all of the visible lifework of Pierre Menard, in proper chronological order (90). The twenty or so items on the narrators list include translations, collections of sonnets, essays on intricate literary topics, and finally a handwritten list of lines of poetry that owe their excellence to punctuation (89-90). This overview of Menards career is the preface to a discussion of Menards single most innovative piece of writing. Menard left behind an unfinished masterpiece which consists of the ninth and thirty-eighth chapters of Part I of Don Quixote and a fragment of Chapter XXII (90). With this project, Menard didnt aim to merely transcribe or copy Don Quixote, and he didnt attempt to produce a 20th-century updating of this 17th-century comic novel. Instead, Menards admirable ambition was to produce a number of pages which coincided-word for word and line for line with those of Miguel de Cervantes, the original author of the Quixote (91). Menard achieved this re-creation of the Cervantes text without really re-creating Cervantess life. Instead, he decided that the best route was continuing to be Pierre Menard and coming to the Quixote through the experiences of Pierre Menard (91). Although the two versions of the Quixote chapters are absolutely identical, the narrator prefers the Menard text. Menards version is less reliant on local color, more skeptical of historical truth, and on the whole more subtle than Cervantess (93-94). But on a more general level, Menards Don Quixote establishes and promotes revolutionary ideas about reading and writing. As the narrator notes in the final paragraph, Menard has (perhaps unwittingly) enriched the slow and rudimentary art of reading by means of a new technique the technique of deliberate anachronism and fallacious attribution (95). Following Menards example, readers can interpret canonical texts in fascinating new ways by attributing them to authors who didnt actually write them. Background and Contexts Don Quixote and World Literature: Published in two installments in the early 17th century, Don Quixote is regarded by many readers and scholars as the first modern novel. (For literary critic Harold Bloom, Cervantes’s importance to world literature is rivaled only by Shakespeare’s.) Naturally, Don Quixote would have intrigued an avant-garde Argentine author like Borges, partially because of its impact on Spanish and Latin American literature, and partially because of its playful approach to reading and writing. But there is another reason why Don Quixote is especially appropriate to â€Å"Pierre Menard†- because Don Quixote spawned unofficial imitations in its own time. The unauthorized sequel by Avellaneda is the most famous of these, and Pierre Menard himself can be understood as the latest in a line of Cervantes imitators. Experimental Writing in the 20th Century: Many of the world-famous authors who came before Borges crafted poems and novels that are built largely of quotations, imitations, and allusions to earlier writings. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land- a long poem that uses a disorienting, fragmentary style and draws constantly on myths and legends- is one example of such reference-heavy writing. Another example is James Joyce’s Ulysses, which mixes bits of everyday speech with imitations of ancient epics, medieval poetry, and Gothic novels. This idea of an â€Å"art of appropriation† also influenced painting, sculpture, and installation art. Experimental visual artists such as Marcel Duchamp created â€Å"ready-made† artworks by taking objects from everyday life- chairs, postcards, snow shovels, bicycle wheels- and putting them together in strange new combinations. Borges situates â€Å"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote† in this growing tradition of quotation and appropriation. (In fact, the final sentence of the story refers to James Joyce by name.) But â€Å"Pierre Menard† also shows how the art of appropriation can be taken to a comical extreme and does so without exactly lighting earlier artists; after all, Eliot, Joyce, and Duchamp all created works that are meant to be humorous or absurd. Key Topics Menard’s Cultural Background: Despite his choice of Don Quixote, Menard is mainly a product of French literature and French culture- and makes no secret of his cultural sympathies. He is identified in Borges’s story as a â€Å"Symbolist from Nà ®mes, a devotee essentially of Poe- who begat Baudelaire, who begat Mallarmà ©, who begat Valà ©ry† (92). (Though born in America, Edgar Allan Poe had an enormous French following after his death.) In addition, the bibliography that starts off â€Å"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote† includes â€Å"a study of the essential metrical rules of French prose, illustrated with examples taken from Saint-Simon† (89). Oddly enough, this ingrained French background helps Menard to understand and re-create a work of Spanish literature. As Menard explains, he can easily imagine the universe â€Å"without the Quixote.† For him, â€Å"the Quixote is a contingent work; the Quixote is not necessary. I can premeditate committing it to writing, as it were- I can write it- without falling into a tautology† (92). Borges’s Descriptions: There are many aspects of Pierre Menard’s life- his physical appearance, his mannerisms, and most of the details of his childhood and domestic life- that are omitted from â€Å"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote†. This is not an artistic flaw; in fact, Borges’s narrator is fully conscious of these omissions. Given the opportunity, the narrator consciously backs away from the task of describing Menard, and explains his reasons in the following footnote: â€Å"I did, I might say, have the secondary purpose of drawing a small sketch of the figure of Pierre Menard- but how dare I compete with the gilded pages I am told the Baroness de Bacourt is even now preparing, or with the delicate sharp crayon of Carolus Hourcade?† (90). Borges’s Humor: â€Å"Pierre Menard† can be read as a send-up of literary pretensions- and as a piece of gentle self-satire on Borges’s part. As Renà © de Costa writes in Humor in Borges, â€Å"Borges creates two outlandish types: the adulating critic who worships a single author, and the worshiped author as a plagiarist, before ultimately inserting himself into the story and rounding things out with a typical self-parody.† In addition to praising Pierre Menard for questionable accomplishments, Borges’s narrator spends much of the story criticizing â€Å"Mme. Henri Bachelier,† another literary type who admires Menard. The narrator’s willingness to go after someone who is, technically, on his side- and to go after her for rather obscure reasons- is another stroke of ironic humor. As for Borges’s humorous self-criticism, de Costa notes that Borges and Menard have strangely similar writing habits. Borges himself was known among his friends for â€Å"his square-ruled notebooks, his black crossings-out, his peculiar typographical symbols, and his insect-like handwriting† (95, footnote). In the story, all of these things are attributed to the eccentric Pierre Menard. The list of Borges stories that poke gentle fun at aspects of Borges’s identity- â€Å"Tlà ¶n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius†, â€Å"Funes the Memorious†, â€Å"The Aleph†, â€Å"The Zahir†- is considerable, though Borges’s most extensive discussion of his own identity occurs in â€Å"The Other†. A Few Discussion Questions How would â€Å"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote† be different if it centered on a text other than Don Quixote? Does Don Quixote seem like the most appropriate choice for Menard’s strange project, and for Borges’s story? Should Borges have focused his satire on a totally different selection from world literature?Why did Borges use so many literary allusions in â€Å"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote†? How do you think Borges wants his readers to react to these allusions? With respect? Annoyance? Confusion?How would you characterize the narrator of Borges’s story? Do you feel that this narrator is simply a stand-in for Borges, or are Borges and the narrator very different in major ways?Are the ideas about writing and reading that appear in this story totally absurd? Or can you think of real-life reading and writing methods that recall Menard’s ideas? Note on Citations All in-text citations refer to Jorge Luis Borges, Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, pages 88-95 in Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions (Translated by Andrew Hurley. Penguin Books: 1998).

Intro to Macroeconomics Assignment(7 Questions) Assignment

Intro to Macroeconomics (7 Questions) - Assignment Example In comparison, the investment curve determines how much money a consumer will invest at available interest charges. This is determined by the expected net profits from the available investments. One main determinant of this is the non-changing non-interest rate determinants, which are the same as the determinants of the consumption schedule. The investment schedule is considered less stable than the consumption schedule since it is determined by the interest rates as compared to the income of the individual. Built in stabilizers refer to government policies that cause budget deficits to grow during economic downtimes, or cause surpluses to increase due to increased economic recession. Two examples of built-in stabilizers are tax structures and government spending. In the computation of the Gross Domestic Product of a country, the gros private investment (Ig) is an important factor. This is because the gross private investment provides a measure of the future financial state of the country. The gross private investment is calculated as the sum of the replacement purchases of the population and the investments done to gain inventory. The net private investment is calculated as the above figure less depreciation experienced in the country. An increase in the gross private investment serves to increase net GDP since the factors of the sum are also included in the factors of the GDP. The bearing of the marginal propensity to consume and the marginal propensity to save (MPC and MPS), both have bearings on the spending multiplier since they are both factors of the formula for the multiplier. When the MPS is given, the multiplier is calculated as the reciprocal of the MPS. When the MPS is 0.6, the multiplier is 1.667, when the MPS is 0.75, the multiplier is 1.333, and when the MPS is 0.8, the multiplier is 1.25. The open economy multiplier is given by the equation, 1/(1-MPC + MPM), while the closed economy multiplier is given by 1/(1-MPC). Built in

Surviving A Nuclear Attack Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Surviving A Nuclear Attack - Essay Example The very first assumption to take is that the individuals concerned are at least five miles away from the point of attack or explosion. This is because there is just no possible survival possible for anyone who is closer than the above mentioned distance. The second assumption is that the people are aware of the political scenario of the world including the current affairs. This is because, if the people are not updated regarding their surroundings, chances are that they will not following most of the steps shown below. The second assumption will be catered to afterwards. However unlikely this may sound, but people must make some prior arrangements for a nuclear attack (Bruno, 2010). This rational may not sound logical without the above mentioned assumption. This step is only possible if the government takes strong initiatives when the international environment is viable for a nuclear attack (Evans, 1980).The government must educate the people about the effects of the nuclear reactions and the radioactivity, thus ensuring that the people are planning ahead about a possible attack. The logic is that when the people will be warned and informed about the danger and the level of threat, then only the people can and will think about planning for their survival. Once it is clear that the people are planning for the survival techniques then the next step originates, which is, what are the measures? The answer to this question will give the details about the primary topic. The first part of the planning requires the people to make some basic changes to the structure of their houses. It should be clear that the surviving techniques apply only to those who have survived the initial explosion as mentioned earlier. The best advice for anyone is to stay in his or her house because an open space is the last place to be in a nuclear attack (Roberts). Now, when it is clear that people do need to make changes to their buildings, the

Alcohol as an Ergogenic Aid Essay Example for Free

Alcohol as an Ergogenic Aid Essay Alcohol, more specifically ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is a depressant that provides 7 kCal of energy per gram, and is the most abused drug for athletes and non-athletes in the United States. Prior to my research on alcohol, I assumed that alcohol abuse was not prevalent among college athletes, outside of the occasional partying that normal college students partake in as well. But according to Lifestyles and Health Risks of Collegiate Athletes, college athletes generally drink more heavily and are more likely to engage in binge drinking than non-athletes1, and contrary to my belief, in the psychologic realm, some have argued that alcohol before competition reduces tension and anxiety, enhances self-confidence, and promotes aggressiveness. Alcohol use exaggerates the dehydrating effect of exercise and places an athlete at greater risk for heat injury during exercise. Many athletes consume alcohol-containing beverages after exercising or sports competition and the bottom line is that alcohol-containing beverages impede rehydration. 2 Alcohol is a drug that is absorbed into the bloodstream from the stomach and small intestine. In the fasting state, the majority of alcohol will be absorbed within 15 minutes and a maximum blood level will occur in approximately 20 minutes, with 80-90% complete absorption achieved within 30-60 minutes. The rate of absorption of alcohol and subsequent appearance of alcohol in the blood is dependent on the rate of consumption, volume consumed, the proof of the alcohol, the presence of carbonation (which speeds up absorption), the presence or absence of food in the stomach, and if the user is taking any medication. It is broken down by the liver and then eliminated from the body, and while some alcohol metabolizes in the cells lining the stomach, most breaks down in the liver. Until the liver can break down all of the alcohol, the drug will circulate in the bloodstream, affecting all of the bodys organs, including the brain. There are limits to how fast the liver can breakdown alcohol and nothing can speed up this process, and when alcohol reaches the brain, the user will begin to feel drunk. Alcohol depresses the brain and reduces the ability to control your body and mind. This is what makes alcohol so dangerous and if you drink too much alcohol, your breathing or heart rate can reach dangerously low levels or even stop. Alcohol has been described as an athletic performance impairing drug. Exercise is a complex activity utilizing many of the bodys organ systems and alcohol exerts an effect on most of these systems, including the central nervous system, muscle energy storages and the cardiovascular system. Heavy alcohol intake over a long period of time can decrease exercise performance by slowing down the hearts response to exercise, muscle damage, weakness, inefficient heart performance, and decreased capacity to gain muscle. 9 Drinking the day or night of a competition hinders athletic performance and exercising with a hangover can decrease aerobic performance by as much as 11 %! 9 Alcohol has even been linked with asthma. Athletes who regularly consume alcohol are more prone to injury. The smartest choice for a collegiate athlete would be to avoid the consumption of alcohol, especially in high volumes. Some of the risks of drinking alcohol are vomiting, blacking out and not remembering what you did while you were drunk, passing out in an unfamiliar place or a place where your safety could be at risk, decreased inhibitions resulting in embarrassing and dangerous behavior, a hangover which includes: nausea, fatigue, upset stomach, headache, sore muscles, cotton mouth, lack of motivation, alcohol-related injuries resulting from loss of inhibitions and coordination and death by nervous system failure, injury and choking on your own vomit. The two most fatal risks of alcohol are drunken driving deaths, and alcoholism related deaths. There are over 100,000 alcohol related deaths a year and alcohol-related traffic collisions kill more young people between the ages of 16 and 24 than any other single cause. Alcoholism, or alcohol dependence, is a disease that includes strong cravings for alcohol and continuing to drink, despite repeated alcohol-related problems. Although alcoholism can be developed due to excessive consumption, a user is at higher risk when the disease runs in the family. The four main symptoms of alcoholism are craving, impaired control, tolerance, and physical dependence. 3,4 For most adults, moderate alcohol use is up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people. Obivously, the safest way to avoid alcoholism is to not drink at all. But if one must intake alcohol they should try to stay around the moderate alcohol intake. Are there any benefits of alcohol intake? Prior to my research I would have answered no. But moderate daily alcohol intake actually does have some benefits. 2 oz or 30 mL of 90 proof alcohol, or slightly less than three 12 oz beers reduce a healthy person’s risk of heart attack and stroke, independent of physical activity level. 5,6,7 In fact, alcohol affects HDL levels just about as strongly as any other lifestyle factor, and may cause a rise in LDL levels thus stopping a critical step in plaque formation in the arteries. 8 Alcohol is the most abused drug in the United States by athletes and non-athletes. After my research I was shocked to learn the seriousness of its effects in the short and long term. The Health effects of alcohol have been observed in nearly every organ of the body, and its consumption has been linked to more than 60 diseases. The effects of alcohol on health can be disease, accidents, and injuries. The effects can be just as immediate and apparent when they show up in athletes. Alcohol impedes hydration, and being dehydrated can cause many problems for an athlete ranging from injury to poor performance. Although those effects are only immediate and short term, athletes are not immune from contracting long term effects such as asthma, liver disease/failure, and heart disease. After learning about how alcohol is metabolized, I realized how long the process takes and all of the organs of your body it affects. Overall, alcohol does not have any ergogenic aid, and the smartest choice for an athlete would be to avoid the drug as a whole.

Narcissism in My Last Duchess Essay -- Robert Browning, My Last Duches

Robert Browning’s poem â€Å"My last Duchess'; is spoken from the perspective of the Duke and conveys the Dukes personality through the literary form of a dramatic monologue. It involves a fictional account of the Duke addressing an envoy from the Count to talk of details for the hopeful marriage to the Count’s daughter. The subtitle of this monologue is â€Å"Ferrara,'; which suggests an historical reference to Alfonso II, the fifth Duke of Ferrara in Italy in the mid-sixteenth century. The objective of the Duke is to attempt to sway the envoy’s opinion of himself to obtain the maximum dowry possible in pursuit of this marriage. The reader is directed to imagine the Duke walking with the envoy through his art gallery and the Duke stops to show him a painting of his last Duchess that is presently covered by a curtain. â€Å"Since none puts by / the curtain I have drawn for you, but I'; (9-10). This curtain is the first reference to the Dukes selfish, jealous, and protective traits. The Duke uses the curtain as a method of controlling his wife, even after her death. Other men admiring her beauty was unacceptable, so by hiding the painting behind a curtain, he controls who is allowed to gaze upon her. â€Å"Sir, ‘twas not / her husband’s presence only, called that spot / of joy into the Duchess’ cheek'; (13-15). The Duke mentions the blush on the cheek that the duchess has in the painting and assumes that Frà   Pandolf, the painter, was attracted to the Duchess and possibly paid her a compliment. â€Å"Her mantle laps Over my lady’s wrist too much,’ or ‘Paint Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat.'; (16-19) The Duke assumes that Frà   Pandolf was most likely flirting with the Duchess and that she was flirting back with him. This demonstrates that the Duke was extremely jealous and could not stand to have his wife admired by other men. The Duke is not happy with the manner in which his wife portrayed herself around others. He could not accept her civility towards those of unimportance and â€Å"a heart†¦how shall I say? †¦too soon made glad, / too easily impressed'; (22-23). The Duke states that the Duchess was easily pleased by a compliment and through small favors from a servant or other insignificant people, a quality that the Duke could not tolerate. â€Å"The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool... ... Duke himself; known to be a controlling man. This is a hint that the Duke will control his wife just as Neptune controls the sea horse. This monologue as spoken by the Duke represents many definitive traits that the Duke encompasses in his character. The manner in which he views his deceased Duchess demonstrates his egotistical view of himself. His selfish, jealous, protective, greedy, paranoid persona is displayed by his act of killing his wife. He could not control his Duchess as he wanted so his arrogance and his shallowness got the better of him until he could no longer do anything except kill her. The painting represents a wife that he can control until the day he died. His repeated manipulative habits continued as he influences the envoy to view the circumstances of this future marriage as being solely for the purposes of companionship. This is not the case; the Dukes greed is his only concern, a wife to dominate as he wishes and sufficient dowry to amplify his wealth. The character of the Duke is established as one of a man who believes he is the center of the universe. This man does not accept anything less t han being seen as exactly that, the center of the universe.

English-language films Essay

Many people wonder these days if people’s lives revolve around the choices they make. This is absolutely true. Everyone in this world is responsible for who they are today. Their choices and ideas pave the road for their future. A quote from Confucius says this, â€Å"People’s lives are the result of the choices they make-or fail to make. The path one takes in life is not arbitrary. Choices and their consequences determine the course of every person’s life. All people, whatever their circumstances, make the choices on which their lives depend. Confucius is absolutely right. It is a well-known fact that if you take wrong turns in life, you will end up in a wrong state. The regular human psychology states that when a person goes and ends up in a bad state, they blame others and most of the time never take responsibility for it. Take a look at this scene, and look carefully cause this happens all the time no matter the circumstances. There is no way and it is impossible for a child who takes drugs, does alcohol, doesn’t obey their parents to find themselves at an Ivy-League college. Sometimes, people change their paths along the way and somewhat improve. But if you keep going in the wrong direction for your entire life, you will not get anywhere. Think about the people who are successful in this world. For examples, let’s observe Mark Zuckerberg. He is the youngest billionaire in the world. He was focused, he was determined. In fact he was so passionate about programming that he dropped out of Harvard, the number one school in America. He used his talents, worked his choices and made Facebook. Not all of his choices were good. Some were actually bad; some choices actually got him into trouble with others. This is where the trouble comes in. Wait if some of my choices are good, and some are bad, then what’s going to happen with my life? Nothing will actually. All that matters is that the majority will overcome the system. If you have more bad than good, you are more likely to take a wrong turn. If you have more good over wrong, you will most likely take a good turn. Even I have taken wrong turns and bad choices. Everyone has. Nobody in this world is perfect. In fact, taking all good choices and all good turns in life ends up as a bad choice. Even though nobody is perfect, it’s your own self that will determine your future, what you want to become, your status in life. That’s why it’s good to switch your determination in life if you are on a bad path. Stick with someone and change your mood. Change your attitude, fix your choices, and keep yourself organized. If you are a person reading this essay, let’s say about 12 or 13, even 14 to 18. You still have time. You have so much future ahead of you, don’t give up hope cause your choices sometimes do tell your future. Sometimes these choices of yours will end you up in a bad place if you don’t work hard. A wise person, my own father once told me that it doesn’t make you a bad person if you take bad choices. It makes you a bad person if you don’t learn from your bad choices. He also told me that if you want to be someone when you grow up, work hard. In elementary, in middle school, and in high school, work hard so that you can build your base for the future. He concluded with me that once you pay off all your duties, go to college, and graduate, you have the rest of your life to enjoy. Whether it’s doing your dream job, making millions of dollars, then retiring into a large estate. This is called a dream. If you have more good choices in life, your dream will come to. Trust me, it’s always worked before.

Alcoholic Anonymous Reaction Paper Essay

Recently, I attended an A. A. meeting, which stands for, alcoholic anonymous. The meeting I went to was located in Penfield, NY at 1601 Jackson Road, area code 14526. It was called the Yellow House. When I walked in, everyone was very welcoming and nice. Many people stared at me intensely as I entered the Yellow House. I think they thought I was a recovering alcoholic, until I explained to them later that I was there to listen and observe for a school project for my drugs and behavior class. The place was very cozy inside, had a number of chairs lined up for everyone to sit down and coffee ready to drink. I sat down in one of the chairs. A lady came up to me and handed me a coin that said â€Å"24 hours recovery†; this was before I had the chance to tell her that I was there to observe for a school project. I guess when you go to an alcoholic anonymous meeting for the first time you get awarded a 24 hour recovery coin to make you feel good and know you’re doing something good to help you recover from your alcoholic addiction. The meeting started promptly at 5:30 P. M. like it said it would. The leaders read out announcements and let everybody know if someone new has showed up. If you’re new joining alcoholics anonymous, you introduce yourself by saying your name and stating you are an alcoholic, and then everyone else in the room say â€Å"hi†¦Ã¢â‚¬  whatever your name is to make you feel welcome. Then the person can either talk more about why they came or stop talking and then another person will randomly say their name and why they are attending and so on. There was a vast majority of adults and older people in their 50s or 60s. There were a couple grandfathers, grandmothers and one or two kids my age. I sat next to a kid who was around the same age as me and I felt shocked that he would be attending this type of meeting at such a young age. As the stories from the crowd of people kept going on, I recognized everyone clapping very deliberately and diligent at everyone’s accomplishments for the most little to no importance scenarios, for instance, a man got up and said he had been sober for 90 days and everyone clapped for a really long time. I also realized everyone laughed at everything that was the least bit funny to make it feel like a warm, comfortable, atmosphere. There are meetings every night at this place in Penfield at 5:30 P. M. Each meeting has a different name every night. The meeting I went to was called a â€Å"First Step† meeting. It was for people attending the yellow house or an alcoholic anonymous meeting somewhere for the first time and admitting they are an alcoholic and that they want to get sober. When you start the program, you commit yourself to following a â€Å"12 step program† and attending 90 days of alcoholics anonymous. The first step states â€Å"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. † And when you finish the program, you end with the last step, step number twelve, which states: â€Å"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. † Attending the alcoholics anonymous groups around the world has changed many recovering alcoholics lives and brought stability to their mind body and soul.

Haymarket Riot essays

Haymarket Riot essays As result of the Industrial Revolution, people in America earned more money, most of which they used to open new businesses and factories. There were now many different types of machines to do the work that people had to do themselves in the past. Thus, machines rapidly replaced people. Now with less people working and getting paid, there were people that could afford what these factories were making. Most of the people working in the United States at this time were immigrants, so they were forced to work for very low wages. A working adult would be considered lucky to bring home a daily income of only $2.00. Kids on the other hand, only made about 70 cents a day for spending their entire childhood sorting through coal or performing other strenuous jobs. Most people worked between ten and fourteen hours each day with peanuts for income. As result, Chicago Illinois, as well as many other cities in the United States, fell into poverty. However, not all employees at this time were cruel and blackhearted. Most at the time though just wanted to get the most out of their employees for the least amount of pay. Soon the Labor Union movement started. People in this union wanted to ban child labor, increase pay, and to create shorter workdays. Conflict after conflict broke out spawning from the Labor Union; many of which the police were brought in to settle. By 1886, the major concern of the Labor Union was to establish an eight-hour workday. By now there were several unions, all of which could not agree with one another on how to fight for this rightfully deserved demand. Finally, the Knights of Labor, who originated in Chicago, organized a nation wide strike. However, the newspapers, business leaders, and politicians didnt agree with these actions. They said, the new eight-hour workday would promote loafing, gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness (Simon). Knowing that they would be fired, workers still stood up f...

Expert Interview with Andy Greenberg About Recruiting and Hiring

Expert Interview with Andy Greenberg About Recruiting and Hiring Andy Greenberg, CEO and president of The Recruiting Division, took the time to talk with us about his company, recruiting and hiring trends. With 17 years of experience in the field of recruiting, Andy has valuable, insightful information to offer. Heading The Recruiting Division, Andy works closely with clients and candidates to consistently find the best for the best. Here he shares a bit about that process.What’s different about The Recruiting Division that makes it so successful?We extend the capabilities of a contract recruiter with a unique solution that is team-based and on-demand. The result is a more flexible, scalable and cost-effective way of engaging a contract recruiter. What are three attributes that employers want to see in a job candidate?Intellectual curiosityPassionFlexibilityHow about three qualities they’d rather not see?InflexibilityArroganceInability or unwillingness to bring something extra to the roleWhat do you look for in a job candidate?Abilit y to self-assess, meaning that they are able to understand and articulate their strengths, weaknesses, boundaries and their own internal brandPassion!Ability to convincingly articulate why and how their background, skills and experience will translate into success for the positionWhy is it key for companies to have good relationships with recruiters like you to find the best team?Contract recruiters like those here at The Recruiting Division are able to act as a fully accountable, seamless extension of a client’s team, since we are not motivated or paid by placement fees or commissions, nor are we bound by the typical contingency-based agency model that necessitates alignment with candidates as opposed to HR and hiring managers.Are you seeing any particular hiring trends lately? If so, please tell us a bit about them.Although the economy has certainly improved, employers are still very cautious in their hiring and are willing to wait for candidates that meet all of the criter ia on their list.There is still strong demand for information technology and sales professionals, and we are also seeing an increase in temporary hiring as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Another interesting trend is a growing number of companies that are bringing jobs back to the United States after frustrations with offshoring.From a recruiting perspective, we are seeing a huge interest in social recruiting. Besides LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, there are a host of social aggregation and deep web mining tools that recruiters are flocking to, including SwoopTalent, Gild, TalentBin, Talenthook and HiringSolved.Why is timeliness so important in the hiring process?That’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there is a cost associated with a company not being able to achieve its goals due to a lack of manpower. But on the other hand, there is also a cost associated with rushing the hiring process and hiring sub-par employees. We are all doing our best in the search for the holy grail of hiring top talent as quickly as possible.How do you go about finding the top talent to place?For starters, make sure that your recruiters themselves are top talent. Think about it – it takes top talent to be able recognize top talent.Those who know me know that I love to arm my recruiters to the teeth with lots of cool tools like the ones mentioned above. That said, I am the first to admit that a great recruiter can work their magic simply by using LinkedIn and nothing else. The key to LinkedIn is learning how to target the right people and then message them softly and professionally. Your goal should be to achieve a response rate of at least 30%. And anything less than 20% means that you are spamming and not doing relationship-sourcing.Also make sure that you know your company’s brand and can articulate it effectively throughout the entire sourcing and vetting process. Candidates that are in demand know that they have choices, and they are looking fo r employers with a compatible brand, mission and values.Along with company branding, do your best to provide a great candidate experience. Candidates are sharing their interview experiences on social media sites like Glassdoor and Vault, and your ability to attract top talent can be either enhanced or stymied by your reputation on social media.

The psychology of coaching today's athlete Research Paper

The psychology of coaching today's athlete - Research Paper Example These associates can affect training because the athlete is not getting the right diet, rest or having personal problems. This affects the person’s attitude during practices and the competitions. A coach should be the one to decrease the stress that the athlete feels at least at practices and games. A coach has to has to have knowledge, attitude, and know about behavior techniques to lead a team and they must be able to disguise personal emotions and frustration that could affect the performance of the athlete and the team. If there is a lack of confidence in their coach’s ability and knowledge the athlete should â€Å"further seek other personal training knowledge.† (Bompa, 303) They should improve self-control or if the athlete wants they can look for another coach that they feel will be more comfortable with and has more knowledge. This is so the athlete can have confidence in their practices and competitions. (Bompa, 303) In learning to be a Basketball coach you must learn the basis of training so all your participants can excel in their sport and individual performances. A coach educates his athletes in a physiological, psychological, and sociological manner with all these variables. There is a system to this training which is progressive and individually graded. â€Å"A coach leads, organizes, plans and educates the athlete.† (Bompa 4) This is also how a coach is like a teacher. Coaching is a time that an athlete achieves their individual abilities and psychological traits in a social environment that is conducive to learning and bringing on peak performances. Coaching is a profession that requires a Bachelor’s degree either in Education specializing in Health, Physical Education and Recreation for a coach in any sport is a teacher, but while they are in college they may have to have a second major, for example Elementary Education or even Secondary Education, so that they can teach children at various levels and get a p osition coaching a team. Coaching at the Early Childhood and/or Elementary level is mainly teaching the very basics of the sport and in this case Basketball. You as the coach would teach the skills like dribbling the ball, passing the ball, making free throws, etc. You would want to stress safety and teamwork at the very start at all the different levels of sports education. In learning about Basketball coaches need to learn how to teach the necessary skills, but before this step the first step would have to be a way to create an interest in the sport of Basketball. It is up to the coach to make the sport interesting, so the child will continue playing scholastically and as a extracurricular activity. The coach will have to instill the ideas of physical fitness, movement, learn to work with others, and to learn the necessary safety skills and also the attitudes to which wholesome recreation Is needed. â€Å"Even on a young child sports and physical education should instill personal values and to be creative.† â€Å"Physical activity is a very important for a growing child for they have to be taught to move correctly in order to stay healthy.† (Dauer, 13) Even when coaching young children coaches should check their physical development charts for body physique, skeletal and muscular