How does the author create atmosphere in Zero Hour and Examination Day Essay Example

How does the author create atmosphere in Zero Hour and Examination Day Paper For this essay I will examine how authors use setting and characterization to create atmosphere. I will compare two science fiction stories by two authors. The stories that I am going to analyze are Zero Hour written by Ray Bradbury in 1951 and the second story is Examination Day written by Henry Slesar in 1958. What you notice about these two stories is that they are both written in the 1950s shortly after World War II. It was a period where technology was developing, and when people became very interested in alien life. Zero Hour is about an invasion by aliens in the streets of America. This happens when a child is playing with her friends outside in the lawn and suddenly an explosion takes place. The parents of Mink take cover in the attic of the home and then there is a cliffhanger when Mink says Peekaboo just outside the attic door. Examination Day is a more futuristic story and where the author looks at the future. It is about a boy who has an intelligence test. Those people who get a score above the normal limit have to be killed. Unfortunately this child is too clever and he dies. We will write a custom essay sample on How does the author create atmosphere in Zero Hour and Examination Day specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on How does the author create atmosphere in Zero Hour and Examination Day specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on How does the author create atmosphere in Zero Hour and Examination Day specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The story Zero Hour is set in the future and this can be shown when the writer states: Overhead the rockets flew, and beetle cars whispered by on the streets This shows it is set in the future as in 1951 there were no cars that could fly or whisper. He is creating atmosphere by making the reader imagine what the future looks like. The story Zero Hour is set on a hot summers day. It is set in New York, America. The story starts off in the lawn near Minks house. At this point in the story the atmosphere is cool and relaxed. This can be clearly seen when the writer writes: across the green lawns, shouting at each other, holding hands ,flying in circles, climbing trees, laughing. This creates a joyful atmosphere where the author uses pleasant and positive words to describe the opening scene. Ray also uses short sentences too make it more interesting and the reader can also visualize to what the children were doing ie. Climbing trees. He uses a lot of verbs to explain to what is going on this makes the story flowing and fascinating, as if he never used a lot it would be simple and boring. Later on, the setting slowly changes as it goes indoors inside Mrs. Morriss home. When it goes indoors the atmosphere becomes tense. This can be clearly seen Mink shows Mrs. Morris a yo-yo: Reaching the end- it vanished, See? said Mink. Ope! Dibbling her finger, she made the yo-yo reappear From this you can see strange events are happening as Mink first the yo-yo vanishes then reappears. This makes us think to what is going on. The writer uses a lot of punctuation to create atmosphere. The punctuation used is question marks, exclamation marks and commas all combine to create atmosphere. In this story the main character is the young girl called Mink. She is very passionate and is imaginative. She keeps mentioning the word invasion in the story and also has an imaginary friend called drill. This is obvious when the author writes: its real funny to hear Drill talk and Martians invading Earth From the two quotes above you can see Ray makes us imagine. The first quote tells the reader that Mink has strange humour. The second quote is quite unbelievable and the writer uses shocking tactics and exaggeration to create atmosphere. This story uses language to create atmosphere. This is emphasized by the use of question marks: Drill says youre dangerous. Know why? The sentence above shows when the writer uses question marks, by inserting the question mark he creates atmosphere. This is because he wants us to know why he is dangerous, the writer couldve not inserted the question mark and that could have been okay. Due to him inserting it makes us want to read on and see why he is so dangerous. Another example of question marks and short sentences can be seen when Mink says: Mom? A hesitation. Dad? A waiting, a silence. The quote above shows emotive words and clever speech to get the attention of the parents. It has question marks to make the atmosphere tense by calling their names out separately. Also uses short sentences to make it more exciting, Examination Day is set in a house and is also set on the main characters birthday, Dick who is going to become twelve. In this story the house is similar to Zero Hour full of suspense and is tense. This can be because it is very quite and both parents have one child, making them the main character and focus on them and create atmosphere. This story is tense all throughout just like an exam would be. This can be seen when the Dicks father mentions about exam: Its just a sort of Government intelligence test they give at the age of twelve. Youll be taking it next week. After the childs father has mentioned the exam the atmosphere of the story changes. This causes the boy to ask more questions and therefore increases the suspense in the story. This can be seen when he says: What exam? he asked. By the parents keeping it quiet and the child not knowing until his father asks, this causes the boy to ask questions. By asking these unusual questions atmosphere is created. The main focus point of the story is the examination room where the child will be tested. The author uses short sentences to increase tension. This can be clearly seen when he has the medication that was given: He sat in silence, feeling drowsy, while the man wrote busily on a piece of paper. This shows us that by using short sentences the suspense increases and a lot of movement is happening in the story. A lot of description is used by the author. He describes the building of the Government Educational Building in great detail. This can be clearly seen when he describes the building: They crossed the marble floors of the great, pillared lobby, passed beneath an archway This shows that it is a big building and is very futuristic as you would not have buildings like this in the 1950s, so its trying to make the readers imagine what it would be like. He does this to create atmosphere by making us think harder. There is also lots of description when writing about the woman working there: and a thin-lipped woman with cropped black hair was passing out sheets of paper. It is said if you have thin lips you are not talkative and to have cropped hair is said to be sharp. This creates atmosphere by describing the woman to be strict and can create tension. Similes and metaphors are also used. This can be seen when Henry writes: The room was as cold and as a official courtroom, This creates atmosphere by making us think of what the room would have looked like, and make us feel whether it was really cold. Before entering the Government Educational Building the boy is known as Dick. When he goes in the building he is called by a different name: Your names Richard Jordan? Yes sir. This shows us that the people in the building are very formal and take everything carefully. This can also create tension by calling him by a more formal way. By calling him formally it can be strange as they could be strangers and he does not know who they are. He is probably not use to being called by that name. The boy also asks a lot of questions in the story. This could be due to his intelligence. This can be seen when: How far is the sun away? This shows the boy is clever and asking questions leads to answers. As the father does not answer a few questions this creates atmosphere. After analyzing both stories I found both stories were well written. I found in Zero Hour .The atmosphere changes a lot ie. Being cool at the start and then changing it to becoming panicky, frightening to create atmosphere. In Examination Day it remains tense and is full of suspense and is very much like and exam day. Zero Hour and Examination Day both have a lot of language used ie. Question marks, exclamation marks, similes, metaphors and imagery. However I did not find any similes or metaphors in Zero Hour .Both stories have good endings. For Zero Hour it is left on a cliffhanger and the ending to Examination Day is very dramatic. After reading both stories I prefer Examination Day as it is easier to read and there is more language used.

Robert Merton Theory Essay Example

Robert Merton Theory Essay Example Robert Merton Theory Paper Robert Merton Theory Paper It is rightfully argued that crime, whether or not in a contemporary society, is an extremely complex and multi-faceted Phenomena that has puzzled academics for many years. Theories that aim to rationalise the causes of crime and understand the origin of criminal behaviour are often criticised for being too biased or deterministic in their research studies. Many have been of great influence and seen to explain (to an extent) the cause of crime but none has fully decoded the mystery of why people commit crime. Mertons anomie theory aimed at explaining deviance from a ociological perspective as opposed to previous academic theories on crime and criminals. The first well known study of crime and criminals is that of one who is often referred to as the father of criminology, Cesar Lombroso. Lombrosos argument was based around the Darwinian theory of human evolution and his theory argued that criminals were a throw back to an earlier period of human progression. In other words, they were less evolved humans, with visible physical features such as large ears and big lips. His theory suggested that criminals were born and not made therefore, where genetically prone to criminality. Mertons argument was to the contrary. Rather than observing the individual criminal as being subhuman, he questioned societies influence on the individual. In his 1968 book, Merton argued that it no longer appears to be so obvious that man is set against society in an unceasing war between biological impulse and social restraint. The image of man as an untamed bundle of impulses begins to look like a caricature rather than a portrait. Sociological theories on crime and deviance, have always disagreed with the idea of biology being the cause of societies problems and thus, would rather emphasize the nfluence of external societal factors on the causes of crime. Individual differences are often disputed or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behaviour is seen to correlate with the influence of institutions. Being a sociologist, Mertons Anomie (or strain) Theory also attempts to rationalise and understand crime from such a social perspective. In his theory, which, is an adaptation of Durkheims earlier theory of anomie, Merton suggests that for most, deviance and criminality does not stem from pathological personalities but from the culture and structure of society itself2. Mertons strain theory is an adaptation of Durkheims earlier theory of anomie, which described a period of normlessness when the general value consensus was lost and people didnt know the parameters of acceptable behaviour. Unlike Durkheim however, Merton argued that anomie was not brought about by a sudden social change but by a society which assigns the same goals to all its members but affords them unequal opportunities to attain these goals. For Merton, irrespective of the role of biological impulses, there still remained the further question of why it is hat the frequency of deviant behaviour varies within different social structures and how it happens that the deviations have different shapes and patterns in different social structures. The new adapted theory employs this functionalist idea of social norms and values and suggests that people become deviant when they cannot fulfil societies expected of success through the normal, accepted, legal channels such as education, talent and hard work. Being an American sociologist, Merton utilized the idea of the idea of the American dream to illustrate his theory. Contemporary American culture appears to approximate the polar type in which great emphasis upon certain success goals occurs without emphasis upon institutional means. -Merton 1968 According to the American dream, everyone in the American society is equal as created by God. They all have not only the right, but the opportunity and ability to achieve great financial success through hard work and dedication. Mertons theory was simple- people are bombarded with such high expectations and strain is put upon them by society to succeed. Such success is measured by financial achievements and material wealth. The American dream states that everyone has the capability to own a Cadillac and a Beverly Hills mansion. but little attention is given to the accepted institutionalised means of gaining them. Some are capable of achieving such success through the socially accepted means but due to the problem of societal inequality (observably, race and gender discrimination), not all will be given the opportunity to achieve such goals. Some that cant achieve these set goals in the legal way, will turn to illegal alternatives. Merton understood the importance of individual differences however and importantly oted the fact that not everyone that was unable to achieve societys goals through the accepted means turned to deviance. His primary aim therefore, was to understand why some people conformed to the socially accepted methodology and others didnt, or became deviant. People react to societies strains in different ways and for Merton, these individual differences could be summed up in 5 groups; conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Individuals who fall under the conformity genre accept both the goals as well as the set methods for achieving those goals. They are the academics and those who follow the required means of achieving success. They may not always achieve the American dream but they reach a level of self sustenance which is respected. Those who are classed in Mertons innovation concept, are creators or innovators. Although they are unable to achieve societal goals through the set means, they accept the goals but invent their own means of achieving them, often illegal ways. In ritualism, individuals abandon the goals they once believed to be within their reach and dedicate themselves to their current lifestyle. They play by the rules and have a aily safe routine. Retreatism is the reaction of those who reject both the goals and the means of achieving such goals. They often retreat into the world of alcoholism and drug addiction. They escape into a non-productive, non-striving lifestyle. Finally, rebellion is the mode in which individuals not only reject the required goals and accepted means but alienate themselves from them. They seek to create a society where a closer correspondence will be made between merit, effort and reward. The main part of Merton theory that relates to crime and criminal behaviour is his Innovators strata. This is where Merton highlights the origin of modern day criminality in the western world thus this will be the main focus of this essay. Innovators, as stated above, are those who invent their own (illegal) means of achieving societys success. They are the fraudsters, drug dealers, muggers, embezzlers and even white collar criminals. It is agreeable that many monetary crimes are committed due to financial reward and his theory carries its greatest strength in its explanation of economic and white collar crime. Merton argued that the idea of the skys the limit encourage people hat already have wealth to continue to seek more. This is also seen in large corporations where businesses are expected to continue to make a profit and the businessmen cross the blurred line of what is and isnt legal in corporate finance. They become innovators as they try to find ways to improve their businesses. Indeed, this applies equally well to Britain, especially in light of the competitive market created by Thatcher in the `80s. However, where Mertons theory succeeds in explaining crime for economic gain, it fails in its explanation of other ypes of crime which are widespread in the UK. A research study that supports an element of Mertons theory is that of John M. Hagedorn. In his 1987 study entitled Homeboys, Dope fiends, Legits and New Jacks, Hagedorn interviewed 47 members of 19 Milwaukee male and female gangs. Although Merton fails to address gang crime in his theory, this study shows some understanding of anomie. The drug dealers and criminals in the gang claimed society had failed them through racism and discrimination. The only way to make a good living according to the gang members, was from the streets.

How to Conjugate Agir (to Act) in French

How to Conjugate Agir (to Act) in French As you continue to learn French, you may want to use the verb  agir, which means to act. Conjugating this French verb to match the subject and tense of a subject is actually quite easy because it is a regular verb. This quick French lesson will show you exactly how to do that. Conjugating the French Verb  Agir It is necessary to conjugate French verbs so they make sense in the context we wish to use them. We cannot simply use  agir  anytime we wish to say something or someone is acting or has acted. Instead, we need to change the ending of the verb and this is called conjugation. The good news is that  agir  is an easy one to conjugate. It follows the typical pattern of  regular  -ir verbs  to tell us which ending to use. This makes learning the conjugations for similar verbs rather easy. In the case of  agir, you can use the chart to discover the proper form to use based on the subject pronoun the I, he, we, etc. which are j, il, nous in French and the tense required. For instance, to say I act, you would say jagis in French. Subject Present Future Imperfect j' agis agirai agissais tu agis agiras agissais il agit agira agissait nous agissons agirons agissions vous agissez agirez agissiez ils agissent agiront agissaient Agirs Present Participle The  present participle  of  agir  is  agissant. Its a very useful conjugation as it can act as a verb, meaning acting, or you can utilize it as an adjective, gerund, or noun. Another  Past Tense of  Agir Its likely that you will use the  passà © composà ©Ã‚  for the past tense rather than the imperfect in many instances. Its even easier with a verb like  agir  because theres no need to worry about the subject as all instances use the same form of  agir. In order to use the  passà © composà ©, you must first conjugate the auxiliary verb  to match the subject. For this verb, we use  avoir.  You will also need the past participle, which is agi. To put these pieces together, if we want to say I acted, it would be jai agi in French. Likewise, we acted is quite simply nous avons agi. You will note that ai and avons are the conjugates of our auxiliary (or helping) verb  avoir. More Conjugations of  Agir Among those conjugations above, you should be familiar with the present, future, and  passà © composà ©. The other forms, as well as those below, will be used on occasion. While its not necessary to memorize them, you should be aware of them. The subjunctive is a verb mood that is used when the action is undecided. Likewise, the conditional verb mood is used when the action is dependent on conditions it may or may not happen. The last two columns contain the  passà © simple and imperfect subjunctive of the verb  agir. These forms are used in formal writing. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Passà © Simple Imperfect Subjunctive j' agisse agirais agis agisse tu agisses agirais agis agisses il agisse agirait agit agà ®t nous agissions agirions agà ®mes agissions vous agissiez agiriez agà ®tes agissiez ils agissent agiraient agirent agissent The final conjugation of  agir  that you need to be concerned with is the imperative. This is another mood verb form that is used on occasion. The catch here is that you do not need to use the subject pronoun. Instead, it is implied in the imperative verb.   For instance, instead of tu agis you can simply use the verb  agis. Imperative (tu) agis (nous) agissons (vous) agissez Expand Your Understanding of  Agir Not only is  agir  a regular verb, it is also an impersonal verb. This means that it can be used in the impersonal form of  sagir de  which means to be a question of or to have to do with. Also, when you want to say to act like you will need to use the proper preposition. For  agir, that would be  agir en.

Were West Memphis Three Innocent Research Paper

Were West Memphis Three Innocent - Research Paper Example The initial attempts to find the boys were halfhearted and hasty at best and nothing was located on the first day. The search was continued in the morning the next day and the bodies of the three young boys were found around midday on May 6, 1993 naked, hogtied and dumped in a ditch. One of them had had his genital mutilated; all three had been victims to knife wounds and other lacerations. Further examination of the bodies showed that the boys had been subjected to mutilation before they were killed. Cause of death was determined to be mutilation and drowning. The prosecuting party said that the murders had been committed for a satanic ritual and that Echols was the ring leader. The satanic spin given to the case by the prosecution served to really sensationalize the case in public forums and among the people in general. Echols was subsequently sentenced to the death penalty and Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences. The ‘West Memphis Three’ spent close to tw o decades in jail before a judge finally accepted their Alford plea and set them free by which time they had spent most of their youth serving behind bars for a crime they did not commit (Sharon 2012; BBC News 2011). When presented with the raw facts, how, one may ask, were three people convicted for such a heinous crime set free just like that almost two decades later? There are actually many possible concrete reasons which emerged in these 20 years and enabled Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin to walk out of the courtroom as free men in 2011. And these are precisely the reasons that I think these men were innocent. And for this reason I will further elaborate upon them in the paper below (BBC News 2011). If the evidence against the ‘West Memphis Three’ is looked at thoroughly and from all the different angles and perspectives, it can be seen that there was a severe lack of concrete physical evidence linking the three men with the three gruesome murders. DNA testing wasnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t an option back then so the police couldn’t possibly have any solid connection between the victims and the men convicted for the murders. It is also to be noted that no personal belongings, blood, skin or hair specimens from the convicted men were found on the victims and furthermore there were no eye witnesses to the crime itself. These three kids were at best fairly inexperienced rookies and would have left behind clues linking them to the murder without a doubt had they committed this crime. This level of scrupulousness in the crime where no clue was left behind indicated the work of an expert criminal, one who knew what they were doing and how to go about doing it. Somebody like that would have left no clues behind, but somebody like that did not fit the description or demographical criteria of these young men (CNN Blog 2011; Elizebath 2011). A defense attorney for the three men said that another reason the blame was pinned on Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin could have been because they were considerably effortless targets. Another reason that is very closely linked with the first one is that during the initial investigations in 1993 these three young men were the best suspects, and for the police to be able to convict them would make a neat little ending to a horrific murder case. Moreover these men were by far the police’s best suspects to pin this crime on. Also, during initial investigations the case was handled in a hasty and disinterested manner where a lot of details were overlooked in the smoked fuelled by the fire of

Argentine Military Terror Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Argentine Military Terror - Essay Example Other than the communist and capitalist struggles, the Argentine military played a significant role in the dirty war, which targeted the citizens. This essay will therefore investigate how Argentina military became an integral element of the 1970-1980 s terrorism. The essay will also investigate factors that caused left wing and right wing struggles to degenerate into brutality. The dirty war had its origin in the early 1970 s where military officials played a key role in committing acts of genocide against the civilian population. The operations were conducted under the leadership of Jorge Rafael Videla who took over from Isabella Martinez. Under Videla’s leadership, the Argentine military was ready to deal with anyone who opposed the authoritarian regime of Jorge Videla (Marvin web). Firstly, the military targeted trade unionists and college students, protesters and right wing activists. The military applied immediate tactics in dealing with protesters such as kidnappings and detentions without trials. In the late 1970 s, the target changed from those who opposed the government to those who were suspected to be against the regime or those who had conflicts with the regime (Marvin web). The military is also accused of mass murder of dirty war victims most of whom were never accounted for. The Argentina’s dirty war is considered as the darkest moment of the country’s history. During this period, the government is accused to have killed between 9,000 and 30,000 argentines in its effort to curb social activism that came to be known as left wing movement. It is obvious that the argentine regime was part of the right wing faction. There are various reasons that led the left and right conflict to degenerate into a brutal confrontation. Firstly, the US government offered support to the argentine authority in its effort to eliminate the right wing activism that was champion by the Russians. The independence of Argentina also introduced social

Poetry from Other Cultures Essay Example for Free

Poetry from Other Cultures Essay Poets who were born in Britain dont usually write about slavery or how important water is to them. Many poets who are not originally into a traditional English culture use English in many different ways. Night of the scorpion, Limbo and Sacrifice all seem like they are poems that have been written to represent beliefs or a way of life. They have all got rhythms and beats and some even use nursery rhymes or chants as a basis for the poem. Language is extremely important to some people especially poets. Sometimes you can see by looking at a poem that it is not written in Standard English. At the beginning of Night of The Scorpion, a child is talking about how it remembers the night when its mother was stung by a scorpion. The child mentions Ten hours of steady rain has driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice. Here, the child is describing the scorpion and the reason for its arrival. The child points out that the scorpion parted with its poison which literally means that the scorpion has stung someone. Throughout the poem, the scorpion is described as an evil being; The flask of diabolic tail in the dark room shows this. When the mother was stung, the villagers are described as swarming flies. This may mean they were running to help the mother or running away from the scorpion. The villagers chant the name of god to the mother, chanting the name of god in some cultures, is said to bring luck or hope to the person they are chanting for. In the poem it also states that the villagers used torches and lanterns to try and find the scorpion. As the villagers moved around with the torches and lanterns, the scorpion left shadows on the mud baked walls. The villagers could not find the scorpion so they started to make a clicking noise to try and draw the scorpion towards them. In one part of the poem, it mentions that the scorpion was controlling the poison that was inside the childs mother. With every movement the scorpion made, his poison moved around the mothers blood. The villagers seem to believe that the scorpion controls the poison that is inside the mother so they think that if they capture the scorpion, the poison inside the mother will also stop moving. They state that they want to stop the scorpion on line 18, May he sit still. After line 18, a series of sentences are started with the word may. In Standard English, this word usually introduces a polite request. The villagers all sat round whilst the mother laid there. It is described that there is a look of understanding on all of the peoples faces, which shows that they are supporting the mother, hoping she will be fine. In some cultures it is believed that if you catch the scorpion that has poisoned someone, the victim will recover. This may be why the villagers were so keen to capture the creature. The poet then describes how everyone is trying to help the childs mother recover. My father, sceptic, rationalist, trying every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herb and hybrid. He even poured a little paraffin wax upon the bitten toe and put a match to it. I watched the flame feeding on my mother this is one of the most effective quotes in this poem as its dramatic and metaphorical. Again, the poet describes how people are trying to help the childs mother by writing; I watched a holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantation. The p poet gives the effect that the poison has been inside the mother for a long time by saying; After twenty hours, it lost its sting The last three lines of the poem have had a large amount of thought go into them, as its unusual to normally end a poem like this. The poem Limbo, tells the story of slavery in a rhyming, rhythmic dance. It is ambiguous and complex. There are two main narratives running in parallel; the actions of the dance and the history of a people which is being enacted. Going down under the limbo stick is likened to the slaves going down into the hold of the ship, which carries them into slavery. In Roman Catholic tradition, Limbo is a place to which the souls of people go, if they are not good enough for heaven but not bad enough for hell, between this is Limbo. It has come to mean an unpleasant place or a state of mind or body from which it is difficult to escape. The story of slavery told in the poem is very easy to follow, yet full of detail and action. The poem has a very strong beat, suggesting the dance it describes. The rest of the poem tells a story enacted in a dance. These lines are greatly rhythmic and almost every syllable is stressed, until the very last line, where the rhythm is broken, suggesting the finish of the dance and the end of the narrative. This poem is suited to a dramatic performance there is the dancing under the limbo stick and the acting out the voyage into slavery. The poem can be chanted or sung with a rhythmic beat to give the best effect. The poem refers to a drummer which may be suitable. The poem is laid out on the page in a very peculiar fashion; this is related to the poem being chant like. Parts of the poem are echoed or at least rhyming in a repetitive way to suggest that this may not be any song or dance, but one of an African like culture. From the start of the poem, it seems pessimistic, but as you read on towards the end of the poem, it gradually stats to change into an optimistic look onto what will happen. The music is saving me could mean that the songs of their cultures were what gave them hope or the fact that the drummer was beating a rhythmic beat was what got them to carry on. The first line of sacrifice is an unusual line to start with because describing a goat having a knife dragged across its neck isnt the sort of image you would want to convey for the opening sentence. The persons point of view throughout the poem seemed to switch between two characters, a young boy and a goat being sacrificed. Two spadefuls of dirt will cover me up forever I can feel its point on my throat. Many cultures bless their house or have some kind of ceremony once the house is built. Also, there are still some cultures today that sacrifice animals to their gods. We stand in a tight circle around the animal to be sacrificed this short sentence is a great example of this. It seems that the child in question seems to dislike the idea of animals being sacrificed. The heat and the smell of the blood make me dizzy. Again, there is a whole paragraph describing just how the animal in question is sacrificed. The writer of the poem has made a strange choice by putting both children and the theme of sacrificing together, as usually a poet would not normally do this. The children are fascinated by the tableau. Here, a drama convention is used. A tableau is a still image that can be used at the beginning, during or at the end of a piece of drama. Again, the idea of ceremonies are used; A white bearded man chants something holy. The cameras click. This short sentence sounds wrong when put into context with the theme of the poem. The idea of people taking pictures of an animal that has just been sacrificed is disgusting. The ending of the poem is unusual because it seems that it is from the boys point of view because it describes the house as an unnecessary killing. We are not laying the foundations of a house but another dachau. A Dachau is a Nazi concentration camp where thousands of Jews were exterminated.

Did Our Ancestors Live in Harmony with the Environment? :: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation

Did Our Ancestors Live in Harmony with the Environment? It appears that humans are entering a stage in their collective lives in which we are beginning to see that we can quite easily alter our environments very drastically. Some are still divided about how they feel about this, feeling that things cannot possibly be as bad as the many doomsday-scenarios painted by both scientific and religious authorities. And there are others who are extremely worried about our collective affect on the environment, and fear that it may already be too late for humans, and the world will soon change sufficiently enough to make continued human survival on this planet very difficult. From both types of people, the question arises, "Was there ever a time when humans lived in a way that was more or less in harmony with the environment?" A key element in this discussion is the use of technology, loosely defined as anything outside of natural biological functions that is manipulated and used to obtain an objective. To search for a time when our ancestors might have lived more environmentally consciously, one needs evidence, and in this case, it is generally thought that the only real evidence to be found is through fossils of things created and used by these people of so long ago. But how far back in time are we talking about? And is there any other kind of evidence that might shed a bit of light on how people lived in those times? It is generally acknowledged that starting with our ancestor Homo erectus, humans began to use their hands to make tools (Ponting, 18). This knowledge is based on dating techniques of archaeological findings such as skeletons and early tools, and the rough estimate of the appearance of this tool-using human is around 2 million years ago. In case it is not obvious, that is a very long time. Even in the last 4000 years, the amount of change that human culture and society has undergone is enormous, and at least that much is historically documented by at least some cultures in varying intervals. But to jump all the way back to 2 million years involves a very far leap indeed. There is not much evidence that tells us anything about societies so far back in time. There are some bones and stones, but nothing that really breaks down all those thousands of years into any real understanding of the societies of that era.