The Importance Of Symbolism In Three Short Stories Essay Example for Free

The Importance Of Symbolism In Three Short Stories Essay Symbolism is an integral part of literature.   It allows the writer to create for the reader multiple layers of meaning in an indirect manner, almost at an unconscious level.   At its most basic, this representation can be an almost one-for-one transposition, but the most skilful and enthralling literature allows for multiple possible readings, making it possible for every reader to take away their own personal interpretation, a message that can seem tailor-made for that person alone. These three short stories are famous pieces of literature, and rightly so: they have rich symbolic imagery that has captivated readers ever since their first publication.    That they are famous works is indisputable, but the reason for this enduring fame seems to be that each story’s symbolism speaks to a fundamental and enduring critique of humankind’s most elemental darker impulses, and the outcome of each reflects an uglier side of human nature than we prefer to own.   For this reason, these short stories have endured, and added both their message and the writer who composed it to the annals of literature. In Shirley Jackson’s â€Å"The Lottery† (268-273), a village assembles in the town center for the drawing of their annual lottery.   At first, the reader can be forgiven for believing that this is a festive rite in the life of the town, but as the tale moves along, a darker, more sinister shadow is cast over the proceedings, culminating in the ritual murder of the ostensible winner of the lottery by the whole village, including her family. The lottery itself seems to be a symbolic representation of the dangers of blindly following ‘traditional’ customs once the original meaning and purpose of the ritual has been forgotten, and only the ritual itself remains.   In this case, custom dictates that a member of the community be selected by lottery to be ritually stoned to death each year, and though no-one can remember why this must be so, they adhere to the custom, despite the fact that they know that other villages have abandoned the practice, and many of their own community are uncomfortable with continuing it. There are, however, other layers to the story.   It was once said that, â€Å"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.†Ã‚   The acquiescence of the community to the practice of ritual murder is disquieting, all the more so because not all the villagers are convinced of the necessity or the morality of the lottery. Those who are uneasy with the practice murmur their disquiet, but are quickly silenced by the voices of those who uphold the established custom as an integral part of their community and its identity, with no moral or practical justification provided.   Despite the fact that they do not seem any more convinced of the necessity or the morality of the lottery than they had before they spoke, the dissenters quickly fall silent, and do nothing as the inevitable outcome takes place.   Nay, they take their crime one step further; not only do they do nothing to prevent the murder, they actively participate in it. More conventional tales, such as Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, show a similar dilemma for a moral character, and the conventional ending is that the moral character takes a stand against the evil, whatever the personal cost.   In The Crucible, the character John Proctor has a choice: to stay silent about his extra-marital affair that has left his scorned lover with a motive when a witch hunt gives her the opportunity to call for the death of his wife, or to own his misdeed, own his dishonor, and save the reputation and life of his innocent wife.   He heroically chooses the righteous path, and dies to expose the injustice of the witch hunt. In â€Å"The Lottery†, however, those who have the ability to see the injustice see it, and do nothing, overthrowing both the conventional ending of such tales and the conventional belief that people have an intrinsic tendency to good over evil.   Even if this conventional belief is unjustified, we are accustomed to our fiction providing us with this more psychologically comfortable outcome, and people were enraged at the subversion of this convention in this particular short story.   It exposes an ugly side of human nature, the unwillingness to risk self even in the cause of justice, and people were, and are, uncomfortable with this reflection of themselves. In Guy De Maupassant’s â€Å"The Necklace† (4-11), once again, we are confronted with a darker side of the human psyche.   Written in the tone of a parable, the story recounts the tale of a vain and proud young wife who believes herself born for better things. Her selfish ambition leads her to borrow a necklace from a rich friend in order to feign the appearance of a woman of higher affluence and social standing than she in fact possesses at a high society event.   She loses the necklace, and she and her husband work in abject poverty for 10 years in order to replace the necklace without revealing the wife’s folly to the friend.   At the end of the 10 years, the vain and foolish wife has lost her coveted beauty, and upon meeting the former friend by chance, learns that the necklace she worked so hard to replace had been an imitation, and the labors that had robbed her of her youth and beauty had been for nothing. This tale is almost Biblical in its ‘pride goes before a fall’ message.   The necklace symbolizes the wife’s pride, vanity and imprudence.   It can also be taken to represent the belief that the social success that the wife covets and yearns for is as false a worthy aspiration as the gems in the necklace.   Reading audiences can be satisfied with the conventional ending, but it is an almost vengeful outcome for the character, with no chance of her redemption or salvation.   It too is a reflection of the darker side of human nature, and almost as troubling as the ugly side of the character that is revealed is the ugly side of the reader’s own grim satisfaction with her poetic justice. In Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find† (636-646), a family sets off on vacation.   The seemingly innocuous beginning leads to murder and mayhem when they have a car accident, and are waylaid in this predicament by an escaped murderer, who kills them all.   This dark little short story uses the journey to symbolize the path that the family is on in their lives.   The car wreck is a pretty accurate representation of where their lives were headed: the individual flaws and pettinesses of each member of the family are illustrated along the way. The children are rude, unruly and unmanageable; the parents do not lead by virtuous example, not bothering to discipline their misbehaving children; and the grandmother is manipulative and self-righteous.   Along the way, they stop for lunch, and the grandmother commiserates with the owner of the rest stop over their belief that good people are becoming scarce.   The irony of this is that the grandmother and the owner blame others for their own folly, and refuse to take responsibility for others taking advantage of that folly.   It is also ironic that not a single character in the story demonstrates any morality or compassion, it is their frailties that they betray. It is a combination of their follies that causes the accident, the abrupt end of the journey (symbolizing the end of their lives), and once the murderer arrives on the scene, he kills them, one by one, subverting the conventional salvation ending with their symbolic damnation. It is a very strongly religious message from a self-professed Catholic writer.   Whether the killer (The Misfit) represents God or Satan (one could argue either way), he symbolically represents judge, jury and executioner, and even the grandmother (who we are led to believe has made some kind of connection with The Misfit, and may therefore survive the incident) betrays her self-serving motives, and is killed.   The moral of the story seems to be that we all have a dark side, though there may be degrees of evil, but all evil will eventually be discovered and punished. Each of these three short stories’ use of symbolism is extremely evocative and effective.   This rich symbolism, combined with subversive plot outcomes, has made for a fascinating insight into humankind’s inherent darker impulses, and the outcome of each of these stories reflects the ugly side of human nature with an unsettling degree of accuracy. WORKS CITED Jackson, Shirley. â€Å"The Lottery.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry Jacobs. Sixth edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001. 268-273. Maupassant, Guy De. â€Å"The Necklace.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry Jacobs. Sixth edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001. 4-11. O’Connor, Flannery. â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry Jacobs. Sixth edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001. 636-646.

Essay --

The world we live in today is full of an exceptional variety of animals. The time it took to conclude to the various sorts of species seen today has been throughout a period of millions of years. The vast majority of these animals are accredited to evolutionary advancements. When the environment changes, organisms have become accustomed to changing to fit their environment, to ensure their species does not die off. These physical changes have resulted in different phyla, ranging from basic structures, like sponges to advance systems, like that of an octopus. Porifera is the most simplistic phylum under the kingdom Animalia. The sponges have no tissue layers, but instead an interior and exterior layer with a gelatinous middle layer that separates the two. They are the only phylum with asymmetrical symmetry. Throughout the advancing phyla it will be shown this trait is lost. Porifera lacks a proper digestive system, but a canal system allows the sponges to filter feed. Along the inside of a sponge, flagella pump water through the sponge’s body. This process brings in oxygen and other small organisms and then flows out the top of the sponge, the osculum, removing waste by diffusion. Sponges lack a circulatory system, as does many of the first couple of phyla. A coinciding factor could be their small size. A nervous system is also missing, but very basic nerve cells within the pores sense the water currents. Gas exchange occurs through these pores. Reproduction in sponges can be asexual by budding, gammation, or fragmentation. Some s ponges can also have sexual reproduction occur as an egg gets released and fertilized in the open water by free floating sperm. After this stage they cling onto rock and begin their sessile, basic, life.... ...d female reproductive organs. An egg becomes fertilized when they rub clitellum. Earthworms play an important part in the environment. They break down organic matter and dig tunnels under the soil that help increase water and oxygen flow. Throughout the various phyla discussed evolutionary advancements are relevant. Starting from the basic, simplistic life forms of a sponge, up to the intelligence of an octopus and advance organ systems of Annelida the changes have only improved. Some species changed and evolved because as populations grow, they spread out farther and different conditions begin to affect their life. Why some species haven’t changed is because their body plan and system works for the environment they inhabit. Evolution has helped animals spread out all over the world and adapt to various conditions, seen in the habitats Aschelminthes can prosper in.

Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics refers to issues which influence a countries growth in terms of effecting positive impact. Microeconomic stability refers to the situation where by a country’s economic conditions are favorable and therefore conditions are conducive for growth. Population growth is often portrayed as causing poverty and environmental degradation, and thus population control is seen as a means of improving living standards. There is a growing concern amongst governments that the rate of population growth in most developing countries if not checked could continue jeopardizing the development in those countries by straining the budgets of those already struggling economies. Introduction. Population growth has been a subject of research for many decades as governments and other stakeholders seek means to bring population under check for it is widely assumed that it is related to poverty and environmental degradation. This paper explores the interrelatedness of population growth, poverty, and environment from a general perspective. Population growth implies the increase in the number of human beings in a given population per unit time (Lia & Jesse, 1998). Even though population growth can refer to increases of number of members in any given species, this paper shall limit itself to the discussion of human population. Population growth can be attributed to several aspects such as immigration and due to births which is viewed as a natural process. According to estimates from expert, the population growth in the world is currently at 200,000 people per day. Out of the current growth estimates, over 70 % of the increase is taking place in the developing countries. It is further estimated that, in the next 30 – 40 years, 2. 6 billion people will be added to today’s world estimate population of 6billion people. Currently, 65 percent of all worlds’ population lives on less than a dollar a day, in other words, in abject poverty. This indicates a positive relationship between and population growth and poverty in some areas. The relationship between the two variables lies in the fact that, human population depends on the environment for survival. If production remains constant over along period of time but in turn the population keeps on increasing, it gets to a point where the land can support no more people therefore any additional population is bound to suffer from want. This is especially so in the developing world where the main economic activity is dependent on land resources such agriculture. It is worthy noting that, population can also affect environment in other ways like the sprouting up of slums as a result of disproportionate population growth. This in turn causes people to turn into environmentally unsustainable practices to earn income. On the other side this poses a threat to health since in some cases it strains urban infrastructure for instance the city of Nairobi, the city was designed to cater for a population of 1. million people, the current population is 3 times more. The resulting effect is that, the infrastructures as well as social amenities are overstretched and unless expanded proportionally, such pose negative challenges to the environment. It is not fair to link all population growth to poverty and environmental degradation. Taking the case of some Asian countries, they have experienced a population growth and at the same t ime, improved living standards attributed to booming economies. On the other hand, a country may experience population growth without the growth impacting negatively on the environment as long as corrective measures are taken to prevent environmental degradation. Effects of population in rural areas. Clearing forest or virgin land to pave way for cultivation to support the excess population is the commonest effect of population growth on environment. This becomes an environmental concern in that it may touch on water catchment areas as well as steep lands therefore catalyzing soil erosion. The other effect could be ecological displacement of animal and plant species from their natural habitats. On the other hand population growth may result to poverty in that if the population depends on the land for income, population growth may mean over sharing of resources meaning that productivity of the land is affected ( Silanga, 2003p. 565). This scenario is especially common in sub Saharan Africa where a big percentage of the population live in rural areas. However, not all such environment woes should be associated with population growth. Effects of population in urban areas. This is of relevance since over half of the world population live in urban settlements and it is in the urban setting whereby population growth rate is high something occasioned by immigration as well as natural process. An exponential population growth may not reflect in jobs creation something which means that more and more people fall into the population trap since they do not have meaning full employment and are forced to live in semi permanent houses in slum areas . Environment may be affected by pollution resulting from economic and industrial processes. Role of population control and population growth. Population control refers to the methods applied to populations to reduce the rate of increase of individuals in a population. Family planning is the commonest method. It involves use of biological methods such as pills, hormone injection as well as tubal ligation. It controls population growth in that, individuals can control their reproduction patterns and avoid giving births to unwanted and unplanned babies. This has proved successful almost every where in the world with some countries reporting negative population growths. If proper population control measures are effected, the problems associated with population growth are solved hence the relevance of population control to population growth. Conclusion. The population – environment – poverty axis is a complex microeconomic issue phenomena which requires further research especially due to the fact that other factors affect the situation and any objective study must look into other factors in play as well. Meanwhile there s need for controlled population growth to check on population growth whose effect in most cases is negative.

Organophosphate Poisoning and Treatment with Atropine Free Essay Example, 750 words

Postganglionic cholinergic receptors, including receptors found in gastrointestinal and pulmonary smooth muscle, exocrine glands, heart, and eye (Katz Brooks, 2006). Glycopyrrolate- is an antimuscarinic agent, which reduces salivary, tracheobronchial, and pharyngeal secretions (Katz Brooks, 2006. Oximes- these are nucleophilic agents that are capable of reactivating the phosphorylated AChE by binding to the organophosphate molecule. However, these agents are not effective after the organophosphate compound has irreversibly bound with AChE (Katz Brooks, 2006. Diazepam-acts by increasing the activity of gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA) and facilitates inhibitory GABA neurotransmission, and is, therefore, used in the treatment of seizures (Katz Brooks, 2006. Bioscavengers-human serum butyrylcholinesterase (Hu BChE)- sequesters highly toxic organophosphates before they reach their physiological targets (Saxena et al. Galantamine-acts both as a reversible competitive inhibitor of acetylcho linesterase (AChE) and as an allosteric modulator of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (Zarotsky, Sramek, Cutler, 2003. Pyridostigmine bromide-reversibly inhibits AChE and BuChE (Albuquerque et al. , 2006) and therefore, allows normal transmission of nerve impulses across the neuromuscular junction. (Daily Med, 2007. Atropine toxicity- agitation, confusion, urinary retention, hyperthermia, bowel ileus, and tachycardia (Eddleston et al. We will write a custom essay sample on Organophosphate Poisoning and Treatment with Atropine or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Glycopyrrolate-tachycardia, dry mouth, and ileus. Oximes-dizziness, drowsiness, headache, tachycardia, blurred vision, diplopia, impaired accommodation, nausea, muscular weakness, hyperventilation, and pain at injection site. Diazepam-respiratory depression (Eddleston, Singh, Buckley, 2007). Galantamine-Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness. Less frequently it causes anorexia, headache, weight loss, and depression (Zarotsky, Sramek, Cutler, 2003). Pyridostigmine bromide-nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, increased peristalsis, increased salivation, increased bronchial secretions, miosis, and diaphoresis, muscle cramps, fasciculation and weakness