Contradictions of War in the Things They Carried/Real Life

Alison Schiffner Contradictions of war 10/20/12 To most people war is a way that we settle disputes with other nations, but they don’t fully understand the intricate details that go along with it. Its not just about the guns, gernades and tanks, it brings out different aspects of soldiers personalities and I think should be more focused on the hardships that individual and groups of soldiers endure. The horrific situations that soldiers undergo can cause different types of actions that they would take because war is contradictory.Soldiers experience unimaginable stress that can make them appear weak or strong. Which is the biggest contradiction that war presents; war makes you strong and war makes you weak. There are numerous examples which can easily be found in the book The things they carried by Tim O’brien. Two stories that demonstrate it best are â€Å"the man I killed† and â€Å"speaking of courage. † Looking back through history also farther promote s the idea, like when America created the atomic bomb, and started a draft.Tim O’brian was a soldier in the **** he was young and didn’t want to go to war, but he had to. During his term he killed a young vietnemese soldier, even though that’s what he was sent there to do, his kind heart couldn’t forgive himself for doing something so terrible. His gut mistrict to throw the grenade gave him strength, because throwing something at someone with the intent to kill someone is something that majority of people will not be able to follow through with.This burst of courage gave him the strength to save his life. But after he killed him and the adrenalin thinned out in his veins he became weak. This is displayed by the dialogue, which on his part was entirely absent. Kiowa spent six hours telling him he did the right thing and they needed to move out, but Tim sat there staring at the body unresponsive. It shows that the sight of a dead body alone was too much for him to handle. To his platoon he appeared inadequit.Individual soldiers are exceptional demonstrations of the contradiction, looking back at history and the military power as a whole also establishes the inconsistency just as well. America produced the strongest fire power that the world has ever seen when creating the atomic bomb which its sheer power was enough to wipe out a whole city in one blow. The strength that America obtained from the bomb was not seen until after the use, but even during the production fear of American had been greatly increasing. Though our Amunition was top notch.

“Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell Essay

Winstons statement is vague and must be properly addressed before we can access its validity. The word hope in itself is deliberately ambiguous as Winston fails to mention what this hope is for. Winston may be talking about hope of revolution and the overthrow of government as a horse shaking flies. For this there is ultimately almost no hope in the proles due to the futility expressed in the novels ending as even our socially aware narrator succumbs to the guile of Big Brother. However, much more than this Winston may be talking about hope for the future, hope for freedom from social oppression and the dictatorial regime of the Party, hope for the end goal of this revolution. Winston writes this statement having just described the way in which the Party has manipulated sex, one of the basest human instincts according to Freud, into a joyless act and attempts to eliminate the orgasm.The freedom from this sort of tyranny is far more within the reach, and to some extent is already available, to the proles. The proles, superficially, have far more tangible freedom than the party members since they are able to indulge in their own activities during free time which party members are not permitted. The proles are less vigorously monitored by the Thought Police or party officials and in theory are allowed to live as they please. However, in theory, the party members are too allowed to live as they please though the reality is very different as will be discussed later. It is questionable whether or not Winston himself holds any hope in the proles. Whilst traversing the prole districts of London he re-states and corrects his prior quote, this time saying if there was hope it lay in the proles. This suggests that he has come to the conclusion that there is actually no hope other than a theoretical one. The use of if and was shows that Winston is not so much expressing a hope but rather philosophising on abstract concepts, a palpable absurdity which he knows are out of reach in reality. These theoretical truths are expressed as important to Winstons psyche as he depends on them to stay sane, he writes the axiom Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. His hope in the proles is part of the same concept. Winston needs to make sense of his world no matter how futile it might be, he needs to cling on to the prospect of hope despite its impossibility. The way in which the proles are portrayed shows how they are able to function within the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four and kept under control despite having certain levels of freedom. At the start of chapter seven we are presented with the power of the proles to such an extent that we are even given the statistics that it contains 85% of the population of Oceania. Though Winston constantly expresses their huge potential their futility is quickly made clear as their drive is siphoned into irrelevant directions. Winston confuses a squabble over saucepans for the start of a revolution. The juxtaposition of these two ideas serves to emphasise the anticlimactic outlets of the proles as the two are social polars, one a fundamental change in the very workings of society, the other a pointless feud over kitchen utensils. Another outlet for the proles is a large amount of focus centred around the lottery to such an extent that it becomes the principle if not the only reason for remaining alive. The fact that this lottery is largely imaginary shows the level of control that the party is still able to impose upon the proles, despite appearing to be a choice. The party is misdirecting their hope whilst apparently giving it in a controlled system. On the face of it, the way the proles live does not appear to be very different from real life in 1940s London. When Orwell provides us with a list of their activities the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, fill dup the horizons of their minds it seems to be a bleak portrayal of London rather than a distant dystopian future. We are able to identify with Winstons thoughts and feelings but we are able to identify with the proles lifestyles. Considering Orwells bleak view and lack of faith in social systems and British life in general he is likely to attach a certain stigma and lack of faith in a lifestyle which mimics it. Winston talks extensively of the bland, neutral life which fails to live up to its own expectations the reality was decaying dingy cities where underfed people shuffled to and fro in leaky shoes. This again seems more like a general social commentary of the London of Orwells time rather than a warning of the future which  pervades the rest of the novel. Orwell is clearly disillusioned both in the real world and the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The proles, it seems, though possessing more evidential freedom are actually as enslaved by the party as the rest of Oceania. They are regarded as beneath suspicion showing them to be mentally inept and enslaved, perhaps making them greater casualties of Big Brothers regime. The proles are the ultimate party product, exhibiting no threat despite a lack of supervision via Thought Police or telescreens. They show no ambition, are able to employ doublethink and do not question the status quo unlike Winston and Julia, both party members. As Syme says the proles are not people, they have lost all concept of freedom or anything outside of the party without the need of newspeak to diminish these concepts for them. Winston states he knows HOW but I do not know WHY. His contrast with the proles demonstrates the Why. The very fact he thinks this statement and questions the party shows why the party has need of thought police to keep him under control. There is no need for this amongst the proles since they are not intelligent enough to rebel, but intelligent members of the party who can philosophise on concepts of freedom are far more dangerous to the party. It is necessary for them to be force-fed orthodoxy to keep them under control and weed out those who cannot be. Winston contains the fundamental mute protestation in the bones which simply is not present in the proles. There is no hope in the proles uprising since orthodox or not, they will never take the initiative to do so and all those who can invoke them are sought out by Thought Police. The proles are presented as, fundamentally, equally as oppressed as party member but just through different means. The party members are encouraged and required to use Newspeak so as to diminish the English language and the unorthodox concepts that go alongside it. Though proles, on the other hand, not only use Oldspeak but their own dialect of it and actively reduce the words themselves by omitting letters. The format via which Orwell presents this emphasises this point since he does not simply omit the letters but places a dash in their stead Ark at im! Calls isself a barman and dont know  what a pint is. The proles erode letters and grammar of their own accord, demonstrating the fact that they too will naturally move in the direction of the party. Similarly, the conversation of the proles, though they are permitted to argue without raising suspicion is ultimately as futile as those members of the party. The conversations are still not exchanges of views or ideas but the duckspeak of the Ministry of Truth cafeteria. The proles argue amongst one another whilst never actually stopping to hear each others input. We can see this both in the occasion when the men have a debate over the lottery and Winstons conversation with the old man in the pub. Conversations run in parallel with each other rather than meet and the sense of personal isolation of views remains. Since, as readers we know that there is no hope for Winston or the other party members, by seeing the similarities we are shown that there too is no hope for the proles. Ultimately the proles are no more capable of bringing about the revolutionary changes that Winston hopes for than the party members. They have a greater potential since, as the party slogan states, proles and animals are free. However, they are only free in the same way an animal is free. They are not truly free, as Winston would see it, to claim that two plus two equals four since they have no mental inclination to do so. The proles contain the hope of social freedom which Winston desires but are unable to utilise it since they are mentally enslaved without the need for Thought Police, ambitionless and ultimately hopeless. Bibliography: George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four

Managerial Position of Manager Bank of America Essay

Managerial Position of Manager Bank of America - Essay Example A trustworthy manager can direct to more productive outcomes and is able to increase the achievements of any organization. Good management can improve the reputation of the bank and job satisfaction of employees. Thus, it can provide good customer satisfaction and increase the customer base. Managerial Functions Bank manager is in charge for the overall improvement and performance of the bank and the employees. The function of bank manager is to ensure superior service quality, business improvement and accomplishment of target (Peke, n.d.). The most important function of a bank manager in Bank of America is to develop the business of the bank. Bank manager always strives to increase the income through increasing the customer base. Bank manager is liable for setting the goals and planning a way to fulfill them. It is the function of bank manager to regularly examine the progression of other competitor banks and assess their business activities. A bank manager must ensure to maintain t he professional standard and the policy of the bank (Stanley St Labs, n.d.). Kinds of Managers Control Freak: This type of managers prefer to control all operations of the bank on his own. They do not prefer employees to make any kind of managerial decision whether it is a small decision or big. This kind of manager never tells the details about any assignment to complete it. Autocratic: Manager of this kind does not care about the workers. This type of manager is quite tuff and they are pretty clear about their need. Team Builder: This kind of managers is proficient at their work. They are quite open near subordinates and they seek for creativity from the workers. These kinds of managers do any task in particular way and by involving the employees. Managerial Roles In banking there are several roles for managers which are: Operation manager: These types of managers are open to the customers and have good communication skill. They deal with the customer directly about any kind of pr oblem. Retail manager: These types of managers handles the retail operations such as bank cashier, ATM operations, manage the deposit and withdrawal, money order, utility bill and others. Investment manager: The role of investment manager is to manage the account of customer, freight brokerage, analyze the investment, and manage the investment fund and operational investments. Financial manager: The role of financial manager is to manage the bill, account, and other financial services. Loan manager: Loan manager assess the loan requests, verify the customers’ capability to repay the loan amount and provide approval of loan. These types of managers are specialized in business, consumer and credit lending (Profitableinvestment, 2011). Managerial Skills Technical: A manager must be able to use specific methods or techniques to perform the managerial task. The technical skill is not associated with usage of equipment, machinery or technology. It is related with the usage of vario us managerial techniques in decision making such as break even analysis, planning any training program, conduct an interview and others. Interpersonal: A manager must possess skill to lead the employees. The interpersonal skills of manager consist of motivating the employees, resolving any disagreement and communicating with customers and other people. Conceptual: Conceptual skills are extremely important for middle level or top level managers. A manager should be capable of ‘grasping the whole picture’ of any bank. Communication: This is the basic skill of all bank managers. A manag

Alternative and Traditional Medicine Term Paper

Alternative and Traditional Medicine - Term Paper Example A sick person often seeks treatment from a practitioner who admire the most and belief. Traditional is regarded as the conservative kind of approach to treatment. Traditional medicine also referred to as western medicine specializes more on drugs and surgeries. It is often preferred in cases that are very serious and likely to cost someone life. Each style however has its own advantages and disadvantages and there is certainly no practitioner that has all answers regarding treatment. They are both good and complementary to each other. Traditional medicine includes modern health science such as surgery and associated practices. It is also referred to as contemporary or Western medicine (Gordon, 1993). On the other hand, Alternative medicine refers to the collection of skills, practices and knowledge based on old theories or experiences and comprising a wide range of procedures native to diverse cultures across the world. Alternative science refers to a combination of unconventional practices to diagnose, prevent or treat any form of illness (Gordon, 1993). It has been proven that traditional medicine, in most cases focuses on the factors causing the disease, prevention and remedies but the environment and circumstances under which the disease occurred is not considered as the system is limited to the study of an anomaly and ways to remove it (Gordon, 1993). Since it has evolved over the ages, the alternative approach varies according to person and place. An example of a practice under this category is the Chinese medicine. The underlying principle of this system is to consider the ailment as a dynamic entity of the system and seek a means to uproot its foundation. It considers the illness as an upset of balance between the body and its surroundings. Thus, it focuses on cleansing the whole system rather than eliminating the immediate cause of the disease. Traditional medicine practices focuses on a single

IP 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

IP 2 - Essay Example Then, it is time to find out the people or place from where the information can be collected. Thereafter, the information can be collected. At the next stage, the fears, expectations, merits, and limits in each point of view are analyzed (Stages in decision making). An assumption can be considered as a statement that one considers as true but without any concrete evidence to support it. In the business world, it is necessary for companies to make assumptions in a number of different situations. For example, companies will make assumptions on the amount of pension that will be paid to the retirees in future as a part of making financial statements. In addition, we make many assumptions in everyday life too. For example, one driving on the road assumes that all other drivers will obey traffic rules, and that all will stop at red light. As Adamson (2010) points out, there are many other common assumptions made by companies in their day to day functioning. For example, one company assume s that the economic situation will be back to normal soon. Another might assume that the changes in the market are temporary. In addition, another company assumes that what their clients want is the product A. Another assumption is that the company has to invest in the field.

Documentary Expression and Thirties America Essay

Documentary Expression and Thirties America - Essay Example In the thirties the style of social documentary became popular, and was described as increasing the knowledge of public facts while sharpening it with feeling. Two notable exponents of this style were considered, both of whom employed the presentation of dramatic, and sometimes over emphasized, photographs accompanied by a written commentary. The distinction between art and photography and whether or not documentary expression owed its genesis from fiction or non-fiction was also explored. Finally the matter of ethics in the treatment and presentation of documentary imagery was discussed. Documentary Expression 3 Documentary Expression and Thirties America William Stott in his book Documentary Expression and Thirties America covers an enormous range of topics and much of it is in a highly discursive and rambling style. However, it is possible to subdivide it into four principal themes: Documentary, The Documentary Motive and the Thirties, The Documentary Nonfiction of the Thirties, a nd Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. First of all it is necessary to understand what he means by the documentary style. In its simplest form there are two possibilities: â€Å"an honest and reasonably objective report, or a case for the prosecution† (Stott, 1986). ... It was also held that such a documentary style did not rely upon information so much as â€Å"the power to move.† Stott suggests that while the purpose is to encourage social improvement – public education at its most altruistic – reality is more cynical in that its real purpose is to shape attitudes towards certain public facts. An example of this type of â€Å"expose journalism’ is to use a public figure or authority’s quotation to mean something else. For example, the head of the US Red Cross stated categorically, in answer to innocent sounding questions, that Red Cross personnel were noncombatants. He was unable to defend this stance when faced with the fact that when called up for military service these individuals were obliged to take the oath, Documentary Expression 4 imposed by Congress, requiring them to obey military regulations and act as combatants. Two contrasting examples of the documentary style in thirties America are contained in t he works of Bourke-White & Caldwell and Agee & Evans. In both cases one of the authors writes the commentary and the other provides a series of generally highly dramatic â€Å"propaganda† pictures. The question now arises, was the documentary style in the thirties; found in fiction and non-fiction, and in art and photography. The reverse of the former was really true; both fiction and non-fiction of the time owed something to the documentary style. Fiction was full of ‘real people’ and many writers tried to introduce social issues. The social documentary style was devised to give a sense of urgency to the representation of life as it was: reality with drama and a sharp tug at the emotions. In the case of non-fiction the genre usually relied upon simple issues:

Germany Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Germany - Essay Example There is plenty of historical evidence that points to why the United States entered the war. The Germans sank the Lusitania in 1915, which was enough to get the United States angry at them. Even though they promised to stop using submarines, they did not, and more American lives were lost. Though Mr. Freedman was right when he said that the United States entered the war on the side of England to help our allies and friends, the reasons are completely wrong. We did not enter the war because Jews of both countries got together, had a party, and said, â€Å"Let’s enter the war today; we have nothing else to do!† And the idea of entering a war to give a piece of land to another religion or party of people is just that: an idea. America had strong reasons to enter the war, from the fact that the Germans once again began their submarine use to the fact that Germany, if England was overrun, could just as easily begin doing the same to America. As for the Jews uniting to stop b uying German goods, they were right to do what they needed to do to get the message across to Hitler. It was not, as Mr. Freedman suggests, because the Jews caused their own problems.