...Vampires and zombies, two supernatural entities that have captured man’s imagination since the legends of these creatures were born. Everyone knows what a vampire is and what a zombie is (at least what they have heard of seen) but are they real? Surprisingly they are to some but no in the sense you would think. If you were to ask someone what a vampire is, you would probably get the standard answer, “Pointed fangs, thirst for blood, undead” etc. According to howstuffworks.com, These legends most likely originated in ancient Mesopotamia, with the Assyrian legend of the Lamatsu. The Lamastu was a demon goddess who would creep into a house at night and kill or kidnap babies and would also suck blood from young men, hence the vampire legend. There are many legends which contain an ancestor to the vampire legend. In Greek mythology, Lamia, a once mortal half woman half snake, would suck blood from infants. These are all examples of “early vampires”, the modern vampire was more directly influenced by the folklore of eastern Europe. One name for an eastern European vampire is Strigoi. These type creatures were also called Vampir, or Vampyr, hence the English word vampire. In the 17th and 18th centuries a wave of vampire hysteria rolled across Europe. During this time people reported seeing dead relatives walking around and attacking the living (howstuffworks). The best block in the evolution of the modern vampire is of course, Dracula, Bram Stoker’s character. His...
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...The article is written by Mike Whitney in 2014 and is a long rand about how the American Dream is dead and the government is corrupt. Finding background information about this author was not an easy task. On his website you find a large number of articles that all seem to have the same theme; criticizing the modern society and the ‘evil’ capitalistic country of America. However, is it really true that there are just no way to get yourself out of poverty or climb the social ladder? That it would be completely impossible to get out of poverty - is not a true statement, if you ask me. if you work hard, finish High School and College there is a 72% chance that you will join the middleclass . The Article also says that if you end up in the middleclass you are most likely to spend the rest of your life working a “shitty” middleclass job that you don’t like. But is the US really at fault? Of course, a huge part of the middleclass will continue to stay in the middleclass because not everyone can become a billionaire. In today’s world, it is not an easy task to become super successful in any country, and just because you work the same job for a long time and work hard, it does not mean that you automatically become CEO. It is not that simple anymore; you will have to consider many aspects like social skills, creativity, getting to know the right people, luck etc. I am not saying that the capitalistic world we live in is fair, but there is not much we can do about it - or maybe there...
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...They said this is how we were to die. They said it would tear us all apart, which no one will even know that we ever existed, boy were they ever wrong. March 23rd 2287 is the day the world changed and became this non existing place I’m at now. Sitting in my living room and remembering looking out the window seeing what I feel is a very dark cloud just spinning faster and faster. I think to myself this looks like a tornado but there was something different, it didn’t draw down to the ground like a tornado does. This cloud I thought, seemed to get bigger and darker and I just couldn’t stop looking at it. What is this phenomenon? All of a sudden there is an alert on the hologram in the living room with the president of the United Nations....
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...1. The idea illustrated by the breakup of the Pervin household was an atmosphere filled with death and hopelessness. The Pervins are a family of horse dealers, who have recently lost their father. This circumstance has left them grieving and in debt. While this situation alone is depressing, Lawrence uses words such as “desolate” to describe the breakfast table, and “dreary” to describe the furniture to reinforce the hopelessness of the atmosphere. 2. Joe was having the hardest time dealing with the fact that they would have to leave their house and their lives behind. He was said to have thought of himself as one of the horses. Joe’s fate was to marry and survive from the employment provided by his father in law, who was a steward of a nearby estate. I believe that Joe was thankful that he had somewhere to go, but was regretful that he would have to sacrifice his independence and freedom, and have to become a “subject animal now.” He would be assuming the role of one of his work horses. 3. The events of Mabel’s life have molded her into a determined and strong willed woman. Her strengths are not apparent, because the story also reveals her weaknesses. Through much of the story, Mabel is suicidal and depressed. However, Mabel has been the glue that has held her family together since the death of her father, and she took great pride in that fact. Stability was the only thing that she lived for since the passing of her mother. The depression starts to...
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...First, in Poe’s literary works, the tone can be often described as melancholy or sadness of the spirit. Poe had a number of experiences in his life, that caused him to feel sad. His melancholy is reflected in the tone of his works. One such work, The Raven, was written during the time his wife named Virginia was dying. “That I scarce was sure I heard you- here I opened wide the door;- Darkness there, and nothing more.” (The Raven). The poem is about a man who is grieving for his dead lover. This poem could be said to be written by Poe to express his sadness in the fact that Virginia’s time to die was nearing. This gives a depressing appeal to the reader and gives them a sense of Poe’s thoughts while writing The Raven. Another kind of sadness can be expressed in one of Poe’s short poems, Eldorado. “Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado.”(Eldorado) Throughout his life, Poe had always been searching for something, but he never found it. Poe suffered financial issues, he was gambling to earn money but ended up in deeper debt. This poem could have been written to show Poe’s desire and want to have a family, to be successful in his lifetime. Yet, he never got any of that. Eldorado has a more upbeat tone than to say, The Raven, but there still is a feeling of sadness. Wanting to reach something you always just seem to can’t, and yet never reaching it. Poe had a fascination with death, as depicted in his stories. Most likely because everyone around him was dying,...
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...The Black Death Imagine that within the next few months one third of your community, family and closest friends would be dead. That is what life was like when the bubonic plague took hold of Europe. Within three years nearly half of the European population was killed off. Like most sad stories, the tragedy of the bubonic plague has a silver lining. The drastic change in population destroyed the feudal system, allowed freedom of thought and gave birth to a new middle class. There was nothing pretty about the bubonic plague. It likely came from China and was carried to Europe by a few merchants and the rats/fleas that came with them on the ships. Once an individual caught the disease they had approximately 4 days to live. On the first day you would feel sick and start to develop patches of swelling. On the second day you might begin to vomit, developed a fever and the swellings would grow. On the third day bleeding under the skin would begin appearing and an unpleasant odor would arise. On the fourth day the illness attacked the nervous system, convulsions begin. Most people died on the fourth day. The disease was so contagious that nearly everyone who came into contact with a victim would also be dead in a matter of days. Before the days of the plague Europe operated on the Feudal system which basically involved three parties; the church, nobility and serfs. The lords owned all of the land while the vassals and serfs farmed it, in turn paying very...
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...December 17, 2010 Credentials are important when you are choosing a religion. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in the Bible as the guiding source based on worthy credentials. Their truths are based on the sacred writings of the Bible. For example Genesis 1:1 says: There is one almighty God and Creator who made all things. They believe in one creator who has a name, and that name is Jehovah. Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a World Wide Christian Religion who share with others information about God and his son, Jesus Christ. They base their belief mainly on the principles found in the Holy Bible, and view first century Christianity as their source. Their founder is Charles Taze Russell whose background and study of the Bible led him to conclude that hellfire does not exist, God is not a Trinity, and that 1914 marked the second coming of Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that all scriptures are inspired of God and beneficial, but some people have even claimed that they are not even Christians. They believe that “There is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved, which is Jesus Christ”. That is quoted in Acts 4:12 of the Bible. They believe that God is greater than Jesus, and that Jesus himself acknowledged that: “The Father is greater that I am,” (John 14:28) they also believe that they should be like Jesus by making God’s name manifest to others. They take the name Jehovah’s Witnesses...
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...Vietnamese culture- beliefs and rituals of the death Vietnamese culture may be still mysterious and unknown to most people outside of the country. Nowadays, the amount of foreigners come to Vietnam is increasing day by day; some people come to travel, and some come for their business. Getting to know, Vietnamese culture is interesting and fascinating because of its varieties. Since Vietnam is an Asian country, it has a lot of differences in culture compare to the Western countries, and Vietnamese beliefs and rituals of the death is one of the most interesting topics. Death is a part of life that everyone has to accept. We all have to die. “Death and grief are normal life events, all culture have developed ways to cope with death in a respectful manner” (Carteret). Vietnam is a small country, but it has numerous traditions concerning death rites. Different parts of Vietnam have separated death beliefs and rituals. Vietnamese honor and respect their ancestors and the deceased people so they strictly pay attention to funerals and worships. To them, funeral is a big ritual in a life cycle. Every region and religion has its own definition and how the funeral should be. Funeral usually includes many processes which is made and dedicated from those who are living to the person who has died. In Vietnam, when a person is about to die and his/her family may predict, the first judgment is asking whether that person wants to weary anything; these last few words are called the will...
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...A Dead Man's Path" is a short story about a bright and ambitious headmaster named Obi who soon finds that his ignorance over the ancestry of his people can bring about the worst of fates. Tradition is the main theme of this story, as the purpose of the ancient path is discovered and the reactions from Obi and the villagers define the importance of tradition to everyone involved. As events progress, Obi ignores the culture that his own ancestors once followed, soon finding that the passion of a person's beliefs can overcome all obstacles- whether the headmaster wants that or not. It is because of these factors that "A Dead Man's Path" best illustrates the importance of respecting and remembering traditions that may seem odd and old-fashioned, but have lived long in the hearts of the people who follow them. The story takes place in Africa, and Obi, the main character, had just received news that he would be running a school that had been in dire need of help within the region. Obi is a bright young individual, and both he and his wife act as representatives to a more modern way of viewing the world. Chinua Achebe further shows this fact very early in the story, on the third paragraph: "'We shall do our best,' she (Obi's wife) replied. 'We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern anddelightful.'" (Achebe 476). They are energetic and spirited, especially Obi, who is ambitious enough to want to see that his new school will be the best that he can make it...
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...Research Paper on Transgender Everyone has a gender; it is a thing affects everything in our lives. It affects how we act like and look like every day. However, have you ever thought about what is gender? Gender is the thing that describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine (Nobelius). Today, most of the countries define gender base on the physical and genetic sexuality at birth. There is at least one transgender person, whose self-gender identity is different from the assigned gender sex at birth, in each 100 people (NCTE). Under the rules of our society, there are at least 70 million people living in the world without their identity. Loss of identity also comes with life-threatening discriminations and inequities to them. To solve this serious problem and to improve the harmony of the society, gender’s definition should be redefined to include transgender and not only base on the physical sexuality at birth. Before everything else, the most important question is: what is transgender? From the definition of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, transgender is the state of one's self gender identity not matching one's assigned sex which based on physical sexuality at birth (GLAAD). To be easier to imagine, I would use a simple example. Imagine that your name is Tom. One day, while you are sleeping, someone assigns “Peter” as your name. After that, everyone starts calling you “Peter” while you can never remove the label of...
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...Example Literary Research Paper Michelle Carerra Professor Krickstein English 1302 October 15, 2004 The Awakening of Gabriel Conroy Like the stories in Dubliners that lead up to it, “The Dead” dramatizes a moment of self-realization. The story portrays the gradual awakening of Gabriel Conroy, whose vision of his wife, Gretta, at the end of the story is at once a frustrating disappointment and a touching movement toward understanding and love. Robert Adams voices the view of more than one critic when he writes of “The Dead” that this “greatest of the stories in Dubliners stands apart from the rest, being warmer in tonality, richer in the writing, and more intimate in its subject matter” (83). Florence Walzl agrees when she writes that “’The Dead’ is markedly different from the earlier stories. . . .It is not only a longer, more fully developed narrative, but it presents a more kindly view of Ireland” (428). In one sense the “dead” of the title are all those who have lived and died, those who have gone before the festive inhabitants of Dublin who celebrate the Christmas season, Gabriel Conroy and Gretta among them. In another sense the dead are all those who, though alive and breathing, have lost their naturalness, their spontaneity, and most importantly, their passion. Gabriel, one of these, has lost touch with his past and with traditional Irish values. He looks instead toward continental Europe, toward the future, and toward change for an escape...
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...winter, as the season of suicide, and no matter what the season, the world in the novel is a cruel, dark, hopeless place. The world is viewed in the novel as a sort of wasteland from which mankind has attempted to escape, moving to Suburbia seeking perfection and thus salvation. Only perfection is an unrealistic goal, and is therefore naturally unobtainable. Part of the American ideal of happiness is to strive for the unobtainable. The suburbs only exist as an attempt to cover up reality, hiding problems, worries, anxieties, realities, and skeletons behind the monotonous lawns, and closed doors. This theme is repeated throughout the novel. For example, in the line that reads: “What my yia yia could never understand about America was why everyone pretended to be happy all the time” (175). Perhaps Eugenides is encouraging us to question this American Value of perfection and perfect happiness. “Old Mrs. Karafilis…lived in the basement waiting to die”...
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...often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world As much as I enjoy "The Walking Dead" on AMC and movies such as "28 Days Later," one of my ongoing complaints about the explosion of the zombie genre is the general mopery and overall predictability of those ever-staggering creatures. They lurch. They snarl. They sniff the air for the scent of human flesh. They pounce and gnaw. They pound windows and doors, and express frustration when confronted with 10-foot-high cyclone fences. And then they get shot in the head and die. That's pretty much it. We almost never get inside the rotted mind of the zombie or see things from the zombie point of view. They're forever penned in as the Big Metaphor. One of the many exhilarating pleasures of "Warm Bodies" is the flipping of that script. This is a bloody fresh twist on the most popular horror genre of this century, with none-too-subtle echoes of a certain star-crossed romance that harks back to a certain bard who placed a certain young Romeo under a certain balcony. I kinda love this movie. "Warm Bodies" is a well-paced, nicely directed, post-apocalyptic love story with a terrific sense of humor and the, um, guts to be unabashedly romantic and unapologetically optimistic. Looking a little like a boy-band heartthrob who won first place at a Hollywood Halloween party thanks to a a professional makeup job and an...
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...United States and Great Britain. To such a point as references to mind altering drugs were appearing in Beats poems and essays and even protest songs of the middle 1950s. As music progressed through the year’s drug use (by artists and fans) and references became more mainstream. This paper will look at two specific band, The Beatles and the Grateful Dead. Rock and Roll on Drugs Drug use and music have been intertwined for many years. This use whether illegal or legal has had both positive and negative impacts on the artists and their success. While the creative juices may be flowing while under the influence of drugs the final outcome (maybe years down the road) almost always ends on a negative note. Even dating back to 1830 when Hector Berlioz wrote his most famous work “Symphonie Fantastique” he detailed the effects of an opium induced dream, specifically in the fourth movement. In an interview on June 16, 1967, Paul McCartney was asked if he ever took drugs, he said “After I took it (LSD), it opened my eyes. We only use one-tenth of our brain. Just think what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part. It would mean a whole new world." (Spangler, 1967) During the late 1960s there was a counterculture, teens of the day were disillusioned with society, the Vietnam War and the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert F Kennedy. To deal with these realities they turned to drugs that got progressively stronger. This was all...
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...people have about death. One of his points was survival after death. Nagel said that if dualism is true we can understand how life after death might be possible. Each person would consist of a soul and a body, and the soul would have to be able to leave the body and function on its own. If dualism is not true, then life after death could not exist because mental processes go in the brain which depend on the rest of the body. Nagel believes that life after death might be tangible if dualism is true. Nagel asserts that death, the most terrifying of things, is nothing to us. Since as long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist. It does not then concern either the living or the dead. He explained that death can be considered a negative evil because when a person dies, their lives end. This means that there is nothing left; no love, work, food, clothing, cars or anything else. When Nagel says death has no value, positive or negative, he means to the person who has died. One's death can clearly have value to others, negative to one's family and friends, positive to one's enemies or those who profit from it. Nagel also explained that anything that is bad for someone-must be bad for that person at a particular time. There is no time at which death is bad for the one who dies. Death is not bad for someone before he dies; it is not bad for her once he dies, because from that point on she no longer exists. Nagel makes a good point when he said:...
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