Benefits That Bring Health Practice Of Physical Activity

Abstract The benefits that bring health practice of physical activity performed regularly and the risks involved in sedentary, especially of the elderly, lifestyles have been widely established in numerous epidemiological studies in recent years. However, the sedentary lifestyle of our society is becoming a constant threat to public health, which is carrying to professionals from the health sector to adopt targeted measures to promote the physical activity of the society in general and elderly people in particular. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of seniors who perform physical activity, although this continues to be scarce and insufficient (Gonzalo and Pasarin, 2004). Also, we are seeing a considerable increase in the number of older people in society and it is estimated that this increase is progressive in recent years. For the year 2050 is estimated the Group of older people has tripled. Public authorities therefore have a responsibility to ensure the heal th of the elderly, so that they can carry out his life with full autonomy (Merino, 2002). Importance of physical activity in older people Physical activity constitutes together with the power the two key elements that define the life expectancy of persons (Ramos, 2002). Currently, no group of society can get more benefits from the food and physical activity to the Group of older persons (Drewnowki and Evans, 2001). Both factors have a vital role in the promotion of health andShow MoreRelatedPhysical Benefits of Dancing1835 Words   |  7 PagesHealth through Dance Customer Inserts His/her Name University Name Abstract Health through Dance a recent phenomenon in the Physical and Health Sciences, has been used as the most effective non-medical treatment throughout the World. 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It encompasses the body, mind, and spirit which are integrated by an individual to live life more fully within the human and the community or else the environment. Being in a state of well-being individual’s joy and happiness is seen in the lives of the people. Less stress is experienced when wellness prevails. Wellness is an indication of an individual’s quality of life which has been used to show how individuals are satisfied withRead MoreImproving Sports At School Time1566 Words   |  7 Pagesfor their children than paying attention to the importance of physical education. Even public schools do not allocate enough time for kids to practice sports as much as they do for class-based education. In fact, physical activity for children is not only about pleasure time. Rather, it helps grown-up children to extend their capaci ty to grasp concepts explained in their classes. Children who are active while doing physical activity are expected to be active at class time. Thus, encouraging sportsRead MoreA Design Process1499 Words   |  6 Pagesper people’s needs and services in the present society. Organizations like NHS work for public health and well being by exploring new ways to foresee the existing problems and encounter them. This report is about how we as a team developed an understanding on how health problems can be conceptualised, analyse how changing patterns of health relate to key societal issues and identify main public health threats within the present society. Working in teams helped us contribute more and learn to valueRead MoreLasting Effects of Physical Education on Students Essay634 Words   |  3 PagesNational Institutes of Health did a study and found a person could gain as much as three years on their life expectancy if they meet all the HHS guidelines (Moore). Almost all adolescents will benefit if they know this knowledge. Requiring a physical education class every year for high school graduation will benefit students throughout their lives. A major importance for having a physical education class is it keeps adolescents active. According to Cameron Jacobs, adolescents are dramaticallyRead MorePractice Healthy Lifestyle and Live Longer1488 Words   |  6 PagesPractice Healthy Lifestyle and Live Longer By  Apo Practice healthy lifestyle and live longer. You cannot fail to be healthy with it. Healthy lifestyle involves all good habits in life. It covers the physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspect of life. Healthy lifestyle means living with optimum health. It means living with vigor, joy and zest for life. It is eating nutritious food,   doing regular physical exercise, practicing good habits, having positive mental attitude, and trust in God. PracticeRead MoreHow Technology Has Impacted Our Culture Essay1692 Words   |  7 PagesGet Physical with Smartphones In English 300 we are learning how technology has impacted our culture. In order to relate this topic to my major in Kinesiology, I wanted to research how technology has played a role into physical fitness of individuals. In order to figure this issue out, I had to approach this assignment through many different perspectives: how has technology helped us understand the human body, how has technology impacted sedentary behaviors, how has technology affected us to be moreRead MoreWhat Are The Three Major Health Issues And Challenges?1511 Words   |  7 Pagesidentified and briefly explained to give information on what group of people will be focussed on in this paper. The three main health issues/challenges that will be highlighted are: arthritis, falling, and medication use. These topics will be covered due to how commonly they occur in the older population. When discussing arthritis, it will be involving any joint disease that brings pain and discomfort to the person. The topic of f alling will account for falls that the elderly experience that in turn affectRead MoreEffects Of Obesity On The Canadian Federal System889 Words   |  4 Pagesgovernment does not take an active step in the stop against unhealthy eating, bad life style choices and obesity then the problem will continue to escalate. Public policy can be used to bring awareness to issues that effect and benefit many. There was an important study documented in the European journal of public health that suggests, â€Å"one in three obese children might not have been obese in the absence of advertising for unhealthy food on TV. Limiting the exposure of children to marketing of energy-dense

Advantages of Being an Adult and Being a Child Free Essays

Melanie Montez Eng 101 10/20/2012 Mr. Schlittner Compare and Contrast Essay Advantages of being a child vs being an adult. The advantages of being a child are easy enough to say that it will be a lot simpler than being an adult. We will write a custom essay sample on Advantages of Being an Adult and Being a Child or any similar topic only for you Order Now Growing up you always wanted to be an adult and all the freedom that comes with being an adult. Being a child, you have your parents there every day to help you to adjust in the world. You also have all of your siblings there to fight or argue and then make up after your done, that always made your mom upset that you were always fighting with each other and then there goes the time when your mom will make you do this holding hands thing until you guys can get along. There is always cartoons on in the morning befrore you get up and go play outside. You can eat cereal three times a day and not ever be tired of it and you can also play in the mud without even caring if you got dirty. The birthday parties were always more fun too. Being a child had its disadvantages too, you would have to go to sleep early and have to be up in the morning to go to school. There is the doctors appointments that your mom never told you about, and when you get into the doctors office the doctor pulls out this big humungous needle and sticks it in your arm. Your mom used to tell you that it was good for you and it will make you not get sick, then when your arm is in pain you think she is telling you a lie from your parents and basically their undevided attention and think as a child â€Å"wow that would be fun and great. It is a daily routine being a child; getting up to go to school, shower, breakfast, lunch money, a ride to school and to see your friends and learn for the day. Not worrying about all those grown up things that adults do to survive and to do right by trying to survive and take care of children so they do not have a life most children do not get to have. You would have to worry only about friends, siblings and having the best time as a child. At the end of the day you would have dinner made for you and only have to worry about doing all these things all over again the next day. When you are an adult your day would start by waking up in the early morning thinking about how you will spend the day. Well of course in some cases you will have children so automatically there is responsibilities that has to be taken care of and that will the start of the day. Of course being and adult comes with a lot of responsibility. Growing up; schools and parents would teach you that being an adult comes with a lot of responsibility; so of course the day would start off by waking up to think of how you would take care of the family today. Even if it is just to make them food or give them a ride to school. In order to be a responsible adult you would have to find ways to provide for yourself and your children. These things do not come in books either because I looked. They are not as easy as you think it is. You will have these people depending on you to do the best and to get them the things they need. As a child you would get to experience many things such as vacations, friends, allowence, and some kids; even though they would not be able to experience a vacation hey would still have those child hood memories that one day their children will want to hear and know about. Think of how it would make a parent feel if they cannot give their child a vacation. Parents just do not come across vacations that easy. Something a parent would have to do to get a child a vacation would be impossible. That is just one of the things parents would have to think about. It would be more complicated than that to be a great parent. There is also a lot of caring to consider when raising a child. You ave to consider the begining of the childs life and make sure you are parents who love their children. Need is another part of parenting that we all need to consider. Children will need to learn from their parents and grow up to be what is right for them and when you are a child you will learn to find out that one day with all the hard days of raising children they will be able to find out in the real world that it takes a lot of work to raise children. When you see your children grow up because you who had anything to do with it they will thank you as long as you grow up right. Children are always wanted and needed for this world to continue and it is very important that we all think and take advantage for the great things we get in life. As you get older you also start to loose family members and we all will get old. As an adult we will have to face the fact that the children we do have will eventually grow up and find someone of their own to start their own family with. It is not the best to be an adult and all the responsibilities it has to come with but in the long run as long as you have the right mentality. How to cite Advantages of Being an Adult and Being a Child, Papers

Cultural Diffusion Sushi free essay sample

The hearth of sushi actually originated according to Alex Renton of The Observer in his February 26, 2006 article on sushi that long ago Southeast Asians uncovered that cooked rice actually ferments so the fish stored is preserved in this condition. Also, they can pack the fish in jars of cooked rice that can be edible for up to a year. The modern form of sushi was first originally a working class street food dish served at a street-food stall in the city of Edo, Japan in 1824. Yohei Hanaya, the stall’s owner shaped vinegar rice with his hands and then added a piece f raw fish for its convenience value. According to a July 26, 2011 article of The Guardian , sushi has faced its evolution over time from when rice vinegar surfaced around 1600 AD so people bring rice to ferment with preserving raw fish. Within its 2,500 years of evolution, sushi faces its obstacles that as it goes global can consequently decline of the raw materials since nearly all of the sushi fish are being thr eatened in the wild. We will write a custom essay sample on Cultural Diffusion: Sushi or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As the sushi has changed over time, its incarnations will cater to the types of people to serve. The authentic sushi will end up as a premium delicacy for the rich. Street sushi will gradually include imitation fish that the industry finds this unattractive. The process of diffuse in sushi has slowly drifted into other parts of the world. In 1970, Americans first embrace sushi when the Osho restaurant opened in Beverly Hills (it is located next door to Twentieth Century Fox studios) with its menu of sushi consisting low-fat, high protein, and premium quality. Another innovation that diffuse sushi was the establishment of conveyer- elt restaurants as according to Alex Renton of The Observer in his February 26, 2006 article. This concept was devised by Yoshiaki Shiraishi of Genroku Sushi restaurants as he was innovative when placing the customers on 4-person tables at right angles towards the conveyer belt with its speed of 8cm a second. The areas of diffusion for sushi has spread out in a somewhat gradual direction. According to Alex Renton of The Observer in his February 26, 200 6 article on sushi, he discusses the trace of its globalization with the expat Japanese communities around the Pacific Rim in which an pportunity for these Japanese chefs to whom experienced their sushi apprenticeship to be exploited to adapt to the local tastes. The Tuna fish in sushi is considered a coveted topping that the Japanese has always exploit to market for its goods such as the country’s airlines in the 60’s promoting tuna for exchanges as a result of importing its Japanese-made electronics headed to the U. S. In that occasion, tuna has faced its endangerment by over fishing for sushi ingredients largely in Japan for the past several years. However in 2008, some modifications were made when Japan inally approved to shrink its catch on tuna by 5%. The crossover appeal of sushi diffused via the invention of the California roll. This delicacy catapulted sushi as an international treat made with cooked crab, avocado, and mayonnaise inside with an inside-out sush i rice roll with a strip of nori seaweed. The California roll was been invented in 1973 by chef Ichiro Manashita of L. A’s Tokyo Kaiken restaurant. Sources www. guardian. co. uk/world/2006/feb/26/japan. foodanddrink www. guardian. co. uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/jul/26/consider-sushi/print

John Locke - Seperation Of Powers Essays - Montesquieu,

John Locke - Seperation of Powers Separation of Powers Separation of powers is the act of separating of responsibilities of the three branches of the government. The idea of this separation is not a new one either. John Locke originally talked about it. He stated that the legislative power should be divided between the King and Parliament in England. Another man also spoke about this separation, the French writer Montesquieu, who wrote about it in 1748 in his book De lesprit des lois. His point was that liberty is most effective if it is safeguarded by the separation of powers. He highly promoted liberty. As in the Encyclopedia Britannica, it stated that Montesquieu felt that liberty is most highly promoted when there are three branches of government acting independently of each other. Although his model for the three-branch government was for England, it became more important to the United States. His work was most notably shown in America when the Constitution was being created. Finally, Alexander Hamilton raised his point on separati on of powers in the series of essays called The Federalist. The Encyclopedia Encarta said that he wrote this with James Madison and John Jay and that there were 85 essays all together. They were written about how they wanted the new government to run. It was their view as to how each major department in the new central government should run. More specifically, they stated how the three branches of government should run and expounded the idea of judicial review. The way that the power is separated in the United States was that the legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch executes the laws and the judicial branch interprets the laws. However, as our book and the Encyclopedia Britannica both state, the executive branch in the United States has gained a lot more power. They both claim this because of numerous changes in social and economic life. The idea of checks and balances is closely related to the idea of separation of powers. Checks and balances is the idea that each branch of the government has ways to make sure that each other branch does not gain too much power. Instead, each branch is encouraged to share power with the other. Again, our book and the Encyclopedia Britannica both say that the way that this works is that the courts have judicial review, which is the power of the courts to examine both the executive and legislative branches to make sure that they are doing, is constitutional. Congress has the power to impeach people from both the judicial and executive branches. Plus they have the power to appropriate funds. Finally, the executive branch has the power to veto bills passed by Congress. However, this can be overridden by a 2/3-majority vote in Congress. However, a new concept helps the President, he can line item veto, which means he can blank out certain parts of the bill so it does not have to totally written. The idea of separation of powers is what separates us from Great Britain in the way we run our democracy. In England, the legislative executive branches are integrated. This idea is reinforced with the idea that they should be in constant agreement. It is pretty obvious that they are not in constant agreement here. This can happen because Congress may have a republican majority yet the president and his cabinet may be democratic. The idea is separation of powers is even related to Federalism as a whole. According to the Grolier Encyclopedia, federalism is directly related to the separation of powers. However, it is related to the separation between the state and national government. It said that each level of government is autonomous from the other. Also, neither is dependent on the other for legislation, taxes or administration. The idea of separation of powers has been around for a long time. Our newly founded government decided to use it as a base when writing the Constitution. Its main ideas are related to other aspects of our government such as checks and balances. Its ideals have changed a little bit because now the executive branch has a bit more power, but for the most part it has stayed intact. This concept also

How expectancy theory and equity theory might be used to motivate graduate trainees working in a large organisation Essays

How expectancy theory and equity theory might be used to motivate graduate trainees working in a large organisation Essays How expectancy theory and equity theory might be used to motivate graduate trainees working in a large organisation Paper How expectancy theory and equity theory might be used to motivate graduate trainees working in a large organisation Paper There are two main theories behind motivation; Expectancy theory and Equity theory. Expectancy theory, developed by Edward Tolman, is known as a cognitive theory and was brought about to dispute previous behaviourist theories. Equity theory looked at by J. Stacy Adams, is a process theory which is actually based on the idea of inequity. Motivation among graduate trainees can vary depending on the circumstances surrounding an individuals employment. If they are in a career that they are extremely passionate about, they will likely put in more effort than someone who has no real determination. Graduates are likely to be in a job for one of two reasons. They will either be there to get a foothold in the profession that they want to ultimately work in, or to make a lot of money to pay off their student debts. However in both cases, an individual will want to feel rewarded and that they are being treated fairly and in an equitable manner to their peers. Although Edward Tolman and Kurt Lewin were the first people to pioneer Expectancy theory, it was Victor Vrooms (1964) studies that applied the model to workplace motivation. The theory looks at peoples choice in options left open to them and suggests that an individuals motivation is dependent on how much they want something and their likelihood of achieving it. To ensure that graduates in an organisation are motivated, the company must first recognise the components that make up motivation. These are effort, direction and persistence. Effort looks at what actually motivates an individual while direction determines what behaviours an individual chooses. Persistence examines the role in which sustaining or halting a particular behaviour is important. Once a company understands that its graduates are likely to be motivated if all these criteria are positive, they can begin to formulate plans for ensuring that their employees are happy and conducting a successful job. The expectancy theory suggests that there are three key areas that an individual must want to succeed in. These are expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Vroom suggested a formula and it implied that if an individual put no value on any of the areas they would not be motivated. It is therefore important for a company to ensure that their graduates place value on all three areas, as shown in the diagram below. 1.1 The components of Expectancy Theory While some people believe that each of the components are distinct, it has been shown that there is a link between them and that one leads to another. As the newest employees of a company, graduates will be required to show motivation and a desire to succeed in the company. However if the company provides no set targets or options for them to fulfil the above key areas, there is a likelihood that the motivation would not be shown. Therefore, in order for the company to motivate graduates according to expectancy theory, they must ensure that the more work an individual puts in, it will be recognisable in terms of output. For instrumentality, they should also make clear that the more work an individual does for a company, the quicker they are likely to achieve a promotion or a salary increase. As a graduate, it is likely that an individual will want this promotion but in a case where it might not matter and to ensure that valence is present, it would be important for the company to ensure that the benefits of the promotion outweigh the costs to the individual. In a large organisation it is likely that there will be many graduates but competition to get a place initially may be fierce. It is important for the company to enforce the fact that whilst the individual was lucky to get a place, they very much deserved it and that the company values them as a person and for their talents. This in itself will increase motivation. However, as there will be many others in the same shoes it is important for a company to distinguish between each individual to ensure that their work doesnt go unnoticed. With so many graduates, it is important that whilst distinguishing between all of them, that none are overlooked and all feel equal to one another. J. Stacy Adams (1963, 1965) statement on equity theory was perhaps the most influential of its time. He argued that we are motivated to act in situations which we perceive to be inequitable or unfair (Buchanan Huczynski, 2004). As a graduate, inequity is likely to occur when an individual believes they are receiving more or less than they think they deserve. In an instance where they may be being better rewarded than their counterparts it may not be of concern to them, but when their counterparts are receiving higher benefits than the individual there will be a great feeling of inequity and maybe inadequacy. Adams model is based on inputs and outputs and they need to be balanced and calibrated against others in the workplace in order to ensure equity as the below diagram shows. 1.2 The components of J. Stacey Adams Equity Theory Graduates are likely to not have any previous experience of being in a workplace and therefore will probably make a lot more comparisons than those higher up the corporate ladder. As seen from the above diagram, the graduates perception of rewards and outputs includes money, recognition, responsibility, praise and enjoyment. If the graduate feels that their peers are receiving a higher token in any of these output areas, they are likely to experience inequity. Their inputs will be things such as effort, commitment, time, reliability and loyalty. As an individuals outputs reduce and an inequity manifests, the individual will feel compelled to act upon this reduction. They will try to correct the inequity as quickly as possible and this may involve lowering productivity, increased absenteeism or a reduced quality of the work produced. However, the limitation with this model is that it leaves inputs and outputs open to interpretation according to individual differences. For example, whilst one graduate might place large value on pay rises, another may think that these are negligible and that promotion and climbing the corporate ladder is more important. Adams believes that there are strategies for reducing inequity though and in the case of a graduate where one was being paid more than another for doing similar jobs, then the following steps that an individual would take: 1) Change their outputs (i.e. ask for a pay rise) 2) Change their inputs (i.e. not put in as much effort) 3) Change the other partys outputs (i.e. persuade superiors to cut others pay) 4) Change the other partys inputs (i.e. leave the hard work to others) 5) Change the comparable party (i.e. compare with a different individual) 6) Change attitude to inequity (i.e. reason as to why the other is receiving more outputs) 7) Leave the job Therefore, for an organisation to use equity theory to its advantage and to ensure its graduates continue to be motivated after the first few weeks at the company, it is important to ensure that they feel that their inputs are rewarded by outputs and that their peers are not receiving more outputs than them. Obviously, there will be certain individuals who perform better than others and will deserve higher outputs. When this is the case, the company must ensure that the individuals work is definitely above the standard of their counterparts and that it is made clear to others in the organisation why the said individual received the reward. This will actually have a positive effect on the company in that the other graduates in the company will want to achieve a similar output benefit and therefore be motivated to work harder and in turn their inputs will increase. This will have a spiralling effect which will increase productivity and therefore in turn have a positive effect on the company. Both theories can be used to ensure that the graduates are happy and feel aptly rewarded in their jobs. Expectancy Theory and Equity Theory both take into account the costs to the individual and the rewards that are ultimately expected. It is important for an organisation not to pass these theories by because it may ultimately have a detrimental effect to the reputation of the company. By ensuring that those at the bottom of the firm are enjoying their work and feel aptly rewarded, it will create a positive atmosphere that will ensure that the graduates remain loyal to the organisation and are more likely to stay with them rather than defect to a rival firm.

Help! What Should I Write About in My College Application Essay!

Help! What Should I Write About in My College Application Essay! ITS NEVER TOO EARLY TO ASK YOURSELF THE QUESTION If you’re finishing up your Junior year of high school, now is the time to start thinking about your college essays.   If you’re going to be a Junior and you’re reading this, its not too early.   The point is, start thinking of topics now! Why now?   Because the best college essays go through many lives before you  submit them.   You will  write, re-write, and re-write again.   Weeks might go by after a first draft, during which inspiration can hit by surprise. You want to have lots of time for your college admissions essays to percolate, to have those magic light bulb moments, or maybe even to wake up in the middle of the night from a dream and write a brilliantly creative essay (this really does happen!). If you start thinking about your essays in November, you won’t have time for the process to work on you.   Instead of waking up with inspiration, you will wake up panicked or worried that you’re on the wrong track.   You dont want that. POSSIBLE ESSAY BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS Here are the current Common Application Essay questions to start your wheels in motion! 2016-2017 Essay Prompts Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? Describe a problem youve solved or a problem youd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma   anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken  to identify a solution. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. Many schools have questions unique to them as well, so take some time to research what those might be. Regardless of the questions, as you think through what to write, it is important to think deeply about the meaning of things in your life. Determine what about your experience is unique to you. Thats what will make your story about your grandmother, trip to Israel or soccer practice different from the next essay in the pile. SIT DOWN  (OR STAND UP) AND  WRITE Don’t just think about these questions – start writing!   Designate a journal for your college essay ideas.   You will be surprised how quickly it fills up with great content.   Keep filling it up, and when you go back to what you wrote several months before, you might be happily surprised by some of your thoughts. If you’re struggling finding the right application essay topic, don’t despair.   There are professionals at The Essay Expert who will help you recognize what is special about your experiences and support you to present those experiences in words.   By working with an expert, you will end up with truly great college essays and have the best chance of getting into the college of your dreams. Save Category:College AdmissionsBy Brenda BernsteinMay 6, 2010

My concern with television content Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My concern with television content - Essay Example Television can have a positive cognitive development on teenagers only if the programs are critically analyzed and vetted for suitability. There are some programs that help in educating teenagers about various issues surrounding the society and this will make them think constructively on their daily undertaking. Take the case of national television program on various academic topics for students, such kind of content has always motivated teenagers to shun some behaviors and take a given path of action that is vital for the development of his future. I would champion for programmes like public debate in which some teenagers participate really instill the spirit of hard work and competition and this is positive in terms of working hard in school and various endeavors to achieve excellence. Besides, language is one of the greatest interactive assets that anybody in the world may possess and this is always promoted in the television programmes depending on the language spoken. This is th e reason media industry hires people with outstanding personality and exceptional command of a given language (Vorderer, Peter, and Dolf, 78-9). Television is an effective mode of learning to teenagers since they actually see what they are being told. This is the reason as to why there is an appeal to ensure that the television programmes are sorted out before being unleashed to the various frequencies across the globe.

Evaluate the impact of three-strikes laws on jails and prisons Essay

Evaluate the impact of three-strikes laws on jails and prisons - Essay Example The provisions enshrined in the three-strike laws have resulted in a considerable increase in the prison populations in the states that have adhered to these laws (Jacobson 217). Not only the prisoners penalized under the three-strike provisions constitute a major chunk of the prison populations, these laws have also assured that even those accused who are guilty of repeatedly engaging in serious crimes of non-violent nature do tend to serve prolonged prison sentences. For instance, in the year 2004 alone, the prisoners serving sentences affiliated to the three-strike laws constituted almost twenty six percent of California’s prison population (Jacobson 217). The three-strike laws also had an impact on the length of time that the prisoners tended to spend in the prisons and jails. Going by the fact that the three-strike laws tend to enhance the prison terms of the repeat offenders, this has resulted in an increase in the average time that the prisoners happened to stay in the prisons (Jacobson 2118). The actual ramifications of the three-strike laws have also led to an increase in the average age of the prison populations. As the prisoners serving sentences as per the three-strike laws happen to stay longer in prisons, this has expanded the average age of the inmates (Redburn & McNamara 217). Thereby, going by the three-strike laws, one could certainly expect older and aging prison populations in the times to come. The other thing is that the racial minorities, especially the African-Americans and the Hispanics tend to constitute the largest groups of prisoners serving sentences under the three-strike laws (Russell-Brown 16). There is no denying the fact that the three-strike laws had serious financial implications for the prisons and jails. With the prisoners serving longer sentences and the consequent increase in the prison populations, the prisons and jails are becoming financially more

Examine the role of the witches in Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Examine the role of the witches in Macbeth Essay King James I succeeded Queen Elizabeth I on the throne of England in 1603. He was a member of the Stuart dynasty and was already the King of Scotland. This meant he united the two kingdoms, ending incessant warring between the two nations. James hoped to end the period of religious turmoil that had engulfed England for the previous century. The people in 17th Century England were very superstitious and witchcraft was the object of fevered fascination. In 1604 a law was passed that said anyone convicted of witchcraft should be executed. King James I was as fascinated by witches as his subjects, and in 1590 he personally interrogated a group of witches who had plotted to kill him. Misogyny and a strong belief that morality was being upheld fuelled societys hatred of witches. World Order was an important factor of seventeenth century life. World Order was a system in which God was at the top of the chain, followed by the King or Queen, then humans, birds, animals and fish. They believed that the King had been directly chosen by God and therefore did not have to answer to parliament. The human section of the Order was split into subdivisions of classes. It was believed that each person was born into their social status and ambition to rise above their position was considered unacceptable and was punishable by political means or by fate. The audience would immediately realise that once Macbeth had murdered the King, he would have to die, as he had disturbed Gods natural order. The first scene of Macbeth prepares the audience for the entrance of the witches with the use of pathetic fallacy. This is used to dramatic effect, with thunder, lightning and rain applied to create a feeling of chaos. The scene being set in a desolate place reinforces this idea, with the setting making it seem like the events that will unfold will be of an ominous nature. The words the witches use support the idea of chaos and disturbance. The word hurly-burly is used to show the turmoil at the time, with the area being ravaged by battle. Another phrase used to show disturbance is fair is foul and foul is fair. This phrase makes the audience wonder how anything fair can possibly be foul, thus creating confusion. There are many indicators that the three weird sisters are witches. These include the use of the number three, the familiars and the language of the sisters. The number three is a number often believed to be magical, and throughout the play Shakespeare frequently uses this number throughout the play. All three of the sisters have familiars, demons who take the form of creatures to aid witches with their evil craft. This is shown when the witches say I come Graymalkin, Paddock calls and Anon. Some of the sisters say things that can be interpreted as being related to witchcraft, including that will be ere the set of sun. This relates to witchcraft, as traditionally it was believed that witches performed magic at sunset. In Act I Scene 1, the Captain tells the story of Macbeth being a brave and noble man who is valiant and trustworthy. He gives an account of a battle that has just taken place and tells the king of Macbeths role in it. As the man telling the story holds the rank of Captain, trust is established between him and the audience. The use of words such as carved, unseamed and steel have connotations of murder and butchery, showing Macbeths bloodthirstiness in battle. The Captain also uses the phrase or memorise another Golgotha. This compares Macbeths fighting as being as bloody and savage as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is a huge comparison, as Christ is a holy figure. I think that this shows Macbeth fights with such passion it could be almost a religion. A semantic field of warfare and battle supports this scene, with lexis including choke; rebel; galloglasses; smoked; over-charged; bloody; execution; carved; battlements; cannons and wounds. I think the words choke and over-charged are strong words, as they both show the zeal and ferocity Macbeth fought with. There is a large contrast between the way the witches and the Captain portray Macbeth. This creates an ambivalent presentation of Macbeth, allowing the audience to interpret Macbeths character in different ways. As a result of this, Macbeths entrance to the play is delayed until the third scene to allow the witches and the Captain to speak. The contradictory ideas about Macbeth that are spoken create tension, as the audience waits to see the true nature of Macbeth. A witch speaks before Macbeths arrival in Act I Scene 3, the line A drum, a drum, Macbeth doth come. This line has a strong aural quality, and the rhyming of drum and come creates a sound like a heartbeat, or a drum signifying war. This creates uncertainty in the audiences mind, and prepares them for an ominous scene. Throughout the first scene of the play the witches are presented to the audience as puzzling creatures, possibly closer akin to Satan than humans. Their characters seem uncertain and their strange speech patterns are an enigma. They speak many contradictions including when the battles lost and won and fair is foul and foul is fair. These contradictions could possibly be affiliated to world order, and the 17th Century audience may interpret the witches speech as a disturbance of that. The second appearance of the witches gives an insight into the power of the witches. The first witch tells the others about a woman who insulted her and how she would take her revenge upon the womans husband. The womans husband was the captain of a ship and the witch says in a sieve Ill thither sail and Ill do, Ill do, and Ill do. One of the skills witches were credited with was the ability to sail in sieves and the use of this and the way in which Ill do is repeated three times, suggests some form of incantation will be used upon the sailor. The other witches offer to give a wind, allowing her to create a storm at the ships location. This shows that while the witches cannot directly control people, they do have control over the environment and they can use this to change the circumstances of people. What the witches plan to do with the captain is very alike what happens to Macbeth in the future. Sleep shall neither night nor day is similar to Macbeth after murdering Duncan, where he is plagued by nightmares and cannot sleep. This links Macbeth to the witches and shows his evil nature. When Macbeth meets the witches he is greeted with the witches saying hail to thee, Thane of Glamis, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor and All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter. The three lines indicate the three states of being: past, present and future. Glamis shows the past tense, as Macbeth has been Thane of Glamis for a significant amount of time and he is aware of his position. Cawdor represents the present, as unbeknown to him, Duncan has just stripped the previous Thane of Cawdor of his title, and will issue it to Macbeth. The final greeting is a prophecy, and it tells Macbeth that he will become King of England. The close repetition of the phrase gives the parallelism a strong rhythmic value, creating a sound that is similar to a spell or incantation. This reminds the audience that the prophecy has come from the mouths of evil, and so cannot be pure. After hearing these prophecies Macbeth responds by physically jolting. Banquo saying why do you start and seem to fear shows this. There are three possible explanations for him jumping. Either Macbeth jumps in fear of the witches, jumps because he knows Duncan must die, or because the idea of murdering the king was already in his mind. In my opinion the reason Shakespeare put Banquos line into the play was to make the audience wonder if Macbeth had already thought about killing Duncan and claiming the throne. After the prophecies are given, Macbeth also orders the witches to tell him more. Imperative verbs are used to show his commands. These include stay and speak. These show Macbeth wants to know more and show his military commanding background. It appears that he is used to having his orders carried out. Ross a herald of King Duncan then gives the news that Macbeth is Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth responds by saying The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes? This is part of a set of clothes images throughout the play. This series of images supports the theme of the play, assuming a false identity and assuming someone else place. Clothing is used because Macbeth appears to be hiding his true nature behind the valiant robes of kingship. The set of images is effective because clothing can suggest concealment and disguise. After being assured of his position as Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth edges into a soliloquy. This is a dramatic technique and shows a characters innermost thoughts. The phrase if ill, why hath it given me earnest of success? is spoken by Macbeth, and shows how he cannot understand how the prophecies can possibly be evil when they have given him success. This shows he fully believes the witches and so means he will be likely to commit the murder of the king. A series of images from the stage is in this soliloquy with words such as prologues; act and imperial theme. Another one of William Shakespeares plays, As You Like It has a similar theme and a character in it says All the worlds a stage and the characters merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. This displays world order, and it can be seen that each person has a part to play and must not step out of his or her role. By killing Duncan, Macbeth will step out of his role and cause chaos. I also think this can be related to Macbeth, as the witches have carefully orchestrated his life and have great control over his destiny. This is very much alike to the lines or acts in a play, while his exit will be his fate. At the end of the soliloquy there is also another clothes image, when Banquo says look how our partners rapt. This is a pun, as Macbeth is spellbound but also metaphorically wrapped in the clothes of another man the king. The language of Macbeths letter to his wife shows that he has chosen to believe the witches prophesies. The letter opens with the phrase They met me in the day of success. This shows that all the experiences he had that day were successful, the battle and the encounter with the witches. The phrase they have more in them than mortal knowledge shows that he fully believes they have magical powers, and that he trusts they will be beneficial to his cause. He says he burned in desire to question them further, showing the audience his desperate need to know more information. The phrase fate and metaphysical aid doth seem is used by Lady Macbeth in her response to Macbeths letter. This phrase is significant as it shows her readiness to ally herself with evil and the magic of the witches. It also shows that she believes fate has placed the supernatural witches in their paths and they would be wrong to side against them. Lady Macbeth has a large soliloquy in Act I Scene 5. A soliloquy is where an actor turns to the audience and speaks directly to them, as if the character were daydreaming. The actor speaks the truth as their character perceives it to be to the audience. This technique is used to great dramatic effect by Shakespeare. In her soliloquy her deadly intent is revealed. The words I feel now the future in the instant spoken by Lady Macbeth are very significant. They show that she believes their future will be decided by their actions regarding the king. I think that at this point she knows what must be done for her husband to become King. Lady Macbeth graphically indicates her decision to bring about the death of King Duncan by saying O never shall sun that morrow see. This shows that when the king goes to sleep, he shall never see daylight again: his fate is inevitable. Sun is used as an image because the sun is a symbolic representation of monarchy. Also, in world order, kings where the highest placed creature, just as the sun is the most important thing in the sky. When Macbeth rejoins his wife, they speak of their plans to kill Duncan. She advises Macbeth to look like thinnocent flower, but be the serpent undert. This means she wants Macbeth to look honest and friendly on the outside, yet on the inside, be as venomous as a vicious serpent and murder the king. The audience at the time would make a link between this and the Gunpowder Plot. The medals awarded during the plot to commemorate James escape featured a flower intertwined with a snake. As this had only recently happened in Shakespeares time, the audience would immediately recognise the connection. In Act I Scene 6, Duncan visits Macbeths castle. At the scenes start, Duncan remarks upon how agreeable the castle is, with phrases such as hath a pleasant seat and recommends itself displaying his thoughts. This is ironic, as the castle looks like thinnocent flower but is really the serpent undert, as the king finds out. Lady Macbeth uses many euphemisms for murder in her soliloquy. Examples of these are provided for, great business and dispatch. The use of euphemism shows that she does not want to explicitly state her murderous intentions clearly. A reason for this could be that she is afraid of being overheard and accused of treason. However, I think the main reason is that if she clearly said murder the situation would seem more real and she would see the extent of the crime. I believe she is still unsure herself about the gravity of the situation. The euphemisms all have double meanings, and these could be seen as a type of test for Macbeth to see how he would react to the suggestions. Provided for could mean to be fed or to be killed. The great business could be seen to be the feasting or the murder that would mean greatness for the Macbeths. The word dispatch could mean welcoming the guest, or the murder. In Act I Scene 7 Macbeth has a soliloquy that shows his indecisive state of mind. There are many words which show doubt, including if and but, displaying how he is considering his actions and is not fully committed to the cause. This is supported by the language of thought, including but how, if and could. Macbeth shows he is aware of just how immoral the murder would be, with the lines hes here in double trust: first, as I am his kinsman and his subject then as his host. Here Macbeth lists his reasons why he should not kill Duncan, as he is his subject, his host and is even related to him. Through the soliloquy Macbeth shows that he understands there will be consequences for murder. Might be the be-all and the end-all here is a line spoken that shows the murder will not be the end of his troubled time; it will be the beginning of an even more distressing state. He recognises that consequences will occur to whoever carries out the action and shows it through the phrase bloody instructions which being taught, return to plague thinventor. Macbeth also says to himself that Duncan has been a good king and that his virtues will plead like angels. At the end of the soliloquy an extended metaphor of horsemanship develops. This includes words such as spur; prick; vaulting; oerleaps and falls. This is prefigures Macbeths life, as his vaulting ambition is all he has to spur him on, and it will eventually reach too high (the position of king) and oerleap. He will then fall and will receive the consequences of his actions. The image of horsemanship was used to remind the audience of Macbeths strict militaristic background. Macbeths soliloquy shows a huge difference in character between himself and his wife. While his wife immediately resolves that they must kill the king, Macbeth thinks about the consequences. This shows Macbeth does have a conscience and I think this causes the audience to feel sympathetic to his plight. Macbeth has a second soliloquy in Act II Scene 1. Here his intensified fragile state of mind is shown to the audience. Macbeth sees an apparition of a floating dagger, shown through the phrase is this a dagger which I see before me. This shows that his mind is so focused upon the murder of Duncan, it is seeing weapons everywhere he turns. Phrases such as a dagger of the mind proceeding from the heat-oppressà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½d brain, show the mental strain Macbeth is under. A semantic field of the supernatural underpins this soliloquy, with words including: witchcraft; Hecate; murder; sentinel; wolf; stealthy; ghost and fear. I think that Hecate is a particularly powerful word to use as Hecate was traditionally thought to be the goddess of witchcraft. At the beginning of the soliloquy Macbeth is using euphemisms for murder, like the bloody business. However, towards the end of the soliloquy, the language has developed and now includes words like murder and horror. This shows that Macbeth has now fully made his decision and accepts what he must do. The soliloquy ends with a rhyming couplet, reminiscent of the witches. By using the language of the witches on Macbeth, Shakespeare has identified Macbeth closely with them. This creates the impression that the soliloquy ends with him making his own spell that will mean the death of Duncan. The two soliloquies depict the way in which the witches have effected Macbeth. They have given him advice and he has taken it in the way that he believed was correct. The witches have only influenced him, they have not directly told him what to do. I think Shakespeare has used these soliloquies to give the audience an insight into the mind of a murderer. As this was a 17th Century production, psychology and other studies into the mind had not been begun. This would mean the audience would be enthralled by what would have been revolutionary viewing. Act II Scene 4 takes place outside of Macbeths castle and is a conversation between Ross a thane and an old man. Though this scene takes place after the murder of Duncan, the two characters discussing the night do not yet know anything about his death. It is important that the man speaking is old, as this means he has lived for a long time among the feuding Scottish warlords. This creates an impression of knowledge, and that the old man would have seen many unusual things. Pathetic fallacy is used, with the phrase dark night strangles the travelling lamp signifying an eclipse. I think an eclipse has been used for the nights weather, as it is highly unusual and would have been considered to be supernatural. This would have given the night an eerie atmosphere. The old man begins the scene by saying this sore night hath trifled former knowings. This shows that while the man is very old, he cannot remember a night as strange as this. A bank of images relating to the stage is found, including act and stage. These relate to the previous stage images, found in Act I Scene 3. The images link to world order and the way in which everybody has a part to play that they cannot change. By murdering Duncan, Macbeth has stepped out of his role and his upset the balance of world order. A falcon towring in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed. The falcon is top of the food chain, and this is metaphorical for a lesser animal (Macbeth) killing something that belongs at the top of world order (Duncan). The horses have turned cannibalistic and are eating each other: turned wild in nature, broke their stalls they eat each other. This shows just how disturbed the order of the world is, yet it is also metaphorical for Macbeth killing his own kind. The use of language such as entomb, strange and unnatural show the precarious state the world is now in, with Duncan dead. Act IV Scene 1 begins with the three witches casting a spell in preparation for their meeting with Macbeth. Pathetic fallacy is once again used, with thunder giving the audience the impression the spell will be destructive. The chant shows many of the prejudices of the time. The witches put many parts of creatures that were considered inferior to the majority into the cauldron. These inferior creatures are: frog; bat; dog; adder; blind-worm; lizard and howlet. All of the animals mentioned are creatures of the night, and so were considered very rudimentary forms of life. After more chanting, the witches begin to put in parts of other items associated with death. The mythical dragon, the predatory wolf, the evil witches mummy and the poisonous hemlock are all placed into the pot. This adds to the feeling of death and evil. Societys prejudices come to the forefront of the chant with body parts of non-Christians being added to the pot: liver of blaspheming Jew, nose of Turk and Tartars lips. As Jews, Turks and Tartars were not Christian, the audience would have feared them as they were foreign and their cultures were unknown to them. There is a semantic field of poison in the incantation, and the lexis included are: poisoned; entrails; toad; sweltered; venom; sleeping; boil and bubble. These were all added by Shakespeare to make the witches concoction appear to be very deadly. Towards the end of the spell, the finger of a birth-strangled babe, ditch delivered by a drab. A drab was a prostitute and the child would have been killed at birth, as an illegitimate child would bring shame upon the family. As it was strangled at birth, the child is unblessed and so would never enter Heaven. This is familiar magic and works through association. This could prefigure Macbeths murder of Macduffs children. The magic number three is also used, when the witches say thrice towards the start of the spell. The rhymes and rhythm of the words help to reinforce the idea of a deadly spell. The spell has a heavy aural quality, and this meant the audience could feel a part of the play. Rhyming couplets are used throughout the spell, helping to make it seem like a chant. An example of a rhyming couplet is Ditch delivered by a drab, make the gruel thick and slab. This phrase also has many labials in it, helping to create a sense of evil and decay. Shakespeare also employs onomatopoeia in Macbeth. This helps to reinforce the tension and make an aural sound of a spell. Examples of onomatopoeia are double, trouble and bubble. There is a language link between this and Act I Scene 2 where the captain describes Macbeth as having doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. This helps to tie Macbeth to the witches. I think that Macbeth returns to the witches because he wants to know his future. He has been tortured by the spirit of Banquo whom he has had killed and he fears for his sanity. Macbeth goes to the witches to seek assurances that he will not be dethroned in the future. I think he is looking for a future, as his guilt seems to tell him he will not have a pleasant one. The fact that he comes to the witches for reassurance shows that he has chosen to fully believe them and he trusts them. By consulting them, he is trying to change his own fate. This could further upset the order of the world. Macbeth greets the witches in the following way: How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What ist you do? Black and secret connote concealment and this links to the clothes images that run throughout the play. The use of the phrase midnight hags shows that Macbeth understands the power of the witches and that they have just created a spell. Midnight is the witching hour, and this can be cross referenced to Act I Scene 1 where the witches say that will be ere the set of sun. A witch responds by saying a deed without a name. This is in keeping with the earlier euphemisms for murder. When Macbeth speaks to the witches he instantly commands them by saying I conjure you. This is a play on words, as the witches have the ability to conjure things and because he is commanding them. Imperative verbs are once again used, showing that he is used to having his orders carried out. Examples of imperatives are answer and speak. Macbeth is prepared to take the world to the edge of destruction to get the answers he seeks. Castles topple and pyramids do slope their heads to their foundations shows he does not care about the destruction he causes in his quest. He ends by saying even till destruction sicken. I believe this would be said with finality, showing how deeply he will pursue his aims. A semantic field of chaos underpins this whole section, with words like: winds; yeasty waves; confound; swallow; lodged; blown down; topple; slope; tumble and destruction. Semantics are used here to show just how much Macbeth has already disturbed world order by murdering Duncan. The witches create three apparitions that give Macbeth a prophecy each. The first apparition is of an armed head and it tells Macbeth:Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife. Macbeths immediate response is thou has harped my fear alright, meaning he has confirmed what he thought. Towards the end of the scene, he says he will act on his first impulse and do what his first instincts say: The very firstlings of my heart shall be, the firstlings of my hand. After hearing Macduff has fled Scotland, Macbeth turns into a blind rage and orders his men to give to thedge othsword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line. The second apparition is of a bloody child and tells Macbeth: Laugh to scorn the power of men, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth. This greatly pleases Macbeth and gives him more security. Although he is reassured, he still makes an oath that he will kill Macduff. I think he does this for extra reassurance in light of the first apparition. The bloody child prefigures the decision Macbeth will make to kill Macduffs children. The third apparition is of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand. The child tells Macbeth: Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him. Macbeth responds by saying no one can make the trees move at their will. This shows that he dismisses the prophecy and does not take into consideration the possibilities of how this could occur. Macbeths confidence has improved greatly after hearing these prophecies and he confidently asks the third apparition shall Banquos issue ever reign in this kingdom? By asking the question, Macbeth shows he is still intrigued by the original prophecy of the witches which said Banquos descendants will be monarchs. The witches then tell him seek to know no more. This annoys Macbeth and he childishly says deny me this, and an eternal curse fall on you, showing his arrogance. After he does this, the witches summon another apparition, this time eight kings with Banquo following behind. Macbeth realises the answer to his question about Banquos heirs when he says: Now I see tis true, for the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me, and points at them for his. Macbeths reactions to all the prophecies show his precarious state of mind. Throughout Act IV Scene 1 he lapses into bravado, attempting to show he is confident when in actual fact he is very nervous and afraid. Two examples of bravado used are call em, let me see em and had I three ears, Id hear thee. Although he is nervous and fearful of his future, Macbeth still feels superior to the witches. This is shown through phrases such as tell me and filthy hags. Macbeth misses the significance of the third prophecy, where the obvious interpretation of the trees being camouflage is overlooked. This shows that he is no longer thinking like a soldier, and rather a desperate man. The apparition showing Banquos heirs is believed to have political significance. The eight king bears a glass (mirror) and it is thought that it would have been pointed at King James I, watched the play. As it was facing James, the audience would have seen the kings face while the line, some I see, that two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry was spoken. These represent the two orbs James I carried at his two coronations in Scotland and England, as well as the three kingdoms he now ruled: Scotland, England and Ireland. I think this was put into the play to try and support James. When he came to power, he promised better things for both Catholics and Protestants. However, he seemed not to fulfill these promises in the way that the people wanted and the Gunpowder Plot challenged his rule. I think that Shakespeare put this section in Macbeth to try and show James had a legitimate claim to the throne as he was descended from ancient royalty. In the scene, Macbeths assistant is called Seyton. This could possibly be pronounced Satan, adding to the impression of Macbeths growing evil. I think the use of an assistant called Seyton makes it sound as though Macbeth now has his own familiar, the Devil himself. Towards the end of the scene, the doctor tells Macbeth that Lady Macbeth is suffering from a mental ailment. Macbeths immediate response is to order the doctor to cure her of that. The next few lines of the play detail Macbeth asking if the doctor cannot cure a mind diseased. However, I believe the audience would see the question as Macbeth asking for help himself, as the anxiety and sorrow he describes is what he himself is suffering from. The question is reinforced by a semantic field of cleaning, with words such as: minister; pluck; raze; antidote and cleanse. I think this shows just how badly Macbeth wants his mental state to be cured. When the doctor says patients must cure themselves, he responds by angrily saying throw physic to the dogs. This shows his precarious mental state. Act V Scene 8 details the battle between Macbeth and Macduff outside Dunsinane Castle. The scene begins with Macbeth saying he wants to become the great soldier that he once was, and will not commit suicide. The line why should I play the Roman fool and fie on mine own sword? shows this. Macbeth tells Macduff that he has avoided him for the entirety of the battle, but his soul is too much charged with blood. This means he has seen so much death he no longer cares about who he faces. As he is facing Macduff, Macbeth boasts that no naturally born man can kill him. This makes Macduff reveal his own Caesarean birth. Hearing this, Macbeth almost physically collapses. The mental stress and the fake promise of glory from the witches suddenly leave Macbeth, and he is free to sadly muse about his shortcomings. And be these juggling fiends no more believed That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear And break it to our hope. This section shows how Macbeth now views the witches and their prophecies. The first line shows how he no longer believes the witches. The use of the phrase juggling fiends represents his view that the witches have been juggling with fate, emotion and peoples lives. That palter with us in a double sense means Macbeth now accepts that the witches prophecies could have been interpreted in different ways and he made the wrong choices. That keep the word of promise to our ear shows how they misled him by speaking of future greatness, but then break it to our hope. Despite realising that Macduff will kill him, Macbeth decides to die fighting, in an attempt to reclaim some of his lost honour. Another reason for his decision to die fighting is the fact that he cannot bear the thought of being subservient to Malcolm after being in a position of power all his life.

Reality versus Illusion in Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Essay

Reality versus Illusion in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In his play, The American Dream, Edward Albee unveils a tortured family that is symbolic of the reality beneath the illusion of the American dream.   In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Albee takes a more traditional approach than the theater of the absurd, and his language is more natural, but he returns to this theme with a vengeance.   For in all of drama there are few plays about domestic relationships that are as caustic, violent and as poisoned with the milk of human bitterness, cynicism and pessimism as is Woolf.   The story regards George and Martha, a married couple (he a history professor and she the University President's daughter).   Verbally and emotionally George and Martha are as skilled at cutting each other without going for the final kill as much as a professional torturer trained to prolong his victim's agony.   Into this volley of abuse come Nick and Honey, a young couple who also share a vision of the "American dream," but Albee portrays Nick as the victor in his battles with George because George is of the old school and Nick has already been indoctrinated into the new American culture of capitalism for its own sake.      The theme of the play, other than touching on the disillusionment of the American dream for the younger generation, and a robotic-like acceptance of the evolved "capitalized" version by the older generation, is that each of the characters in the play, like each of us in real life, are destined to struggle through our own personal hell, a struggle that we face alone "It becomes clear that each character is engaged in an isolated struggle through a personal hell" (Murphy 1113).   The plot centers around George and Martha's p... ...e his themes in the play.   Truth versus illusion, reality versus perception, and union versus inability to come together are the main themes the author chooses to highlight throughout the work.   In the end, once all illusions have been stripped or peeled away, Martha and George have a chance to come together in an effort to save their marriage.   As Martha says to end the play in response to George's singing "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf"; "I...am...George...I...am..." (Albee 242).   Only from this point of truth can George and Martha hope to save their troubled marriage.    WORKS   CITED Albee, E.   Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.   New York:   Signet, 1962. Carter, S.   Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"   The Explicator.   Vol. 56.   June 22, 1998, 215-218. Murphy, B, ed.   Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia.   New York:   HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.

Racism or Class Discrimination

Racism is an issue that has been prevalent within America for hundreds of years. We overcame slavery with the help of famous American leaders like Abraham Lincoln and fought for equal rights with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. Today we face the issue of a more discreet kind of racism- the kind of racism that is more felt than heard. A sales associate who may not ask a customer to leave because of the color of their skin, but follows the customer around the store to make sure he or she isn’t stealing is an example of discreet racism. This type of racism is harder to fight because it is harder to recognize than outward discrimination. It seems as though minorities, especially African-Americans, have a disadvantage from the time they are born. According to Leondar-Wright, â€Å"The median white family has more than $120,000 in net worth (assets minus debts), while the median black family has less than $20,000. † There are many reasons why black families’ net worth is so much lower than white families’, but among the most obvious reasons is discrimination. Children from low-income families tend to have more responsibilities than those from middle or high-income families. These responsibilities may take away from time spent on schoolwork. For example, if a fourteen year old must work to help pay household expenses because his or her parents are having trouble making ends meet, it is highly possible that time spent working could be taking away from time spent doing schoolwork. Even if a student does not have to work while in school, it is still possible that his or her parents (if the student is lucky enough to live with both their mother and father) work hours that would render him or her responsible for extended amounts of housework. Either way, it is likely that a low-income, minority student must work much harder than a middle or high-income student to achieve the same academic status. If and when African-American students are accepted into college, it is much harder for them to be granted a loan to help pay for their college education. Because loans are given based on current income to debt ratio, banks are more weary of lending money to low-income families for fear of not getting their money back. Even in college, many African-American students must work to support themselves, which takes up time. Time spent working, again is time that they could be using to study. Because of all the obstacles they face, African-American students must work much harder to accomplish the same achievements as white students. Once in the work place, whether it be after college or not, African-Americans still must work harder than Whites to attain the same level of success. Simply finding a job can prove to be a challenge for minorities. The old saying, ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’ holds true for the job finding process. For many minority young adults, parents and relatives who may be able to assist in the job search have fewer connections than white families. Therefore, students from low-income families must work harder to find jobs than many students from white or middle-class families. Even the simple process of applying for a job proves to be yet another hurdle for minorities. In the essay ‘Institutional Discrimination’ by Robert Cherry, the term â€Å"statistical discrimination† is brought up. Statistical discrimination is referred to as â€Å"the process by which individuals are discriminated against when firms use group characteristics to screen individuals. † Because employers often have a large amount of applications to go through to fill one or just a small amount of positions, they often base their choices off ‘of group characteristics rather than individual information. ’ Because employers do not want to spend a lot of time screening potential candidates, they chose to discriminate against groups of people that, in their minds, are not as productive as others. According to a study by Irons and Moore, African-American workers tend to be left out of the â€Å"informal communications network. † This basically means they are left out of water cooler conversations that may provide valuable information to them pertaining to their work. The study also found that on average, it took much longer for African Americans to be promoted than their White co-workers, and that â€Å"They had to demonstrate over and over and over again that they were worthy of promotion. (Cose 78) Overall, the study found that success came later, harder, and at a lower degree for Blacks than Whites in America. Another point mentioned in Coses’ ‘Rage of a Privileged Class’ is something called the â€Å"self-fulfilling prophecy† (Cose 88), which basically states that performance is greatly based on expectations. For example, if someone believes they are expected to perform well at a particular task, they will most likely perform better than if he or she is expected to perform poorly. This concept can easily be applied to the classroom setting. If a teacher expects her white students to perform better than her minority students, this can have a great effect on her student’s performances. While racism is still an issue in the United States today, the main problem can be traced to the issue of class discrimination. The majority of minorities come from low-income families; â€Å"Poverty rates for Blacks (at 24. 3%) in 2006 were 16. 1% higher than Whites (at 8. 2%). † (H. T. Edney) Once born into a lower class family, your life will be filled with uphill battles and constant struggle. Lower class citizens are discriminated against everywhere in the United States. Banks hesitate to lend money to low-income students going to college, even though they must work harder to get into college than upper class students. Because they must work harder, low income students are more likely to appreciate the opportunity given to them and less likely to take advantage of any help he or she may receive along the way. If you are a lower-class African-American reading this essay, you may be wondering who today’s Martin Luther King Jr. ill be, or if there will be anyone from our generation who will pioneer for your rights. On the other hand, if you are a white, upper-middle class person reading this essay, you may not find racism to be an especially important issue in our society today. No matter your particular situation it is an inarguable fact that the socioeconomic class you are born into will become the chief factor in determining how far you will be able to go in life. Whether this is a good thing or not, may be up for some debate.

You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 14~15

Chapter Fourteen Powers for Good The Emperor was sitting on a black marble bench just around the corner from the great opera house, feeling small and ashamed, when he saw the striking redhead in jeans coming toward him. Bummer lapsed into a barking fit and the Emperor snatched the Boston terrier up by the scruff of the neck and stuffed him into the oversized pocket of his coat to quiet him. â€Å"Brave Bummer,† said the old man. â€Å"Would that I could still hold that kind of passion, even if it were fear. But my fear is weak and damp, I've barely the spine for a dignified surrender.† He'd felt like this since he'd seen Jody outside the secondhand store, where she'd warned him away from the owner. Yes, now he knew her to be one of the undead, a bloodsucking fiend – but then, not so much a fiend. She had been a friend, a good one, even after he had betrayed Tommy Iff to the Animals. He could feel the City's eye on him, could feel her disappointment in him. What does a man have, if not character? What is character, if not a man's measure of himself against his friends and enemies? The great city of San Francisco shook her head at him, ashamed. Her bridges slumped in the fog with disappointment. He remembered a house somewhere and that same look on the face of a dark-haired woman, but mercifully, in an instant that memory was a ghost, and Jody was bending to scratch behind the ears of the steadfast Lazarus, who had never been agitated by her like his bug-eyed brother, who even now squirmed furiously in the woolen pocket. â€Å"Your Majesty,† Jody said. â€Å"How are you?† â€Å"Worthless and weak,† said the Emperor. She really was a lovely girl. He'd never known her to hurt a soul. What a cad he was. â€Å"I'm sorry to hear that. You have plenty to eat? Staying warm?† â€Å"The men and I have this very hour vanquished a corned beef on a sourdough roll the size of a healthy infant, thank you.† â€Å"Tommy's Joynt?† Jody said with a smile. â€Å"Indeed. We are not worthy, yet my people provide.† â€Å"Don't be silly, you're worthy. Look, Emperor, have you seen William?† â€Å"William of the huge and recently shaven cat?† â€Å"That's the one.† â€Å"Why yes, we crossed his path not long ago. He was at the liquor store at Geary and Taylor. He seemed very enthusiastic about purchasing some scotch. More energetic than I've seen him in many years.† â€Å"That was how long ago?† She stopped petting Lazarus and stood. â€Å"Little more than an hour ago.† â€Å"Thank you, Your Majesty. You don't know where he was going?† â€Å"I should think to find a safe place to drink his dinner. Although I can't claim to know him well, I don't think William passes the evening in the Tenderloin often.† Jody patted the Emperor's shoulder, and he took her hand. â€Å"I'm so sorry, dear.† â€Å"Sorry? About what?† â€Å"When I saw you and Thomas the other night, I noticed. It's true, isn't it? Thomas has changed.† â€Å"No, he's still a doofus.† â€Å"I mean he is one of your kind now?† â€Å"Yes.† She looked up the street. â€Å"I was alone,† she said. The Emperor knew exactly how she felt. â€Å"I told one of his crew from the Safeway, Jody. I'm sorry, I was frightened.† â€Å"You told the Animals?† â€Å"The born-again one, yes.† â€Å"And how did he react?† â€Å"He was worried for Thomas's soul.† â€Å"Yeah, that would be Clint's reaction. You don't know if he told the other Animals?† â€Å"I would guess yes, by now.† â€Å"Okay, don't worry, then, Your Highness. It's okay. Just don't tell anyone else. Tommy and I are leaving the City just like we promised those police detectives. We just have to get things in order.† â€Å"And the other – the old vampire?† â€Å"Yes. Him, too.† She turned and strode away, heading into the Tenderloin, her boot heels clacking on the sidewalk as she kept her pace just below a run. The Emperor shook his head and rubbed Lazarus behind the ears. â€Å"I should have told her about the detectives. I know that, old friend.† There was only so much weakness he could confess to at one time – that, too, a fault. The Emperor resolved to sleep somewhere cold and damp tonight, perhaps in the park by the Maritime Museum, as penance for his weakness. There was no way she was going to remember his new mobile number. It was five in the morning before Tommy had finished moving all of the furniture, books, and clothes. Now the new loft looked almost exactly like the old loft had looked, except that it didn't have a working phone line. So Tommy sat on the counter of the old loft, looking at the three bronze statues and waiting for Jody to call. Just the three statues left to move: Jody, the old vampire, and the turtle. The old vampire looked fairly natural. He'd been unconscious when he'd been bronzed, but Tommy had the biker sculptors downstairs pose him as if he was in midstep, out for a stroll. Jody was posed with her hand on her hip, her head thrown back as if she'd just tossed her long hair over her shoulder, smiling. Tommy turned his head to the side, getting perspective. She didn't look skanky. What made Abby say the statue was skanky? Sexy, well yes. Jody had been wearing some very low-cut jeans and a crop top when he'd posed her for the electroplating, and the bikers had insisted upon exposing more of her cleavage than was probably decorous, but what could you expect from a couple of guys who specialized in making high-end garden gnomes acting out the Kama Sutra? Okay, she looked a little skanky, but he didn't see how that was a bad thing. He had actually been delighted when she came streaming out of the ear holes to materialize, stark naked, in front of him. If she hadn't killed him, it would have been the fulfillment of a sexual fantasy he'd nurtured for a long time. (There had been this old TV show he'd watched as a kid, about a beautiful genie who lived in a bottle – well, Tommy had done some serious bottle polishing over that one.) So the Jody statue stayed. But the old vampire, Elijah, that was a different story. There was a real creature in there. A real scary creature. Whatever bizarre events had brought them to this spot had been set off by Elijah Ben Sapir. He was a reminder that neither he – Tommy – nor Jody had chosen to be vampires. Neither had chosen to live out the rest of their days in the night. Elijah had taken their choices away from them, and replaced them with a whole new set of scarier, bigger choices. The first of which was how the hell do you deal with the fact that you have imprisoned a sentient, feeling being in a shell of bronze, even if he is an evil dick-weed from the Dark Ages? But they couldn't let him out. He'd kill them for sure if they did. Really kill them, too, a complete death, the kind with no nooky. Suddenly Tommy was angry. He'd had a future. He might have been a writer, a Nobel Prize winner, an adventurer, a spy. Now he was just a foul dead thing, and the furthest his ambition would reach was his next victim. Okay, that wasn't really true, but still, he was pissed off. So what if Elijah was trapped in bronze shell forever. He'd trapped them in these monstrous bodies. Maybe it was time to do something monstrous. Tommy picked up Jody's statue and threw it over his shoulder and, despite his great vampire strength, followed it over backward as it clanged against the floor. Okay, it had taken the two bikers and a refrigerator dolly to get the statues up here, maybe a little planning was in order. It turned out he could move the statue pretty efficiently if he slung it over his back and let one of her feet drag, and so he did, down the steps, half a block down the sidewalk, and back up the steps of the new loft. Bronze Jody looked happy in the new place, he thought. The turtle took half as long. She, too, looked pleased with the surroundings. As for Elijah, Tommy figured what was the point of being in a city on a peninsula if you didn't take advantage of the water now and then. And Elijah evidently liked the ocean, since he'd come to the City on his yacht, which Tommy and the Animals had managed to blow to smithereens. The vampire statue was even heavier that Jody's, but Tommy felt energized by the idea of getting rid of it. Just a short twelve blocks to the sea and that would be that. â€Å"From the sea ye came, and to the sea ye shall return,† Tommy said, thinking that he might be quoting Coleridge, or maybe a Godzilla movie. As Tommy dragged the bronzed vampire down Mission Street, he considered his future. What would he do? He had a lot of time to fill, and after a while, figuring out new ways to jump Jody would only fill up a part of his nights. He was going to have to find a purpose. They had money – cash the vampire had given Jody when he turned her – and what was left of the money from the sale of Elijah's art, but eventually that would run out. Maybe he should get a job. Or become a crime fighter. That's it, he would use his powers for good. Maybe get an outfit. After a few blocks Tommy noticed that Elijah's toe, the one that was dragging on the sidewalk, was starting to wear away. The bikers had warned Tommy that the bronze shell was pretty thin. It wouldn't do to unleash a claustrophobic and hungry ancient vampire when you were the guy who had imprisoned him, so Tommy stood the vampire on the corner for a minute while he dug through a trash bin until he found some heavy-duty plastic Big Gulp cups, which he fitted on the vampire's dragging foot as skid protection. â€Å"Ha!† Tommy said. â€Å"Thought you had me.† A couple of guys in hip-hop wear walked by as Tommy was fitting the cups on the vampire's feet. Tommy made the mistake of making eye contact and they paused. â€Å"Stole it from a building on Fourth,† Tommy said. The two nodded, as if they were saying, Of course, we were just wondering, and proceeded to move down the sidewalk. They must sense my superior strength and speed, Tommy thought, so they wouldn't dare mess with me. In fact, the two had confirmed that the white boy in the ghost makeup was crazy – and what would they do with a four-hundred-pound statue anyway? Tommy figured he'd drag the statue to the Embarcadero and toss it off the pier by the Ferry Building. If there was anyone around, he'd just stand at the rail like he was there with his gay lover, then shove the statue in when no one was looking. He felt enormously sophisticated about the plan. No one would ever think a guy from Indiana was pretending to be gay. That kind of thing just wasn't done. Tommy had known a kid once in high school who had gone up to Chicago to see the musical Rent and was never heard from again. Tommy reckoned he'd been disappeared by the local Kiwanis Club. When he got to the Embarcadero, which ran all along the waterfront, Tommy was tempted to just chuck Elijah in the Bay right there and call it a night, but he had a plan, so he dragged the vampire that last two blocks to the promenade at the end of Market Street, where the antique streetcars, the cable cars, and the cross-bay ferries all converged in a big paved park and sculpture garden. Here, away from the buildings, the night seemed to open up to his vampire senses, take on a new light. Tommy stopped for moment, stood Elijah by a fountain, and watched heat streaming out of some grates by the streetcar turnaround. Perfect. There was absolutely no one around. Then the beeping started. Tommy looked at his watch. Sunrise in ten minutes. The night hadn't opened up to him, it had been shutting him down. Ten minutes, and the loft was a good twenty blocks away. Jody was quickstepping along the alleyway that came out in front of their old loft. She still had twenty minutes until sunrise, but she could see the sky lightening, and twenty minutes was cutting it too close. Tommy would be freaked. She should have taken the cell phone with her. She shouldn't have left him alone with the new minion. She'd finally found William, passed out in a doorway in Chinatown, with Chet the huge cat sleeping on his chest. They'd have to remember not to leave William with any money from now on, if he was going to be their food source. Otherwise he'd go elsewhere for his alcohol, and that wasn't going to work. He was making his staggering way home on his own. Maybe she'd let him take a shower at the old loft – they weren't going to get their deposit back anyway. There was still a light on in the loft. Great, Tommy was home. She'd forgotten to get a key for the new place. She was about to step out of the alley when she smelled cigar smoke and heard a man's voice. She stopped and peeked around the corner. There was a brown Ford sedan parked across the street from their old loft, and in it sat two middle-aged men. Cavuto and Rivera, the homicide detectives that she'd made a deal with the night they'd blown up Elijah's yacht. They'd moved just in time, but then, maybe not quite. She couldn't get to the new place either. It was only a half a block away, and she'd have to cross in the open. And even then, what if it was locked? She jumped four feet straight up when the alarm on her watch went off. It was toward the end of their second shift after returning to the Safeway that the Animals sobered up. Lash was sitting by himself in the wide backseat of the Hummer limo, his head cradled in his hands, hoping desperately that the despair and self-loathing he was feeling was only the effect of a hangover, instead of what it really was, which was a big flaming enema of reality. The reality was, they had spent more than a half a million dollars on a blue hooker. He let the hugeness of it roll around in his head, and looked up at the other Animals, who were sitting around the perimeter of the limo, similarly posed, trying not to make eye contact with one another. They'd had nearly two semi trucks of stock to put up that night, and they'd known it was coming because they'd ordered it to make up for the time they'd been away and Clint had let the shelves get low. So they'd sobered up, put their heads down, and thrown stock like the Animals that they were. Now it was getting close to dawn and it was dawning on all of them that they might have severely fucked up. Lash risked a sideways glance at Blue, who was sitting between Barry and Troy Lee. She'd taken Lash's apartment on Northpoint, and made him sleep on the couch at Troy Lee's, where there were about seven hundred Chinese family members, including Troy's grandmother, who, every time she passed through the room during the day, when Lash was trying to sleep, would screech, â€Å"What's up, my nigga!† and try to get him to wake up and give her a pound or a high five. Lash had been explaining to her that it's impolite to refer to an African American as a nigga, unless one was another African-American, when Troy Lee came in and said, â€Å"She only speaks Cantonese.† â€Å"She does not. She keeps coming in and saying, ‘What's up, my nigga? â€Å" â€Å"Oh yeah. She does that to me, too. Did you give her a pound?† â€Å"No, I didn't give her a pound, motherfucker. She called me a nigga.† â€Å"Well, she's not going to quit unless you give her a pound. It's just the way she rolls.† â€Å"That's some bullshit, Troy.† â€Å"It's her couch.† Lash, exhausted and already hungover, gave the wizened old woman a pound. Granny turned to Troy Lee. â€Å"What's up, my nigga!† She offered and received a pound from her grandson. â€Å"That shit is not the same!† Lash said. â€Å"Get some sleep. We have a big load tonight.† Now half a million dollars was gone. His apartment was gone. The limo was costing them a thousand dollars a day. Lash looked out the blackout windows at the moving patchwork of shadows thrown by the streetlights, then turned to Blue. â€Å"Blue,† he said. â€Å"We have to get rid of the limo.† Everyone looked up, shocked. No one had said anything to her since they'd finished stocking. They'd brought her coffee and juice, but no one had said anything. Blue looked at him. â€Å"Get me what I want.† Not a hint of malice, not even a demand, really, just a statement of fact. â€Å"Okay,† Lash said. Then to the driver he said, â€Å"Take a right up here. Head back to that building where we went last night.† Lash crawled over the divider into the front passenger seat. He couldn't see shit out the blackened windows. They'd only gone about three blocks into the SOMA district when he saw someone running. Running way, way too fast for a jogger. Running – like he was on fire – running. â€Å"Pull up alongside of that guy.† The driver nodded. â€Å"Hey, guys, is that Flood?† â€Å"Yeah, it is,† Barry, the bald one, said. Lash rolled down the window. â€Å"Tommy, you need a ride, man?† Tommy, still running, nodded like a bobble-head on crack. Barry threw open the back door, and before the limo could even slow down, Tommy leapt in, landing across Drew and Gustavo's laps. â€Å"Man, am I glad you guys came along,† Tommy said. â€Å"In about a minute, I'm going to – â€Å" He passed out in their laps as the sun washed over the hills of San Francisco. Chapter Fifteen Broken Clowns Inspector Alphonse Rivera watched the broken clown girl – black-and-white-striped stockings and green sneakers – come out of Jody Stroud's apartment and head up the street, then turn and look back at their brown, unmarked sedan. â€Å"We're made,† said Nick Cavuto, Rivera's partner, a broad-shouldered bear of a man, who longed for the days of Dashiell Hammett, when cops talked tough and there were very few problems that couldn't be solved with your fists or a smack from a lead sap. â€Å"We're not made. She's just looking. Two middle-aged guys sitting in the car on the city street – it's unusual.† If Cavuto was a bear, then Rivera was a raven – a sharp-featured, lean Hispanic, with just a touch of gray at the temples. Lately he'd taken to wearing expensive Italian suits, in raw silk or linen when he could find them. His partner was in rumpled Men's Wearhouse. Rivera often wondered if Nick Cavuto might not be the only gay man on the planet who had no fashion sense whatsoever. The knock-kneed kid with the raccoon eye makeup was making her way across the street toward them. â€Å"Roll up your window,† Cavuto said. â€Å"Roll up your window. Pretend like you don't see her.† â€Å"I'm not going to hide from her,† Rivera said. â€Å"She's just a kid.† â€Å"Exactly. You can't hit her.† â€Å"Jesus, Nick. She's just a creepy kid. What's wrong with you?† Cavuto had been on edge since they'd pulled up an hour ago. They both had, really, since the guy named Clint, one of the night crew from the Marina Safeway, had left a message on Rivera's voice mail that Jody Stroud, the redheaded vampire, had not left town as she had promised, and that her boyfriend, Tommy Flood, was now also a vampire. It was a very bad turn of events for the two cops, both of whom had taken a share of the money from the old vampire's art collection in return for letting them all go. It had seemed like the only option, really. Neither of the cops wanted to explain how the serial killer they'd been chasing had been an ancient vampire, and how he'd been tracked down by a bunch of stoners from the Safeway. And when the Animals blew up the vampire's yacht – well, the case was solved, and if the vampires had left, it would have all been good. The cops had planned to retire early and open a rare-book store. Rivera thought he might learn to golf. Now he was feeling it all float away on an evil breeze. A cop for twenty years, without ever so much as fixing a traffic ticket, then the one time you take a hundred thousand dollars and let a vampire go, the whole world turns on you like you're some kind of bad guy. Rivera was raised a Catholic, but he was starting to believe in karma. â€Å"Pull out. Pull out,† Cavuto said. â€Å"Go around the block until she goes away.† â€Å"Hey,† said the broken clown girl. â€Å"You guys cops?† Cavuto hit the window button on his door but the ignition was off, so the window didn't budge. â€Å"Go away, kid. Why aren't you in school? Do we need to take you in?† â€Å"Winter break, brain trust,† said the kid. Rivera couldn't hold the laugh in and he snorted a little trying to. â€Å"Move along, kid. Go wash that shit off your face. You look like you fell asleep with a Magic Marker in your mouth.† â€Å"Yeah,† said the kid, examining a black fingernail, â€Å"well, you look like someone pumped about three hundred pounds of cat barf into a cheap suit and gave it a bad haircut.† Rivera slid down in his seat and turned his face toward the door. He couldn't look at his partner. He was sure that if it was possible for steam to come out of someone's ears, that might be happening to Cavuto, and if he looked, he'd lose it. â€Å"If you were a guy,† Cavuto said, â€Å"I'd have you in handcuffs already, kid.† â€Å"Oh God,† Rivera said under his breath. â€Å"If I were a guy, I'll bet you would. And I'll bet I'd have to send you to the S and M ATM, because the kinky shit is extra.† The kid leaned down so she was eye level with Cavuto, and winked. That was it. Rivera started giggling like a little girl – tears were creeping out the corners of his eyes. â€Å"You're a big fucking help,† Cavuto said. He reached over, flipped the ignition key to â€Å"accessory,† then rolled up his window. The kid came over to Rivera's side of the car. â€Å"So, have you seen Flood?† she asked. â€Å"Cop?† She added  «cop » with a high pop on the p, like it was punctuation mark, not a profession. â€Å"You just came out of his apartment,† Rivera said, trying to shake off the giggles. â€Å"You tell me.† â€Å"Place is empty. The douche nozzle owes me money,† said the kid. â€Å"For what?† â€Å"Stuff I did for him.† â€Å"Be specific, sweetheart. Unlike my partner, I don't threaten.† It was a threat, of course, but he thought he might have hit pay dirt, the kid's eyes opened wide enough to see light. â€Å"I helped him and that redheaded hag load their stuff into a truck.† Rivera looked her up and down. She couldn't have weighed ninety pounds. â€Å"He hired you to help him move?† â€Å"Just little crap. Lamps and stuff. They were like, in a hurry. I was walking by, he flagged me down. Said he'd give me a hundred bucks.† â€Å"But he didn't?† â€Å"He gave me eighty. He said it was all he had on him. To come back this morning for the rest.† â€Å"Did either of them say where they were going?† â€Å"Just that they were going to leave the City this morning, as soon as they paid me.† â€Å"You notice anything unusual about either of them – Flood or the redhead?† â€Å"Just day dwellers, like you. Bourgeois four-oh-fours.† â€Å"Four-oh-Fours?† â€Å"Clueless – Pottery Barn fucktards.† â€Å"Of course,† Rivera said. He could hear his partner snickering now. â€Å"So you haven't seen them?† the kid said. â€Å"They're not coming, kid.† â€Å"How do you know that?† â€Å"I know that. You're out twenty dollars. Cheap lesson. Go away and don't come back here, and if either of them contact you, or you see them, call me.† Rivera handed the kid a business card. â€Å"What's your name?† â€Å"My day-slave name?† â€Å"Sure, let's try that one.† â€Å"Allison. Allison Green. But on the street I'm known as Abby Normal.† â€Å"On the street?† â€Å"Shut up, I have street cred.† Then she added, â€Å"Cop!† like the chirp of a car alarm arming. â€Å"Good. Take your street cred and run along, Allison.† She shuffled off, trying to swivel nearly nonexistent hips as she went. â€Å"You think they left the City?† Cavuto asked. â€Å"I want to own a bookstore, Nick. I want to sell old books and learn to golf.† â€Å"So that would be no?† â€Å"Let's go talk to the born-again Safeway guy.† Four robots and one statue guy worked the Embarcadero by the Ferry Building. Not every day. Some days, when it was slow, there were only two robots and a statue guy, or on rainy days, none of them worked, because the silver or gold makeup they used to color their skin didn't hold up well in the rain, but as a rule, it was four robots and one statue guy. Monet was the statue guy – the ONLY statue guy. He'd staked his territory three years ago, and if some poseur ever showed up, he had to meet Monet on the field of stillness, where they would clash in the motion-free battle of doing absolutely nothing. Monet had always prevailed, but this guy – this new guy – was really good. The challenger had been there when Monet arrived in the late morning, and he hadn't even blinked for two hours. The guy's makeup was perfect, too. He looked as if he had really been bronzed, so it was beyond Monet why he would choose to get his collections in Big Gulp cups that he'd jammed his feet into. Monet carried a small portfolio case, with a hole cut in it where tourists could stuff their bills. He had primed his money hole with a five today, just to show the challenger that he wasn't intimidated, but the truth was, after two hours, he hadn't made half of what he saw the newcomer take in, and he was intimidated. And his nose itched. His nose itched and the new statue guy was kicking his ass. Normally Monet would change positions every half hour or so, then stand motionless while the tourists taunted him and tried to make him flinch, but with the new competition, he had to stay still as long as it took. The robots on the promenade had all assumed poses from which they could watch. They only had to hold still until someone dropped cash into their cup, then they would do the robot dance. It was boring work, but the hours were good and you were outside. It looked like Monet was going down. Sundown. He felt like his ass was on fire. Tommy came to to the sound of a riding crop being smacked against his bare butt and the rough bark of a woman's voice. â€Å"Say it! Say it! Say it!† He tried to pull away from the pain but couldn't move his arms or legs. He was having trouble focusing his vision – waves of light and heat were rocketing around his brain and all he could really see was a bright red spot with waves of heat coming off of it and a figure moving around the edges. It was like staring into the sun through a red filter. He could feel the heat on his face. â€Å"Ouch!† Tommy said. â€Å"Dammit!† He pulled against his bonds and heard a metallic rattling, but nothing gave. The red hot light went away and was replaced by the blurry form of a female face, a blue face, just inches away from his own. â€Å"Say it,† she whispered harshly, spitting a little on the â€Å"it.† â€Å"Say what?† â€Å"Say it, vampire!† she said. She whipped the riding crop across his stomach and he howled. Tommy squirmed against his bonds and heard the rattling again. With the spotlight moved away, he could see that he was suspended by very professional-looking nylon restraints to a brass, four-poster bed frame that had been stood on end. He was completely naked and evidently the blue woman, who was dressed in a black vinyl bustier, boots, and nothing else, had been whaling on him for some time. He could see welts across his stomach and thighs, and well, his ass felt like it was on fire. She wound up to smack him again. â€Å"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,† Tommy said, trying not to screech. He only realized then that his fangs were extended and he'd bitten his own lips. The blue woman held up. â€Å"Say it.† Tommy tried to keep his voice calm. â€Å"I know you've been doing this for a while now, but I've only been awake for about a minute of it, so I have no idea what you are asking me. If you slow down and repeat the whole question, I'll be happy to tell you whatever I know.† â€Å"Your safety word,† said the blue woman. â€Å"Which is?† Tommy said. He noticed for the first time that she had enormous boobs spilling out of that bustier and it occurred to him that he had never seen big blue boobs before. They were kind of mesmerizing. He wouldn't have been able to look away even if he weren't strapped down. â€Å"I told you,† she said, letting the riding crop fall to her side. â€Å"You told me what a safety word is?† â€Å"I just told you what it is.† â€Å"So you know it, then?† â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"Then why are you asking?† â€Å"To see if you're at your breaking point.† She seemed to be pouting a little now. â€Å"Don't be a dick, this isn't my specialty.† â€Å"Where am I?† Tommy asked. â€Å"You're Lash's Smurf, aren't you? Are we at Lash's?† â€Å"I'm asking the questions here.† She snapped the riding crop against his thigh. â€Å"Ouch! Fuck! Stop that. You have issues, lady.† â€Å"Say it!† â€Å"What is it? I was asleep when you told me, you stupid bitch!† He was wrong, he was able to look away from the blue boobs. He snarled at her, something coming up from deep inside him that he didn't even recognize – something that felt wild and on the verge of out of control – like when he first made love with Jody as a vampire, only this felt – well, lethal. â€Å"It's Cheddar.† â€Å"Cheddar? Like the cheese?† He was getting beating because of cheese? â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"So I said it. Now what?† â€Å"You're broken.† â€Å"‘Kay,† Tommy said, straining against the heavy nylon straps, understanding now what he was feeling. He was going to kill her. He didn't know how yet, but he was as certain of it as of anything he had ever known. Grass was green, water was wet, and this bitch was dead. â€Å"So now you have to turn me,† she said. â€Å"Turn you?† he said. His fangs ached, like they were going to leap out of his mouth. â€Å"Make me like you,† she said. â€Å"You want to be orange? Is this another Cheddar thing? Because – â€Å" â€Å"Not orange, you nitwit, a vampire!† she said, and she snapped the riding crop across his chest. He bit his lips again and felt the blood running down his chin. â€Å"So for that you needed all the hitting?† He said. â€Å"Come over here.† She leaned up and kissed him, then pushed away hard and came away with his blood on her mouth. â€Å"I guess I'm going to have to get used to this,† she said, licking her lips. â€Å"Closer,† Tommy said.