Plath’s Daddy Essays: Language in Plath’s Daddy :: Plath Daddy Essays

Language in Plath’s Daddy The speaker of "Daddy" might be seen as our collective inner child, the voice of a world that has "fallen a long way." There is an implied gain in the poem -- of catharsis, liberation -- but "Daddy" is fundamentally a poem about loss. The speaker has finally and irrevocably disabused herself of the notion of a "recovered" childhood, the dream of "the waters off beautiful Nauset." There is no going "back, back, back" to some illusory idyllic existence, no way to make whole that "pretty red heart": the first oppressor in this poem is the unrealized past ("You died before I had time--"). The poem exemplifies this in its form, the nursery-rhyme sound, the ooh, ooh, ooh of the end rhymes, so jarring in contrast with its substance, its images of stark brutality. Childhood and innocence are corrupted herein by the inescapable internalization of "wars, wars, wars." Conventional images have undergone a desecration: "Not God but a swastika"; not father but devil; not husband but vampire. Langu age, rather than a means of connection, has become an obstacle, confining the self ("The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich . . . ") Language, as a conveyor of images, is itself the subject of this poem -- the "foot" in line three is as much metrical as it is metaphorical, one could argue. Plath's "Colossus," her apprenticeship in the Western poetic tradition, with this poem is junked in the "freakish Atlantic," just another thrown off oppressor. The language of this world has conveyed the speaker to a place of horrors: "obscene," it is "An engine, an engine / Chuffing me off like a Jew. / A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen." In this sense, Plath's appropriation of Holocaust imagery, much castigated, must be seen as subsequent to that imagery's appropriation of her -- and, by extension, of us all. Plath demonstrates in this poem that the horrors of history are fundamentally personal, that human history is simply personal! history writ large, that the brutalities of the age inform every childhood, that the notion of innocence is a sham, a game of cowboys and Indians, to use a less highly charged analogy, against a backdrop of the Trail of Tears.

Human Influenced Climate Change :: Global Warming Essays

Arguments Against Climate Change These are some of the arguments used to prevent effective action on climate change. Climate change is not occurring This was the original argument used by the carbon industry to discredit climate change and global warming. Today the vast majority of world experts on climatic issues agree that it is changing, and that the evidence is there for everyone to witness. Climate change is good for us A more recent argument used by the carbon industry to confuse the issue of climate change and global warming with the intention of stopping effective action on climate change. Their approach falls into two categories: 1. CO2 fertilisation This concept relates to the fact that CO2 is sometimes a limiting growth factor for plants. The theory goes that with increases in atmospheric CO2 our agriculture will become much more productive. However, the storms, floods, fire and drought that are already playing havoc with agriculture are likely to have a significant negative impact, along with the longer term flooding of coastal areas. 2. Some parts of the world will be better to live in In theory some parts of the world might benefit, from a human point of view, due to global warming. However, at current rates of warming, local ecosystems will collapse and any objective measure of global benefits versus suffering would show much more suffering than benefits gained. Climate change is natural, therefore we should do nothing Climate change is natural and natural climate change is occurring constantly. However, natural climate change has been overtaken by human induced climate change which is causing the majority of climate change we are seeing today. Even if the climate change we are seeing today was totally natural, the disastrous impact is already being felt. It's unclear how much of today's climate change is caused by humans, therefore we don't really know if we should do anything Similar to the above argument and equally nonsensical. We can see and feel the impacts of our changing climate and we should do something about it regardless of the cause. The climate has been much hotter/colder in the past This argument suggests that because the climate has been more extreme in the past we shouldn't worry about it changing. It conveniently ignores the fact that if we reached either past climate extreme, much of our society and ecology would not survive. Climate change has been faster in the past Well it hasn't for the last 800,000 years. Ice core data shows that the fastest rate of CO2 increase over the last 800,000 years was 30 ppm in 1000 years.

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Essay -- Enviro

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Many preconceived notions exist in the realm of environmental policy. Decisions are constantly made that effect human health or environmental integrity in order to reap great economic benefits for the many. Often these choices compromise the role of human beings as environmental stewards of the planet. It is my attempt in this paper to outline the development of a very controversial part of the proposed comprehensive energy policy: the opening of the Alaskan Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. I will introduce the case by offering some background of the situation followed by an analysis of pertinent economic, ethical, social, and ecological issues. I will present the actors and their respective positions and investigate how they interacted with the rules, regulations, and laws that govern the policy. I will finally discuss what the potential alternatives are and what lessons are being learned. Background The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Northeastern Alaska, which stretches for 20 million acres across a fragile tundra landscape, is home to over 350 (nearly extinct) musk ox and 180 bird species, which migrate from even Argentina or Chile. It is the largest Polar Bear denning area in the United States, offers calving ground for the 129,000-member herd of Porcupine Caribou, and supports among the largest populations of grizzly bears, wolves and moose (Student Pirg’s 2001). It remains one of the most pristine areas on the planet and is especially sensitive to environmental pollution due to the slow growth rate of the ecosystem. The Refuge was first established in 1952 in a joint effort between biologist Lowell Summer and National Park Servi... ...Washington. Murphy, Kim. In Alaska, the Hunt for Oil, Gas only Begins at Wildlife Refuge; Energy: High Prices, Pro-Business Government Fuel the Drive for Drilling Activists are Gearing Up. Los Angeles Times February 6, 2001. Nuclear Energy Institute. URL: http://www.nei.org/ Student PIRG’s. Save America’s Arctic. www.pirg.org/enviro/arctic/index.html Time Magazine. How Much is Under the Tundra? Time Inc. 2/19/2001, Vol. 157 Issue 7. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2001. Potential impacts of proposed oil and gas development on the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain: Historical overview and issues of concern. Web page of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Fairbanks, Alaska. 17 January 2001. http://arctic.fws.gov/issues1.html Verhovek, Sam Howe. Drill, Say Alaskans, Who Know Their Pockets Are Lined With Oil. New York Times: Anchorage. March 15, 2001.

The Role of a Critical Care Nurse

In the article, Legal Aspects of End of Life Care. author, Nurse Claire M. McGowan, explains that when performing the role of a critical care nurse acting as the advocate for the patient, his/her family, and significant others, it Is essential that the nurse has an understanding of legal implications associated with end of life care. McGowan goes on to provide information on the legal principles involved In end-of-life care, specifically addressing: limitations in treatment, assessing capacity and using surrogate decision makers and medical futility.In order to explain limitations in reatment, McGowan begins by listing what the courts have established as Ilfe sustaining treatments which include: mechanical ventilation, blood transfusions, dialysis, chemotherapy, artificial nutrition, and hydration. Although a competent or incompetent terminally ill patient with advances directives has the right has to refuse these treatments, there are rare cases when the state court may override tha t right: preservation of life, prevention of suicide, protection of third parties such as children, and preserving the Integrity of the medical profession (McGowan, 2011).Next, ccording to McGowan, if a patient is deemed incompetent the patient may be assigned a surrogate to make decisions on their behalf with respect to their advance directives. If a there is no advanced directive or surrogate appointed to the patient then the medical team may determine the plan of care for the patient (McGowan, 2011 Lastly, McGowan addresses medical futility, defined, as such, when treatment is no longer deemed a benefit to the patient. According to McGowan, arriving at this determination and accepting futility Is often stressful, inciting disagreements between the patients/surrogates and medical professionals involved.In order to resolve conflicting Interests, McGowan suggests a variety of methods that can be utilized to improve communication between the two parties including: making attempts to negotiate understanding between parties as to what constitutes futile care before conflict arises, using joint decision making, and using consultants to reach satisfactory resolution of disagreements. If these methods fail to help unite the parties' decision an ethics committee may be utilized to reach a determination, the patient may be transferred to another medical provider within the institution or to another Institution altogether (McGowan, 2011).In my opinion, Nurse McGowan clearly presented how important it is for a critical care nurse to have a working knowledge of the legal aspects of end of life care and how he/she can help to make sure that the patient's rights are respectfully carried out either directly or indirectly during end of life. After reading this article, It was impressed upon me that since the nurse is the main point of contact with the patient, family, and significant others during treatment, It becomes the responsibility of the nurse to help mediate conflict s that may arise during care, in order to protect the patient's best interests.

International studies-global childhood Essay

This article written about the number of children who die on daily basis from various reasons is intended to inform the general globe community of the deaths so that appropriate measures can be taken to counter the trend. Anup points out that this is a global issue as it affects everybody in the world in regard to social, political, economical and environmental aspects. According to me, child mortality or the death of children is a global issue which should be ignored but instead should be given a priority by every authority since it affects virtually everyone either directly or directly (Shah, 2010). Just as Anup states in the Article, the number of children who die on daily basis is a matter of international concern. Anup further outlines the importance of understanding the issue of child mortality. He points out that the child mortality rate is significant in that it is a gauge to assess the general wellbeing of children and specifically the child health. To begin with, Anup mentions that it evaluates the end results of the development process of a country rather than the input. It evaluates concepts like the capital calorie accessible or the ratio of medical personnel to the population which are an essential towards achieving positive child welfare (Shah, 2010). Anup notes that child mortality rate is dependent on a number of factors which include nutritional status and the mothers ‘knowledge on health matters, the degree of immunization and the accessibility of maternal and child health services. Other determinants of child mortality rate are availability of food and clean and safe drinking water. The entire safety of the child’s environment also contributes to child mortality rate (Shah, 2010). Child mortality rate is not affected by mathematical computations like average. GNI per capita for instance will be affected by average because the natural scale places the children wealth people at a 1,000 times chance of surviving as although the human-designed scale which does not place them at equal position in regard to income (Shah, 2010). This information including the figure is accurate and reliable since it has been summarized from UNICEF findings. A do agree with Anup that this is enough justification of the significance of understanding child mortality. This is particularly because UNICEF is very elaborate on child issues and usually provides relevant and accurate information concerning children issues (Shah, 2010). The writer compares the figure of the number of children who die on daily basis with well known world disasters in order to create a clear picture of the issue in question. Anup equates the figure to the number of people who succumbed to the 2010 Haiti earthquake if had to occur every 9-10 days and the 2004 Asian tsunami if it were to occur every ten days (Shah, 2010). The writer has further justified his report by quoting the sources of the data that he used for comparison. The figure of the number of the victims who died from the Haiti earthquake was taken from the reliable BBC reports (BBC, 2010). He converts the figure to various ratios in order to bring out a more concrete outline of the seriousness of the issue. For instance he mentions that the 24,000 children dying every minute is equivalent to a single child dying after every 3. 6 seconds or close to 9 million children dying in each year. According to Anup, 79 million children died between the years 2000 and 2007 (Shah, 2010). He has used various simple graphs to illustrate the trend of child mortality rate. The causes of this large number of deaths are poverty, hunger and certain diseases and illness that that can either be cured or prevented (Shah, 2010). The writer is also surprised at the manner in which this disaster is not in the headlines. He mentions that just as the global community responds to other disasters like the disastrous earthquakes, it should respond similarly to the escalating child mortality rates (Shah, 2010). I support the writer in this aspect because little has been documented on child mortality rates. This has further worsened the problem because many authorities, agencies or organizations that could offer significant help to bring this disaster under control have completely ignored the issue or have not taken it with the seriousness it deserves. This is partly because the issue is not found in the headlines (Shah, 2010). Conclusion I support Anup’s report that the issue of child mortality rate has not been taken with the magnitude that it deserves by the world’s authorities, agencies and any relevant organization. This issue should be regarded as a disaster because the number of children dying every day from the various causes is even larger than that resulting from some of the world’s worst tragedies like the Haiti earthquake (BBC, 2010). The issue is rarely placed in the headlines and thus fails to attract the appropriate attention. Child mortality rate is very important in assessing the general wellbeing of children. Child mortality rate further affects political, social, political and environmental issues in the globe either in a direct or an indirect manner (Global issues, 2010).

“Anak” reaction paper Essay

1. Based on the film Anak, what specific issues do OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) parents and their children face? Give three concrete examples. a. Unfamiliarity of family members and change in behavior i. In one of the first few scenes of the movie, Josie arrives in the Philippines. A friend and her children greet her but she does not notice her children right away. She gracefully greets her children the moment that she found out that it was infact them already all grown up. Since she was abroad for a very long time, her children didn’t know how to react to her gracefulness and felt a little awkward, especially for Daday, the youngest of her three children, whom she left at a very early age. So there is an unfamiliarity of the face and ofcourse in behavior. Children grow up and eventually get used to not being around their OFW parents so their behavior towards them also change. b. Struggle to reconnect to one another i. It was also evident in the movie that the children were struggling to be open to Josie, most especially Carla. Carla felt like her mother betrayed her by not coming back home and not calling them when she was gone. So she grew up not having a mother who would look out for her and teach her the good values that she needed. Carla ended up being influenced by the wrong people. When her mother finally came home, she felt like her mother was not part of her life anymore and just stopped caring about her. She never told her stories of what happened to her life. Also, Michael had a struggle to tell her that his full scholarship got voided, and Daday had a hard time being comfortable with Josie. All this is due to the experiences of Josie’s children that she missed. She wasn’t able to be there for her children during the times wherein they needed her the most. So the children lost their sense of security and struggled to get it back. c. Living in the Philippines i. As simple as it sounds, I believe that OFWs find it very hard to live in the Philippines again. Just like in the movie, Josie and her friends’ taxi  business was not that successful. It also affects the lifestyle of the children just like how Josie had to pay Michael’s full tuition fee for him to study in school. She used the business’ money to pay for that. Aside from the struggle to reconnect, this is an additional burden for OFWs so sometimes, like in Josie’s case, they go back abroad and just try to get a more decent job from there, and once again, away from the family. 2. How do transnational families (families with OFWs or migrant workers) challenge stereotypes or images of the traditional family? a. I think they just try their best to live a normal life. When it comes to communicating with the OFW parents, they see to it that they make use of any kind of communication like letters, phone calls, and in this current generation, we have video calling. They do this so that they feel like their parents’ are with them and their connection with them won’t be broken. In the movie, it was seen the Josie’s bosses hindered her from talking to her family at home and also from going back home to the Philippines when her husband died. So, the connection between Josie and her children got broken ever since that happened. 3. What other issues confronting the family were present in the film? Justify your answer by giving concrete examples. a. One of the issues in the film is Carla’s involvement with illegal substance and teenage pregnancy. She does this to cope with her tough experiences. She mentioned in the movie that she was like that because she never had a mother to tell her not to do those kinds of stuff. She never had a mother’s security that’s why she felt like she can single-handedly do stuff without the permit of anyone. b. Another issue is the struggle to keep up with local business. This was seen when both of Josie’s friends backed out of the taxi business due to financial problems. This, and family issues, left Josie no choice but to just go back to Hong Kong and work there again. 4. Give two concrete recommendations to solve problems confronting transnational families and/or other family-related problems that were present in the film. a. There should always be communication between the OFW parent and his or her family members. With this, they are updated about each other’s lives and they are connected. Also, the children will still somehow feel the security of the  parents even though they’re not physically with them. b. Try to visit as much as possible. Even though there is communication, seeing a loved one personally is still better. There is more shared experienced when an OFW parent is physically with his or her children and therefore, there is a stronger bond among them.

Arming Teachers Essay

â€Å"The vast majority of teachers want to be armed with textbooks and computers, not guns,† said Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, in response to the national discussion on arming teachers and school staff, and armed volunteers in schools. Trump advises school districts against allowing teachers and school staff to be armed. Trump says that while gun control and gun rights advocates typically seize on school proposals to arm teachers to further political agendas, his opposition to arming teachers and school staff focuses solely on implementation issues, not political statements and beliefs about rights to bear arms. â€Å"School districts considering arming teachers and school staff with guns would take on significant responsibility and potential liabilities that I firmly believe are beyond the expertise, knowledge-base, experience, and professional capabilities of most school boards and administrators,† Trump said. He added that school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, school safety experts, and public safety officials he has talked with around the nation consistently do not believe that educators and school support staff should be armed. Trump, a 25-year veteran school safety expert who has trained and consulted with school and public safety officials from all 50 states and Canada, noted that school districts setting policy to allow teachers and school staff to be armed with guns would take on an enormous amount of responsibility and potential liability. Trump says allowing teachers and school staff to be armed begs a number of questions: Does the school board have appropriate and adequate policies and procedures governing the carrying and use of firearms by teachers and school staff? What type of â€Å"use of force continuum† has the school district created for staff to use firearms? How does that stand up in comparison to such standards held for police officers and others who are armed and deployed in a public safety capacity? What types of firearms (types of guns, caliber of weapons, etc.) are staff allowed to carry and not allowed to carry? Will staff carry their own personal firearms or school district-issued firearms? If the school allows staff to carry their personal weapons for the purpose of protecting staff and students, what responsibilities do school boards and administrators thereby assume for making sure the firearms carried are functional? Does the school district have regular â€Å"inspections† of staff firearms to make sure they are functional and appropriate to policy, and if so, who on school staff is responsible for that function and what is their level of expertise and training to make such decisions? What type of firearms training does the school district provide on a regular, ongoing basis to those staff it authorizes to be armed with guns? Will the school district build and operate its own firearms range? Who on school staff is qualified to provide such training, operate a firearms range, etc.? Will firearms certification and recertification be added to the school district’s professional development training program each year? What type of weapons retention training has been provided to staff who are armed and what steps have been taken to reduce risks of a teacher or staff member being intentionally disarmed by a student or other person, or for having a firearm dislodged from a staff member’s control when the teacher breaks up a fight in a cafeteria or hallway? How is the district prepared to prevent and manage situations where teachers and/or staff members lose, misplace, or have stolen their firearms while on campus? How will the school district manage an accidental shooting that could occur? What is the impact of this type of board policy and practice on the school district’s insurance and potential legal liability posture? If self-insured, is the district able to handle potential lawsuit judgments against them for cases resulting from this practice? If insured by a private carrier, what is the insurance provider’s position and concerns, or will they even insure the district for such a practice? Most importantly, what other options have we considered as school leaders? For example, if the school district is concerned about first responder response time from the community to the school, has the school district considered employing a school resource officer (SRO) or its own trained, commissioned and certified school police officer who is a school district employee, such as what is allowed in Texas, Florida and other states, and many other considerations. Trump has long supported school districts having school resource officers (SROs) who are city or county law enforcement officers assigned to work in schools. He also supports properly organized and operated school police departments, which are in-house school district police officers that are trained, commissioned, and certified professional peace officers in school districts where state law allows districts to have such departments. Trump says that the arming of teachers and school staff goes is a significantly different issue that goes beyond simply the issue of an individual’s right in a number of states to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Unlike an individual being trained and licensed under a state law to carry a firearm for personal protection at their home or on the streets, school districts that permit teachers and school staff to carry firearms on campus are in essence deploying those school employees in a public safety capacity to protect the masses with the expectation and assumption that they can and will provide a firearms-related level of public safety protection services to students and other staff. By tasking those employees with those responsibilities, Trump notes, the school district is also accepting responsibility and potential liability for implementation of such policies. â€Å"There is a huge difference between having trained, certified and commissioned law enforcement officers who are full-time, career public safety professionals that are armed and assigned the duty of protecting students and staff versus having teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other non-public safety professionals packing a gun in school with hundreds of children,† said Trump.