Rome and Han Ccot Essay Example for Free

Rome and Han Ccot Essay Rome and Han China are different in the ways how their slaves were treated. Overall, they were ultimately more similar because of the importance of trade and family. Slaves in Ancient Rome were treated very harshly. They were put in gladiator fights to the death against fellow slaves and occasionally lions for the entertainment of the community, although it was against the law for a citizen to kill another citizen’s slave. Also, 10% of the populations of Rome were slaves, which means if one died, they could be easily replaced. In contrast, only 1% of Han China’s populations were slaves. They were much more valued and thus their owners treated them better. There were two kinds- Privately Owned and State Owned. These slaves could pay for freedom, or be freed by their master or the emperor. It was against the law to kill these slaves at all. Trade in Rome was thought to be beneath the occupation of landholding, although they continue to practice trade throughout Roman history. The Senate was not allowed to participate in commerce because they were too prestigious to be affiliating with it. Similar to Han China, agriculture was a much better occupation than trade. Merchants, however wealthy, were looked down on because they looked like they could surpass social boundaries because of their riches. In Ancient Rome, loyalty to family and state was highly important. The nobles of Rome were constantly reminded to be aware of their fathers and grandfathers successes. We know this because the term pietas; meaning â€Å"dutifulness†; depicts these values. Also, we know of these the importance of family because typically at a Roman funeral, they would exhibit masks’ of their ancestors and their deeds. This regard to ancestors resembles that of Confucianism, which was highly practiced in Han China. The core of Confucianism was known as â€Å"filial piety†, meaning the respect and obedience that children owed their parents.

Representation of Cloning in the Media Essay -- Argumentative Persuasi

Representation of Cloning in the Media      Ã‚   Since the birth of Dolly, the cloned sheep, the debate over human cloning has been characterized in the media as an ethical debate. When scientists announced that they had cloned an adult sheep, the public also heard that cloning humans was possible. The media stories about this unprecedented feat was not about the procedures utilized in but rather about the morality of the process itself. Media coverage focused on ethical concerns of cloning, its social, religious and physiological significance, and the motivation behind it. Although the there are many views expressed in the media on cloning, the main characterization of cloning as an ethical issue centers around two connected worries: the loss of individuality, and the seemingly evil motivations behind cloning. In a sense media coverage framed the public moral debate on cloning around the above issues.    In the coverage of cloning, the media has chosen to represent cloning as a danger to individuality and uniqueness. This concern about losing individuality stems from the status of clones as copies. The March 10, 1997 cover of Time Magazine shows two large identical pictures of sheep and in the background numerous copies of the same picture and the cover title asks, "Will There be Another of You ?". The picture accompanying the main article shows a coin operated machine dispensing white males, while another picture shows identical bodies dropping out of a test tube. Similar images expressing this concern over the loss of individuality brought on by cloning dominate the popular media.    This representation of cloning as a means of bringing about the loss of individuality reflects two widespread ideas. The first is... ...w, the media has framed the cloning debate as an ethical debate and has provided the framework that much of the public views the issue. Among the articles that I reviewed, the main characterization of cloning as an ethical issue centers around two connected worries: the loss of individuality, the motivations behind cloning. In the presentation cloning the media has not always presented an objective view of cloning, but rather has played upon peoples fears about loss of individuality and questionable use of cloning to create uncertainty among the public.    Works Cited Begley, Sharon, Little Lamb Who Made Thee, Newsweek, March 10, 1997 Elmer Dewitt, Cloning: Where Do We Draw the Line, Time, November 8, 1993 Herbert, Wray, The World After Cloning U.S News & World Report, March 10, 1997 Nash, Madeline, The Age of Cloning, Time, March 10, 1997

Analysis of Bartleby, the scrivener Essay

The narrator’s initial self-characterization is important to the story. He is a â€Å"safe† man, one who takes few risks and tries above all to conform. The most pragmatic concerns of financial security and ease of life are his priorities. He has made himself perfectly at home in the modern economy: he works as a lawyer dealing with rich men’s legal documents. He is therefore an opposite or complement to Bartleby in many ways. He is also ill suited to be entrusted with the salvation of another. â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener† is one of the first great stories of corporate discontent. The emptiness of modern business life is an important theme. The description of the office is incredibly bleak: on one side, the windows open onto a light shaft, and on the other, the windows look out onto a brick wall. The landscape of Wall Street is completely unnatural, and one is cut off from nature and almost all living things. At night, this isolation also includes the absence of people. The work environment is sterile and cheerless. Yet most adapt to it, with varying degrees of success. Though the narrator is a successful man, he is a victim, in some ways, of progress. He has lost the post he occupied during the central events of the story, as the position was deemed redundant and eliminated. The modern economy includes constant and unfeeling change, which comes at a cost. Doubling is a recurring theme in â€Å"Bartleby.† Bartleby is a phantom double of our narrator, and the parallels between them will be further explored later. Nippers and Turkey are doubles of each other. Nippers is useless in the morning and productive in the afternoon, while Turkey is drunk in the afternoon and productive in the morning. Nippers’ ambition mirrors Turkey’s resignation to his place and the sad uneventfulness of his career, the difference coming about because of their respective ages. Nippers cherishes ambitions of being more than a mere scrivener, while the elderly Turkey must plead with the narrator to consider his age when evaluating his productivity. Their vices are also parallel, in terms of being appropriate vices for each man’s respective age. Alcoholism is a vice that develops with time. Ambition arguably is most volatile in a man’s youth. These two characters are obviously not fleshed out; they are caricatures of different personalities found in the business world, and their silliness is stretched beyond the point of believable realism. They provide valuable comic relief in what is otherwise a somber and upsetting  tale. From the beginning, the description of Bartleby is striking. He is a person who seems already dead: he is described alternately as one would describe a corpse or as one would describe a ghost. Pale from indoors work, motionless, without any expression or evidence of human passion in him at all, he is a man already beaten. Even his famous statement of non-compliance, â€Å"I would prefer not to,† is an act of exhaustion rather than active defiance. His success at getting away with his uncooperativeness comes from his very passivity, which seems to cast a spell over the narrator. It is not â€Å"I will not† but â€Å"I would prefer not,† emphasizing that Bartleby is acting out of emotional response rather than some philosophical or ethical choice. Bartleby will detach from the world in stages, beginning with this first statement. With each time he reiterates the statement, he is renouncing one more piece of the world and its duties. The final renunciation will be of living itself, characteristically arrived at indirectly by the preference not to eat. The scenes in which the narrator asks the advice of his employees are always comical in tone. Each man reacts according to the dictates of the time of day: if it is morning, Nippers is fiery and Turkey benign, and if it is afternoon, Turkey is belligerent and Nippers calm. Their predictable reactions underscore their status as symbols or types rather than realistic characters. They also serve as the clowns of the story. Bartleby and the narrator are more real, but both of them also have powerful allegorical roles. Note that these two share an office room, just as Nippers and Turkey do. Increasingly, Bartleby is described in ghostly terms, and a perceptive reader will soon realize that the ghost is in some ways the narrator’s phantom double. Note how often we see Bartleby as phantom, as when the narrator roars his name until he appears: â€Å"Like a very ghost, agreeably to the the laws of magical invocation, at the third summons, he appeared at the entrance of his hermitage† (19). Later, we learn that Bartleby haunts the building. Like a ghost, he lives in the office when no one else is there, when Wall Street is a desert, a landscape both completely unnatural and forlornly empty. The narrator senses that there are parallels between himself and the scrivener, and Bartleby’s gloom infects him: â€Å"Before, I had never experienced aught but a not unpleasing sadness. The bond of a common humanity now drew me irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam† (23). Bartleby’s  plight draws the narrator into depths of feeling that he did not know he was capable of. Part of Bartleby’s power over the narrator is that he somehow sees Bartleby as a part of himself. He, too, has been forced to adapt to the business world. But while he has adapted and gone through the consequent numbing (previous unable to feel more than a â€Å"not unpleasing sadness†), Bartleby has been bludgeoned to exhaustion. Nothing pleases him about this world. The narrator, at different times, wants to help Bartleby. But we have been warned that the narrator is a safe man who thinks the easiest path is also the best. His pity for Bartleby turns to revulsion (see the passage from pp. 24-25, above). The narrator’s plight works through the themes of responsibility and compassion. His obligations, in one sense, are nothing. But as far as Bartleby is a living, suffering being, and that both men are â€Å"sons of Adam,† the narrator arguably should do all that he can. To what extent is the narrator supposed to help the melancholic scrivener? Has he failed as a human being if he has done any less than all he can? After asserting that after a certain point, pity becomes revulsion, he defends the transformation: â€Å"They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill† (24-25). Yet the narrator goes on to describe the transformation as defensive. Although he denies the charge that the pity-to-revulsion change is due to selfishness, his explanation of the motives behind it seem like little more than a selfishness that is philosophically justified. At work here is what Toni Morrison (an admirer of Melville) would call a shortage of love. Ironically, on the day his pity turns to revulsion, the narrator was on his way to Church. The narrator never does make it to Church that day, and the symbolism is obvious. Though he was on his way to see a celebrity preacher, religion’s highest ideals do not win a place in the narrator’s heart: Melville, as he does in many of his works, is taking a small jab at religion and its inability to change men meaningfully for the better. The narrator will try to help Bartleby return home, but we will see that there are limits to what he feels he can do. The office space of the modern business world undergoes some interesting conceptualizations in this section. At first, the narrator calls our attention to the desolateness of the office and of Wall Street: â€Å"Of a Sunday, Wall Street is deserted as Petra; and every night of  every day it is an emptiness† (23). There are parallels between Bartleby’s experience of the workplace at night and his experience of the workplace in general share a similarity: he sees something that no one else sees. The desolation of Wall Street is part of Bartleby’s essential perception of it. The literal desolation at night is paralleled by the spiritual desolation during the day. Bartleby sees both, and through him the narrator gets some sense of them. The narrator also makes an interesting move by describing the office as a site of savagery. He cites the example of a recent Wall Street murder, and explains why an office can be conducive to otherwise unthinkable acts: â€Å"Often it had occurred to me in my ponderings upon the subject, that had that altercation taken place in the public street, or at a private residence, it would not have terminated as it did. It was the circumstance of being alone in a solitary office, up stairs, of a building entirely unhallowed by humanizing domestic associations . . .† (33-34). The office, a site of modern economic systems and progress, becomes a space like the jungle island in The Lord of the Flies. Something about the space is dehumanizing, and makes murder possible. Finally, the narrator’s resolve to help Bartleby weakens, and it’s because of his work. Apparently, the modern office also makes possible the neglect of another human being. The narrator is certainly not an exception among humans for his choices: he puts up with more from Bartleby than anyone else does. But in the end, he makes choices that amount to abandonment of Bartleby. If his action is something any human would do, then the abandonment of Bartleby is a comment on humanity. The ghostly descriptions of Bartleby are now extended to the narrator. He describes going up the stairs to his old office as â€Å"going upstairs to my old haunt† (42). The language is part of the expansion of Bartleby’s ghostly characteristics to the narrator and later, to all of humanity. We see that Bartleby does not want to do anything; living itself tires him. In this way, â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener† is more than just a didactic tract on the economic world of Melville’s day. The conditions of life are not easily changed, and the depictions of office sterility and isolation in a large, unnatural world seem equally applicable today. Bartleby is a creature unable to adapt to this world, because he is too honest about what appeals to him. Nothing in life excites him. When the narrator tries to suggest different occupations to Bartleby, the scrivener’s response is always the same: â€Å"I would prefer not to.† The narrator’s offer to have Bartleby stay at his own home seems initially generous, but this belated offer of hospitality comes from a fear of scandal: a lawyer has threatened to publish the case in the papers. Yet one of the accomplishments of the story is that our narrator is basically a decent man. His abandonment of Bartleby is in no way exceptional, nor are we meant to see the narrator as more cruel or uncaring than the rest of humanity. If he fails Bartleby, we also must concede that most of us would fail him as well. Several times in the story, we are made to question Bartleby’s sanity. Ginger Nut gleefully suggests that Bartleby is insane: â€Å"I think, sir, he’s a little loony† (16). The narrator also apparently shares the opinion, as he confides to the grub-man that Bartleby is â€Å"a little deranged† (44). But Bartleby, whatever his problems may be, is fully aware of the world around him. When the narrator greets Bartleby in prison, he’s condescending to him, speaking to him in the way that one condescends to the mad: â€Å"And see, it is not so sad a place as one might think. Look, there is the sky, and here is the grass.† Bartleby’s reply is concise and curt: â€Å"I know where I am† (43). He is aware of the world. Notice also that there is a double meaning in the exchange. Both Bartleby and the narrator could be referring to the world itself. Bartleby is asserting that he can see the world around him clearly, and he apparently finds nothing to excite him. Environment has been important so far to the story, and Melville’s concise and powerful description of the prison yard continues the trend. Death imagery is abundant. The description comes not during the first visit, but right before the narrator finds Bartleby’s death. He describes the character of the masonry as â€Å"Egyptian,† and mentions the â€Å"soft imprisoned turf† growing underfoot. â€Å"The heart of the eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by birds, had sprung† (45). For people of Melville’s day, even more so than now, â€Å"Egyptian† character would recall death, as the Egyptian civilization was known mostly through its funerary objects and elaborate burial practices. Incidentally, the Halls of Justice are called â€Å"The Tombs.† The image of the turf is ambiguous. Is it an image of hope, or of imprisonment? â€Å"The heart of the eternal pyramids† is a pretty phrase, but the pyramids, it must be remembered, were tombs. Death itself is the only constant. The image of birds dropping seeds, which grow in spite of the hostile environment, is  lyrical and powerful. But is the grass a metaphor for hope, and life’s persistence, the possibility of survival and beauty in a harsh environment? Or does the phrase â€Å"imprisoned turf† dominate the image? The grass then becomes battered, trapped life, with no hope of escaping the â€Å"Egyptian character† of the Tombs. Mortality is not a theme here in the usual sense. Bartleby chooses his death, detaching from life in stages and sliding towards an inevitable end. The real death is more than an event in time: death is diffuse, a spiritual gloom pervading the empty Wall Street landscape, the imposing stonework of the prison, and the Dead Letter Office where Bartleby supposedly worked. Living is not the opposite of death, but a condition continually assaulted and permeated by it. The final rumor is haunting and dark. We learn also that Bartleby lost the Dead Letter Office job due to an administration change. The doubling continues: remember that the narrator lost his position due to bureaucratic change as well. Here, the doubling is expanded. Bartleby is a phantom double not only for the narrator, but for all of humanity. The Dead Letter Office is a place of supreme gloom, where evidence of human mortality and the futility of our best intentions would have been unavoidable. The narrator, a man who adapts to this life, who thrives in the world that exhausted Bartleby, cannot help but be moved by Bartleby’s vision. The tone of his final statement (â€Å"Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!†) is of a sadness mixed with resignation, a pained sigh rather than a shriek of anger. He has failed to help even one man. He can do nothing to alter the human condition.

Vaccines And Its Effects On Children - 1325 Words

Vaccines are essential to a person’s everyday life and well-being. A person who sneezed in their hand just touched the same door handle that everyone else does. Most people don’t worry that they touched the same item or breathe the same air as someone else because the risk of them contracting a disease such as polio, or diphtheria are extremely low because most people are vaccinated against such diseases. Without the creation of vaccines the population of the world could be completely eliminated. Vaccines are one of medicines greatest advances and has increased our overall life expectancy. Children are vaccinated out of the womb which can prevent sixteen disease that a person can contract. Vaccinations have been proven to eliminate diseases, but controversy continues to surround the vaccinations of people, how they work, mandating, benefits, and side effects. A vaccine is a combination of ingredients injected into a person to protect against a certain disease. Vaccines have allowed us to almost eliminate diseases like small pox, and polio. In order to keep these diseases from becoming an epidemic we must continue to produce safe vaccinations for everyone. Vaccines go through rigorous tests to make sure they are safe and effectively protect us from diseases. Thimerosal, which is only found in the influenza vaccine, contains mercury. The CDC also states that â€Å"Americans have never been healthier than we are today and vaccines have never been safer than they are today.Show MoreRelatedVaccines And Its Effects On Children1404 Words   |  6 Pagesadverse reactions from the vaccines? Today, there are many vaccines, they are in such high demand that even a simple flu has a vaccine. Vaccines are created to protect us. The main function of vaccines it to build our immune system and fight against many bacterias. However, adverse reactions have become severe over the last couple of years, leaving some parents with no child. Therefore, parents shouldnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t be punished for not vaccinating their children because, vaccines can cause many adverse reactionsRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children1503 Words   |  7 Pagesawful diseases, while that is the last thing on most of the world’s minds now. Vaccines have transformed human life. Parents should vaccinate their children because it saves lives, the vaccines are safe, and the risks of not vaccinating can harm children more than the vaccines themselves. Vaccines were created in 1796 by Edward Jenner, an English scientist. Edward Jenner formed the Royal Jennerian Institute when vaccines became more popular, but experienced some opposition towards it because of peopleRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children1339 Words   |  6 PagesNowadays, there are many vaccines invented by different scientists. Vaccines are so much in demand that even a simple flu has a certain vaccine. They have been invented to protect us. Its main function is to build our immune system and allow it to work against different kinds of bacteria. However instead of helping us fight against infection and certain diseases, vaccines can be the main cause of infection and diseases. Because of its live-attenuated organism, which means the pathogens were partiallyRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children1010 Words   |  5 PagesVaccines Debates have risen lately whether or not to vaccinate children. Although vaccines potentially cause negative side effects, they are a common procedure for most families each year. Over time, several case studies have developed highlighting these side effects and raised concern about whether or not to accept vaccines. However, many people are not familiar with the typical vaccine and what it actually does once inside the body. â€Å"A vaccine is consisted of killed or weakened versions of aRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children1400 Words   |  6 Pages Vaccines have changed the life of children with making some illnesses obsolete. The majority of parents are making sure that their children get vaccinated against potentially serious diseases. The parents that get their children vaccinated are trying to prevent the reoccurrence of these deadly illnesses. The problem arises when you have these children that have not been vaccinated around children not of age to get the vaccine for a particular disease. The older children get the disease and giveRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children1463 Words   |  6 Pagesnot until 1796 when Edward Jenner revolutionized medical technology, with the first record of vaccines. Vaccines have diminished these diseases going from very common to little or none. Setting requirements on vaccines will not assist the reduction or eliminate them, but will also protect our youth from the wide-spread variety of deadly diseases. Multiple individuals do not truly understand what vaccines are and their true benefits and advantages of receiving them. When an individual gets ill,Read MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children914 Words   |  4 PagesVaccines have saved millions of lives since they were first invented hundreds of years ago. But, they continue be a much debated topic among doctors and parents. Their benefits are often disputed because of so-called dangers related to their administration. Although vaccines are extremely effective, parents still have the power to decide if their children will receive them or not. As a result of parents choosing to not vaccinate their children, others may become ill and government spending increasesRead MoreVaccines And Its Effects On Children992 Words   |  4 Pages Vaccines, while known as the painful occurrence at the physicians visits of your childhood, are responsible for eradicating many of the deathly diseases of the past. While no child likes being stuck wi th a needle, guaranteed immunity to certain life altering diseases is worth the slight prick. Recent movements regarding vaccines has shed a negative light on vaccines, and if they continue to grow attention, may bring back some of the diseases that were the initial issue. Vaccines are a very helpfulRead MoreThe Importance Of Vaccines And Its Effect On Children915 Words   |  4 PagesThe Importance of Vaccines Having a baby utterly changes the perspective of the parent. They no longer are self- involved, but now have this new life they brought into the world. Nothing else can give a person the same joy that being a parent can bring. A parent would do anything for their child to protect them and give them the best life imaginable. A parent would never wish an illness upon their child and would do everything in their power to prevent their child from getting sick. With havingRead MoreChildhood Vaccines And Its Effects On Children1528 Words   |  7 Pagesdiscussed and debated about whether or not people should vaccinate their children. â€Å"Childhood vaccines offer protection from serious or potentially fatal diseases† (The Mayo Clinic, 2014)†. Vaccinations prevent diseases that can affect a child with symptoms of a cold or in some cases, the disease can be much more serious and can cause disability and death. The problem is that parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children against them. With choosing against vaccinating a child becoming a common