Introduction Essay :: essays research papers

Who Am I? My name is xxxxx xxxxx. I am XX years old, married, and have three sons. I was born in Greensboro, NC and lived there until I was 19. I attended XXXX with the intention of getting an Associate's Degree in Commercial Art and Advertising Design. I was gifted in and loved drawing and painting. It never occurred to me that I would have a career in anything else. The summer after my first semester at XXXX, my parents saw an advertisement in the newspaper for those interested in a career as a flight attendant. My parents pressured me to go to the airline's open house. I flat out refused. After all, I was 19 and madly in love with my unemployed 30 year old boyfriend who still lived with his parents. I went to the airline's open house and there were hundreds of women there. Some of us, including myself, were chosen to speak in front of the mass audience of candidates. The next day, an airline representative called me and asked me to fly to Chicago the following day for a formal interview. I did not want to go at all! I was petrified of getting on an airplane. My boyfriend didn't want me to go. Most of all, I was going to be a graphic artist and had never even considered this job in my life. Through many interviews, six weeks of training away from home, several bouts of tearfully begging my mom to let me come home, I became one of the first 19 year olds to become a flight attendant. I absolutely loved my job and the freedom it gave me. I was able to travel to places I never had dreamed of going. I did my job well and was enamored and confident with the different people I met. I planned to retire as a flight attendant. But things change when husbands and babies come along. When I had my first baby and had to leave him for the first time, I cried uncontrollably the entire trip. My feelings of missing him only grew. Several times, I broke down in the middle of a service when I saw a child. When my second baby came along, I decided that I could no longer have both this career and a family. Introduction Essay :: essays research papers Who Am I? My name is xxxxx xxxxx. I am XX years old, married, and have three sons. I was born in Greensboro, NC and lived there until I was 19. I attended XXXX with the intention of getting an Associate's Degree in Commercial Art and Advertising Design. I was gifted in and loved drawing and painting. It never occurred to me that I would have a career in anything else. The summer after my first semester at XXXX, my parents saw an advertisement in the newspaper for those interested in a career as a flight attendant. My parents pressured me to go to the airline's open house. I flat out refused. After all, I was 19 and madly in love with my unemployed 30 year old boyfriend who still lived with his parents. I went to the airline's open house and there were hundreds of women there. Some of us, including myself, were chosen to speak in front of the mass audience of candidates. The next day, an airline representative called me and asked me to fly to Chicago the following day for a formal interview. I did not want to go at all! I was petrified of getting on an airplane. My boyfriend didn't want me to go. Most of all, I was going to be a graphic artist and had never even considered this job in my life. Through many interviews, six weeks of training away from home, several bouts of tearfully begging my mom to let me come home, I became one of the first 19 year olds to become a flight attendant. I absolutely loved my job and the freedom it gave me. I was able to travel to places I never had dreamed of going. I did my job well and was enamored and confident with the different people I met. I planned to retire as a flight attendant. But things change when husbands and babies come along. When I had my first baby and had to leave him for the first time, I cried uncontrollably the entire trip. My feelings of missing him only grew. Several times, I broke down in the middle of a service when I saw a child. When my second baby came along, I decided that I could no longer have both this career and a family.

All About Eve :: essays research papers

All About Eve   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eve is a character which represents personal ambition and manipulation. The character is a person who is willing to do anything necessary to get what she wants and has, apparently, no remorse or feelings of guilt for her actions. Watching this movie I saw that All About Eve was also all about me.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In watching this movie I personally saw Eve of a sort of mirror to my own manipulative tendencies. As I watched how carefully the character chose her words, and moved in a certain way in order to obtain precisely the reaction desired for those around her. I thought of how often I have done the same things myself. I thought of how often I have carefully selected what I told others about me in order to create a certain desired image of myself. It made me conscience of the fact that I have, on countless occasions manipulated people for my own benefit.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It drew my thoughts back in a tour of my past and brought forth a multi-tude of times in which I behaved much as the character Eve did. I remember acting in such a way even when I was as young as six. Until I watched this movie I had never consciously realized that I do these things to get what I want. But now, after observing such a wonderfully carried out portal of someone else discreetly controlling others, I realize that I do this quite naturally as a part of my everyday life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As I see it the character of Eve represents myself and the dangers of what I could become if I should permit myself to continue these practices. I believe that the character of Eve is intended to show viewers of the audience, who re-semble her, a mirror of themselves, so they can see how they look from the out-side. It is advantageous to do this through the medium of a film because it al-lows the viewer to see the point from a more objective view then may be pro-vided through other means. I think that this movie is one which will have a ex-tremely powerful effect on such people. It made me realize that this way of con-trolling others is not a natural part of life in general though it has become a natural part of my life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eve represents, to me, what I could become.

A Comparison and Contrast of Ideas of Beauty

It has often been said that â€Å"beauty is in the eye of the beholder.† This may well be true, but many people, particularly women, have trouble seeing their own beauty, especially when they do not look just like everyone else.The three short stories that were assigned, â€Å"Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self,† by Alice Walker, â€Å"Mirrors,† by Lucy Grealy, and â€Å"The Story of My Body,† by Judith Ortiz Cofer, all share the same premise. In each story, each young woman is faced with trials due to the way they look. The way that they choose to deal with these trials, however, is different for each one.â€Å"Beauty: When The Other Dancer Is The Self† is the story of Alice Walker’s life as a child. She thrived on being considered cute and â€Å"sassy.† At one point in the story, she even mentions that she was fond of staring at people, just so they would notice her and how beautiful she was. Unfortunately, all that changed wh en she was accidently shot in the eye with a BB pellet.She lost sight in that eye, and the eye formed a large white cataract that people would stare at and comment on. Walker refused to look anyone in the eye for years. She became extremely uncomfortable with the idea that she was no longer beautiful in the traditional sense, and her social and scholastic abilities suffered for it. When she was older, she had the chance to have the cataract removed, and nothing but a blue scar remained.This did wonders for her confidence, until she had a child of her own. She worried about what the child might think of her blind eye, but a television show featuring a blue globe gave the child the idea that her mother had a world in her eye. To the child, this was a wonderful thing. Walker, gaining acceptance from her child, was able to finally accept herself.â€Å"Mirrors,† by Lucy Grealy, is the story of the author’s battle with cancer of the jaw and the disfiguration it caused. Greal y was young when she had to have part of her jaw removed, so along with the normal trials of growing up, she was forced to deal with the pain of chemotherapy and the stares and taunts of insensitive children and adults.When the reconstruction of her face failed time after time, she gave up looking into mirrors. In fact, she avoided any shiny surface. She stayed in the library most of the time, reading books about the Holocaust and other dreadful times in history to make her pain seem less significant. When she finally had a chance to have work done on her face overseas, she jumped at the chance.She seemed to think that having a â€Å"perfect† face would solve all of her problems. Instead, the surgeries caused new problems. She had to have work done on the healthy side of her face to make a match, and she ended up looking nothing like what she thought she would. Not being able to reconcile with her new face, she ignored mirrors for a whole year. However, at the end of her stor y, she encountered a man who made her feel good about herself. Finally, she had the acceptance she needed to peak at her reflection in a window.â€Å"The Story of my Body,† by Judith Ortiz Cofer, tells the tale of what is was like for the young Cofer to grow up Puerto Rican. In her own society she was considered light skinned and tall. When she moved to the United States, she was considered dark and short. This instant change in the way people perceived her was very hard for the child to take.She got to the point where she no longer wanted to look at herself. She was an outcast at school, so much so that her parents had to send her to live with her grandparents in order to attend a different school. Unfortunately, things weren’t much better for her there. She was bone-thin at the age where most teenagers start to blossom.She was also considered â€Å"dirty† by white people, and was unable to date the boy she loved because his parents would not allow him to date a â€Å"dark† girl. However, Cofer excelled in school. It was the one thing that she could do right. When her good grades got her into college, she was in a different world where people found her â€Å"exotic† and beautiful. Being accepted came, oddly enough, by being different.These three stories have much in common. For instance, all three women gave up looking at themselves for various amounts of time. Being told that they were â€Å"ugly† and â€Å"dirty† took a toll on each one’s self esteem. Each woman had a physical problem. Walker had a discolored, blind eye, Grealy had a terribly disfigured face, and Cofer, along with being the exact opposite of the standards for beauty, had chicken pox scars all over her face.All of these reasons, although they vary in severity, were more than enough reason to make a young woman want to hang her head. No one ever said that the teenage and young adult years were easy, anyway. Perhaps the most important thi ng that they all had in common was the need for something to better their perceptions of themselves. For Walker, it was her child. Once she had acceptance from her little one, she was free to face the world.For Grealy, it was having lunch with a man who did not seem disgusted or turned off by her deformities. His attitude towards her was enough to make her want to see what he saw in her. For Cofer, it was excelling in school and making it to college. There she found people who didn’t care if she was different, and some that actually seemed to like her better because she was different. She could finally think of herself as pretty again.The stories also have some contrasting themes. The types of suffering experienced by the women were vastly different. Although one can emphasize with Cofer over being picked last in gym and looking different, her suffering was much less than Grealy’s loss of a portion of her face or Walker’s loss of sight. The way that each woman o vercame her difficulties is also different. Cofer used her smarts and her mental ability to rise above those who tortured her. Walker was partially freed by having her cataract removed in order to look more â€Å"normal.†However, Grealy turned her back on her femininity for a while and withdrew into books, not wanting to accept the fact that she lived in the real world. She was perked up by the man mentioned above, but she fell into a sad life of drug addiction and eventual suicide. This is perhaps the largest contrast. While Walker and Cofer found their beauty, Grealy apparently never did.In conclusion, these three stories have a lot to teach us about our reaction to suffering. We should not hide ourselves away from the world because of our problems, but neither should we cause other people to want to hide away because of our stares and comments. Beauty is subjective. Magazines and movies would have us believe that only one kind of beauty is acceptable, but that is not the c ase.People who rise from adversity are often left with beautiful souls, and that is what we should look for in a person. All these women mentioned were beautiful because they persevered, and it is a shame that Grealy could not come to see herself in that light. If nothing else, these stories should show the reader that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and we should never do or say anything to steal another person’s beauty from them.

History of Modern Painting Essay

The rise in popularity of primitivism can be united with two other prevalent forces in Europe during the late 19th century, theology and industrialization. Naturally dissatisfaction with European life increased, steeped in centuries of monarchies, wars, feudal wars, and multiple revolutions. Christ symbols, towering church steeples, and scads of spiritually historical iconography permeated nearly all of the Europe, even while its principles waned. Meanwhile, Europe began to feel the effects of its going industrial centers. In the 1860s, Paris radically rejuvenated itself under Napoleon III and Haussmann’s city restructuring. Apartments, streets, transportation, and commerce were all restructured, becoming new, uniform, sleek, and systemized. Conditionally, primitivism is understood as the ‘other’ through Western perception. This implies that outsiders to Europe are different inherently, and deserve special attention. While Europe idolizes themes of cleanliness, efficiency, and puritan values, the ‘other’ offered an escape into a world that was perceived as exotic, mystically spiritual, and entirely natural. In â€Å"Avant-Garde and Kitsch,† Clement Greenberg says that avant-garde criticism â€Å"has not confronted our present society with timeless utopias, but has soberly examined . . . the forms that lie at the heart of every society. † Vincent Van Gogh, in an attempt to recover simplified realism, focused on less urban subjects. He moved to south France and began painting provincial scenes using thick impasto paint application. Paul Gauguin joined Van Gogh to establish the Studio of the South in Arles in 1988; however, even this is not removed enough from modern Western values. Gauguin had â€Å"studied medieval art (sculpture, tapestries, and stained glass), Primitive woodcuts, and certain types of exotic art which he had seen at the World’s Fair of 1889. † Comparatively, the Western projection of art appeared to him dystopic, and he sought renewal in submersing himself in Tahitian culture. Warily, Gauguin traveled to a country under French rule at the time, guaranteeing him ‘safe’ primitivism than un-Colonized areas. In Tahiti, Gauguin painted with no shaded areas of depth and rounded, blunt features, loose applications of representative color, as seen Maternite II. All this, added with mythical looking mist and bare women give a sense of pastoral serenity of antiquity, while also remaining distinctly different than the European spectator who enjoyed the painting. The women are all dark-skinned and blissfully exposed, while engaging the viewing to partake of the serenity of the scene. Gauguin used Primitive representative techniques, by favoring simplified, unenlightened forms or expression. As Imperialism extended the relations between Europe and civilizations that were previously untouched by European ideology. Simplified, organic forms of nature and natural life were fluidly exposed to European culture, including Gauguin’s paintings. It was completely antithetical to anything appreciated in the West in form, staging, or perspective. Another feature of Westerners embracing primitivism can be found in Samuel Butler’s novel Erewhon. In the utopia/dystopia world of Erewhon there is a complete absence of machines, simply because any variety of them could prove potentially dangerous. This novel was published at a time when industrialized nations began relying more on machines in industry, and features an extreme alternative that demonstrates the allure of the Primitive who live the ‘other’ lifestyle. Those who see modern Western life as a dystopia can find its ultra alternative in the Primitive. Thus artists flee for simpler, idyllic or virginal locals, consequently implying that something is inherently wrong with the Europe, its industry, theology, and ideology. References: Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. Read, Herbert. A Concise History of Modern Painting. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. , 1957. Schwartz, Robert . â€Å"France in the Age of Les Miserables. † Mount Holyoke College. 4/19/2009 .

Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Essay

Since its publication in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has generated a variety of interpretations. Originally viewed to be a ghost story, it has been regarded as gothic literature, science fiction, a statement on postpartum depression, having Victorian patriarchal attitudes and a journey into the depths of mental illness. More controversial, but curiously overlooked is the topic of the rest cure’ and whether Gilman’s associations are fact or fiction. Evidence supports Charlotte Gilman may have misrepresented the Weir Mitchell Rest Cure, and pokes more holes in The Yellow Wallpaper.† The story’s female character is suffering from â€Å"temporary nervous depression a slight hysterical(1) tendency,† and prescribed a rest cure. The treatment enforced absolute bed rest, forbade physical, mental or social activities and required total isolation from family and friends. Eventually the lack of stimulation and complete solitude only added to the desolation, and pushed her to the brink of insanity. The Yellow Wallpaper was based on Gilman’s personal experience with postpartum depression and treatment received by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, pioneer of the Rest Cure. The parallels between her experiences and those of the story are noticeable, as are implications of late nineteenth-century patriarchal and medical attitudes toward women, during that time. As a fictional story, and nothing else, The Yellow Wallpaper depicts a postpartum woman driven to psychosis by an inept doctor who is also her husband. However, as a fictional autobiography, it is read as an â€Å"indictment of the nineteenth-century medical profession and its patriarchal attitudes.† After the 1973 reissue of The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman directly criticizes Mitchell’s treatment, saying, â€Å"the real purpose of the story was to reach Dr. S Weir Mitchell, and convince him of the error of his ways.† She claimed his rest cure brought her â€Å"perilously near to losing [her] mind.† Mitchell’s â€Å"errors† by many accounts, far surpass his medical therapies alone. A tenacious male-chauvinist, by today’s standards, he was vehemently opposed to women voting, and strongly against higher education. He felt it got in the way of being good wives and mothers, saying â€Å"there had better be none of it.† Women’s â€Å"finest nobleness† according to Mitchell, was â€Å"to be homeful for others.†

Economic, Political, and Social Factors Related to Aids in Africa

Without a single doubt, one can say politics has been the main driving forces in the spread of this disease. Once the â€Å"triple cocktail† was discovered by doctors, it managed to signal an era in which AIDS was no longer a fatal disease. Nevertheless, the high costs of this drug meant that it was unaffordable to patients from the undeveloped countries where stigma and desperation flourished. Additionally, patients in developed countries such as America were incapable of being introduced to this remedy if they were incompetent in affording health care.Patients felt defeated, restless, isolated, and accepted that there is a social disorder accommodated with this disease. There was a political conflict in subordinating the expenses of this medicine in countries such as Brazil where health care is guaranteed for all its citizens. South African government further encountered a tragic failure in battling with this epidemic that was overwhelming its country. President Mbeki came i nto power with an unconventional message and promised solutions for AIDS.When Mbeki was leading a nation with more infections than any country in the world, he affirmed throughout his speech that HIV is not the causation of AIDS but an environmental or social condition such as poverty, and banned the cocktail claiming it was toxic for the population. Hence, the fundamental proposition that arose was if HIV doesn’t cause AIDS, then how would anti-HIV drugs lead to such dramatic improvement in one’s well-being and how does AIDS get passed on to a child from a mother who is infected with HIV.This evidently proved that denial and neglect in African government for covering the cost burden of these drugs in order to save the lives of its citizens. Indubitably there is a monumental controversy regarding the funding for AIDS drugs globally. If our mission is to reach equity and justice in our society, we must ensure funding for AIDS drugs and also ensure practical preventative factors are provided for all our citizens regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Behaviour modification

The Effect of Behaviour Modification on Studying and Procrastination University of Sydney Abstract A study was conducted to determine the effects of behaviour self-modification on the number of hours spent studying and procrastinating. The 141 participants were second year University students studying Psychology. Baseline behaviour was recorded for both studying and procrastination followed by a treatment week where each student selected to modify either studying or procrastination and planned and carried out their behaviour modification. Results were significant, revealing that those trying to decrease procrastination were successful in decreasing this behaviour, as well as increasing the alternative behaviour, studying. Similarly, students trying to increase studying were successful, as well as decreasing their procrastination. Overall, it was found that behaviour modification has significant effects on the amount of time spend studying and procrastinating. The Effect of Behaviour Modification on Studying and Procrastination Behaviour modification is an interesting aspect of Psychology as it gives people the opportunity to alter their behaviour for reasons that may include health, happiness, education or general wellbeing. Many researchers have found that behaviour self-modification programs are especially effective with immediate reinforcement and are more successful than other cognitive methods (Levitz Stunkard 1974; Galscow Klesges 1985). The effectiveness of these programs also depends on other factors such as the person’s commitment to change, the degree of preparation and the management of antecedents. In order to alter behaviour, it is more successful to partake in a behaviour modification program which includes reinforcements or punishments, rather than simply relying on other cognitive processes. One study, involving overweight people, showed a behaviour self-modification program which resulted in greater weight loss than other methods, including nutrition education (Levitz Stunkard 1974). Similarly the effectiveness of behaviour modification is seen in smokers who were able to abstain from smoking using self-reward strategies and positive self-statements at a greater rate than those who used other cognitive strategies (Galscow Klesges 1985). Immediate reinforcers have a much stronger effect on behaviour than a delayed punishment (Martin Pear 2007). Choosing a behaviour which will provide immediate gratification is often more likely to occur than an alternative behaviour, even if the punishment is somewhat severe. This includes cumulatively significant punishments, such as smoking increasing the risk of lung cancer, because the negative effect from each cigarette is too small to notice, whereas the immediate gratification produces enjoyment. This highlights the importance of immediate reinforcement when conducting a behaviour self-modification program. The methods of behaviour modification found to be successful vary, (Perri Richards 1977), however there are steps one can take to increase the likelihood of success. (Martin Pear 2007). Firstly, it is essential that problems are specified and goals are set. These goals should be in quantitative terms so that overall success can be easily determined. Secondly, there should be a commitment to change. This should be evident in the effort made to plan a successful behavioural modification including management of antecedents and appropriate reinforcements. A baseline of behaviour should be recorded for comparison with the following self-control program to quantify success and overall effect. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of behaviour modification on the number of hours spent studying and procrastinating. It was hypothesised that, in the treatment week, there would be a decrease in the number of hours spent procrastinating for the â€Å"decrease procrastination† group, and an increase in the number of hours spent studying in the â€Å"increase studying† group. Studying will be defined as any kind of reading, writing or other preparation which is related to the student’s University course work. It is the desired behaviour; Examples include reading background material for a lecture or tutorial, studying for quizzes or creating course notes. Procrastination will be defined as all other recreational activities with the exception of socialising and exercising. This is the delaying behaviour; Examples include watching TV, browsing the internet for pleasure or playing computer games. Method Subjects There were 715 second-year Psychology University students who were required to take part in this study as a tutorial exercise. Of these students, 628 created online accounts to record their behaviour. The number of students who successfully completed the task by recording data for all 8 days was 141. These 141 students provided all data used in this study. All students used data sheets to record their behaviour for all 8 days of the exercise. This data was logged online. Procedure Students were instructed to choose the behaviour that they wanted to change; They could decrease procrastination or increase studying. Students would, in the first four days, record both their studying and procrastination habits in a results table provided. Students were then required to devise their own strategy to either decrease procrastination or increase studying. These strategies aimed to complete goals set by the student which were improvements from their current state, but realistic and achievable. These plans included, preferably immediate to the behaviour being performed, reinforcement for the desired behaviour or punishment for the behaviour to be decreased. Since often this was not practical, there were options for alternative reinforcement/punishment schedules. Firstly, daily targets could be set to reach, or not exceed, a certain number of hours of study or procrastination. Secondly, rolling targets or limits could be used where appropriate reinforcement or punishment is given when a number of hours of a behaviour is met. Finally, students could use duration limits or targets on how long they engage in a behaviour once they have started. The independent variable was the 2 x (2) mixed design with the between subjects variables being modifying studying or procrastination, and the within-subjects variable being the targeted and non-targeted behaviour. The recorded hours became the dependant variable. Results There were no statistical differences found in the conditions of the baseline week. In the treatment week, time spent studying was found to be significantly different to the time spent procrastinating in the group who tried to decrease procrastination.